What Love Can Bring and Take

Day after day, week after week Sebastian wondered if Rowena was ever going to darken his door again. He did what he always did, played music, sang and when he got home sketched and painted. However he only seemed to sketch and paint her. Her and what he saw in her dreams. People, places, scenes and other things he didn’t really know what they were. Some of it, like all dreams were abstract and difficult to understand. But his mind knew and his hands worked as if of their own accord.


He stayed away from women although that Jackie had showed up again. She had some strong words for him, not at all happy that they had something special going...in her mind and then he just suddenly starts talking to another woman. That all ended with some pretty harsh threats though they sounded more like promises to his ears but he told her that she’d have to find another asshole to fuck and that was that. People still came to listen to his music. Rowena had affected him and so his songs were much more...emotional. He really missed her and more and more he knew that he really had come to love her.


Rowena had come into his life only to kill him. To suck him dry like the bloody mary he drank that morning. He was on stage as he thought about her and he sang a song he wrote for her though he doubted she would ever hear it.





Had she decided to leave for good? He wouldn’t go back to her house, somehow it felt wrong to be there without her and so he had stayed away. And what of this man in her life now..Armand? He had seen him in her dreams and he had painted him as well. Would she come to finish him?





To have her take him into her arms and to feel that razor's edge between life and death...it was better than any drug he had ever had and so now none held sway with him save for alcohol and he had to be in the mood for that.





His body ached for hers and not only that, but his mind also. She knew so much and would answer anything he asked. She’d also let him do anything he wanted to her body especially when she took blood from him. Nothing was off the menu as far as sex was concerned and he could be as rough or as gentle as he wanted. No other woman was even a candle to her inferno.

It had been three weeks since Armand had come and gone. She had thought about going after him, but only briefly. She knew that he would never take her as his companion now. She had broken his trust an for that he had left her. For several days afterward she just slept and didn't eat. Finally, after five days she awoke and was ravenous. She took the first dark hearted man she could find and drained him in the alleyway without a word. She wanted to go see Seth, but she feared telling him the truth. That thought alone made her wonder about her feelings for him. Did she actually love him? Was she capable of love? She wasn't sure, but she knew she missed him...greatly. She missed his scent, the taste of his blood, the feel of his body against her own, the sound of his voice, the look in his eye as he sketched her.

For several nights she stood around the corner from his building, but she couldn't seem to work up the courage to go see him. She knew that he had been entering her dreams still...but at this point she didn't care. It was the only connection she had with him now. Finally, nearly two months after she last saw him she walked into the club where she knew he played. He was up on stage and she stood near the back as he began to play. He began to sing a song she had never heard before, but she immediately felt moved by it. As she slowly began to realize it was about her she just stared at him, feeling emotions she had not felt in nearly 370 years come to the surface. She knew in that moment that she loved him.

As he stepped off stage she slowly approached him. Several other people had come up to him as well and so she stood back a little ways...waiting for him to notice her.

OOC-I really liked the song. I thought it fit really well.

ooc: ok...so, here we go, muhahhaa

Seth had been moved himself by the song. He didn’t exactly know why tonight had been different than other nights but it was. Like a feeling down deep that you hardly noticed but knew was there when you tried to feel it. The result was that he sang his song with more motion and heart than he had ever before. The people loved it, especially the women who thought it was some kind of lovesong for someone he lost. He stood and bowed then announced he’d take a small break as he set down his guitar. People rushed in as he moved down from the stage to talk to him, mostly women who wanted to give him a reason to go home with them tonight. He smiled, talked with them and thanked them for their praise but his smiles were forced she could tell. He was thinking of someone else and somewhere else. A cool night on the roof alone with her. It was then that he saw her but before he could do or say anything Jackie stepped up to him. He was about to tell her to leave him alone but he felt her knife go into his stomach...deep. She plunged it in thrice more and it was then that others saw his blood. It fell quickly and he fell back as Jackie pulled it out than prepared to stab him again. “Toss me aside! Not me Seth,” she growled. “Never me!” She said and stabbed him once more in the chest.

Rowena's eyes met Seth's. For a moment it felt like there was no one else in the room. She wanted to be with him...and only him. Suddenly, she saw movement and before she could act she saw a woman step up to him. In seconds there was pure chaos in the room. Rowena watched in horror as the woman stabbed him in the stomach and then in the chest. People began to scream and chairs and tables were overturned as people rushed to get out. Panic swept over Rowena and made her entire body go cold. She grabbed hold of Jackie and picked her up with one hand and threw her aside. She hit a wall with such force that her neck was snapped. People stared at her in horror and she heard the word monster uttered in fear. She knew she needed to get out there...to get Seth out of there. Time was of the essence. She picked him up and in an instant they were gone. Moments later they were in a back alleyway alone. She was covered in his blood, but for the first time she didn't crave it. Her fear was too great. She could feel his life quickly slipping away. Blood tears filled her eyes as she looked down at him. She knew what she wanted to do...but it was selfish and she wouldn't do that to him if he didn't want it.

"Seth...I love you...I need you to tell me what you want me to do."

The world lurched by in a blur. He felt sore, especially his chest but he had gone into shock almost immediately. “Fuckin Jackie,” he said as he coughed. Blood spewed out of his mouth and that was when he actually noticed Rowena who was holding him. “I...I thought I saw you,” he said and winced. “At the club,” He continued. Here he was dying and he seemed content with what, catching up? He blamed it on the fact that he was dying and he finally remembered what she had said before he even started talking.


“Wha...what I want you to do?” Maybe it was due to the fact that he was bleeding like crazy but he thought the question odd and he heard her tell him that she loved him. “You...love me? For someone who never dies, you honestly have the worst timing Rowena,...ahhh...oh….oh,” he said as a wave of pain came over him.

Rowena was trying to remain as calm as possible for his sake. There were only two choices here. To let him die in her arms...or to turn him. She had promised herself she would never do that to anyone, but she would let him make that choice...she would never make it for him.

"Yes...I love you...which is why I will not make this decision for you," she told him. "I cannot save you and leave you mortal. I do not have that power. You have two choices...to die...or...to live forever. But know if you choose that path that it is not easy...it is a life in the dark...watching those around you grow old and die...everything will change...but you."

OOC-lol I'm not sure you meant to post that last post of yours here

ooc-no, i am cleaning up old stuff in my google docs. I have several old docs and im consolidating them all into fewer pages. cut and pasting on a small screen sucks. I did a western RP a while back. It was fun for the most part.

ooc-also, did you want me to bring Armand into this? I have been considering it to have him make seth after seth tells her to let him go.

OOC-Ah, I see. I did post on our LOTR board as well. I will leave that up to you, but it certainly would be interesting.

Seth knew he didn’t want to live forever. He had had more than his share of bad memories. He lived them over and over and over. He was tired, not just because he was dying. But also because his own dreams were something he would never be able to escape from. His father, the death of his mother, all that he had done...he didn’t deserve to live. Certainly not forever. He love Rowena...he did, he knew he did and he didn’t want to hurt her but time would heal this pain. In time she’d forgive him and possibly even understand.


“No...I want this...I want it to end Rowena,” he told her with tears in his eyes. “I do love you...so much,” he told her and he squeezed her hand.

Rowena's heart broke to know that in mere moments she would be parted from the man she loved, but she accepted his decision. She wasn't sure she would have been able to go through with turning him. She didn't want that life for him. It was not a glamorous life...like many made it out to be in books and movies. It was a difficult...lonely life. Had she been given the choice between dying and this life she would always choose death.

She nodded slowly with tears in her eyes. "You showed me how to feel and love again...and for that I thank you Seth. No matter how long I live I will never forget you...nor stop loving you."

OOC-ok so I had kinda a weird idea last night. What if Seth had actually been a vampire in a previous life? My thought is that he was very old and extremely powerful and strong...even more so than Armand but he was killed...perhaps by Armand and was then reborn as Seth (perhaps he even had other lives as well). When he drinks Armand's blood it reawakens that old vampire part of him and he remembers who he once was.

ooc-anything is possible and I like it

“I hate that you’ll be alone,” Sebastian said as he felt himself fading. “But I tried living for someone else...be...before,” he said though he hardly even knew what he was saying. “So many lives...so many dreams...it’s hard to tell where someone else ends and I begin. So much pain...that was always the worst part. All i wanted to do is make you smile…” he added as he winced. He could no longer feel his legs.


Before she could react more she was thrown up against the brick of the building behind her. Her body crushed it and its outer bricks fell in pieces to the ground. She would not feel pain though only perhaps surprise as she saw Armand who stood over Sebastian. Sebastian looked up at him but for some reason didn’t look at all surprised. Armand either from what she could tell. He gazed back at her with a puzzled look on his face. “Is this...your companion?” He asked in a very unfriendly tone.

Rowena wanted to try and bring Seth some level of calm in his last moments. She began to wonder if she might be able to use her abilities to at least take his pain away. However, before she could even lay a hand on him she felt herself being thrown up against the brick wall of the building behind her. She collapsed to the ground. She could feel that her spine had been crushed. Her body would repair it, but it would take time and before then she wouldn't be able to move. She quickly realized, to her horror, that it was Armand. He was now standing over Seth.

"Leave....leave him be Armand!" she said as best she could.

Armand was old, very old as Vampires went and though Sebastian looked how he looked he knew full well that this human form was just a facade. A husk that held his mind and spirit. Armand saw his shadow from the dim light that came from the light just above the back door of the restaurant near them. It wasn’t a man’s shadow at all, it had wings and a body much different in shape than the one he inhabited now. Armand knelt down beside him and turned his face from one side then the next.


“No...you would not like it if I did that,” he said in a tone that sounded as if he was deep in thought. “You have no idea who this is...do you?” he asked. “How long have you been...with him?” he asked as if the very notion of her ‘being’ with a human disgusted him.

Rowena was desperate to do something, but she was completely helpless and could only watch from where she lay on the ground. His question puzzled her and caused her to glance at Seth and then look back to Armand. What did he mean "who this is"? Seth was a human man...wasn't he?

"Several months...Just leave him alone...he's made his choice."

Armand almost cackled. “Fool girl, he would have taken you if he died with you so close. Obviously he has no memory of his former selves,” Already he pulled back his sleeve and it was obvious to her what he intended to do. “I do not know this...Seth you keep calling him. But, do you know the names Hypnos or...Morpheus? Phobetor or Phantasos? He is far older than I am. An ancient thing who I, myself took as a companion for a time, long ago. Though I didn’t know who he was at the time. So it is with you now.


Sebastian thought this...Armand was crazy. As he felt himself fading, his eyesight dimming he looked over at Rowena. “I...love you...Rowena,” he said weakly as Armand bit into his own wrist.

Rowena just stared at Armand as he spoke. She didn't understand what he was saying. She could feel her spine repairing itself and knew that time was no of the essence. She needed to stop Armand from doing this to Seth. She watched as Armand bit into his own wrist. She was finally able to move. She jumped up and in a flash was over to where Seth lay, but before she could grab him she felt Armand strike her again. This time she struck the brick wall with such force that she was rendered unconscious and lay on the ground under a small pile of bricks.

Sebastian saw what happened but he was so tired it didn’t really register. He looked up at the man who loomed close above him and then he felt something hit his mouth. He was so thirsty and his eyes grew dark. As if by reflex he moved his mouth and took in whatever it was that touched his lips. It tasted...warm on his tongue and it smelled metallic.


Armand brought his arm down so it was just above Sebastian’s open mouth. More blood dripped down into and onto his mouth and Sebastian swallowed reflexively. Armand smiled, an odd smile and he wondered what was going to happen. He wasn’t certain himself but he hunched over further and presented his wrist to Sebastian who continued to swallow and taste the dark, red liquid that flowed down into his mouth. Then like a ravenous animal he suddenly reached for it and began hungrily sucking it down. Drinking it like it was the best thing he had ever tasted. He was so weak yet he was willing to expel the last bit of energy he had to get more of it...more of...something he wasn’t certain of anything right then but his need for more.


“That’s...enough,” Armand said in a grunt, he tried to pull his arm away but Sebastian held to it. “Enough!” He said more forcefully and pulled his wrist free. Sebastian grunted and tried to reach but his arms fell back down, his muscles no longer capable of holding them up. “I’m...dying, aren’t I?” He asked weakly. “Your mortal body is...yes,” Armand answered plainly as he hopped up onto the nearby dumpster then sat with his legs crossed. After a few minutes he saw Rowena stir. He tilted his head at an odd angle to look at her but said nothing.

Slowly Rowena began to stir again. Her whole body ached. She struggled for a moment to remember what had happened. As she moved a few bricks slipped off of her. Finally, she was able to look over to her right and as she saw Seth and Armand it was then that she remembered. She jumped up and glared at Armand after seeing the blood on Seth's mouth.

"What have you done?!"

“You sound angry...you ‘should’ be thanking me Rowena. You were lonely and now I’ve given you a companion. Is that not what you wanted? I know you were not willing to take one for yourself and you certainly could not be mine again. We both know that now, do we not?” Arman said almost arrogantly. “My blood is very strong, he may even surpass your own strength in time. Oh I know you will make some pathetic argument about ‘free will’ and all that but you of all people should know that ‘free will’ is a myth. Unless you believe that a part of you wanted your brother to violate you? Did you know he truly loved you? He was mad with it in fact. Unable to control his urges. Did you know your own mother violated him as well? I never told you that. I prefer to think that fate has been served here. This...creature is not like you and I. And now he is ‘your’ responsibility,” he said as he stood almost weightless on the dumpster.