"The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear."
― Antonio Gramsci, Prison Notebooks 

It started in the depths of a wine cellar in Mayfair. What it became was a level of power I was exposed to rather than trained into.

Selena Helland's residence was one lying in plain, morbid sight. A grand old house maintained within an inch of its very long life... I had no doubt she had seen its construction back in whatever century that was. The pieces of armour alone were a marvel museums could only dream of. Some items that lingered in her halls would shame even my most prized collections in my vault–and I had not seen her own yet.

 We ascended to an improved rooftop from its traditional sense. One that held a flawless view out onto the rest of the west end while retaining its original roof and tile work. But she had expanded it into a flat stone layout that was watched by the priceless stone statues along its perimeter. 

"How very Roman of you..." I drawled, casting my eyes around the night landscape and the lit brasiers. 

"I'm not that old." She quipped, taking a familiar chrome packet from a stone table and tossing it at me.

I caught it on reflex and frowned.

"I don't need–"

"You will." She finished simply, "– But I won't."

I was wary of that confidence. It wasn't arrogance because it wasn't forced or rushed... it was earned. I swallowed, before tearing open the chrome packet and draining the rich lifeblood within. Power rushed me and I closed my eyes feeling the added strength I was still unfamiliar with. Selena watched me, then paced ahead into the open stone circle like a waiting gladiator.

She beckoned me with a finger.

I growled under my breath at the summons and rolled my shoulders and neck quickly before pacing forwards.

It was the last thing I did before she was behind me. I reacted on instinct and sent my arm wide behind me. She was already in front of me again–and did not hold back. The force of her blow at my chest took the wind from me and I felt pain for the first time since Cordius trained me. I heard the crack of my body before hitting the stone.

I hissed out a groan as I came to a stop near the doors we had entered the rooftop. Dark red briefly clawed at the edge of my vision until my body rapidly healed whatever she broke.

"Get up. That was pathetic." She said flatly.

I rolled onto the balls of my feet in a flash and flexed my fingers, storming towards her.

"Do not get angry–get even." She stated, watching my approach.

I tried to learn. Tried to gauge when she struck, track the pattern in her movements, the dilation in her eyes... But every time she attacked she used something new. She was impossible to read. The next huff of frustration and genuine pain I felt in my side began to grate and I understood why I needed the blood now. The darkness at the edges of my vision stayed this time and I would need more if I was going to continue on like this.

"You keep changing–the way you fight." I grit out, holding my ribs on the floor.

"Don't be naive, Fletcher."

"I'm trying!" I spat, taking in a ragged breath.

But this only drew a laugh from her lips in the firelight. She was before me in a flash and dropped into a crouch as I flinched from the movement. There it was again. A slight tilt in her back heel right before she crossed the space in a blink. I had just uncovered her first tell... now I just had to piss her off.

"I really thought you were something special, given the amount of talk circulating when you first leapt into the immortal realm." She mused.

I leant back on my elbows slowly and feigned more fatigue than I felt. I mumbled something unintelligible as I dipped my head. She snorted leaning forward just enough.

"What was that–"

I smashed the front of my skull into her nose and sent her sprawling back across the stone circle for the first time tonight. But that wasn't enough to form alliances. This was about power and showing her exactly what darkness had got me out of that mountain in Africa. What Cordius had made of his bloodline.

I dashed for her, pushing off my heel at the last minute. Her back was the most obvious target. Which is why I spun off my movement right before I got close enough. She had anticipated the first move, but not the second. She had turned to face me, only to find me at her exposed back again. I took her throat in my hand and sent her into the stone with enough force to crack it.

She was breathing heavily under my hand when she met the darkness in my eyes in surprise.

Then a wide grin took hold of her.

"There she is." 

I steadied my own breathing and slowly removed my hand. I flicked my eyes behind her head quickly.

"Sorry about your patio." I remarked, rising and righting my shirt. I'd have a hard time explaining to Quinn why I looked like I had been through a construction site backwards.

She rolled onto her feet far faster than I had. But I watched her feet this time and not her hands. The moment her heel moved, so did I. She grasped at air and slowly raised her head to me with a far darker smile on the other side of the circle now.

"Oh, how you make things fun, immortal. I thought we'd be here all night." She breathed suggestively.

I rolled my eyes but continued to be wary of her. She shrugged off her military jacket to reveal a sleeveless blouse underneath. The muscles of her arms defined by centuries of using them.

"Think of what I'd become with your years..." I taunted.

She moved again and I met her fist with my elbow. We traded and defended a rapid sequence of blows like this for seconds until she caught and threw my fist aside and tilted her head. Then her leg kicked out both of mine in a move I hadn't–couldn't–see.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves." She finished, looking down at me with amusement and something else.

I glanced at my watch for the first time in what I thought had been merely an hour.

"Shit." I muttered, getting up and going back for my discarded jacket.

"Fletcher, we're not finished here." She stated, over the wind.

"Helland, we are." I returned, over my shoulder. It was already closing towards ten o'clock.

She chuckled at my use of her name. Pocketing her hands in her suit pants she strolled leisurely back to where I scanned my phone and drew up Jamerson's contact.

"I've got a car waiting for you." She supplied, leaning against the wall. 

I lowered my phone in surprise. "You think I'm going to let your driver know where I live?" I quipped, but she was already laughing in that easy manner. 

"You think I need a mortal to get me that information?"

"I'm not used to working with our kind." I admitted, pocketing my phone and mirroring her pose against the other side of the doors.

"I can tell." She nodded, looking out over the city beyond. "Detective, was it?"

"Seems like you already know." I answered, feeling my blood cool at the knowledge she had gathered in just days. What else did she know...

"I had to do my homework on you." She said honestly, "–I had to know I could trust you."

That goes both ways, immortal. Only I know far less about you and I did not formulate our meeting.

"And you were satisfied?" I quipped.

"I was." She paused, thinking for a moment. "Initially, I thought you did it for the novelty... Now I think otherwise." She didn't elaborate further. So I filled in the space.

"Yet I know frighteningly little about you." I countered, crossing my arms and meeting her gaze. But her eyes were still on the city. She smirked.

"For another time. Get back to your mortal." She nodded her head at the doors.

But it didn't feel like a dismissal. It seemed like she was distracted, with what I had no idea. My words were still true, I knew nothing of her... My homework was not done. Information on Elders came from other Elders... that's where she had the advantage over me.

I shrugged off the wall without another word. None was needed.

Farewells were for mortals that didn't have centuries to say goodbye.

I descended her spiral stairs quickly and was let out by her staff and nodded at by members of her security team. She wasn't foolish enough to leave such a priceless fortune to chance. I left the grand mansion behind me and slipped out her front gates. A car waited as promised on the street with the engine running.

It wasn't until I was in the back seats that I glanced back towards it.

She wasn't what I expected at all.