Armand Returns

Days passed and Sebastian had not seen her. He saw her in her dreams though he only just viewed them as if he was never there. He was looking for something though he could not say what exactly. There was something here she did not want him to see he felt. She had warned him to stay away but he delved into her dreams anyway. Armand was in her dreams often. He was a tall, dark, handsome man who spoke with an accent impossible to place. He had watched the two of them bite one another in some kind of sexual fashion that actually appeared quite enjoyable. Once he took on Armand’s construct and was able to feel some of that but he knew it paled in comparison, he had nothing but his own experiences to compare it to. Rowena was a passionate sort, she liked her victims to be powerful, cruel men which she allowed to have at her until which point she sucked them dry. In many ways she was an artist of a sort in that, the endless faces of men and women sometimes were on a passenger train once together in her dreams and he moved through it and viewed them.

He was also somewhat vindictive when his mood flowed that way. Sometimes he made himself stronger and faster than her, careful not to force her in a way that might be taken as rape, he seduced her into making love to him. Usually though he was content to just see where he led him, sometimes she’d add commentary while other times she was quite angry when she knew he was watching her at a specific moment in her dreams. The odd thing was that he lost interest in other women altogether. She had spoiled that for him, and he doubted she was very remorseful about that either but he knew eventually she’d creep back into his life and so he would wait for her.

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Armand had tired from the world. His long time companion had effectively disappeared and he had slept for almost one hundred and fifty years. This new world he had awakened to hardly agreed with him. Vampires were about but he found that humans seemed to develop some kind of obsession with them. Often allowing them to be used and quite often, abused by their Vampire masters. The entire thing disgusted him. To him it was very much like watching someone play with their food. Not at all cognisant of how bad it all was manner wise. It somehow lessened what they really were. Which is why he knew he needed to find Rowena. Out of all his children she had showed real promise as a companion but she had unfortunately fell in love with him and a lover more often than not made a poor companion in the long run.

It was easy to find her lair, He could sense her passing in a fashion, having shared blood with her but each time he returned to her home she was never there. He decided to leave a token, something she’d know was from him and that he was looking for her.

Rowena was still upset with Sebastian and so she stayed away from him for a few days. She needed space and time to think. She was upset that he continued to invade her dreams, but she knew that the other reason she was staying away was because she knew in her heart that this relationship could never be. In the end he was mortal and she was not. This relationship could only end badly and she didn't want to hurt Seth...physically or emotionally. And so she hunted and slept. She stayed away from the area around his apartment building and the places she knew he hung out or played at. However, she continued to think about him...she just couldn't keep him from her thoughts.

That night she returned to her apartment just before dawn. Immediately, she could sense that someone had been there. Had it been another vampire? It couldn't have been Seth because he didn't have a key and would have waited for her to return. She walked around the apartment looking for any sign of who it could have been. As she entered her bedroom she spotted it. There upon her pillow was a necklace...but it wasn't just any necklace. This was the necklace Armand had given to her. She had given it back to him just before leaving him to be on her own. She hadn't seen Armand since. Slowly, she picked it up and gently ran her fingers over the gold pendant. It was faded and tarnished with age, but still beautiful. She couldn't help but wonder why Armand would seek her out now.

The following night she hunted early and then returned to her apartment to wait and see if he would return...

Armond had fed until his body could hold no more. The street had filled with corpses, the long sleep took alot to bring him from the wiry husk he had been when he first awoke. He tore throats, broke limbs and shattered bones and drank their marrow. Their screams of agony were like a symphony to his ears. Memories of a time long ago in a much more civilized age. He casually wiped the blood from his face and nose. The warm, coppery smell of it made him crave more but he had had his fill. He had taken several wallets, the currency completely unlike anything he had seen before. He bought a new suit, an older black suit but he had his old, overcoat laundered.

He was already sitting in what made up her living room when she entered. He stood and bowed regally to her and ofcourse he looked almost exactly like she remembered, his coat included. “Well...my dear, it has been a long time. Tell me, does this...city,” he said and his lips did not seem to like the word right then,” Appeal to you? I find it...much to ‘busy’ for my taste...I see you have found my...trinket, you may wear it if it pleases you,” he said in his usual smooth way of speaking. Every motion, every expression was smooth, almost graceful even to her eyes. He was older than old, in Vampire years though he looked as handsome and robust as he ever did. When she began to cry and ran to hug him he lightly pulled her head back to look down into her eyes. “Rowena, are those tears for me? I am hardly worthy of them if you recall,” he said in his usual manner of dismissing her emotions as erroneous. He hardly ever showed her his and she had always wondered if he had any.

Rowena could sense him before she even entered her apartment. She hesitated a moment outside the door, wondering if this was what she truly wanted. Did she want Armand back in her life? It had taken her so long to heal her broken heart...if it ever truly had healed completely. But Armand, while not her maker, had been her first and only true companion and her teacher. They were bound together deeply and would always be apart of her life.

Slowly, she opened the door and stepped inside. Immediately, her eyes fell upon him. He looked nearly exactly as he had when she had left him. The suit was new and modern, but everything else about him was exactly as she remembered. A familiar feeling came over her as she heard his voice. She remembered their long talks about literature and music, as well as their much more passionate moments. She remembered he feeling of him biting her the first time...it had been both thrilling and terrifying at the same time. Despite her best efforts to keep the tears from her eyes she failed miserably and she soon found herself in his arms.

"My feelings are my own and I shall feel whatever I like Armand," she replied as she pulled back and looked at him. "Where have you been?"

“I took the long sleep...I...tired of this world,” he said as he looked around her place with disinterest. He was always so...spartan with his fineries. He appreciated simplicity in almost all things though he had read so many books. He also looked disapprovingly at her clothes but said nothing. “What have you been up to my dearest?” he asked. “Obviously you’ve been awake this entire time. Did you find another companion?” he asked wondering who it could have been. He knew almost all Vampires and knew how much being turned had affected her at first. He wasn’t always a kind teacher. He would scold her and demean her when he felt it necessary. He exhumed power. There were few if any as strong and as old as he.

Rowena wasn't surprised to hear that Armand had been asleep for some time. He was far older than any vampire she had ever encountered. She imagined if she were as old as he that she would grow tired of the world as well. In many ways she already was.

Long into the night she talked and told him of everywhere she had been since leaving him. She also told him as much as she could about this modern world. It was quite a lot to take in, between the world wars, man walking on the moon, devices that enabled you to talk to someone around the world or in another room, and boxes that showed you moving pictures with sound. She knew Armand would catch up quickly. He was so strong and intelligent that it frightened her sometimes.

"I...I have not found another companion," she told him, both lying and telling the truth at the same time. She knew he truly meant a vampire companion, which was the truth...but in many ways Seth had become a mortal companion.

Armand still held her close but it seemed more as an action he did because she wanted him to, not because he felt he wanted to. He was more concerned about knowledge and understanding the world than about love and the dynamics of truly being with someone. They had had their moments. He had a passion inside of him when she was able to fish it out but it wasn’t often. Right now he seemed...cold, as if he was only really half there. She could not know if this was part of sleeping for so long or not.

“I wish a fire my dear...would you make one for me?” he asked. Armand liked fires even though they were very dangerous to their kind. He began to browse through her collection. His fingers touched things but he never really picked them up. He had seen most of what she had here and to the rest it was of little interest to him. He didn’t even ask if she had wood or wanted a fire herself but she knew he expected one and soon. Armand was very powerful, especially when it came to compulsion. He said and she found herself doing what he had asked her to do. Now it was a matter of course for him and he hardly ever turned it off.

Rowena heard Armand's request and knew that ultimately it wasn't really a request. It was a command wrapped in the coating of a request. Clearly things hadn't changed with Armand since she had left him. She had always desperately sought his approval and love, but he had rarely given it. However, even now...after all the years that had passed since she had last seen him she still wanted his approval...and perhaps his love as well.

She walked over to the fireplace and put in a few logs. She added some paper underneath the logs and used her powers to start a flame. Within a few minutes a nice fire was burning. Rowena remained quiet for a while as she watched him. Finally she spoke again.

"Why did you seek me out?"

Armand had lit a candle. He did not much care for modern forms of lighting. He decidedly also didn’t answer her question immediately. He picked a spot near where some of the simpler furniture was and sat down upon a wooden chair that groaned from his weight when he sat down upon it. :If it were not you it would have been someone else...I wanted to see someone...who knew much of this...younger world,” he explained slowly. The dim light of the candle was enough light to light the room completely for her eyes. Everything Armand did was deliberate. A thought that led to action and being a creature that lived a very long time, he was hardly ever in a hurry. Just as Seth was to her in speed and strength, she was to Armand. He looked at her with his, large, dark eyes trying to peer inside of her. He had not tasted her blood in some time so he could see very little and he seemed content with that...for now.

“Rowena...I am not here to rekindle what you feel is between us, if that is what you’re asking. Come...sit and talk with me my dear,” he asked as he gestured for her to sit on his lap.

Armand's words hurt her in a way, but she wasn't entirely sure it was completely true. If he had just wanted another vampire to tell him of this new world then he would not have returned to her apartment several times. He would have left to find another. She had known that someone had been coming into her apartment, but she now knew it had been him. She could feel his eyes on her and as always she nearly trembled under his gaze. It was so deep and piercing...as if he were peering into her soul. She hesitated a moment when he gestured for her to come over and sit upon his lap. She wanted to refuse...but instead she found herself walking over to him. Even after all these years he still held an incredible power over her.

“Is this what you wanted Rowena?” He asked as he put his arms around her. “You wish to know if i came for you alone? To hold you in my arms and whisper words of love and desire for you?” he said not quite mocking her but not loving either. “Do you want this of me then? If I wanted you to come away from this place, will you follow if I show you love?” he continued. What he was really saying was that he would make her ‘feel’ loved if she came with him but she might not know if he were or not really in love with her and would that really matter? That and when he found another she would wake only to find an empty room once again. Armand’s age had changed his sensibilities about so many things. That was why he had only kept her as a companion for a short time and selected another. Under 400 years was old but not so old that one forgot what being mortal felt like. Vampires who continued to remember events and realize the passage of time often selected younger companions. Armand himself had selected someone young though he was much older than she. Other vampires did as well and in that way they retained cohesion between one another. A kinship in how the world affected them so that it affected them in a similar way. How could he teach her that? The answer was he could not and thus quite often vampires who tired of their existence often decided to bury themselves deep into the earth and let the years pass. She had not done that yet. A tale tell sign she still found something that interested her. Yet she had familiarity with Armand and it was not always a painful or terrible experience and she might even find herself still clinging to those even now.

Sebastian was mortal and yet his ability gave him a unique insight into the world and the human condition. Now that he has met her...his insight included the 'inhuman' condition as well. She might now suspect that that this was why he delved her dreams so frequently. he wasn't trying to just understand her or find some trick to her heart. He was trying to understand what it was like to 'be' what she was.

Rowena felt old feelings she thought she had buried away resurface as Armand held her. Armand had given her strength and had been her first, and only, teacher. She had wanted him to love her as she had him...to devote himself to her as his only love and companion for the rest of time, but had known in her heart that what she wanted would never be. Armand was perhaps the oldest vampire alive and thus grew bored easily. He would never be able to devote himself entirely to her...or to any other vampire. His hollow words echoed in her ears. Love was not something she would ever attain from him. If she went with him he would perhaps pretend...or make her feel loved...but she would always know that it was nothing more than a facade for her benefit alone.

“And why would you want me to go with you?”

“We can't stand it, to be alone. We cannot bear it, any more than the monks of old could bear it, men who thought they had renounced all else for Christ's sake, nevertheless came together in congregations to be with one another, even as they enforced upon themselves the harsh rules of single solitary cells and unbroken silence. They couldn't bear to be alone. We are too much men and women; we are yet formed in the image of the Creator, and what can we say of Him with any certainty except that He, whoever He may be--Christ, Yahweh, Allah--He made us, did he not, because even he in his infinite perfection could not bear to be alone,” he said as he looked up at her.

(An excerpt from Anne Rice - Armand, a little plagiarism that seemed to fit her question)

Rowena listened to his response quietly. It was exactly what she had expected Armand to say. She would have been surprised if he had said anything differently. She sighed a little and shook her head and looked at him again.

“But you could chose any other vampire in the world as a companion. Why me specifically?”

OOC- seems appropriate to me

He paused to look her deeply in her eyes. She was young yet and she had remained awake to live through the changes of this new world. She had knowledge he could use and thus he needed her or another like her but he knew few others so young. Most were careless or foolish which made for unfortunate ends. “Is it not enough that I need you?” he asked and a thought passed through her head right then and he tilted his head and smiled. “What is this...Vinsetta your thoughts go to? I know this word is it how you see me?” he asked as he idly put a hand under her shirt. His hands were warm, he had fed well recently. Armand had missed the sense of touch. His fingertips were alive with sensation and he felt her stomach, her rib cage then moved his hand up to feel the lace of her bra. His expression never changed as he waited for her reply but as he was about to snake his fingers under her bra he paused. “So...you were thinking of someone named...Seth as well. When I was touching you,” he said and he smiled. He keeps forgetting how young she was. She liked to be touched this way...by Seth and he was obviously amused by this but not in a good way. He took it as yet another sign that she was inferior, less, a product of mortality only playing at being immortal. Only more years would strip her of that he knew.

A flood of thoughts suddenly filled Rowena's mind as Armand began to touch her. Feeling his strong, warm fingers on her skin made her almost shiver with desire as she remembered the rather passionate nights they had spent together, feeding off of one another. However, at the same time she thought of Seth...of the way he would touch her...sometimes gently...sometimes rougher. She felt Armand's fingers just lightly skim over her black lace bra and she almost moaned with anticipation. However, once again Seth came to her thoughts...this time it was his face as he would watch her play the piano. Suddenly, Armand stopped, just before moving his fingers under her bra and directly called her out about her thoughts of Seth. She instinctively thought to deny any thoughts, but she knew there was nothing she could say. She glanced at him slightly.

"Maybe I was..."

Armond moderated his expression though he did like how she reacted to his touch. He slid his hand under her bra and it lifted up for him. He saw how she reacted and he smiled as he lifted up his other arm then brought his own wrist to his mouth. With an audible sound of him biting through his wrist his teeth made a hole in his thick skin and he held it up for her to take into her mouth. As she did, her teeth going into his wrist through the holes he had just made. Hungrily he felt the pressure of her sucking. He didn’t think she realized the sounds she made as she audibly enjoyed his offering. It felt wonderful to have her doing this but he wanted her blood as well.

With an inhuman strength he pulled at her clothes. They ripped forward like they were made of paper. Her shift, jacket and bra were ripped away leaving her bare form the waist up and then he bit down on her right above her right breast. As she took blood from him, he took blood from her and as he held her to him they began to levitate above the floor.

Rowena felt herself losing control of the situation (not that she really had any to begin with). As Armand touched her more all thoughts of Seth slid from her mind and she became solely focused on Armand. She watched as he bit his wrist and then held it up to her mouth. Her pupils dilated at the smell of his almost ancient blood. Without hesitation she brought her mouth down to his wrist and began to hungrily suck his blood. She felt incredible...she could feel his power coursing through her. She wanted more...

Suddenly, she felt him pulling at her clothes. Within seconds they were ripped from her body. As she continued to suck at his wrist she felt him bite right above her right breast. She moaned at the sensation and felt herself going into almost a trance as they became connected through this transference of blood.

Each time he had done this with her she was infused with more strength, more speed and more power. His blood was like liquid light far sweeter and more invigorating than anything she had ever consumed. This time more than the last by what might feel 10 fold. Partly because so much time had passed and partly because it had been so long since he had allowed this. For those few, precious moments they were linked mentally and emotionally. In an instant she saw his days with his companion, a fairly young looking man with long, blonde hair. Armand had loved this man and oddly knew he was stronger than himself. One day the Vampire was gone and blood tears rolled down her cheeks when the severe sadness that she felt from Armand at losing him had struck her like a tidal wave and her body reacted. She saw his dreams when he slept. Altogether odd dreams that were difficult to make out and some even frightened her. She saw things she couldn’t believe as well, faces of ‘the old ones’ and oddly she even knew who they were. Unfortunately he had seen into her as well. Her life though he could not know that Seth was human. He drew from her her history and how alone she had felt when he had left her.

When he tried to get her to release him, he had already she hung on and hungrily continued to suck. It was the sweetest ecstasy she could have ever imagined and she wanted more, needed more. Needed it more than she ever needed anything in her entire life. With an inhuman force she was suddenly thrown back off of him. She hit the wall hard, plaster broke behind her as she hit and she came down on her feet. Her face was altogether a face of a ravenous animal, her maw covered in his blood. Her nails had grown to claws ready to do battle against the thing that tried to force her from her meal. His blood belonged to her and she would kill whomever tried to keep her from it. She had to have more...had to had to had...had...as she moved forward the feeling inside her faded so quickly like the light of a lantern as the shutter was being drawn down. And the world as it was slowly fell back in around her vision. He had let her drink to much and the affect would make her very unsettled for the next several days and continue for weeks if not months though to a lesser degree. Just the memory of this would haunt her dreams. The desire for it like a drug she couldn’t live without. This is what he got for indulging her need for him.

When she looked down at her hands her nails slowly retracted and they morphed back slowly into the hands she remembered. Her face to, if she could have seen it did as well though she still had blood all over her face and chest. Armand stood from the chair and before she could apologize or say anything he flew out an open window and was gone.

new thread - and a new song...not great but hey, its good for the story I think.