in each of us lie good and bad, light and dark, art and pain, choice and regret, cruelty and sacrifice. no one can live in the light all the time. — libby bray

[ OFFER. ]  after noticing the receiver hasn’t fed in a few days / weeks, the sender offers to let the receiver feed from them.

Benji usually reminded her to feed, but Benji was busy nights upon nights with the radio broadcasting, sometimes with her on the piano.

Armand never failed to nudge her to when whatever musical experiment she'd been fixating on had sent her into a rabbithole, but Armand had been more than busy with every vampire congregating to Trinity Gate. There was simply no time to make sure the fledgling was feeding, and well, with the young ones dying left and right no one was particularly keen on letting her outside alone to hunt anyway. It was known ; Sybelle needed to be protected, Sybelle tended to get lost or forget where she was.

Between her frantic piano playing, the mayhem happening inside the home, her very own distress at seeing a real vampire dismemberement, Sybelle simply had neglected her thirst.

Now that the situation was resolved and that the core was safely inside Lestat, she found herself simply too overwhelmed and exhausted to hunt by herself. She was thinking of finding Armand, when Lestat -- newly Prince Lestat, really -- kindly offered to drink from him. Sybelle was touched by the attention ; you didn't offer that to any young one. It wasn't, however, a light decision to take. It would make her significantly stronger, significantly less human, even if Marius' blood had made her very strong for a young one already. Was it wise ? Sybelle gathered Lestat knew better, and her thirst was screaming for her to take the blood anyway. Lestat's blood.

"I'm honored you would offer," she said softly, and was reminded of the night she was turned without Armand's knowledge and approval. That was what was holding her back.

It's fast-approaching noon. Cliff stands outside a Chinese half-herbal, half-rental store, his left hand brandished with a plastic bag full of ginger and Tiger Balm, a set of VHS tapes.

A firetruck wails down the street and the wind blows. Cliff's hat blocks the sun, and he still squints against it. "When?" he asks, finally stirring. "Right now?" Something like awareness goes off behind his eyes. It begins to dim, and Cliff is soft-spoken, bedroom quiet. "I would."

Lestat is unexpected. He arrived unexpectedly the first time. He's been unexpected every time after that; none of it unwelcome. 

𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐋𝐄𝐃 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐈𝐃𝐃𝐋𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐍𝐎𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄, sat an abandoned meat packaging plant. the factory has been shut down for many years, the meat hooks left to rust. the factory was condemned to be torn down in two years. the building will become a pile of rubble, all history inside would be lost to the passage of time. it was a playground for those who were up to no good.

the basement of the plant was dark, illuminated by a faint glow of candlelight. crimson puddles littered the floor, amongst the candles, sigils painted in blood and disregarded limbs. a large hook sat dormant, in front of what appeared to be damien taylor. his usually tense muscles, slicked back as he held a trembling blonde woman in arms.

"𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦, 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦, 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦- 𝘪 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘪𝘦." the woman pleaded, hands desperately gripping onto the grimey shirt damien wore.

"𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒉 𝒊𝒔 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈, 𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒅. 𝒊 𝒂𝒎 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒆𝒏𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒆𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖." the man responded. he raised a hand to brush back a piece of her hair, soaked by her own tears.

the speech pattern was not his own. damien's body was invaded by a being that belonged to the hells, akuji. the room smelled of rotting flesh and was as hot as standing in direct hellfire.

"𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒔𝒂𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒈𝒐𝒐𝒅, 𝒑𝒆𝒕. 𝒃𝒆 𝒆𝒏𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒅, 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒇𝒂𝒕𝒆."

with a quick swing of his arms, he hooked the body upon the rusty hook. the hook piercing through their stomach in one quick motion. the woman cried out in agony, her eyes full of tears squeezed together as they hoped for a better end to her story.

the vessel's lips parted as if they were going to say something, only to be interrupted. they had a witness. not just any witness, damien's boy-toy.

"𝒗𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝒂𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒛 𝒓𝒆𝒈𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒆𝒓, 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒆𝒖𝒓 𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒕 𝒅𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒕?" (you like to watch, mister lestat de lioncourt?)

he turned on his heel, facing the stairway to the upper level. the vampire stood in all of his glory, looking upon the bloodbath with new eyes.

"𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒂𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒉𝒖𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒔 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆, '𝒄𝒖𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒌𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒕'?'"