noirenewyork | "Or a beautiful nightmare..."

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"Or a beautiful nightmare..."

Who: Asher Rose, Eric Knight, and Logan Buchanan
What: When everything goes horribly wrong
Where: Brodie's place
When: Follows THIS

Coming out of a frenzy and realising what you had done was terrifying enough without coming out of one realising what you had done to the love of your life. Asher had lost control, and drained Brodie to the point where his heart was only just bleeding. He didn't know what it was that stopped him, but it was too late for many reasons. Their clothes had been close to being ripped off, and Brodie was now lying limp in his arms, unconscious. There was blood smeared over his throat and Asher's face, hands, and clothing. He only just managed to sweep his tongue over the puncture wounds at Brodie's throat to heal them before the shock and terror of what he had just done was drowned out by an incredibly feeling of sickness and pain. He hadn't felt anything like this since being human, and even then, this was horrifically worse.

He still had Brodie's body nursed in his arms, but he doubled over in pain. It was only now that he was realising that Brodie's blood wasn't sweet, or pure, of incredibly satiating like it should have been. It tasted like dirt and disease and sickness, and Asher had just taken his entire fill in a frenzy that he had been overcome with, unable to resist Brodie once he was right there in front of him. "No..." he choked out, hand grabbed at a fistful of Brodie's shirt over his heart. In a panic, he fumbled his cell phone out and called Eric. He didn't know what else to do. He was sitting there nursing Brodie's limp and unconscious form, both of them smeared with blood, and if Brodie didn't get to a hospital immediately, he was going to die.

Before Eric picked up, he ended the call and instead dialled Saxon's number. Saxon came in lightning quick speed and had scooped Brodie's body up from Asher's arms, leaving immediately to find some sort of way to get him to the hospital without any suspicions being triggered. No blood was spilled in Brodie's apartment, so Asher left, stumbling out onto the road and falling to his knees by one of the trees lining the path. He didn't know what was happening to him. He felt like he was dying, like Brodie's blood had poisoned him. He began to purge then, spilling out of him and over the dirt at the base of the tree. If anyone not Kindred happened across this sight, it would probably terrify them. He was still purging the blood when he got his cell phone out again and only just managed to hit call on Eric's number. He could hear Eric trying to talk to him on the end of the line, but Asher was in no condition to reply. He had to just hope and pray his Sire and his lover realised something was wrong.

Very, very wrong.

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The phone call from Asher told Eric pretty much everything he needed to know, without Asher even having said a word. Eric had seen enough from the scene in Asher's apartment to know that things were going to go downhill rapidly... And already had, considering the violent rage with which he had attacked Logan. There was really no question where Asher was, and Eric knew enough to know that the young Childer was probably rejecting the hell out of Brodie's blood. Eric's taste was specifically for people who were facing or had faced life-threatening illnesses, so where Brodie's blood would've been right to his taste, for Asher, like most other Kindred, it was like eating a bad burrito at a Mexican restaurant times a million. For Kindred, feeding wasn't just part of survival -- it was their survival. Where humans could eat, drink, take vitamins, and whatever else it was they did for nourishment these days, but Kindred had absolutely nothing else but the blood they took in. It was their life force itself, and for most, taking in diseased or otherwise contaminated blood meant that it felt like you were being forced to purge yourself of your very life so that you could start all over with something not-contaminated.

He'd tried to speak calmly and soothingly to Asher, but there was no calming him at this point, and the only thing Eric could think of to do was to go and try to find him. So after calmly spoken assurances that he and Logan were on their way, he hung up the phone, and glanced at his lover. "Logan, baby, I know you want to kill me right now, and I can't say I really blame you but at this point, can you hold off a bit so we can go? Asher's rejecting Brodie's blood, and he needs us. Now."

Eric's phone had rung twice in quick succession. The first, it had stopped ringing before he could answer, but Asher's number at flagged on the caller ID. Eric tried to call him back, but was met with the engaged tone. It was a short while later that it had rung again, and Logan was still sitting on the floor by Asher's door in silence, eyes closed as he worked to try to quell his own senses hulking out on him with the domino effect of shit this had all caused. There had only really been two scenarios which could have played out. One, Asher would go to Brodie and his instinctive protective mechanisms could have kicked in and he wouldn't let anyone - not even himself - harm Brodie. Or two, he was in an uncontrollable frenzy that his love, lust, desire, hunger for Brodie overtook everything else and he fed from him. Logan had hoped like fucking hell it would be the former, but hearing that it was likely the latter, which explained by Asher was calling them, rather than getting Brodie outwith their presence, Logan found himself cussing extensively and raking his hands down over his face in a frustrated anger of his own.

He got up and stalked through to Asher's living room and started reefing out the drawers and trawling through the contents of them. It took a few minutes before he was able to locate what he was looking for, and he came back holding an address book that looked worn out and on the old side. These days, the information in a book like this would usually be stored in one's cell phone. What he knew of Asher was that he was nostalgic to the people of his past, and this was exactly the sort of thing Logan assumed he would have somewhere. He flicked to B, finding Brodie's entry with love hearts drawn all around the entry a picture of him and Brodie in high school taped to the page. It was sweet, but not what Logan was looking for. Brodie's birth date, minus a year of Asher's year of birth, and Logan punch the string of numbers into the security lock and it buzzed to signal the correct code. "Be prepared," he warned Eric. "He's going to be blaming himself for harming Brodie. This might be our hardest negotiation of all."

Asher truly believes by this point that he is dying, and he has no desire to fight it. Not after what he did to Brodie. Was this some sort of punishment for harming your soul mate? With the strong blood line he had been Embraced into, he had managed to instinctively hone his Kindred powers to his advantage of maintaining a control he had despised losing. But without letting his Sire guide him and teach him, blaming him and his lover for what he was, he was missing a lot of the vital knowledge needed to continue to walk in the Masquerade. Now that he knew Brodie really was here in the city like he had been sensing he was, sending him on relentless searching and roaming to find him, the whole dynamic had changed. Not if he had killed Brodie, though. Saxon told him he was going to get Brodie safely to the hospital, but that was all that was said. He didn't even begin to know how to get any further information than that. All that mattered was that Brodie was out of his reach because Asher was a monster.

He hadn't just fed from Brodie. He was so far gone, that when Brodie's own arousal and hunger had flared from the very start of Asher's bite, it had ended up becoming sexual when Asher's desire to entirely consuming all of Brodie. Brodie had reciprocated as Asher fed from him and made love to him, but then it had been an overload of sensation and Asher hadn't been able to stop like he had with Jenna the day before. He had drained Brodie, and his heart had barely been beating when Saxon took him. He felt like he was dying inside, the pain was excruciating. When Eric and Logan appeared, rushing up to him, Asher was once again purging more of the blood, on his hands and knees in the gutter. Blood was spattered all over his couture outfit, smeared over his hands, his face. It was worse than a scene out of a horror movie... horror movies he used to despise watching when he was mortal.

When they approached Asher, Eric, too, had an overwhelming feeling of sickness, and if he had been human, he might have thrown up himself. It was hardly due to Asher's appearance, though. It was moreso due to the knowledge of the pain that his lover's Childer was going through, not only physically, but emotionally and mentally on almost every level. And to know that, on some levels, this was his fault... maybe completely. Maybe if they'd let Asher die, he would've finally had some peace, instead of walking the world lost and alone, caught between two worlds and unable to really find his way through either of them. Eric had made a split second choice that had cost all of them dearly, and as Asher knelt there and the gutter, it was in starker relief than ever that Eric had quite possibly made a terrible mistake.

Still, there was no undoing it, and he very slowly approached Asher, not wanting him to feel anymore than he already did as if Eric and Logan were forcing themselves into every facet of his life. "Asher? Asher, love, we're here, and we're going to help you, but I need you to answer me just one question." His blue eyes rested on Asher's face, smeared with blood, and he took a moment to prepare himself for whatever this question might trigger in Asher's hurt, anger, and sickness. "Asher, I need you to tell us where Brodie is, and if he's... Still..." He couldn't quite say the words, fearing what they would do to Asher, so instead he simply repeated, "Asher, where is Brodie?" He hoped to hell that the young guy wasn't dead, because murder was a whole different ball game -- one that Ben would indeed find out about -- and Eric would be crushed if Logan's Childer were killed because the two of them had failed him.

Shit, if anyone came across this scene, there would be no adequate way of explaining it short of Asher vomiting himself to death. Not when a lot still thought he was already dead, although he seemed to have recently made the choice to selectively place himself in view just to allay enough suspicion. In preparation of attempting to approach Brodie? Who knew. No one knew what was going through Asher's head... Asher himself probably didn't even know most of the time. Logan just did not want to contemplate the thought that Asher might have killed or taken Brodie. If Brodie was ill, feeding from him may have been a risk to his health, and from the looks of it, Asher hadn't just had a wee sip. The other option - Logan desperately did not want to face - was Asher may have Embraced his soul mate. Maybe that had been his plan all along, and still they weren't privy to any of it. If he had taken Brodie against his will, then all of this shit was about to hit the fan tenfold. For now, he was holding onto the hope that Asher being so distressed after being taken against his own will, that he loved Brodie too much to subject him to the same fate. But in a frenzy, Kindred could be capable of anything. Proof was in the pudding, with Asher being born of Eric's own uncontrollable frenzy at the time.

Asher was a mess, and Logan was crouching down at his side with a protective arm going around his back. That's when he ripped his own aqua button-up shirt off, Kindred immune to the weather, and began to wipe some of the blood from his face. Finally now he had some direct contact with his Childer that he hadn't had access to before. He wasn't about to leave Eric out, either. This whole thing had been with intent for Eric to step in as the hands-on Sire. So Logan reached up, roughly grabbed Eric's hand and pulled it down to nurse the back of Asher's neck, encouraging him to stroke him gently there. Asher needed help to calm the frenzy, and they had to be the ones to do it. "Asher, did kill Brodie. You need to tell us where he is. If he's not safe, we need to know."

For the first time since all of this had happened and he woke up to find what he was, Asher didn't fight them. He couldn't even if he wanted to, because he was weakened and ailing. He really did think he was about to shrivel up and expire right there in the gutter because he didn't understand what was happening to him. He knew of the concept of tainted blood. It was something Emmeline had touched on with him, but trying to face the notion that Brodie's blood was tainted to him was beyond his recognition at this point. All he had were the painfully conflicting memories of holding Brodie in his arms again, being that close to him, inhaling his scent like it was the equivalent of a potent drug. He hadn't wanted to let go. With Brodie's scent all over Logan, something had triggered uncontrollably inside him, and it was like he had to find Brodie and mark his territory all over again, make it unwaveringly known that Brodie was his, no one else could have him. This was his Kindred instinct now, whilst the lingering inner human knew he had thrown everything with Brodie away.

That's when he began to cry, the bloodied tears spattering over his deathly pale skin that was deteriorating even more to make him look like a corpse with his body rejecting the sustenance. "I don't know... I don't know," he repeated, hands coming up to his face. "I called for Saxon, he took him to get help. He's dying... I know it, he's dying..." That was all he could get out before his body was yet again trying to rid itself of the tainted blood. He didn't know how he knew, he just did. Brodie was tainted, and maybe now it was all too late.

Eric obediently began to rub the back of Asher's neck, squatting down on his level so that he could look him in the face. "Asher, listen to me. We didn't mean for this to happen, and we know you didn't either. But it's a risk we all run when it comes to those we love most. It's the same reason that I was ready to attack when Logan was in danger. Our Kind are more in touch with their baser instincts. It sucks sometimes, because it's not always the best thing... Our emotions run higher, we react to them more quickly, we go into frenzies. But, Asher, there's a level to which those things can be controlled. But only if you let in other Kindred who can help you. There's a reason our Kind have Clans and hierarchies... So that there are laws in place that help us to govern our emotions -- keep us in check. I'm not your Sire by blood, Asher, but I am the one who made the decision that led to your Embrace. All I'm asking now is to please give me and Logan a chance to help you. Our intention was never to bring you into our world and then leave you to go it alone."

He shifted a little, clasping Asher's shoulder firmly. "I promise you, we will find out how Brodie is and if there's anything we can do to help. We'll keep you in the know about him. We don't plan to just take him from you, Asher. We just need for you to let us help you learn how to live now that you're Kindred, because it's not something anyone was born to be. You will gain more control. Let us take you back to our place so we can be with you until your body heals from the blood at least? We'll make sure you have the chance to feed on something that will help you feel healthier once you've purged all of that blood. And then we'll talk more about Brodie. I'll call Saxon as soon as we get home to check in on him."

Asher was really ailing. As soon as he managed to get all of this out of his system, he would probably hibernate for a few days, go into a coma-like state until his body restored and he was ready to sustain some fresh blood. He was only a Childer, it really could be days on end before he was functioning again and Logan had no intentions of him being on his own. They were going to have to get back to Asher's apartment so he could be bed-ridden under his own roof. This was a godawful mess and Logan wasn't sure what he was supposed to do next. Their immediate concern was Asher and getting him out of here on the chance cars might pass - or worse - pedestrians or neighbours of Brodie's. He was trying to even remember who Saxon was. The name was familiar, but it was failing him at the moment. The number would likely be in Asher's cell, along with his driver. His driver had to be the first port of call.

"Asher, love, I'm just going to take your cell phone from your pocket, okay? What's your driver's name? We need to get you home. You're going to be in a really bad way very quickly. But we'll take care of you, and we're going to make sure Brodie's doing it okay, aye? Will you be okay if we do that? Look at me, love." He cupped Asher's chin in his hand, waiting to make eye contact. "I havenae touched Brodie, okay? He touched me, it's how I've got his scent on me. I had to get close enough to him because I had to know if he's the reason you've been fighting us. He is, aye? You've been searching for him, the need getting stronger? You just have to know that the reason for that could be because he's needing you. You need to hold on to that and try to use it to keep control. But you have to trust us."

Asher felt like he was losing brain capacity as well as body strength. It was getting more and more hazy, like he had taken a bad hit to the head. There was blood everywhere, and if this was a sight he was witnessing when he was still human, he would have vomited on the spot. And Brodie. Brodie who hated blood, the mere sight sending him into heaving fits, or needles making him faint. It used to be such an amusing thing for their group of friends, and much material for piss-pulling for Caleb. Now it all seemed like some cruel joke. What if Saxon hadn't gotten Brodie to the hospital in time? If Brodie was sick, what if Asher feeding from him made him worse and he died? The frenzy was gone and in its place was on onslaught of emotions he wasn't strong enough to shoulder right now. This was the first time he was truly pleased his Sire... or both of them... were with him because he couldn't do this on his own. He wasn't sure he could trust them yet, but he knew he couldn't trust anyone else. He didn't want anyone else near him. Brodie's touch was the only he craved, but there was something soothing in the physical connection he was receiving from Logan and Eric right now.

The fetid taste of the tainting blood still felt like it was right through him. It wasn't the same as mortal nausea. This was more like his insides were trying to claw away the poison from his system and creating a physical agony. He just watched as Logan took his phone out without a single protect. His eyes were on the screen, where Brodie's smiling image was still the wallpaper from months and months ago when they were still together. "Jeremiah," he replied, his voice cracking and sounding raw. When he continued, he wasn't referencing his driver by a long shot. "I need to know he's okay. If he's not alive, I don't want to be either. If he's not, you must kill me. Do it right this time. There's no existing without him."

Eric took over for Logan in being the primary comforter while his lover made the phone call necessary to get Asher's driver here so they could get him out of the gutter, and quickly. He looked a horror, and he needed nothing more right now than to go somewhere safe that he could rest. His arm wrapped gently around the Childer's shoulders, Eric gave Asher's arm comforting caresses, trying like hell to calm the other guy down as much as he could, given the bad feed and the upsetting circumstances surrounding it.

"We will find out everything, love," Eric assured him. "We have connections all over who can keep us updated on his condition. I promise you, anything that we know about Brodie, we will share with you. We won't keep anymore secrets from you. But please don't keep them from us, either, Asher. We're going to need each other very much right now, and neither of us can help the other if we're keeping secrets and lying to each other. Fucking hell, kid, that feed hit you hard."

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"Or a beautiful nightmare..."

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