Lynch ran a hand over his now crooked nose as he ordered another beer. The table in front of him was littered with empties, the wait staff here at King's Brewery being none too diligent, but he still didn't feel drunk. And it wasn't that they were watering the brew down either, though he thought it might taste better if they were.

Lynch didn't even look at the waitress as she set the mug down, just mumbled an unintelligible thanks.

How do you lose a five year old? Especially one that had already been lost. Lynch brooded a little into his beer. Reason and rationality said he hadn't really lost her, the still-healing nose and ribs being evidence of that, but he couldn't shake the feeling.

He sighed and took another slug of cool beer. Lynch wanted mindless tonight, but his beer wasn't cooperating. Maybe he should go harder.

She could taste the sorrow... The bitterness in her mouth coming from the man at the bar. Those... and a loss. But what sort of loss? Aneksi didn't much feel like prying into his mind... But she had to know. Those emotions, and so strong as they were, didn't come from a minor problem...

"Sir," She said softly, placing a gentle hand on the man's shoulder. "I... I do not think alcohol will sooth your troubles tonight." She said persuadingly. The man didn't need to drink himself into a stupor... It wouldn't be good for anyone.

She slipped onto the stool beside him, her dark eyes scanning his troubled face... Smelling the blood from his obviously broken nose... It must have been recent then.

"Please sir... What's troubling you? Your Aura is quite disturbing... And I wish to see if I can help." Aneksi said gently, hoping the man wouldn't find her words as odd as a sober man would. "I can taste the bitterness in you... Please... What is troubling you." She asked as her hand slid from his shoulder gracefully, her fingers trailing down his upper arm.

It appeared the numerous beers were affecting Lynch more than he thought, if the bleariness in his eyes as he looked at the woman was any indication. He stared at her a little stupidly for a moment wonderng where she had come from. Lynch had been in his own little world - one consisting of him, his depressing thoughts, and the beer.

His thoughts immediately dropped below his belt as she rested a hand on his shoulder, trailed it down his arm, and he almost as quickly nudged them away. Lynch knew quite well he was, if not drunk, at least a little impaired and he didn't want his beer soaked libido getting him a rap on his still-tender nose.

"It'll do as well as anything else might," Lynch replied shortly, taking another quick swig as if to prove his point. He figured he was probably being rude, but that was the risk one took when they started talking to a morose-looking fool chugging his way through the foam, wasn't it?

His bleary eyes were mildly interested as she spoke, looking at her over the rim of his mug. "My aura, is it? Are you psychic, then?"

Aneksi frowned as his lack of compassion... At his complete dismissal of her words.

"No... But I can tell when a person is troubled. And it's not just by how many beers he's drank." She said pointedly.

"But they won't help you find what you have lost. Something precious that you are missing. Please... Let me help you sir." It was a part of her that couldn't take no that was in charge now. There was something that was breaking him. A deep and painful loss. But she wouldn't know what it was unless she tore it from his mind or he told her. She'd rather not do the first one... But there seemed to be almost no hope at the second one either unless something changed.

Catching his mug in her hand she did not let it leave the counter and make it to his lips again.

"If whatever you lost is so precious, why are you sitting here instead of looking for it?" She asked, almost accusing him of some horrible deed.

Lynch's lack of compassion? Who was he supposed to be feeling charity for - except for himself, of course? This was his pity party until the bar closed or he finally managed to drink himself stupid.

And who the hell was this to make his business hers? Lynch angrily pulled his arm away as she grabbed his glass. "If I've lost something precious, what is it the matter to you?" he asked in a surprisngly clear voice.

"I didn't ask for your help or your aura reading or - or - or anything else,"L ynch snarled. "And if I've lost something and choose not to loko for it, that's my choice isn't it? Sometimes when things are lost they don't come back - especially when they weren't yours to begin with!"

He heard that accusation in her voice and he dispesed it, as he'd been sitting accusing himself already.

"Because you want it back! You wouldn't miss it if you wanted it back!" She argued softly, almost pleading him. "Because I want to help you."

But she pulled back as he started to yell at her.

He needed it back. Whatever it was he needed it back because he was hurting without it. As he pulled his hand away Aneksi grabbed his hand and closed her eyes. She had to find out at least what it was. Had to find out what he had lost, so she could find it for him.

A girl, young, fair skin with a toothy smile. Her hair was dark and her face was bright and cheerful. A beautiful little girl really, but then there was a scream... Running out into the night she saw the girl as he had, held by a strong looking man as she struggled. But suddenly there was pain, blood. He had moved so fast but the pain still came.

"Rayne..." She whispered softly. That was her name.

Was he a coward for not looking for her? But hadn't he? Even when he hadn't wanted to admit what his late-night walks around the city were even to himself, Lynch had looked, as if hoping the man had simply lost Rayne somewhere or she'd run away. But he'd stopped not-looking because it did nothing but tear him apart inside.

He'd already gone down the path of loss, grief, and denail. Lynch didn't think he'd be able to handle it a seocond tome.

As she snatched at his hand again, Lynch moved to yank it back, but then stopped, his free hand coming up to clutch at his head. He groaned, images from that night flashing before his eyes as his head feeling as if someone bashed him with a hammer with each one.

Letting go of his hand Aneksi put her hands on the sides of his head, cradling it slightly. "Sssshhh...." She soothed softly, caressing his temples gently. Luckily her powers had kept the other patrons and the servers from noticing them, and she kept up the air as if nothing interesting were happening.

"You must find her... She is not lost... She has been taken. You saw him... And you saw him clearly. And you also saw she did not go of her own free will.... She cried for you... She needs you..." Aneksi said softly, hoping that the memories would encourage him, hoping that he would see the sense. "And you need her... Need to know she's safe at least."

Taking her hands from his head she brushed cool fingers along his cheek ever so slightly.

"Let me help you find her. Please. If not for you, for her sake. Who knew what that man took her for... But whatever the reason, it cannot be good."

Even a drunk man could tell that something here wasn't entirely, ah, normal. Still Lynch was drunk enough to, if not disregard the abnormality completely, at least be able to refrain from bringing it up. He still wonderd about it however.

He groaned again even as the pain began to slip away, helped along by the beer, most likely. Alcohol was a great anesthetic for pains both physical or mental. Well, usually at least.

Lynch stared at her as she spoke, his head still rolling a bit and the thoughts inside as well. Like big, shiny marbles that rattled around. "How? How do I find one man in a city of... six thousand?" he asked, his words still slurred a bit, but clearer than they had been. Undoubtedly he meant a city of six hundred thousand.

"She's gone. Not coming back. 'Less we all of us get real lucky and he lets her go. 'Sides, I don't get a stake innit innyway. Not her father, tha's what the cops said. No relation, no rights. Thanks for reporting be you on your way now, buh-bye. And I'd like just get my face broke again innyway." Lynch brooded at the beer though he didn't try to pick the glass up again. "Worth it I do guess if she gots away. But she wouldn't. Can't find him, can't righteously get my face broke. Can't find him. Can't getter back. Fuck."

Yes... Finding the child would be a problem... Even if this man... Well... From what Aneksi saw, she was feeling that he was not a man... But a vampire. In which case the child could very well be dead. No. He took her for a reason, and Aneksi shuddered at the thought. Children were so precious in her mind that to hear one cry out, to see a lonely child... Her old heart couldn't bear it.

"You may not be her blood, but blood does not always make a family. If you care for each other... You will not leave her to suffer." For if it was a vampire, she would be suffering greatly... She would find him.... She would kill him. Kill him if he had hurt the child. She was bound to be older than him... She was older than most she encountered.

But to find him... She did not know who he was. So she would have to find the girl. She would have to comb through the city every night to find her, to reach her with her mind. Once she found the child called Rayne, and she made sure the child was all right and safe with who she belonged with once more, she would do what she needed to. She'd killed before, and she had no problem doing it again.

"And so you're going to give up? Sit in a bar and drink because you think that will take the pain away? Think that tomorrow morning you'll have forgotten her? Forgotten the way she called out to you for help?" The old vampiress said softly. Shaking her head Aneksi sighed. "As a mother... I could never see a child in pain, and I cannot bear it now." She murmured, turning away.

She didn't know how long the child had been gone, but even two nights was too long. He probably hadn't killed her. He had kept her around. And though she would not do to satisfy a thirst for blood... Aneksi's mind began to fill with all the horrible things he could be doing with the child... She could hear the girls screams of pain, could see the wild satisfied grin on the man's face....

Aneksi began to shake with rage, with anger and fear. How could he do this? How could someone hurt such a poor, innocent creature like a child? They were so precious, so lively and delicate... Hot, bloody tears began to trickle down her face, unable to comprehend, even after all her long years, the bestiality, the heartlessness of some...

Lynch too knew what could be done to a child by a twisted man. He was a psychologist, after all, and though his specialization had been kids and teens, he'd considered criminal psychology while in college. Lynch had studied it, had flashed back to those old lessons in the recent days.

People were sick and children were just another piece of prey to them.

A deep-seated rage began to build up inside the normally peaceful man's chest as the woman spoke. "You think I don't know? You think I - my - this -" Lynch broke off, dimly realized he was standing, shouting even. So uncharacteristic of him, the pathetic pacifist.

"I can do nothing! I can't help her! I couldn't stop him then and I can't even find him now to try again! What do you - who are you - what gives you the right to pry? I didn't ask for your - you - guilt trip - dredge this up - I -" His anger, partly fueled by beer but more by helplessness, made him sputter almost incomprehensibly as words failed him.

Giving up, Lynch whirled on his heel, jamming his arms into his heavy flannel coat as he charged for the door, pausing only when the bartender yelled at him. Lynch flung some money at the man, slammed the door behind him. The icy air struck him as solidly as a fist.

But she was outside, standing right in front of him before the door even shut.

"Then do what you can! Look for her! See if anyone's seen her! Tell people to keep a look out, people you know! Look in hospitals... Look in orphanages... Keep looking for her! If he lets her go, how well will she be able to take care of herself?" She said sharply, grabbing on to the man's coat.

"You must do what you can, or else she is as good as dead!" With a growl she pushed him back a few feet, her smaller frame advancing on his larger one. "Hope is all she has right now. Give that up, and you'll never see her again."

With that she disappeared into the shadows as if she had never been there at all. She could not waste time talking to him if he was simply going to give up on her... No. She had to find the child. Or see what she could do to help her. If the vampire were older, though not likely, she could see what negotiation could be reached. If he were younger... And it wouldn't start a blood feud with a coven, she would kill him. No... She would torture him slowly. She would make him wish he were dead first.

But the child... Even if she were still alive... What horrible things had been done to her?