She pouted about leaving her a choice, prompting him to roll his eyes.

“All life is merely the illusion of choice,” Sasha muttered, busy binding fabric around Alice’s wrists as she lectured him. For a moment he considered the fabric’s softness and wondered if it would make a comfortable gag.

And then a promise to, as she put it, make it easy. It was enough to force Sasha to pause and glance up at her, just as he tied a final knot over her wrists. There was some sort of comedy to the idea that a girl bound up before him was now setting the terms, as if she still had all the leverage.

He leveled his brown eyes at her, as if bored with her offer. For a moment he looked unbelievably ancient.

“What sort of life do you think I lead, I wonder?” Sasha mused, mostly to himself. It hadn’t occurred to the girl yet what she was truly dealing with. Why would it? Monsters existed only in fantasy, or as CGI in films, or as brooding boyfriends in girl’s stories. It wouldn’t even occur to her that anything like that could exist in the real world.

That, of course, was simultaneously the work of the monsters themselves, and the ones who hunted them. The only tandem effort shared by otherwise opposed factions. Most of the time, anyway.

He sighed.

“I don’t usually deal with humans on their terms.” Sasha crossed his arms, and rubbed the underside of his shaven chin with the backs of his fingers thoughtfully. He was considering the girl in front of him like an exhibit at an art gallery. “That’s rather contrary to the point of my existence. But seeing as I’ve promised to leave you alive, I suppose I do owe you some measure of courtesy.”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out his mobile phone, which he then shoved into Alice’s bound hands. It was held there until she was able to grasp it. He had forgotten that the last thing he looked at on the device was her Facebook profile.

“Suppose I believe you’ll cooperate.” Sasha moved around Alice, taking her around the shoulders, and then picked her up gently with an arm under her knees. It was gentler, at least, than carrying her over his shoulder like a conqueror's prize. “If we make it all the way to your house without you dialing the police, I’ll unbind you and you can pack your own bags.” She would have to make do with her hands the way they were. Her fingers could still move, at least.

The “projects” she wanted to bring along were probably moot. It was unlikely they would make it back in time for Alice to still be employed, if she survived the process at all. But if it kept her busy, Sasha decided he didn’t want to be struggling with her all the way to France.

“We’ll see what I can do about your ‘expenses’.” Sasha carried Alice out of the shop, pausing to glance down the darkened street. He ducked back in a moment, waiting for someone on the other side of the block to disappear, then emerged with the girl in his arms. It wasn’t long before he turned down an alley, making for a car he parked nearby. “Defying legend, I’m not extraordinarily wealthy, but not having to pay for rent or food helps curb my usual expenses.”

As Sasha bound her hands, she bit back the anguish. She disliked this, and that was putting it mildly. It also put it mildly she was afraid. Oh, poor Alice was deathly terrified and this was really down the rabbit hole. A part of a dratted book that some friends kept quoting about her name. Though to be fair, it was a rather good book. It was all to do to not shake herself to smithereens, something she definitely knew she couldn't hide when he picked her up.

Though when he thrust his phone into her hand, she fumbled with it for a minute. Though spotting that Facebook profile she gave a scandalized hiss. "Why were you looking at this picture? I look horrible in that dress! I thought I deleted it!" Alice frowned at him as he slipped out the door. "Yes the dress was good, not for my body style though! And why were you in my Facebook page?!" Shaking her head before she could answer. "And if I cooperate that's two stones down for the both us. I get my work done that can be shipped out and my customers don't have to wait as long. You can get you're father back sooner. Win win." The timid smile was hardly reassuring as it shook slightly. But Alice stood firm. It would do her no good to be negative as she was already down the rabbit hole so to speak.

She was generally quiet as they walked towards the alley. Though the phone buzzed unhappily, as Alice's thumbs slid across the screen. Searching for beings that fell along the lines of invisible, abducting, very fast, very strong, door=breaking, and extraordinarily wealthy. Needless to say she was fully focused on this, her brows knitting together. Though as she paused to look up when they turned down the alley she shivered slightly and gave a slight squirm. "Wait wait wait!" Her pleas grew slightly frantic. "My coat! Your coat! My purse! Eek! My house keys!" She gave Sasha a pleading look. "No breaking another lock, please? Ms. Wigby will have a fit! Oh, dear... She'll have a right fit and send a rather nasty letter if that lock is broken!" The poor elderly woman who owned the building had replaced enough keys and locks that Alice had 'misplaced'. Her letters about the issue had become increasingly more pointed over the year she had lived there. For all reasons, Alice was sure the woman was about to toss her to the curb.

"I mean, I'm sure you're a very strong werewolf. But not my lock?" At least, she hoped he was a werewolf. She hadn't read much on her folklore recently, and- She flushed as she looked down the phone again. The search engine flashed with a answer for the question. Which demand to know the result of her search, and in quick order. "Vampire? Oh dear... I've been working too late for this." Which apparently to this site they were mortal enemies but that was okay because the vampire....

"I want to wake up." She moaned in defeat. "I need to stop working so late I pass out and have horribly odd dreams." Oh, she prayed with was a dream. If it was a dream, she could wake up and get back to her lovely clothes. Or a nightmare. Though if it was a nightmare there would be horrible wide stitches somewhere! There always was! It had driven her first roommate insane when Alice had woken up shouting about how to tie off a thread, after falling asleep at her mannequin. Unfortunately Alice's body was fully shaking in fright as she tried to convince herself it was all her imagination. As she was often imaginative as a tailor ought to be.

"So I researched you," he explained. "And your quaint fashion sense. It's nothing untoward; I needed to be sure you were Alistair's child. Your blood is special, and you were the closest of the line I could reach easily."

A bit late to get upset about a bit of stalking when she was already being carried off. Such was the girl of the 21st century, entirely missing the scope of importance. Then again women rarely had sense even in his day.

Alice began to moan for her possessions, but Sasha was apathetic.

"They're only things, Alice," he chided. "Have a little perspective. What do they matter next to your safety?" Humans were so attached to all the stuff they owned and all the meticulous and quite arbitrary rules they chose to follow. Sasha supposed such things lent structure to the human mind, which craved order, but much as he tried, he failed to see the cosmic value in it. Like currency, jobs and lease agreements were only as important as humans chose to make them. "As a favor, I won't break your lock. I'm quite good at getting into flats undetected, as you might expect."

Werewolf, vampire. Trite, sensational names for very old things. The sound of them made Sasha's blood curdle in revulsion. Still, there were few alternatives in English, so he supposed they would do.

"Childish words," Sasha sighed. "And an appalling first guess." Honestly, he had no perceivable reflection and she thought he might be a werewolf? "But I see you're getting the idea. Just don't go thinking you can compare my kind to movie monsters. The old legends have more truth to them than your 'Twilight' or teenage girl vampire slayer films."

Emerging from the alley, Sasha paused for a moment to peer down the quiet streets. The sun had fully set and the day was winding down. The golden lamps spilled their light in even patterns along the pavement, lighting the way for passersby, but there were none. The pubs were still another block away, so that was where the life of the city had migrated to at this hour.

Which, of course, was the idea.

Sasha carried Alice out into the open. Even if there had been witnesses Alice could call to, she was mostly blocked behind a cover of parked cars. Sasha fixed his eyes on a dark blue coupe a few cars up and with his spare hand began to fish out his keys.

"I appreciate you not screaming, please continue to refrain. It'll make me peckish."

Under Alice's legs, Sasha unlocked the passenger side of his vehicle, and then set her on the seat through the opened door. The car smelled vaguely of cheap air freshener and had a rosary hanging from the rearview mirror. There was a photo of a dark haired woman in the sun flap. The dash was a bit dated; the vehicle was probably ten years out of date. It was mundanely human for a vampire.

Walking around the front of the car through the window, Sasha twirled the keys in his hand as if strolling without a care in a sunny afternoon. He patted his pocket before getting in, looking momentarily confused until he remembered that he'd given Alice his phone.

"This isn't a dream, Alice," Sasha assured her belatedly once he sank into the driver's side seat. "I realize this is all quite sudden for you. It'll take some time to process and I'm sorry for that. But for me, it's been a long, long, miserable two hundred years since my father's death."

He started the car and, showing surprising consideration, signaled before pulling into the driving lane.

"Are you hungry?" He asked, adjusting the rearview mirror. "We could stop and get chips or something on the way."

There was a disbelieving sniff as Sasha talked of being a expert at breaking into places. It wasn't such according her past history about the being. Whatever he was. "Yet you broke my door." She muttered sulkily, not wanting to on her poor shop opened up to the riffraff. "And left my shop open to the elements. You just can't help yourself but to assault clothing and insult women can you?" Her eyes narrowed at him with a disapproving look as he set her in the car. If there was one button not to press with the tiny tailor, it would be treating clothing improperly. Something the poor strange had done on a multiple of times. "As if I would read that garbage of a book, toss it in the bin where it belongs."

Glowering off to the side, Alice puffed out her cheeks in a defiant huff of anger. "Sure, you've been miserable two hundred years... Doesn't mean you need to assault your clothing or mine, and kidnap people. What ever happened to manners? 'Oh, please, Miss Lynch. I need help resurrecting me ol' papa from some wormy coffin.'" Her Irish accent intensified as she grumbled, flipping along on the phone. "'Oh, look! I ripped me ol' coat and can't care for it properly. Yet been goin' to a tailor's for two 'undred years.' And still can't stand a accidentally misplaced pin." She glared at the phone, as it this was all it's fault. She should call the police she knew, but what could they do? They were hardly all that reliable, what with all her past experiences. "And I'm not hungry." She lied, her stomach grumbling at the thought of food. She had forgone a normal meal to get work finished. Dratted work! If only she hadn't stayed late or had stayed later!

Assault clothing? Sasha glanced at his passenger once before returning his attention to the road. Alasdair, whatever happened to your bloodline? This girl was odd. Sasha wondered whether she was a mutt or if her entire family was this… eccentric. He should have taken her choice of fashion into greater consideration.

“Heh.” Sasha bared his teeth for a brief laugh on the topic of modern literature. Oddly, he didn’t appear to have visible fangs, although his canines looked a bit sharper than average. “I liked Twilight, actually. As a comedy. And insight into the silly things that women like.”

The human’s following remarks drained the mirth out of him. He passed a glare at her at the mention of his father, and withstood the rest wearing a stony look of irritation. Until she finished, Sasha’s fingers strummed the steering wheel.

“Let me spell this out for you.” They stopped at a red light. Light rain had started to spot the windshield, refracting illumination from the traffic light in a thousand tiny droplets until the wipers obliterated them. “I am an immortal creature. A vampire.” The word was pronounced with a considerable sneer. Might as well have said ‘a bad guy’. “You are being abducted, against your will, for the purpose of using your blood to raise another vampire to life.”

The light was still red. The turn signal in the car clicked steadily.

“I lent you my phone. I sat you in the passenger seat, instead of throwing you in the boot. I offered you something to eat. I am driving you to your place for your comfort.” Sasha’s keen sense of smell was picking up a hundred little food places at once, but he knew there was one just a block away. It was where his coworkers usually liked to mingle after hours. “I don’t have to do these things. These are kindnesses I have given you and you should appreciate them, but I am holding a gun to your head, Alice.”

The light was green, but Sasha did not accelerate. He turned toward Alice.

“You might not see the gun, but it’s there.” His brown eyes pierced into her. “I can kill you instantly. If you don’t do as I say I can snap your neck as easily as you crack your fingers. I can and I have killed many girls just like you.”

A car’s horn blared behind them, startling Sasha out of his lecture. He cursed loudly and jumped in his seat, and the car leaped forward as he slammed his foot on the pedal. The smell of fried food began to waft from the end of the block, strong enough for even a human to detect.

“Start behaving this instant.” Sasha was breathless and frustrated. It seemed perhaps that his canines had grown longer. “Call me sir. Say please and thank you. Or so help me I will put you to sleep, and you won’t awake until we reach France.”

He pulled the car into a parking space.

“Comprende?” Sasha’s French was imperfect.

Alice cringed under his threat, she didn't bother to hide it. In all honesty, she was purely terrified and put in a utterly horrible mood thanks to his destruction of her shop. It had taken her years to build the Timeless Tailor up. Time, sweat, tears and a lot of crap being thrown at her from her family. Now she probably could lose it all over some vampire. For a family the she never wanted or asked for.

Staring out at the light rain she shivered slightly. Alice had never like the cold and in fact hated it. Oh it was a lovely thing. Rain And snow. So long as she was under a pile of quilts on her shop or apartment. Her head bobbed meekly as he pulled into a eatery. "Yes... I-" She glanced aside, her face pale under her inky hair. She thought better of qhat she was going to say, her split seconds of fool's courage failing her miserably. Perhaps she would be able to get away here? But th at thought was dismissed from her mind quickly. For there was little doubt he would do as he said. Alice was fond of living and having her hands intact. Being aware was merely a addition that.

The girl became obediently silent. Sasha glanced at her repeatedly out of the corner of his eye, hands still fixed on the wheel and his head still facing forward, although they were now parked. The air was heavy with the afterburn of a harsh reprimand and the threat of violence, but both of them sat still, hearing little but the ring in their ears and the soft chatter of the humans inside the tiny diner.

Sasha strummed the wheel. He felt like he’d just throttled a puppy to death after it wouldn’t stop barking. Sighing, he released the wheel and glanced away, gradually looping his hand through the door release. It wouldn’t do him any good to show remorse now. Might as well just get on with everything.

“That’s a girl,” he said without feeling. He unlatched the door but lingered inside. “Stay here a moment. I’ll get you something to eat. Remember what I said about screaming, and think about how many people are inside that diner. Don’t make me hungry.”

As Sasha stepped out of the car, the salty smell of potatoes and breaded fish fried in oil wafted in, sickly to the vampire but deepening the emptiness of most human stomachs. Unceremoniously, he strolled in front of the car, pulling out his wallet and picking out a couple of bills. As if he were a person like any other.

He stopped short behind some small framed girl and her young boyfriend, the pair of them laughing over who knew what. Glancing upward, Sasha sighed again and rubbed his forehead. The line to the counter was out of the door. He was clearly going to be here awhile.

And there it went again. Her thoughts of sanity went out the door along with the strange, supposedly vampire, man. Why couldn't he have been a normal customer? It didn't seem as though she got many of those any more. Though the Lolita community paid well for her outfits as did those into the Victorian and Steam-punkish garb she- herself- wore. Laying her head against the window, she stared at the falling drops dispassionately. Her slim fingers and hands working at the bindings about them.

Alice was generally quite and kind, as it should be! Yet this man had set her on uncertain footing over and over, the poor tailor was absolutely over the edge of her limit. Her wealth didn't matter, yet her family did. She oddly believed him when he said it was for his father, and Alice's heart went out to Sasha for it. Family was important to everyone. Even when her own had been in supposed trouble she had jumped to their aid. Albeit only to find a ruse and them trying to push her together with a pompous, arrogant son of Mother's so-and-so. Giving up the tailoring business was not happening, yet it seemed it just might with all that was going on...

She bit her lip, as her hands slid free. No knot would hold her! Especially one made with her own fabric, she thought with some glee. Though it was short lived. Leaning down she finished off the binding about her legs and checked through out the car. Doubtful he had a weapon, his words still rang in her ears as she thought through several options. Setting his phone to the side, her pale hand checked the locks and disengaged them. Opening the door, she closed it softly behind her and slid through the rain towards the alleyways. It was cold, and that dratted man had left her coat behind. His as well, her eyes blazed with annoyance at the thought of those poor clothes. Her biggest vice was a love of fashion and that man-! That vampire, or whatever he be, had just run rough shod over it!

She sighed as she wandered into the alley, and then down another. Her hair was getting drenched as well, blasted man. Hopefully she could find a constable and use the excuse of a robbery that had frightened her to get herself back to the Timeless. It'd be slightly problematic, but she could call a few friends and stay with them. Perhaps if he thought her too well on guard he'd go bother someone else? Her lips turned sour in look, before she shook her head and scolded herself for wishing ill of her sibling.

The line moved slowly. Boredly, Sasha watched the momentum of the humans around him, engaging in inane chatter and public displays of affection. Toward the front of the line, a middle aged mother wrestled with her three children, screaming at them to behave in public and ironically making a spectacle of herself in doing so.

The vampire blinked slowly.

So small, all of them. Their lives largely meaningless in the grand scheme of things. Occasionally, one would stand out from the horde and help lead their race toward a brighter dawn. Or, nearly just as often, a darker one.

For the most part, however, each human was a product of entirely predictable patterns of minutae. Mispent youth, aimless sexual energy, and obligatory marriage, a Facebook page of inspirational quotes and links to political articles they barely read, a litter of dirty, needy children, until eventually they edged passed middle aged and began the descent of hospital visits that would gradually lead them toward their undoing. Cancer or heart disease or what have you.

It wasn't difficult to see how the vampires of old slaughtered them in droves like mindless cattle. To the casual observer, that's all they were.

Alasdair would've argued that Sasha's point of view was lazy and deliberately bereft of understanding. Well what do you know, Father, you're dead.

But not for long.

Sasha purchased an order of food for Alice with perfunctory courtesy. Time spent with his human coworkers, to complete his illusion of a completely ordinary life, had taught him how to mingle with humans of the modern age without much difficulty. Many of his kind shut themselves away for ages, until they emerged as complete strangers to the world. But the longest surviving vampires lived as humans did. Either in the name of peace with humankind, or to stalk them in plain sight.

Returning out into the light rain, Sasha shielded the cardboard boat with the broad side of his body as he headed back toward his car. His... empty... car...

He stopped short. The food was dropped at his feet on the wet pavement.

"Alice," he muttered. There was no one to answer him. Just the dim glow of his phone as it received an alert, abandoned on the center console of an empty car. Sasha stared at where his reflection might have been on the car door pelted by rain droplets. "How clever of you."

This would be an old fashioned hunt, then. He had to find her before she found help. Even if she left out the vampire bits, she had been legitimately kidnapped. And if she didn't leave them out... well there were a few here and there who knew better than to dismiss such stories as absurdity. Then Sasha would really be in trouble.

Sasha scented the air, which was heavily polluted by salty food and the rain, but he'd been in close quarters with Alice long enough. The trail was faint, but it was there. With a flick of his wrist, Sasha unbuttoned his collar to let in a bit more air. After drawing in a long breath, he began to walk down her trail.

"Alice," he called her name, drawing out the syllables, though she was likely too far to hear. "Running is not a good idea."

---

Not far from the diner, a young man on a scooter had pulled into an alleyway to wait out the rain before he returned to Sum Ting, a popular Chinese eatery. The last customer he'd delivered to had been short on cash and couldn't pay for their food, so he didn't see any harm in stopping for a break to eat their lunch, courtesy of Sum Ting. Fried rice with lobster sauce. Not bad at all.

Noticing a silhouette in the alley with him, he nearly dropped what he was carrying. A string of curses flurried through his thoughts until he realized that it was just a girl, not some creature of the night or street thugs about to give him hell for his scooter. But what was she doing down in an alley? And without an umbrella or anything... what had happened to her?

"You scared the lights out of me, girl." He tried to laugh nervously to ease tension, but it just made him feel more awkward. "Are uh, are you alright?

Wet black hair stuck to her as she looked in confusion at the man for a second. Worried for that split second he too might be some threat. Alice gave a pathetic sniff as she hugged her own shoulders. "Ah..." She paused considering how to answer him. Should she tell him some demented man who said he was a vampire and missing his reflection was after her? Or should she just say she had bolted from her shop when a robber had broken in? The latter was more believable, the former? More likely to get her drug tested.

Chewing on her lip she shook her head slightly. Though she did shiver from the rain. "I'm fine. Just... Got lost?" Her green eyes winced at the question in her own voice. But she held the lie firm. She wasn't sure she could trust this man after all, what if he was another freaky creature out of some myth or fable? Or worse! Was a friend of Sasha's? "I was heading home to pick up something and well... I forgot my coat." She gestured weakly to herself. Giving the man a small smile she continued down the alley. "I'm sorry to have startled you?"

Alice congratulated herself as she moved off. Best not to ask for help or give it to random men late at night. This was her newest lesson in life and she learned it rather quickly. Though she paused and looked back to the delivery man. "Uhm... Which way is the police station? I should be able to get a ride home from there? Or at least they can point me in the right direction?" She gave him a small apologetic smile that quaked slightly.

The delivery man stopped mid-chew, his mouth full of lo mein. He paused to look the girl up and down, taken aback by her unusual style. It looked too comfortable to be a costume. Some kind of goth, maybe? She looked interesting anyway. Most girls just wore tanktops and crocs.

He briefly considered asking her for coffee, or something, but then realized that it would make him sound like a creep. Even if they weren’t in a rainy alley, he wouldn’t have had the bravado to talk to girls with anything but perfunctory courtesy.

“Um.” He chewed a few more times. “It’s okay? I think.” She looked cold, and he considered giving her a jacket. But again, he was a chump, and thought it would come off as awkward. Once he went home he would spend the entire night regretting how he handled this moment. “Well I hope you find your, um, way. Rain, huh?”

He swallowed his mouthful, neglecting to recall that it had been filled with food that whole time. Chiding himself internally, he tried not to look too closely at the girl’s outfit as she passed him by. At the last second, she asked him one final question.

“Oh, the…!” Was she okay? She looked… shaken. Lost? Who gets lost in Newcastle except tourists? “The police station? Uh… it’s on Clifford Street, just a block that way. We’re on Shields now. Just head down that lane there and to the left.”

This didn’t seem right. Although his heart was racing, mostly because girls never found reason to talk to him, he couldn’t ignore the notion that something was wrong. She was shaking, her smile was trembling. She wanted to get a ride home from cops?

The deliveryman turned to put his food down on the scooter and took a step forward.

“Hey, girl, is everything alright?” He stopped short, not wanting to scare her. “You seem a little… upset, I think? I don’t know. Maybe I could give you a ri—”

He suddenly pitched backwards, choked by the collar of his shirt, and landed flat on his back in the rain. Sasha appeared behind him, almost materializing out of pure shadow. Before the stranger could attempt to get up, Sasha planted one foot on his chest, prompting a strangled cough out of him.

“Alice,” Sasha whispered, his voice almost swallowed by the rain. And yet, it seemed to come from everywhere, even from inside her own mind. “You’re only making this harder on yourself.”

The delivery man groaned and began to grab at Sasha’s foot.

“What…”

Sasha turned his boot.

“Quiet. You’re insignificant.” The vampire’s brown eyes leveled with Alice’s, seeming much darker in the shadowed street. “Unfortunate soul, isn’t he? What should be done with him, Alice?”

Whatever she had been expecting. Sasha appearing out of the literal no-where was not it. Giving a slight jump and startled squeak as the man appeared and the delivery boy was sent to the ground. She recoiled from both of them, taking a step back and then another. "L-leave me alone." Her voice shook with fright as she pleaded with the being. Alice didn't know how he found her. Perhaps he saw her leave and followed her? She hadn't been bothering to look behind herself so it was possible. Though her plea was stifled as Sasha stepped on the poor man's chest.

And he asked her what was to be done.

She paled and looked with fright between the two. He couldn't... Wouldn't possibly? That man was not going to pay for being in the wrong place and the wrong time! It was ludicrous, wrong. "L-let him go?" She whispered easing back another step. Anything to put distance between this reality and the horror it held. Her hands covering her mouth. "Please?" She rocked back on her heel. Her foot aching as she braced to make a run for it. She couldn't watch him hurt someone and she knew he could. He said as much.

“Let him go?” Sasha echoed.

So there it was. Alice had a heart for humans after all. If she truly had no compassion, she would have just run and left this poor young minimum-wage worker to his fate, whatever that might be. She had barely flinched when Sasha had threatened her family, but when he implied violence against a stranger? Suddenly she was frozen where she stood.

Interesting. Family trouble. He could relate.

Below Sasha’s crushing boot, grasped madly by the delivery man lying on his back in the wet street, a fervent nod of agreement failed to be noticed.

“Ye-es,” he hoarsely gasped, barely able to draw in breath under the weight pressing down on his chest. “L-let him go.”

“And in return?” Sasha wasn’t talking to the man below him. He was focused entirely on Alice; his question was for her and her alone.

Here, he offered her some element of control, some moral agency. She could flee, and thus endanger every human she put in between her and Sasha, or she could comply as he took the entire world as his hostage. She’d probably be equally compelled if he were about to tear a cashmere sweater or a pashmina scarf in half before her eyes.

He made a note to acquire such an item if it helped him compel obedience out of her.

“I told you, I need you.” His thin buttoned shirt was growing wet against his body, which looked thinner than one might expect. “All I ask is a little compliance, with all due haste. You can run to the police.” Sasha looked down at the delivery man. “Or I could sew a little destruction. Starting with him.” He looked up again. “And ending at Timeless Tailors with a box of matches.”

Alice said a very unkind word that someone would not have expected from her. To say she said it would be putting it mildly. There was a rather detailed list of what exactly Sasha was, summed up in a scant handful of choice words that at any other time would not have been said. Let alone even thought of.

But she nodded weakly a wee second after she said it. Her family was as good as strangers to her, yet she was more willing to help this poor man? She tried not to think of what that meant for her psyche. Her stance of avout to bolt eased to a defeated slump of her shoulders. His threat to the Timeless had been rather effective.

"Just, please let him go?" Her voice even was quieter and flat. Alice cringed as she thought of her Timless in flames or this man being killed. It was so utterly wrong. No wonder that poor coat he brought had been in such bad condition.

Sasha sighed, hesitating in place for a moment after Alice’s repeated, pleading question. She had agreed to nothing. Offered nothing. Not cooperation, not obedience, not even an apology for her obstinance. Still, the fragile glisten in her eye and the fear frozen on her expression conveyed that she had heard Sasha’s every word.

He only wanted to compel her assistance. Not break her. If he pushed too hard, he might damage her irreparably. Even if she was only human, she was still Alasdair’s descendent. Sasha could feel him scowling from his crypt.

After a long moment of consideration, the vampire stepped away from the deliveryman, releasing him. The man lay there for another half minute, afraid to move. He had all of the survival instincts of a turnip.

“Go?” Sasha dismissed him with a half-hearted wave. “And for god’s sake, tuck in your shirt.”

“Y-yes sir!” The deliveryman rolled to his feet, then scrambled to run away. He tripped over his own feet and nearly fell again as he struggled to tuck in his shirt while running back to his scooter.

Alice and the vampire stood there in the calm rain in the middle of the road, while the other man scuttled off, his footsteps fading away. Although cars continued to pass on the streets beyond this one, somehow none of them found reason to turn down this lane. Sasha and Alice were left alone to contend with one another.

It was as much a part of Newcastle’s downtown as any other lane, so this seemed to make little sense. There were shops down here. No one even stepped outside. Could it be coincidence? Or did Sasha’s presence somehow have an unconscious effect on the surrounding area?

“Satisfied?” Sasha asked finally. “Fine, I confess it. I am more bark than bite. It wasn’t always this way, but times are different. Humankind is more civilized, for the most part. Thus, so are we.”

He rubbed the back of his neck.

“For the most part.”

Sasha dropped his arms.

“Come with me, Alice. We’ll bring your projects. You’ll make your calls. Do what you must. But we must reach France with all due haste before those who kill my kind see to it that master’s remains are irrevocably destroyed.”

Alice gave a slight sniff, followed by a sneeze. Being out in this rain did her no favors. But she watch Sasha with a mix of wariness and resigned disapproval. Slowly, one step after the other. The cold rain was only going to get worse, and her hair was already slicked down from it. Combined with pale skin and her petite frame she partly wondered if those that saw them thought her for one of the Banshee. It was slightly amusing.

Gazing up at the tall vampire, she tilted her head slightly, those green eyes hard as jade and filled with that disapproval and odd sadness. "This..." Alice sighed, her arms running her shoulders, "is why we should have brought coats, if you've spent any time in this Country you would know that. It rains a lot, and I'm not sure I can save the dress or myself. I feel so water logged." The strange admonishment slipped from her with another sneeze before she continued walking past him.

"Are you coming?" She peered over her shoulder at the man, her said shoulders slumped in defeat. While Alice would never tell the annoying lout, she had been touched by his plea. He truly had sounded like he wanted nothing more than to merely resurrect this father of his. That he regretted his actions just moments before. The latter she found harder to believe, but she supposed it could be his desperation talking. Elsewhere he would be bipolar and then she would be in trouble. Still, she had truly agreed to go, she doubt he would put up with much more resistance. For all his threats Alice understood the desperate made the most dangerous.

It hadn't been too long ago she had been one of them.

Sasha was frozen in place for a bit while Alice revealed some of that often incomprehensible human understanding. Perhaps she was in shock. It made no sense that now, unbound and standing in the open air, she would become more amenable. Or, she simply knew at this point that it was useless to run.

It was possible she would think better of it in the morning. Best make good time now, while they could. It would be difficult to keep a pin in her during daylight.

He looked up at the rain-filled sky, gauging the time until dawn. He remembered belatedly that he has his phone in his pocket and a watch on his wrist, but he had spent so much of his life looking up at the sky to assess the time that he still didn’t use those things instinctively. And with daylight savings now and the ebb and flow of daylight hours with the seasons, his method was typically more accurate anyway.

He couldn’t muster gratitude. He was too spent for that, and it was still too early to know where this would go. The vampire proceeded with cautious optimism.

“It’s only water,” Sasha replied. But it was probably the clothes Alice was worried about. Water could be hell on fine suede and delicate silk. He watched Alice as she walked past him, heading back to his abandoned car. “But perhaps a dip in your shower…?”

---

A quick stop at the Timeless afforded both Sasha and Alice an opportunity to retrieve their coats, and more importantly, Alice’s keys. He did promise not to break her door in.

Sasha didn’t need directions to find Alice’s flat. He’d researched her after all. He knew where she lived, and where some of her relatives lived as well. If he chose, he could have come and cornered her in her home, and not doing so was no matter of courtesy, but timing. When he knew for certain what was to be done about Alasdair, he simply couldn’t wait for her to return to her home.

“Of all the methods I devised to get into your flat, if I needed to,” he muttered as they neared her place in the hall, “I hadn’t considered simply unlocking the front door.”

Alice sighed, "You're one of those people who make a mountain out of a mole hill, aren't you?" Shaking dampened raven locks that refused to obtain their usual bounce, Alice shuffled through her keys till the appropriate one unlocked the door. It took her five tries at the end of which she was scarlett with embarrassment. It was a fact of life she was a slight strange, made so by a slightly bad memory. Picking up the mail that had been shoved into her apartment by way of under the door, she flicked through the assortment of mostly junk while making her way to the counter of her kitchen.

Within, Sasha would hold the other end of the best appearance of the Timeless Tailor. For this place was the opposite and a complete mess. The first room was a combination of kitchen and den, a counter top serving as the table and really the only place to prepare food. Clothes, fabrics, and various mannequins covered the living room and encroached upon the kitchen. Already the flooded the short hall that led to two other rooms. The couch was devoid of this mess, having a pillow and elaborate quilt on it as if it was more often used as a bed. Which if one looked into her actual bed would be the case. For that was covered in a mountain of carefully placed product

But with all the chaos of her trade there were little things that did not make quite amount of sense to the average person. Such as a phone cord leading to a fridge. Or the open book left there as though some one was going to come back to it in a second. A vase stood on the hall table with wilted flowers, a half unpacked suitcase laid against a wall. And there was a faux Christmas tree in the corner of her living room. The light dim from age.

But Alice in the other hand glared at the letters and tossed them onto the hall table as if they were poison. They were, or at least the first one was. The A. Lynch in the receiver matched the A. Lynch, Senior of the sender. But the addresses differed by a large gap of miles. Peering over her shoulder she gave Sasha a apologetic look. "I spend most of my time at my shop." Was her explanation for this chaos. Thought she doubt it would help things. Not waiting for a reply to continued down the fall, setting her coat on the rack and her keys clattered against the vase. "Make yourself comfortable... im getting warm." She sighed with a happy glee. Warmth from the cold rain would help her. Nevermind it might just put her to sleep. Especially with the stress of her kidnapping amd deadline.

Sasha allowed Alice to walk ahead as he drifted in gradually after, taking the place in one step at a time. After weeks of research on her, he had only been able to form a partial image of the character of Alice Lynch, and here was a wealth of information. Not that it did him any good at this point. Still, academically speaking, it was fascinating to learn about someone new.

He leveled his gaze with one of the mannequins, as if it could stare back at him.

“Truly this is an age of lies.” Sasha picked up a sock from an endtable and turned it to examine it in the light. It was dropped without a care as he moved on. “From your Facebook profile, and your shop, I wouldn’t have guessed you to be so disorganized. Humans are slaves to appearances.”

A Christmas tree still. It was the end of summer. He wasn’t certain if Alice was lazy, or simply… slow moving. The unpacked luggage was considered at length. Had she recently traveled, or simply not unpacked since she moved in? She did appear to actually own a corded phone, and presumably a landline. Without bothering to follow the cord, he wondered if it had a rotary dial.

This was a mess. Not just the flat, but its tenant. This was a girl caught between different phases in her life, and she didn’t seem quite decided on where yet to go.

“I’ll be waiting, Alice.” The hint of a threat hadn’t quite left his voice, but at least now the vampire seemed sated and tamed. As long as she cooperated, this was likely to remain the same.

As she moved on, Sasha curiously plucked the letter from the bin as he passed by, then gradually retired on the sofa to open and read it for himself. As if he were entitled.

Alice had quickly wandered off, and there was the sound of a shower running. Then the sound off a soft jazz filled the apartment as a radio booted on somewhere in the chaos to the left and opposite of where Alice had gone. The volume increasing till it settled on a nice middle ground. Apparently the tailor had a remote for the device. A top hat and several drapes of fabric was across the stereo, partly obscuring it and the faint blue glow of it's controls. The tanned couch was well made, and maintained. Sinking in just enough to be comfortable. Pins were embedded in one arm of the seating. Thankfully it wasn't leather.

The letter, as Sasha would examine it was written on fine paper and oddly enough in this day and age... Hand written. The creases where perfectly placed and the penmanship was the highest of etiquette standards. The contents however were at odds with the prim and proper of the letter.

"Dear Alice,

While I am glad you at least took the time to show your face at Aristotle's graduation, your choice of attire remains questionable. You know very well, I aspire for perfection in this family. Something you could attain if you would let go of these childish ideal of yours.
Of course you will never attain the abilities of your brother, you've wasted far more time than is reasonable in this little 'tailor' business. It is a waste of time and money that could better increase our influence. Set aside this foolishness and take up a proper job in the line of fashion.

Your mother could very well set you up with a meeting with several eligible men in your preferred field. However they have respective businesses and could better help you turn your little hobby into a proper line if you would just put in the work and hand the management and labor to another. But this is getting off the point of why I'm not calling you- again. If you do not answer the phone how can you hope to run your business?

You're causing problems for this family with your hobby and eccentrics. Continue to do so and I will cut you off entirely and buy out your little business and that hovel you insist on living in. Do not test me, Alice. You laze about in a hovel, with street toughs and cons for friends, you work a failing business, and worse off you merely ruin your brother's chances at a better future. What will people say when they see he is related to a grown woman who plays with dolls in a constant refusal to move on with her life? It's a disgrace. Your mother is already facing uncomfortable questions about 'that daughter she had' and I have been as well about your foolish notion of clothing. Get yourself in order, and return back to our estate for a proper life. I will not deal with your foolish notion of a 'living', you had better opportunities yet you waste them for frivolous diversions."

Sincerely,
Alistair Lynch The Senior "

A small note at the bottom written in a quick print, obviously added after the rest. Unlike the earlier words this was choppy, quickly thought and written.

"Sis, Several clients that work with Da's business dressed in your fashion one day and sang you praises. Stupid, you need to know who not to sell to. Give up before he really does buy you out. Oh, it would be fun to watch that drama. -Ari"

Alice, after a good ten minutes slipped from her more private rooms. Changed into a layered gypsy skirt, the matching blouse boasting a fair amount off needle work on the hems of the wide billowy sleeves. Giving a tiresome yawn, there was a crack as the fridge was opened. Then a surprised 'aha!'. "I've been looking for that!" Picking up the phone, looking like it was from the nineties, and set it on the counter covering up the letters. Poking her head back into the fridge there was another crack as she slipped from the fridge with a piece of cold pizza and a sticky note. If one could see the sticky note it would read "Pizza for when you finally finish that dead line. Eat before you pass out. -Sylvia" Along with a date the day prior the present. Alice sighed and reminded herself to thank her friend. It wouldn't be the first time they had brought her food while she was on a deadline, or dragged her out of house or shop to be revitalized from the crush of work. Munching on the cold pizza, an oddity she didn't mind at the minute.