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Post by Nina Giles on Jul 13, 2010 0:16:38 GMT -5
Nina was glad Founder's Day was over and that most of her friends and acquaintances had escaped, if not unscathed, then at least with their lives. She left the hospital after seeing for herself that Jeremy was going to be alright, and that Erika would be once the vervain she had been injected with had completely left her system. She could probably have helped the girl, either with a potion or one of her magically enhanced crystals, but she also knew how reluctant Erika was to leave Jeremy's side, and although her injuries and lack of self-healing were an irritant, they were by no means going to be permanent or fatal. She just wished that the effects of that godforsaken device would wear off already. She hoped it wasn't going to be necessary to actually obtain the pieces and reverse-engineer something to undo the effects. She wanted her damn shields back so she could go back out in public without posing a danger to the vampires in town who she considered among her friends.
Instead of returning home she headed to the library, her library now, and went downstairs into the locked basement archives to resume her research into trying to separate fact from fiction in the journals of Jonathan Gilbert. She wished that she had the complete set of them, she suspected that the information she was really looking for was in one of the volumes that the library didn't possess.
She had locked the doors behind her, but she became aware of a presence in the library within moments of entering the building. “Hello? Is someone in here?” she called, looking around to assess what potential weapons she had in her reach.
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Post by Stannard on Jul 13, 2010 0:18:13 GMT -5
Stannard watched Nina walk in and lock the doors behind her, allowing himself a moment to just admire her. He had always thought she was almost panther-like in her movement, lithe and stealthy like a cat, and deceptively aware of everything around her despite her outwardly calm appearance. He stepped out into the open, hands held out in front of him. He had made the mistake once of sneaking up on her and had nearly paid for the mistake with his life. He knew her much better now, of course, but he still had no intention of meeting his end just yet.
“Gianna,” he said quietly, watching her expression turn from concerned to surprised, and finally the smile he had been hoping for surfaced. She didn’t know that it had been he who had found her in the basement of the library the night of the fireworks. He had been on his way into town at the time and was only marginally effected by the high-pitched frequency that had incapacitated every other vampire in town, although why it would have effected her he didn’t know. He started to move towards her but she held up her hands to stop him.
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Post by Nina Giles on Jul 15, 2010 23:13:54 GMT -5
Nina grinned at her dearest and definitely oldest friend, but held up her hands to stop him when he would have scooped her up in a hug. "Shields," she said by way of an explanation. "Don't know where you were when everything went down here, but that moron John Gilbert activated his great granddaddy's device in an attempt to identify and murder every vampire in town. The frequency knocked my shields out and I haven't been able to get them back up just yet."
Where were you, Marco? she wondered silently. Where were you, why weren't you effected and why are you here now? She didn't ask, though, because she knew him well enough to know that he would give her those answers in his own time and his own way, and if he was feeling particularly obstinate it could be days before he did.
She made a show of checking him out top to bottom. "Damn, Marco, the 'dead rock star' thing really works for you, doesn't it? You look amazing."
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Post by Stannard on Jul 16, 2010 13:05:53 GMT -5
Ignoring her warning, Stannard closed the distance and pulled her into his arms, holding her tightly and deliberately pressing his nose into her neck. He felt her resist, but only for a moment before she wrapped her arms around him and sighed deeply.
"Did you really think that a few years apart was going to mean that I was no longer immune to your particularly enticing scent, Gianna?" he asked, letting her go. "Not likely, and I always knew that our paths would cross again, either by accident or by design."
He kissed her forehead and settled comfortably in one of the big, overstuffed chairs she had put into the library. "I was on my way into town when everything went to hell in a handbasket, to answer the unasked question luv, and it was me who found you here, out cold, and hid you away on your secret room in the basement."
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Post by Nina Giles on Jul 16, 2010 18:21:59 GMT -5
Gianna. A name she hadn’t gone by in, oh, it had to be nearly a century. She had been Gianna Cortez in the 1860s, living at the Parsons mansion as maidservant to the snotty, arrogant teenage daughter of Frederick George and Mary Margaret Parsons. The girl, Emma Elizabeth by name, had epitomized the spoilt, rich brat persona of the time; bossy, demanding and completely full of herself. She had decided at the age of 14 that she was going to marry one of the brothers who lived next door, the fact that one of them was already betrothed notwithstanding.
Of course, that had been before Katherine came along and screwed it royally up for everyone involved.
Nina shook off the ghosts of the past and held on to Stannard for a long moment, more grateful than ever that they had spent seven decades together. In those years Marco had become accustomed to her scent to the extent that he hardly noticed it anymore, and even fully unshielded he had no more desire to snack on her than on anyone else.
She watched him as he gracefully sat down in a chair and then did the same. “You were the one?” she laughed. “I wondered who would have thought to come checking up on me and had the foresight to hide me away from the vampire hunters, being that I’m not a vampire. That John Gilbert is truly a nasty piece of work, I cannot abide the man.” She wrinkled her nose in distaste. “I rather doubt there are many who will mourn his passing.”
She kicked her feet up onto the table, something she was forever giving students hell for, and regarded him thoughtfully. “So what brings you back here, at this particular time?”
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Post by Stannard on Jul 16, 2010 18:32:57 GMT -5
Stannard shrugged. “Didn’t have anywhere else to be right at the moment and I had heard through the grapevine that something big was happening here. Which one of those idiots decided to let the vampires out?” He grinned at Nina when she rolled her eyes. “Oh come on, luv, you know I’m just giving you a bad time because I can.”
He held up his hand before she could answer. “No, let me guess, it was the younger one, the one who embraced the vampiric way of life from the moment he was turned?”
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Post by Nina Giles on Jul 16, 2010 18:56:55 GMT -5
She sighed, suspecting that he already knew the answer to his own question but had asked anyway just to hassle her. “No, Marco, it was Damon. Don’t even go there with me.”
Marco Stannard was the one person on the planet who knew her absolutely, knew that she had taken six hundred years to really fall hard for someone and had never really forgiven herself for standing by while Katherine destroyed his life. She could have acted on more than one occasion back then, stepped in and likely have saved his mortal life, but for what? To give him back to Elizabeth Mirazdia, his human fiancée? Not a chance. She still regretted her actions, or lack of them, but she also knew that given the chance to go back and change things she’d do the same thing again. At least if he was immortal, she had reasoned then, there was always a chance that he might actually notice her once Katherine was through with him.
“She wasn’t even in there, which you and I knew perfectly well, since that idiot guard let her go when she promised to change him. Please tell me you didn’t just come back here to try and save me from myself where Damon Salvatore is concerned?” she grinned at him, reached out and prodded him with her toes. “I didn’t listen to you in 1863, what makes you think I’m liable to now?”
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Post by Stannard on Jul 16, 2010 19:08:40 GMT -5
Stannard grinned wryly and shook his head. “Believe me, I know better than to point out the obvious with you. He’s a prat, he always was. I never did see what you saw in the man, either as human or vampire.” He stood up and held out his hand to her. She would always be his dearest friend, the one person he could always go to for anything. Even if there were decades between visits, he knew she would always be there for him, as he would be there for her.
If only she had gotten over Damon Salvatore.
“Come on, luv, let’s get out of here. Think you can put up with an old friend for a few days in that ridiculous castle you bought yourself? Friend, shoulder to cry on, partner in crime or just a lab rat, that sort of thing? I assume you’ve continued your research into getting rid of this oddly delectable scent you carry, and let’s face it, vampire blood and venom aren’t exactly easy to come by, unless you’re planning on kidnapping a few more hapless victims in the name of science? Did you find what you needed here or are you still lacking a journal or two even after you purchased two complete libraries?” He closed his fingers over hers and they left the library.
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