Priest Mausoleum, Graveyard, Early Monday

[bitten_notshy]

When Jack first woke up, he was aware of several things more or less simultaneously: His mouth tasted awful, his back was sore, and the tight leather pants he still wore were hell on his circulation.

Oh, and he was in a crypt. It was a bit hard to miss that part.

Controlling his urge to shudder, he rose to his feet and took the few steps toward the tomb where Kate laid peacefully. He was almost certain she was fine -- physically, at least -- and this had been a particularly cruel whim of the island's. But that tiny chance that, somehow, she wasn't was in his mind as he gingerly tapped her shoulder.

[OOC: For she who is there.]

Comments

[vanillajello]

Kate made a little frustrated noise, something akin to a teenager who just wanted to sleep a bit longer, which she did. Trying to cling to sleep, she shifted a bit – and then froze, because this was so not a comfortable bed. It was made of stone, for one thing, like a tomb or something, and oh her God, Jack and candles and fangs and and and --

Her eyes snapped open and she gasped for air, taking a moment to realize she'd been breathing just fine before waking up and that she wasn't actually, you know, dead. Undead. Whatever.

[bitten_notshy]

"Please tell me you're okay." Jack said, all of his usual facades firmly to the side as he hovered. (He even forgot to manage his accent, so that was the natural mishmash.) "I know it's likely just the island, and I know I'm breathing again, and it sounds like you are too, but -- Jesus."

He killed, drained and turned a friend. He kept getting stuck on that point.

[vanillajello]

Well, if there was a point here to get stuck on, that was most definitely it. Kate wasn't doing so hot with it either.

But she managed to keep herself from hyperventilating, at least, even if she was still staring wide-eyedly up at him. "I'm fine," she said, though she didn't sound like it. "I'm... fine."

[bitten_notshy]

"No you aren't." Jack slumped to the ground, back against the cold stone wall.

(Was it weird he wished he had just slept with her? It might have felt like incest, but at least that wouldn't have involved blood and fangs and death.)

"We should probably go someplace less ... full of dead people. Find showers. Clean clothes."

If he could just move.

[vanillajello]

"Yeah." Except with that whole moving thing, though Kate managed to push herself up to a sitting position. Which nicely highlighted the fact that she was sore all over from having slept on cold stone. "Fucking Fandom."

[bitten_notshy]

"Fucking Fandom," Jack agreed. Vehemently. "Is it possible it was actually mad at us?"

No, that would be your paranoia.

[vanillajello]

"I'm almost inclined to believe that by now," Kate muttered, kneading at the back of her stiff neck with her fingers. "This is just... surpreme bullshit."

[bitten_notshy]

"I think I killed Ronan's poor sister too." The sister who was secretly Ronan in disguise, but Jack hadn't come anywhere near realizing that yet. He stood, bracing himself against the wall all the way and moving as if his limbs were somehow heavy. "I'm sorry."

He sounded small and sad and pathetic even to himself on that one, but it was a place to start.

[vanillajello]

"Not your fault," she replied, mildly. "The island's. Just like Bod shoving me around and accusing me of stealing his memories."

Which was pretty much deliriously funny compared to what they had going on here.

[bitten_notshy]

"That's ...." yeah, Jack couldn't work up too much of a panic over it. "I hope he didn't hurt anyone."

He realized anew that his mouth tasted awful in part because it had been full of blood, Rhiannon's and Kate's and anyone he and Jessica had been unlucky enough to run into, and he wished desperately his vampire alter ego had gone in for running water and toothbrushes.

He glanced over to her. "Did your neck heal up totally?"

His wrist had. No scab or scar.

[vanillajello]

Kate's hand moved to touch the side of her neck, even though she already knew the answer. "Yeah," she nodded after confirming her guess. "Thank Christ. That would've been the last thing I needed. Wouldn't have wanted to explain that to my parents."

[bitten_notshy]

Jack gave her a weak smile. "No," he said. "Can't imagine it will even be fun to explain to Bod. Weird weekend or not."

[vanillajello]

"Ugggh." That groan just said it all, didn't it? She rubbed her forehead, then shook her head. "I can't believe you called yourself a 'dread childe of the blackest night'."

[bitten_notshy]

"My clothes," Jack complained. "It was all leather and satin and tight this and fitted that. The crap I talked doesn't even compare."

And he desperately wanted to forget it. Seriously, 'death and sex and poetry and eternity'? Sebastien would laugh himself into fits.

[vanillajello]

Yeah, Mitchell too, if anyone told him. Which brought to mind something else...

"Mitchell thought his mom had been on the flight I had supposedly been on as it crashed somewhere on the island," Kate offered.

[bitten_notshy]

Jack groaned. "Could we get away with never telling him this?"

He wouldn't actually mind Mitchell knowing, but the conversation that started so I bit people and monologued and liked it? Jack would rather leave the leather pants on forever.

[vanillajello]

Kate shrugged a shoulder. "Well, I never told him about the weekend I turned into a vampire," she said. "There are things Mitchell doesn't necessarily need to know."

[bitten_notshy]

"I don't need you to lie for me, but if it never happens to come up, there might be a few buckets of coffee in it for you."

God, Coffee. He needed a cup or a dozen. He glanced over, remembering. "You were ... sadder than I was."

[vanillajello]

"Well, I was crazy, apparently," Kate replied, idly, like it didn't even matter. "Multiple personalities – well, just the one. Vicki." She rolled her eyes. "Flight attendant."

[bitten_notshy]

He'd meant when she was a vampire, but no matter.

"Wonderful job," Jack said dryly.

And then he was out of things to say again, and stared at his hands.

"We should go," he finally managed. "I need proper clothes. I'm sure we both have portal to catch. And this place is not huge on ambiance."

[vanillajello]

Kate sighed, rubbing at her temples before actually moving to get off the tomb. Seriously, everything hurt. It sucked.

"No, it's really not," she muttered. "Yeah, we should just go. I need to not be here right now."

[bitten_notshy]

"I'll walk you wherever you need to be," Jack said, as gallantly as he could manage. He was already heading to the crypt entrance, grateful for the sun on his skin.

[vanillajello]

Kate shook her head once more. "Wherever the hell that is. Maybe the Perk, first."

As she caught up with him, she reached for his hand, awkardly. Hugs didn't seem like them, but she kind of really needed something, some little piece of comfort, so... Hand.

[bitten_notshy]

Jack wasn't a terribly physical person with platonic friends, and he wasn't sure he'd ever touched Kate for more than an instant before he drank her blood the night before. But he was grateful she reached for his hand, and he squeezed hers in return in a way that suggested he wasn't letting go soon.

"Perk first," he agreed. "We'll ... figure out the rest."

[vanillajello]

"Yeah," Kate agreed, forcing a hint of a smile. "We always do."

It was sad how much evidence she'd managed to gather for that in the last year and a half or so. But, this was how things worked for them.

But maybe now they'd learn not to always come when the island called.