Eric & Michael

[kersen]

Kersen was sitting in a chair in a room in the Blood Diamond. The room was light tight, there was a large bed in the middle, and currently there was a dead girl in it.

A girl who, sometime before dawn, would be waking up craving blood. Whose human life would be over. And who was now Kersen's responsibility for eternity.

He dropped his head into his hands, and didn't even hear the door open and Eric enter the room.

Comments

[kersen]

"He didn't make any other vampires during the time I was with him," Kersen said. Not really wanting to think about Garrett right now because it just reminded him how completely unsuited he was for this role.

"... I have no idea how to do this," he said, dropping his head into his hands again. "I don't mean the turning part. I mean what comes after. What the hell am I supposed to do with her?"

And a teenage girl, too. He didn't know what to do with a teenage girl!

[thenorthman]

"You teach her," Eric replied, although it was obvious. Kersen might just need to hear it. "About our rules, our society, and how to control her hunger. How to sate it. I have a girl on stand-by for when she wakes. Don't let her kill her."

She was a good dancer.

[kersen]

Kersen opened his mouth, then closed it again. "I can't... I can't let her think that it's okay to drink from humans, not before she can control herself!"

[thenorthman]

"If she can't control herself, you'll have a hard time keeping her off of them," Eric replied with a shrug. "How did you learn?"

[kersen]

"My maker didn't particularly care if I accidentally killed a few people," Kersen said. "I grew a conscience later."

He looked down at the dead girl. She seemed so small there.

"And I'm pretty sure that I could take her in a fight."

[thenorthman]

Eric's lips curved into a slight smile, very faintly amused. "This is going to be hell for you."

[kersen]

Kersen looked back at Eric.

"This is permanent," he said. "She's my responsibility now. I responsibility I don't want. And when she wakes up... I'm the one who did this to her. She's going to hate me."

[thenorthman]

"She's a teenager," Eric answered nonchalantly. "She'll hate you one day, love you the next. Isn't that what they do?"

If she had any sense, she would be thankful for what Kersen had done, in the end. That might take some time, depending on her life, but they had time.

[kersen]

"I really don't remember what teenagers do," Kersen said dryly. Especially teenage girls.

"She probably has a family," he added, looking down at her, sadly. "She had a life. And now... I guess she's going to have to live with me, isn't she. At least for a while."

He bit back another groan. Michael was going to flip out about this. Well, okay, Michael never flipped out about anything. But he certainly wasn't going to like it.

[thenorthman]

"Well, she's not living here," Eric remarked. The whole thing was distasteful; he couldn't imagine being forced to make a vampire, when the bond meant so much. He had never understood vampires who made others without a second's thought.

[kersen]

"Obviously not," Kersen sighed.

"What if she's awful," he added, looking at her again. "What if she's like..." He thought of the worst thing she could be. "What if she's one of those crazy God hates fags people? Or what if she's, I don't know, a serial killer. Okay, that one seems unlikely."

[thenorthman]

"You'll know when she wakes up," Eric answered, considered the dead girl, then added, "And stops freaking out."

[kersen]

"Yeah," Kersen said, glancing at her and wincing as he thought about what was going to happen when she woke up. "I just have to keep myself from freaking out along with her."

Kersen ran his fingers through his hair and took a deep breath.

"At least I'm not in a coffin right now." He winced. "Five years? I almost fucking threw up right there."

[thenorthman]

"You got off easy," Eric reiterated his earlier statement. He was silent for a beat, then added, "I'll have blood brought in, but I'll keep someone on stand-by."

[kersen]

"Thank you," Kersen said.

And then, remembering the calm and measured way that Eric had spoken in his defense, and how the Magister had seemed swayed by Kersen's loyalty to Eric, added, "Actually... really. Thank you."

Given how all of this had gone down, and how much worse it could have been, his loyalty to Eric was now even more solidified.

[thenorthman]

"Don't mention it," Eric told him, only the barest hint of dark humor in the words, before he turned to go and leave Kersen with his progeny. He paused before he reached the door, looking back at the younger vampire. "How much of a bond is there between maker and progeny, for your breed?"

[kersen]

"Too much," Kersen sighed. He could still feel his connection to Garrett like a silver chain around his neck.

"I... need to call Michael," Kersen said, before Eric could leave. "Tell him what happened. Can you tell your security to let him through, if he wants to come here?"

[thenorthman]

"Yes," Eric confirmed with a nod, and decided against pressing the matter. Instead, he opened the door and left Kersen alone with his progeny.

[kersen]

Kersen spent a few minutes just staring at the dead girl on the bed, and then he finally took his phone out of his pocket and dialed Michael's number.

[trustearned]

Michael picked up almost immediately. "Yes."

Hoping against hope that it would be Kersen at the end of the line.

[kersen]

"Michael." Kersen sounded relieved, like it made him feel better just to hear his voice. But there was also an undercurrent of intense anxiety underneath it.

"I - I'm okay." He said this before Michael could ask. "I'm going to be okay. But - there's more. It's complicated."

[trustearned]

"Where are you?" Michael asked. Whatever it was, the less said over the phone the better.

[kersen]

"The Blood Diamond," Kersen said, sounding slightly relieved again. Of what, he wasn't sure. Did he think that Michael would somehow react badly to him still being alive? "When you come just tell someone you're here to see me."

[trustearned]

"Give me half an hour," Michael answered, and hung up to get going. He did not like the club, but there was no hesitation in him right then.

[kersen]

Kersen sat there, not really sure what else to. It occurred to him that he possibely should have warned Michael about the dead girl on the bed. As it was, he was so happy to see him when he walked in that he almost forgot about everything else.

He threw himself from the chair and his arms around Michael.