It had been about a month or so since Morose had helped her find an apartment of her own. She had been so very grateful for his helping her like this. If he hadn’t offered to help her like this, she would probably still be sleeping in the abandoned dumpster. She didn’t have to worry about that anymore though. Morose had told her that he’d take care of her. It was still slightly funny that she was the sire but yet the one she had sired was the one taking care of her. Who’d have thought?

Anyway, over the course of the month or so, she had managed to furnish the place with various pieces of furniture. Nothing fancy of course. It wasn’t like she had anyone to impress with her living quarters. The same type of heavy curtains that hung in Morose and Jex’s apartment also hung in hers. She was so very thankful for those curtains and how dark they kept the place during the day. She’d have had to hang out in the dark closet during the day otherwise.

It had been because of Morose that the emotional vampress had finally begun to take care of herself again. Having new clothes to wear again helped a lot as well. She couldn’t help but feel like she hadn’t been able to thank him enough for the kindness he was showing her. Maybe they would be able to become friends after all? Wasn’t that the whole reason she had decided she had wanted to turn someone into what she was? Yes. It was. She hadn’t been looking for anything more than friendship and companionship. She hadn’t been looking for a romantic type relationship. No. Not at all. Just someone to be able to call a friend.

On this night, the sun had set and she had dressed casually in a black pair of pants and black shirt. She had left her apartment and headed right for the slaughter house where she spent about an hour drinking her fill of fresh cow blood out of a barrel. She had been doing a decent job of keeping herself fed now after having been found by Morose and he got her the apartment and clothes. After having had her fill, she headed back to her apartment where she showered and changed her clothes.

The clothes she picked out to wear tonight were simple yet, in a sense, elegant which was what she had been used to wearing before she had lost everything when she had to find a place to be after not being able to return to the crypt she had claimed. The outfit she picked out was, of course, a long and flowing dress. It had thin straps for over the shoulders and was backless. The shoes she picked out to wear with it were black as well. They were two inch heels. Anything to make the short vampress feel taller. The straps on the shoes were the type that crisscrossed a little bit up the calf. She left her long hair down and flowing around her waist.

She wasn’t really sure what she was going to do for the night. Going for a walk sounded good. The weather was good for a midnight stroll. She locked her apartment door behind her as she left. She wasn’t really going anywhere specific. Just out for a stroll and enjoying the nice weather. She thought about heading over towards Morose’s place to see how things were going. She’d been wondering quite a bit lately. And so it was. Enyo was out for a stroll and just walking leisurely down the sidewalk in the direction of Morose’s place.

Morose was dressed in the red lined black pants, the black shirt, the shadows pulled tightly around him, making him nearly invisable to the human, and even inhuman, eyes. His eyes are still lined with red make up, his lips painted black, though the color at his lips had smeared terribly on his lips, across one cheek, smudged off on Viv's skin.

The tall vampire was flushed in the cheeks, at the lips, around his eyes, his body a fraction warmer then the usual stone cold tempreture people come to expect of him. He's rushing, his movments more clumsy then he's ever been as a vampire, more clumsy even then he had been as a human, and he'd not been a very clumsy human at all.

His footfalls were heavy on the sidewalk and rather then move towards his own apartment, the way Enyo was doing, he was running away from it. Running, literally. He wanted away from there, away from Jex, so that woman would not find him. He wanted away from the area, away from her, and he wasn't watching where he was going in his desperate scrambling to get away. The shodws concealed him like a tight blanket but they didn't hide his footsteps, or the sound of his knee knocking agianst the trash can. In such a frantic state, he hadn't even noticed Enyo.

She hadn’t really been paying much attention to the goings on around her. As she walked along heading towards Morose’s apartment, she decided to take a short cut of sorts. She heard a trash can banging but thought nothing of it. There were all sorts of stray cats that seemed to come out at night to raid the trash cans. She figured that was what had made the noise. It went ignored basically.

She had been lost in her own thoughts and messing with a strand of her long hair as she walked along. So lost in thought that she hadn’t seen the form that was heading right towards her. Ugh. She ran right into the person that seemed to be in such a terrible hurry to get somewhere. “Hey. Watch where...” She stopped. “Morose?” she questioned. “Morose what’s wrong?” Instinct told her that there was something wrong. But she didn’t know what. Not without asking anyway.

A female voice, which somewhere in the back of his mind registered as belonging to Enyo, caused him to jump more then their collision had. A female had done this to him. Made him like he was, with these foreign feelings and cravings for magic that he didn't know, blood that he didn't want, sexual contact that he feared and despised.

He slid away from her, gathering more shadows around himself, backing away, moving in a semi-circle around her until his back brushed the wall. He moved sideways along the wall, gathering more shadows, taking more darkness to hide in from each shadow along the wall that he touched. Darkness clouded around him until all that was truely visable was an outline and that shocking red hair and the brightness of his blue eyes.

His eyes were still bled out, the entire showing part of the eye had turned that light blue, covered all the white, his black pupil shrinking to minimal size. Somewhere in his mind he knew it was Enyo, his sire, the one he took care of, another he took care of, but Viv's face, her magic was still fresh in him, pushing that thought to the back and concentrating on getting away from this area, getting away from her.

To say she was shocked would be an understatement. Her keen nose picked up the scent of fresh blood. Not just any blood though. Human blood. What the hell? “Morose? What’s going on? What’s wrong?” She was truly baffled as to why he was so suddenly moving away from her like he was. Had she done something, yet again, to upset him with her? But how would that be possible? She lived in her apartment. He lived in his. They visited from time to time. He took care of her. But something was wrong. Something was very wrong.

“Morose. Answer me. What is going on?” There was something in her voice at that moment that hadn’t been there at all in all the time they’d known each other. Not even when she’d first sired him had that tone been there. It was so close to being a demanding tone. Sure, there was concern heavy in her voice as well. But the other tone would be hard to miss. The scent of human blood is what really baffled her though. Morose didn’t drink human blood. Or was there something he had been keeping from her?

Maybe it was the demanding tone that woke him up. Enyo was not a demanding sire, in fact, if he'd heard the demanding tone at any other time he may have blown it off as someone else speaking. But at this moment, instincts were playing, and instincts told him 'listen to your Sire.' Instincts told him only Enyo would take that tone with him, although, common sense told him that Enyo would never speak to him like that, she wouldn't dare. Not only had she never, but she also wouldn't now that they'd made up, that he was taking care of her.

At this very moment, when he was unable to think clearly, instincts over rode common sense.

It was Enyo, an he would obey. That's all he knew. He stepped forward and he just appeared as if he'd stepped out of a doorway in the shadows. They simply feel away to reveal his flushed skin, the throbbing pulse in his throat, the bled look in his eyes, his smudged black lipstick. The buldge in his pants where there should not be....at least, not on Morose.

He dropped to his knees, which only brought his head nearly to her chest, he's that tall and she that short. The movment brought him right in front of her, his eyes looking desperatly up at her.

"I don't know," he replied. "I don't know what's happening to me."

It had been worry and concern that had caused her to automatically take on that tone with him. Any other time, she would never have ever used it with him. For various reasons even. Fear of losing his friendship, if that’s what was really happening between them. Perhaps it was just a tolerance for her that he had developed. She wasn’t sure really nor would she question it. He was the one taking care of her. He didn’t seem to get so angry with her as much as he used to. Hell, they’d been actually getting along fairly well. Perhaps there might be a small spat here and a small spat there. But that was to be expected in all honesty.

If she hadn’t been shocked before, she surely was now as she watched him step forward and come out of the shadows that he had wrapped around himself. She didn’t even try to hide the shock from her face either. If it had been several months ago, she might have snickered at seeing the bulge in the mans pants. Any mans pants. But that wasn’t even a thought in her mind at this moment. Something had happened. Something had happened to Morose. It was like instinct for her to suddenly take on the actual roll of being the sire that she was supposed to be.

Human blood. That scent wouldn’t leave her nose. If she hadn’t already fed, and fed well I might add, the strong scent of the fresh human blood might have gotten to her. It had been so very long since she had tasted human blood. Stop it. Just stop it Enyo. You’re not allowed to even think like that. She shook her head slightly to clear her mind of her current thoughts.

She watched him as he sank to his knees in front of her. Any other time, she would have realized just how much smaller than him she really was. There wasn’t time for that at this moment though. “What have you been doing Morose? What have you done? You have fed. On a human. I can smell it.” She was trying hard now to keep that demanding tone out of her voice for fear of setting him off into an angry state at her. It wasn’t working so well though. Not right now. Not when she knew that something was wrong. Something was going on. She was hell bent on finding out just what. “Tell me.” This was not a question. This was not a ‘only if you want’ thing. This was... an order? From Enyo?

What have you been doing Morose? What have you done? You have fed. On a human. I can smell it

It sounded so accusatory. After all, for so long he'd shamed her for feeding on humans, for taking the living, breathing, intelegent mortals that she had once been and making them her pray, for so long he'd battered her with disapproving words, reprimanding tones. He'd preached to her about the sin of it, about the moral conduct of it. And now he'd done it. Not only once, but twice. And he'd enjoyed it. Even craved it this second time.

He wanted her to go away now. Morose shining through the panic, if only just a little. His instincts said obey, he wanted her to go away. And he wanted her to take her accusations with her. He turned his face up towards her, a mixture of confused emotions. Bitterness, fear, self-loathing.

"I didn't mean to!" He nearly shouts the words in his more-horse-then-usual voice. His voice usually got like that after he'd fed. The pulse in his throat throbbed visibly, hurridly. "I didn't want to! I...she....wanted it."

She hadn’t meant to sound as if she were accusing him of something. She just wanted to know what was going on. She had tried to keep the demanding tone out of her voice. Obviously she hadn’t been able to. It was because she was worried. Concerned. About him. Something was wrong and it had her so worried that she was acting in a manner that she would never have any other time.

When he tilted his head up to look at her, she instantly felt regret for having sounded so harsh. Dainty hand reached out towards his face but stopped and fell back to her side. She didn’t want him to pull away from her and she couldn’t help but feel as if he would have if she had indeed touched him. “Shh...” she told him in a soothing voice. She glanced around to see that a couple of people were walking past really slowly and staring. She shot them a look that would have killed if looks could kill.

“Come on Morose. My apartment is just around the corner. Let’s go there. You can tell me what happened. Away from the prying eyes and ears of these morons that have nothing else better to do than stare.” Her voice was much softer now as she spoke to him but still held onto that authoritive voice. Just for the moment anyway. Hopefully he would listen and return to her apartment with her. Hopefully.

He turned at her coment about prying eyes and ears. His eye bled the way they were made people stare harder and he bared his lip back slightly and hissed at them. That's right. A long, bone chilling, fang showing hiss. They scattered away like bugs. Staring after them with preditory eyes, he stood, towering her once more, slipping his hand into hers to be led away even though he knew exactly where her apartment was.

Instinct was driving his every movment. With his arousal, he would normally flee from her touch, or anyones, with his instincts, he craved, not anyone's touch, but he craved his sire's touch. Though, really he didn't want Enyo, just as he hadn't wanted Viv. He wanted the power. And the power and the blood had mixed with the craving and well, we see how his body reacted to that combonation.

Right now he wanted not Enyo's touch as much as 'his sire's' touch. His big hand wrapped around hers.

There sure seemed to be a lot of surprises being thrown her way tonight. Him rising and slipping his hand into hers was just one more thing to add to that list of ever growing surprises. She offered no resistence at all as he wrapped his big hand around her much smaller one. The idiots that had been gawking had fled. That was good. She was suddenly not in the mood to have to deal with idiots. If anything would be able to make her snap at the moment it would be idiots trying anything right now. She was too concerned about the one she’d sired to give a damn about some idiot mortals.

She led him the short distance to the front of her apartment building. They had only been a block or two away from it. She led him inside and headed right for her apartment. She had gotten an apartment on the very top floor. She didn’t want to have anyone living above her and so her apartment was on the 4th floor. Upon reaching her door, she unlocked it and opened it. She walked inside and would close the door as soon as Morose entered.

The first thing that would be seen upon entering her apartment that he had gotten for her would be a cream colored couch that was obviously used but didn’t look so bad as to be able to really tell that it was used. That was where she led him to. She had no TV or anything like that. She didn’t want it. She had no use for anything like that. “Sit,” she told him in a gentle voice as she guided him to the couch. She, herself, sat down in the matching chair that was right next to the couch.

“Now tell me. What’s happened? Who is ‘she’?” She was concentrating more on finding out what had happened to him to cause him to be in this state and had forgotten entirely about the 'aroused' state he had obviously been in.

He followed her like a child, moving behinde her like a looming shadow, towering over most people they passed. Perhapes, had he not looked so morbidly pretty or so depressingly moppy, they may have looked like a normal couple moving along. Maybe if she wasn't so impatiantly worried or so unworldly beautiful, they could hav passes as normal, both with their flushed skin and beating hearts.

He followed her up and when she said sit, he did so quickly, pulling one of the sofa pillows over his lap hastily. He isn't used to this at all, none of it really. He looked at the carpet, showing no false interest in it, simply avoiding having to look at her. His fingers squeezed into fists, his knuckles popping at how tight they were. Then opened them.

"I don't even know who she is," he said, his voice sounding awed, as if he'd just realized this for himself. He didn't know who Viv was, only that he liked the power she fed him and that she liked to be fed from. And he regreted it afterwards, both times he'd molded to her wishes. "I....don't even know her name."

She didn’t even try to hide the frown from her face as he spoke of this ‘she’ person. There was something else in her expression. That’ll be mentioned later. She hadn’t paid any attention to him pulling a pillow over his lap. Her concern had been with he himself, not the boner in his pants. She hadn’t, after all, sired him because she wanted a sexual relationship. No indeed. She could easily bed nearly anyone if she set her mind to it. Not once had she thought of Morose in that type of manner. Which, if one were to think about it and if they knew her well enough, would know that was quite odd for Enyo in a sense. Physical touch was all she had known for so long. That grows old after a while though. At least in her mind it did. She had wanted more than that. So much more. She just wanted a friend.

“You don’t know her name?” Not an accusing tone. Just one of confusion. “Why? Where’d you meet her? How many times have you seen her? How many times have you fed from her?” Still no accusing tone. There was something else in her voice though. It matched the look in her expression. If one was familiar with it, one would so easily realize that it was... jealousy. Yes. Jealousy. Why? Who knows. This is Enyo we’re talking about after all.

He nodded to her repeating that he'd fed off of her. Actually, had he not been in the state he was, and staring feircly at the carpet, he would have recognized the jelousy and been doubly confused by it. What did Enyo have to be jelous for? That Morose fed on a human? He truely is an innocent at heart you know.

"I....Cemetery. Outside the cemetery. I ran into her. Or..." hr frowned. "She ran into me, I remember. I...she wasn't paying attintion." as for her next questions, he answered them almost like a zombie. "Two times. Both." Twice he's met her, twice he's fed. Twice he's drank her blood and her power. "I didn't want to. I almost didn't this time. She.....last time she made...made me so angry. I...lost it." he said the last two words smally. He'd only ever really 'lost it' once before, and he'd killed a man. He actually had tears standing in his eyes. It seemed that while normally he could not cry, with blood in him it was possible.

What did she have to be jealous of? Let’s see. Where to start. The biggest thing would be to have him drifting away from her because of some other woman. The other biggest thing would be to end up being pushed aside and not having his friendship because of some other woman. Yes. She was now worried that this unnamed woman was going to take her sired... no... her only friend... away from her.

She listened in silence as he explained with broken sentences. “If you didn’t want to, then why did you?” She was merely trying to understand. She was also, still, trying to not pay any attention to the strong scent of mortal blood. It really is a good thing she’d already fed at the slaughter house. If she hadn’t, heaven help the first mortal she were to run into. It had been such a long time since the last time she had tasted the sweet taste of mortal blood.

Dammit Enyo. Stop that shit. It wasn’t right. He had convinced her of that. That was why she resorted to sneaking in and out of the damn slaughter house in the first place. Because of him. She had stopped feeding off of mortals because of him. For him. Yes. For him.

He frowned. Why had he fed off of her? Viv had called him strong, because he'd resisted her for so long that first time, resisted biting her even though she was practically offering it. He'd ignored her, even pulled away from her twice once he had begun to feed. And compared to most vampires, he definatly was very strong. But in his own eyes it was weak to have given in.

"I was weak. She made me angry." She'd provoked him even. And then tonight...a single hot, salty tear rolled down one cheek. Just that solitary tear. It had been so long since he'd cried. He hadn't even cried when Enyo made him this or when he'd had to tell Jex what he was. Last he had cried had been when Andrew hadn't come back from the hospital. "I didn't fight this time. Didn't even fight her." Actually, he'd told her to go away.

"She said....she took a drill and she said she'd drill.....peoples knees if I didn't, people in that neighborhood." Finally he looked at her, his eyes were showing a little white around the edges. "Jex is in that neighborhood." he said through gritted teeth.

She noticed that he kept his head pointing towards the carpet. She didn’t like not being able to see his face while he talked to her. It was always her that hid her face from him when talking to him. Not the other way around. She let herself slide out of the chair and knelt on the floor in front of him so that she could see his face better.

She about choked when she saw the tear rolling down his cheek. Sure it was just one tear. But still. Ok, so add that to the still growing list of surprises from him tonight. She couldn’t even stop herself when her hand reached out to wipe away the tear. Her hand was quite warm for she had gotten quite lucky tonight and gotten to drink from the freshest barrel at the slaughter house. So fresh that the blood in the barrel had been still so warm from having just come out of the livestock. Her touch was soft as she wiped the tear away. She let her hand fall back into her lap after she’d done that.

“Are you serious?” she asked in a shocked voice that was, by now, bordering on being angry. Not angry at him. No. Angry at this unknown woman who had used threats to control Morose. That’s how she viewed it anyway. “She /wanted/ you to feed from her and made a threat to bend you to her will?” Yup. She’s angry. It may not sound like it in her voice, but it sure is shining there in her eyes. That jealousy is still very much there though. It’s almost stronger than the anger that she feels growing inside her.

He didn't flinch, didn't move under her touch. He could live up to the name corpse at that moment. But when her hand moved his pale eyes, nearly back to normal, flicked upward at her, something blazing in them, but whatever it was was overridden by his own anger. No one ever threatened Jex, ever.

"She like dit," he replied to her comment about her wanting him to bite her. Then dropped his gaze a little, his voice a lot. "I liked it." Obviously you did dear, I think Enyo's noticed this by now.

"She did something. She isn't normal." Are we justifying your bodies reactions or are we just curious? Maybe both, a lot of both. "She did something, fed something without blood. It was...powerful, it was..." scowl. Out went his hand again, to that point where it would be just out of his perefrial vision. "I can feel her....here. Like Jex, only not."

Her frown deepened as he said the woman had liked it and that... he had too. So that’s what the bulge in his britches had been from. Yes she had noticed. She had noticed when he had stepped out of his shadows when they had been outside still. She had tried to not notice it any further but as he spoke of having liked it, she couldn’t help but let her gaze fall to his lap. That wasn’t hard to do since she had moved to kneel in front of him. She noticed that he’d drawn a pillow over his lap.

“What do you mean?” Yes. She was quite confused about all of this. “What do you mean she isn’t normal? And... and why did she pick you? There are tons of other vampires in this city. Why you?” And are you going to see her again? That was the question that she didn’t ask out loud. No. She wouldn’t either. It wasn’t her place to tell him who he could or couldn’t see, to tell him what he could or couldn’t do. No. She wouldn’t ask it out loud.

He clutched the pillow closer to him when she dropped her eyes to his lap and averted his eyes to the far wall, peering directly over her head with a set determination. He did not want her to see him like this, he didn't want anyone to see him like this. He didn't want to be like this. It was embarassing, vulgar. It had disturbed him somehow. Triggered something inside him that turned him from the serious, hard to reach Morose into a frightened kid, afraid and annoyed at being caught with a hard on.

"I asked. I didnt...I didn't wait around for the answer." He'd been to busy running. Again. "I...don't think she picked me really...not the first time. I think that was....an accident." He reflected on it, saw that she'd been angry, vulgar, picked a fight with him, but he didn't think she'd meant to run into exactly him, or even a vampire really. "She was looking for pain." He said it more to himself. "She just isn't normal. Can't you feel it?" He finally brought his hands off of the pillow, where he'd been clutching it there. He put his hands on her arms. He meant the magic, she probably couldn't feel it. But he didn't understand. "It's...she's powerful. And she's....fed me that...magic. And I want more."

It was almost like an addiction.

She didn’t leave her gaze on his lap for long. She could actually feel his discomfort. Not feel feel it as if she were getting the feeling directly from him. No. She could feel his discomfort because of the shift in the air around them. Yes she was quite sensitive like that. It had taken her years to be able to master being able to pick up feelings like that but she’d done it. She’d managed to master it all on her own even. Knowing what he was hiding under the pillow didn’t phase her one way or the other. It wasn’t like she didn’t know what it was.

A deep frown took over her facial features again. “I don’t like it Morose. From what you’ve told me thus far, I don’t like it. I don’t like her. I don’t like whatever it is that she’s doing to you.” Her frown deepened even further as he admitted that he wanted more of it. No. This was not going to happen. This unknown woman was not going to take Morose away from her. Yes, this is how Enyo looked at it. “You have to stop Morose. Or have you thrown your morals clear out the window? Did you forget that it’s because of you that I feed the way I do now instead of the way I used to?”

You have to stop Morose. Or have you thrown your morals clear out the window? Did you forget that it’s because of you that I feed the way I do now instead of the way I used to?

His blue eyes snapped to hers and the pain and saddness that was always there...just wasn't. And the craving wasn't there. They were empty. And the room seemed empty. And it seemed to fill with his pressance, as if he were everywhere in it, filling it, looking over your shoulder and breathing down your neck even though you can seem him sitting before you.

"Do you think I've forgotten?!" It wasn't a shout but his voice was certinally raised, and with such a deep voicce, even with the rasp it contained at the moment, it seemed to boom, to rumble in his own chest, vibrating and tickling. "Did you think I could just consceincly and purposfully throw everything into the wind? Just become what I don't want to be after fighting it for this long. Just like that? I fought her." He stood up, the pillow falling from his lap and stomped across the room to the window, peeked out, stormed back.

Then he turned and went back to the window. He was quiet for a long time.

"I crave it Enyo, I don't want it. But i feel like I need it. Like there was always some place, some need like with blood. It filled up, and it empties just like blood empties from us. And now that I know it's there, know it's empty..." Scowl.

She flinched noticeably when his gaze was suddenly on her. It wasn’t because he was looking at her. It was because of the emptiness that was in his blue eyes. The emptiness caused her to shrink back slightly. Yes. It scared her a bit. Maybe more than just a bit.

She dropped her gaze to the ground and sank back onto her rump. Dammit. It seemed she’d done it again. She’d gone an caused him to be upset with her. “I... I’m sorry,” she muttered and fell silent again. She was sad and angry all at the same time. Sad for Morose. Sad for whatever it was that was happening to him. Angry because of this unknown woman. Angry at her for doing this to him.

She didn’t know what to do. She didn’t know what to say. She hated this feeling of not knowing. Not knowing what was happening. Not knowing who this unknown woman was. Not knowing what to do. Not knowing how to help him.

He ignored her apology.

He'd had no idea that vampire tricks, like the stunt he'd just pulled, worked on other vampires. On the contrary, he'd done so in hopes that it would release his own frustration. He turned and stormed across the room, or halfway to her, then turned again and returned to the window.

He hit his head against the glass, then again, and as soon as he did so, closing his eyes, the pressance of his began to fade, the room became breathable again. He'd been suffocating, his anger was suffocating just like that. He tipped his head back, his mouth hanging open slightly, the fangs showing at the very tips.

"I want it to go. Away."

Silence enveloped her entirely. She didn’t know what to say to him. She wanted to make it go away for him but she didn’t know how. She didn’t even know who this person was that was doing this to him. She could feel the hatred burning inside of her. Hatred for this unknown individual.

And suddenly, the silence was broken.

“Does Jex know? How is he by the way?”

He shook his head almost violently. His bangs slapped against his face softly, brushing his skin lightly and he realized, full of blood, his senses were hightened two fold. He hit his head again against the glass, then turned to face her, leaning back against the window and thumping the back of his head there too.

"Jex doesn't know. I went away from him, I....didn't want her to follow me there. He's better. He's working again and better." He rubbed his eyes furiously and then slumped to the floor so suddenly it was dizzying. He sat on his knees, back bowed, his head in his hands, the base of his palms pressed to his eyes. "He's going to be disappointed."

She got up and went to him as he sank to the floor. Dainty hand reached out to touch his arm ever so lightly but yet would be quite enough for him to feel her. She wanted to agree with him regarding Jex being disappointed but she kept silent. She didn't want to anger him.

"What do you want me to do Morose? Tell me. What do you want me to do? To help? Anything? Anything at all. Just name it." She already had it set in her mind that she was going to begin to search for this woman. Oh yes indeed. She would find this woman and make certain that she stayed away from Morose.

Morose shook his head when he touched her, then plowed himself against her. He pressed his face against her stomach with enough force to knock her backwards into a seated position and push her a foot over the floor, as if he were going to plow straight through her. His fingers, his big hands, could wrap around her entire back and now his fingers clawed uselessly at her back. It's a good thing he hasn't got much in the way of fingernails or he may very well have been able to dig through her.

He just wanted held, protected. He was always doing the protecting, always doing the caring. Jex cared for him, wanted him to live, but Morose took care of him. And he took care of Enyo. But now he wanted protected and held and lied to by being told everything was fine. He wanted human comfort, human lies, from a woman who wasn't human. A woman who couldn't be any more human then he was himself.

She wrapped her arms around him as he flung himself at her. She did indeed end up on her ass and scooted back. Her head lowered so that her forehead was touching his head and she began to make rocking motions back and forth. One dainty hand reached up and began to softly stroke his hair on the back of his head.

“Shh...” she whispered softly to him. “It’ll be ok.” Would it? Would it really?

How had she known he actually wanted lied to? Or had she simply lied because she could and it made things easier to deal with? It didn't matter. Morose pressed his face to her small body, looking very awkward with the height of him, tall and lanky, and the size of her, short and dainty form, his wrapped around her.

He nodded his head against her stomach, rubbing his face against the material of her dress when he did. "It'll be ok," he repeated. His usually lovely, however sad it was, voice was chocked with a faught down sob. He shook his head. "Jex will be dissapointed in me," that seemed what was important right now. Not that this woman had made him feed from her, not that he had her blood and magic running through him right now, not that it had turned him on and he was still so, that he was wrapped in the arms of someone he was suposed to be careing for, or that it had angered him and frightened him.

It was important what Jex would think of him. That was what mattered. And Jex wasn't going to think highly.

Perhaps she told him what she told him for her sake as well as his? Yes. That had to be it. Perhaps she was telling the lie to calm herself as well as him? Yes. That was it. That really was it. She didn’t feel like everything was going to be ok but she wasn’t about to tell him that. No. She wouldn’t.

She continued to stroke his hair on the back of his head with one hand and the other kept around him in her attempt of a comforting embrace. She honestly wasn’t very good at comforting others for it had always been her that had been taken care of. Of course, though, no one had ever comforted her like this so she could only hope that she was doing ok at her attempt.

“Shhh....” she whispered to him again. “It’ll be ok Morose. He’ll understand. I’m sure of it.” Was she? Was she really? Not really. She didn’t know Jex well enough to be making these sort of guesses.

Morose didn't say anything. He didn't respond. He just pushed himself against her further, his knees pushing as if to get closer to her even if it's impossible to get any closer. He pushed until he'd pushed her against the wall, and then kept doing so, crying out now, almost sobbing.

Finally, when he realized that maybe, just maybe he was pushing to hard, hurting her, he collapsed to the floor and then curled his bady up between her legs, drawing his knees to his chest, curling into a compact form and holding himself there from around her back, shuddering.

All of this, not because of Viv, but because of what Jex might think.

She let him push her until she was agaisnt the wall. She continued to try to reassure him and calm him down. Seeing him like this was doing something strange to her. It was shoving her into a sort of mode that she'd never been in before. Call it a protective mode if you will.

She was caught by surprise when he suddenly let go and went entirely to the ground. She leaned down over him and attempted to wrap him in her arms entirely. She didn't know what to say at this point. All she knew was that she suddenly wanted to be the one to protect and comfort him for a change.

Morose stayed like that, curled into her for most of the evening. Until he no longer felt the arousal that made him so self-conscience and nervous, until he wasn't thinking anymore about that woman, about the magic space that was full in him. And finally, perhapes only a few hours before the sun rose, he uncurled from her, standing from a position that no human could have so easily uncurled from and stood comfortably. Or so gracfully.

He had her hand in his, not letting go of her. He felt better, not unworried, but better. And he pulled her up to her feet, stood over her, looking at her with sad eyes. Then gathered her against his chest, hugging around her shoulders, holding silently, no tears anymore. Then he unfolded from her and sat down, fell really, onto the sofa.

"Can I stay, Enyo?" He didn't want Jex to see him, not after drinking a human's blood. And he didn't want her to happen to still be there and see which building her enters.

And she stayed like that as well. She would be there for as long as he needed for her to be. Even if it was for only brief moments of time. It was better than nothing at all in her mind. He was doing all the taking care of her. The least she could do was be there for him in his time of need as well. No matter what that need might be.

She lifted to her feet easily. She was, after all, quite small. She was surprised as he gathered her close and hugged her. It took a moment for her mind to catch up with the rest of her. Once it did, her own arms reached around his waist as far as she could to hug him in return.

Her eyes followed him as he lowered himself to the sofa. "Of course you can. You're always welcome here. I'd hoped you'd know that by now." She offered him a faint smile.

He nodded to her, his thin frame seeming to slide down slightly into the cushions of the sofa. It seems that his muscles had been tense, tight with anticipation of being sent away, told to go home because maybe Enyo was unhappy at not being allowed to live with him and Jex. Truthfully, it was for Jex’s safety. And if he did not worry that Jex would be angry if he left, he would leave for his safety as well.

So he sank into the sofa, his torso sliding sideways until he seemed to be laying. He lifted one leg and untied the shoe lace to the heavy boot, then untied the other in the same manner. He kicked his boots off and pushed them with one foot until they were lined up and out of the way against the sofa. Then he drew his legs up onto the couch, bending a good amount at the knee because while he's so very thin, he's just too tall for the length of the sofa.

He lay on his side, one hand under his face, the other laying flat on the cushion of the couch, he stared up at her with helplessly sad, helpless blue eyes.

Never would that happen. Never would she turn him away. Never would she be angry with him that she hadn't been allowed to stay with him and Jex. It was fine this way. The way she looked at it was this, it gave Morose two different places that he could go to at any given moment. When he tired of her, he could go to the other apartment. When he needed time away from Jex, he could come here. She was entirely ok with this.

"You don't have to sleep on that tiny couch Morose. I did get a bed put into the extra room. It's large enough for your entire height. And probably far more comfortable as well." She had to look away slightly. The sad look in his eyes was almost more than she could stand. She wanted to just make it all go away. All of his pain. Everything. She was even wishing that she could go back in time and undo what she'd done to him.

But the sadness had always been there. His eyes had always been like that, since the day that Zachary had been taken away from him. Nothing Enyo took back, all the way back to the day that she met him, could take away those sad eyes. Maybe it could take away some of the sadness, but never could she, nor anyone else, lessen the pain in those eyes. Well, perhapes finding Zachary's body would do it.

He stared at her, frowning at her announcment about the bed. He shook his head. "No. It is your bed. And come daytime you will need somewhere to rest." And he didn't move from the spot which he lay, but it seemed that he curled up a little tighter, metal somewhere on his pants clinked togather, jingled softly, then stopped.

"I'm...." He twitched his lips a little, trying to find a word for how rediculous he'd felt at her seeing him as she had this night. His fingers came up and snaked around the cross, holding it tightly. "embarassed. I'm sorry."

She couldn't remember the sadness in his eyes being this... strong? Or maybe it was because of the stress of the night that had caused her to really see it? Either way, she wished she could make it go away.

Her head shook then. "No Morose. In the extra room. I'm not offering my own bed. It wouldn't be big enough for you." She offered a faint smile in hopes to possibly lightening the air even if just a little. She shook her head again and moved to kneel beside the sofa. Once there, she brought a hand up to cover his lips slightly. "Don't. There's no need for it. You've got nothing to apologize for."

Morose frowned again when her hand went over his lips. He'd been embarassed, humiliated even, and he wanted to apologize for being so vunerable to human occurances, occurances that had never happened in public or in front of someone like Enyo while he was still human.

He reached up and, with a hand on her forarm, pulled her hand down over his chin, off of his mouth. There was slight stubble there, where he'd shaved the previous night but not this one. He didn't try to apologize again but instead he twisted his fingers in his and sat up, then stood, leaving his boots where they were, to allow her to show him this other bedroom. Without the boots, he was no shorter.