"Ehem." A foreign voice had Rush's mouth vanishing from her throat.

Mer moved off of her back onto her hands to face the newcomer with fear, but Rush only lazily propped himself up on one hand. Perhaps that meant this man wasn't dangerous, but that might only apply to Rush. The dark eyes that ran over Mer like a bulldozer didn't exactly scream welcome, and she sank into Rush's for protection he was happy to give as he as he sat up and kept her leaned against his chest. It was way too intimate again, but she'd take it over losing her head.

"Remus," the man greeted Rush formally with a nod that shifted a short nub of hair against his neck and back behind his shoulder. The gesture seemed to be one of respect, but the man's narrowed eyes said otherwise as his lips twisted. "Your father wished me to check in on you. To confirm you have disposed of the sacrifice."

"Meredith, this is Alaric," Rush said down to her, like they were having casual conversation and this man hadn't just suggested Rush toss her out with the trash. "Alaric, my sacrifice." Rush's broad smile didn't seem much like he was pleased to introduce them, more like he was threatening to snap at Alaric if he so much as flinched wrong.

That was both reassuring and disconcerting.

"Oh, don't bare you fangs at me," Alaric waved a hand as he adjusted a large tome he carried under his arm, the thing wrinkling a fancy black dress shirt embroidered with what looked to be feathers. Or perhaps they were blades. "I'm not here her to assert any action, merely confirm you are alive and keep it that way."

The end sounded like a threat pointed at her, and she did her best not to glare at him. The scrunch of his nose was impossible to stop though, until it raised Alaric's lips in a silent snarl that had her face running cold. She'd forgotten she melted brains when she was frustrated, and her throat felt too thick as she tried to swallow.

A hand on her head grounded her, but also made her brain buzz from Rush's weird energy. The contact was meant to soothe her, and she did her best to lower her ruffled feathers, at least enough to keep from pissing off every vampire she met.

"It's rude to antagonize a guest." Rush's words were for Alaric, and the man huffed a breath like such a thing was preposterous.

"As you command," Alaric said directly to Rush with another nod before returning his dark gaze to her. "I'm unsure if it's a pleasure to meet you or not, Meredith Aurion. I am unaccustomed to introducing myself to corpses."

"You're deader than I am," Mer spat before she could confer with her mind to mouth filter. Alaric's eyebrows shot up to his hairline as she covered her mouth, and the movement broke his stern expression for a laugh that pushed from his lips in a low rumble of amusement.

"For the moment." Alaric's laugh tapered to a pleasant smile as he shifted the giant book from under one arm to the other.

"Encyclopedia or phone book?" Mer asked, again cursing her inability to shut up around scary people. Alaric retracted the tome from under his arm and held it gingerly in both hands before he replied.

"This is a history of Shade house scuffles between mages and others of our kind. Quite an extensive journey of our past to our present." Alaric's smile when he spoke of history had her cringing. That had been her worst subject. What came before had interested her a lot less then where she could go now. Looking back meant seeing the loss she and others had suffered.

"So, you're like a nerdy butler?" Mer's question pursed Alaric's lips until Rush's hand pat her head again, like he was silently scolding a child.

"I will have you know all the Shades are quite studious. Knowledge can be just as powerful an ally as it can be your enemy if you do not embrace it." Alaric's heated tone accented his slapping the cover of the book like that would somehow insert the information into her brain.

"So, what you're saying is that I was sacrificed to an entire house of nerds." Mer's creeping smile reflected on Alaric's face in a downward scowl, but he settled to rubbing his temples with a hand over his eyes.

"Remus, you shouldn't play with your food," Alaric said as he dropped his hand, the darkness in his eyes stiffening Mer's shoulders and dimming some of her momentary amusement. "How is it you can tolerate that... thing."

Mer bristled from being called a thing, but she kept her emotions in check so she didn't turn the man's brain into soup. In all fairness, she had thought of Rush as a thing when she'd met him, so it was only fair.

"Alaric, try not to take it to heart," Rush said as he stood, dusting off his pants and keeping her close as he helped her up. With her jello legs from running, she needed the support. "Meredith does not understand that her utterances are grievous insult."

The words jabbed into her side with Rush's sinking tone of admonishment, and she fiddled with her fingers silently as her head sank into her shoulders.

"Meredith, Alaric is the first general to the Shades, an esteemed war commander of our people, not a butler. And yes, the Shades are primarily known for their wit, not their brawn. All vampires are strong enough to lift houses, so it's not the ones with the most muscles who win at war. It's the smart ones."

That was true enough, and she kicked at the dirt as she cleared her throat. "Sorry, Alaric," the name was strange on her tongue, unsure if it was polite to even call him by name. She knew very little of vampire etiquette. "I supposed I just grew up thinking of vampires differently." Mer's words fell to a hushed whisper that was mostly to herself. All she'd seen of vampires were her nightmares as they took her parents away, beasts armed with claws to shred flesh and drooling with hunger for blood. Neither of those physical traits went well when holding a book.

"It's quite all right, Meredith Aurion," Alaric answered with a kind tone that she was sure Rush was incapable of making. It drew her eyes up as he retrieved a small book from within the bigger one, wrapped in a cloth book cover. "The book you requested." Alaric said as he handed it to Rush, his eyes lingering on Mer. "If you wish to keep your sacrifice alive, Remus, you should feed her. Poor thing looks like she's about to fall over." Alaric gave them a backwards wave as he headed off into the castle, and when they were truly alone, Mer's stomach howled in agreement.

Man, she was ready to eat a pinecone at this point.

"Do you even have food here?" Mer asked as she contemplated on it. The man had expected her to be dead, so the place wasn't even warm enough to keep her alive at night. It was growing pleasantly balmy during the day though.

"I do not, though I can take you someplace that you eat normally, if that will suffice?" Rush's offer had Mer pursing her lips as she tried to understand him.

"You mean, you'd take me home? At least to the city I lived in?" Mer wasn't quite sure she was processing that right. Last night, she'd thought she'd never see outside of these cold stone walls again, and what he was offering seemed too good to be true.

"This castle is but a transportation spell away from anywhere, and unless you're planning on eating bugs, I have to take you somewhere." Rush paused, his expression so hard and empty that a cold sweat broke out on the back of her neck. "Are you intending to run if I allow that?"

"No," Mer spit out quickly. Too quickly. With a slow breath out, she tried again. "It's not like I can run. I don't have much place to go that the mage's wouldn't find me. And..." Mer hated saying the words. It ground in just how trapped she was, but they were truth. "If I ran, and I did get away, you'd just ask for someone else. I'm not selfish enough to wish my fate on another person."

"That is more selfless than most mages I've met," Rush said simply, like the words didn't gouge out the most delicate parts of her heart and crush them. "While I cannot offer you freedom, I can offer you comfort. Perhaps this diner you frequent will assuage some of your pain." Rush stepped into her, so close that her face was against his chest with nothing but a gentle tilt of his hand on the back of her head. "Think of where you wish to go, Meredith Aurion."

A tingling rose around her body, much like the static shock of rubbing her hair on a desk char before she jumped up to zap someone for fun. It was magic, she realized as it enveloped her in an almost suffocating power, but it dissipated as fast as it had come. Car engines and the chatter of people replaced the sounds of chirping birds and flowing water from the forest stream, and she turned to find they were in a narrow alley. Mer pressed a hand to Rush's chest, and he let her go to step out into the street.

To her left, she found the awning for Paul's Diner, striped with green and white to shade two sets of outdoor tables. They were unoccupied this early in the morning, and the cacophony of voices came from cars sliding through the drive through of the fast-food joint nest to it. Paul's place was small, but right at the end of her run's path, so a convenient stop off for coffee and snacks. Before going in, she turned back to Rush who slipped out of the alleyway into the early morning light seemingly unhindered.

The sun couldn't be pleasant to him, but with how little emotion he showed, he'd never reveal that.

"Mer, good morning!" Paul called over from the register as soon as the bell on the door tinkled to announce her entrance, his visage impossible to miss with the swing of his long, forest green hair tied tight to his skull for work. "Your usual?" he asked, and he'd already started making it before she realized that she didn't have money.

"I will pay for your food," Rush said as he parked himself so close to her side that their arms brushed. It had her scooting a step to the right, and he gave her space.

"If you pay, it'll feel like a date." Mer ugh'd, and she swore the emotionless statue smiled but his mouth remained flat. "As long as this works, I should be fine." Mer pulled her phone from her jacket pocket, and it had service now that they were out of castle town. That meant she could use contactless payment. It wasn't like she'd been gone enough that they'd closed her bank account or anything. The thought of her aunt getting rid of her things and closing her accounts like she was gone for good sent a shiver down her back.

"You look like crap, Mer," Paul said as he slid her drink across the counter. If they hadn't known each other for her entire life, she'd toss it right back at him. "Loooong night?" Paul leaned on his hand with a smirk a she flicked his eyes over to Rush, and the black tips of his ponytail tickled the counter. With his sleeves rolled up, she got a close up shot of the ink that climbed up that arm in dragon scales speckled with stars. Paul was half-hipster, half-gangster, and way off base on the situation here.

"You know, yes, but not in the way you think," Mer practically growled as she thought of how short the night had been once she'd been actually warm. It had passed in the blink of an eye, and she hated that for some reason.

"Mer thinks my chest is unattractive, I'm afraid," Rush added with faked sadness.

He did not just say that.

"Don't be weird, Rush." Mer shoved him lightly, forgetting he was a vampire, but he gave under her hands and stumbled like a normal person. "Toss me one of those cinnamon rolls, a turkey and provolone, and a granola bar."

"Truly? A hunk of man meat like you?" Paul laughed as he held up his fingers in two L's to make a picture frame around Rush, and Mer steamed to her ears. "Don't get too disheartened, Rush, is it? Mer is like that with all men. I'm convinced she's going to join a nunnery someday, so good luck, man. Mer's tough."

Rush smiled. God, Rush smiled. One of those slaphappy grins that opened his mouth all the way to the top of his fangs, which looked uncannily normal now.

"I hate you, Paul," Mer growled, as she hovered her phone over the credit card reader. As soon as that thing beeped, she grabbed her food and stormed off to a corner booth. Rush followed in a leisurely stroll before he parked himself on the other side of the seats with tepid remnants of his amusement.

Despite her screaming stomach, she ate slowly, making sure to put half a sandwich into her stomach before she started on any coffee. Not that it helped much. The zing of caffeine went straight to her fingertips, and she chewed extra slowly so she didn't overwhelm her concave stomach. The only thing worse than being trapped with a vampire was rolling around bloated on his floor from overeating. The time eating did give her time to look Rush over as he slowly sank in his chair.

The daytime was taxing to him. And she'd chosen a booth directly in sunlight.

"Sorry. Do you want me to move?" Mer asked, already with her butt off the seat when Rush waved a hand to indicate she sit back down.

"I am fine. I will not be here long."

Mer paused chewing her food.

"Where are you going?" Mer asked, opting out of saying we.

"The sun is starting to rise beyond what is comfortable," Rush said, his eyes drooping with weariness. "I also did not sleep much last night. I am not used to sleeping at night. I spent much of it acquiring your things and the other half trying to figure out why it felt so good to lie next to you." Despite Mer's creeping blush, it seemed as if Rush were genuinely perturbed. "You must understand. Sure, you're a woman, but without shackles, it's like petting a cobra."

That seemed unfair. He was the one who was known for biting.

"You have to understand, I am a battleground general. I'm used to killing your kind, effortlessly, and with little thought about it. Those I fight are trying to kill me, and I've known them to use every ploy in the book. I released your shackles yet expected you to attack me the moment my eyes closed, lay by your side but couldn't sleep for fear that you would strike at my weakest. Trust is difficult for me when a single moment of naivety could be my end."

Rush's words drifted off, his eyes growing distant as if lost in thought, and she couldn't help but pry when his lips lifted almost happily.

"What are you smiling about?" she asked as she took a sip of her coffee.

"Your breasts bathed in moonlight."

Mer spat her coffee all over her cup.

"I was joking," Rush said through a tepid laugh while she grabbed a wad of napkins from the table dispenser to wipe off her jacket. "I was merely lingering on how peaceful you slept, how easy it is to give in to your charm. You are not like any mage I have ever encountered. There is something drawing about you that is indescribable."

Rush's words eased her embarrassed blush for a pitter pattering of her heart. It was nervousness yet something else she wouldn't dare put to words as he complimented her so easily.

"I acquired this for you," Rush slid the book Alaric had given him across the table. "Hopefully it can adequately entertain you while I sleep. You may remain here if you desire." Rush waited, as if she might say, "Please take me back to your lair".

But he wanted to leave her here?

"Is there any way you could take me to my room?" Mer reached for how lenient he'd be, and almost dropped her cinnamon roll as she found herself standing in her bedroom. Well, that was faster than she'd anticipated.

"I will return for you at dusk," Rush said as he set the remainder of her food on her end table by her bed. "And if you run, I shall find you." Rush disappeared into thin air as he spoke, leaving only the echo of his words in her mind. A promise and a threat, should she dare to step out of her cage.

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Word Count: 2908