Saving Ana
Free the Dancing Llamas
Chapter 2: Cloud
————
Everything was so cloudy...so confusing...
Where the hell was he?
One moment he had been awake...the next just pure darkness. For however long that had been...and now this? This weird cloudiness, covering his eyes...
And silence. Stretches and stretches of silence....Julian wasn't sure how long he'd been like that as well.
Where in the hell...What had happened??
The last thing he remembered was going to bed...and then...nothing...
This was...this was terrifying.
Julian tried to move his body, even if he couldn't see maybe he could move? But nothing. Nothing in his body seemed to move. He just felt...
stuck...
His mouth too? Why couldn't he say anything, yell anything.
Whatever had happened, it wasn't good - he knew at least that.
Then...then...
was it a sound? An echo? So far in the distance it felt almost like a memory, a vague suggestion...
He willed himself to see. He knew his eyes were open so why was it just cloud and fog??
The voice grew closer, and Julian panicked, knew that surely this couldn't be good either. Was he about to die? Was all of it about to end? In such a confusing, bizarre way?
The voice came closer, and still Julian couldn't will himself to move, it was like he had no control over his body.
He tried to concentrate, really tried to focus on the voice and what it was saying. A woman's voice, he realised. One he didn't wholly recognise...but one that wasn't completely foreign either...
"Julian," her voice was sweet, low...
He'd heard it before, he just couldn't place who it belonged to. The woman sounded...worried? Maybe she knew what was going on?
Then, then...fuck...
The clouds parted, to reside at the corners of his eyes. Like he was having a weird tunnel vision experience.
The fog moved and Julian almost felt his heart jump out of his chest. He could see...sort of...He could see his feet...and a concrete floor...Where was he? This didn't look like the floor of his bedroom...
and he could feel...softness...the softest touch on his cheek...a sweet smell of lavender hitting his nose. Odd...
He willed his head to move, just even a little, and by the grace of God he managed.
He came face to face with...with...
he didn't know what she was or who she was...
just that she was...
Exquisite...with the most alarmingly bright eyes. She wasn't human, surely. Humans didn't have eyes like that...
Still that information was useless...she could be any manner of being, any person...and he didn't know who in the hell she was...just the nagging sensation that this wasn't the first time he'd ever met her.
Shit...had she done this to him? Surely not. He didn't even really know her, what motive would she have to do this to him? He would have remembered coming across the path of someone so...so...
He watched to woman's mouth move, watched her soft, plump lips form words.
"Julian." the woman knew his name, "Are you in there? It's me...Ahh... Something's happened to you."
He couldn't quite make out her name. It was weird but everything else he heard her clearly say, but all he could hear was a vague noise that he knew was supposed to be her name. Obviously they knew each other...she knew his name, looked at him with a sense of familiarity... but he couldn't remember why he knew her. It was infuriating.
Who was she? Was she his girlfriend?
No, he knew that wasn't true. He remembered his girlfriend, remembered his mistresses, all of them. Somehow he knew she wasn't in that category. But Christ, how else would he know such a striking woman?
How would he have known such a woman and not...
He thought back to the rest of her words. She knew something had happened to him. But what?
And where the hell was everyone else? He could hear vague voices in the background, but no distinct words. Could certainly see nothing else...and then...
then...it didn't matter anymore...
The woman disappeared...the clouds came over his eyes yet again...Everything disappeared into darkness and fog...
What in the hell was going on?
————
Ana watched the vampire standing there, head downcast.
He looked so unlike the Julian she had met almost a year ago now. The man she had met had been authoritative, commanding. When he had stepped into the room that first time she'd met him, she had known exactly who he was.
And his eyes? His eyes had held everything in them - the opposite of what was there now. He had held a look in his eyes as if he had known all of her secrets, as if he knew exactly what she'd been thinking, and where she was going and who she was at her very core. His eyes had been terrifying and captivating. It was an insight into why the humans were terrified to look at vampires directly.
The first time she had met Julian it had been unnerving. Had she not had her anger to focus on she would have been flustered; overwhelmed by how charismatic and magnetic he was.
She had hated him for it. In fact, perhaps it had spurned her on - it might have been the little thing that had pushed her over the edge when she'd blown up a part of The Underground.
It was like she had been trying to prove a point - more to herself than anyone else - that she wasn't going to be mollified and pushed around by a man who was so used to having his orders followed. It had taken Ana barely five minutes of conversation to realise this man was always in control of every situation, and that had included her and her sister. It had been so infuriating she had just sort of...exploded.
Although now? With the way his eyes were lifeless, now...well perhaps she had preferred his inscrutable, piercing gaze.
"Julian?" Ana tried again, opening the cage door, stepping closer and closer to the vampire until she was standing before him, looking up at him. Still no response. He stood as if he was lifeless.
What in the Goddess' name had happened to him? Who or what had done this?
"You think that's a good idea?" Lola's voice interrupted her thoughts.
"The Libra charm is holding him," Ana replied, "If he was able to overpower it, he could have done so by now."
That was a half-truth. Ana had never completed a Libra charm before and she didn't actually know whether the magic would keep him bound. But something in her brain told her he would be subdued...it wasn't fact, just instinct and she followed it.
"I didn't know you knew that kind of magic," Lola replied. Her voice was filled with a sort of curious insinuation which Ana couldn't be bothered to dissect.
Truthfully, Ana didn't realise she had known the ancient magic herself, until...well... she had, and then it had slipped out of her like breath. She'd seen the spell in one of Rhea's old books, hadn't even known what it was for... until she had needed to know. It was strange and Ana wished she had at least one of the old witches around to ask about it. But the only old witches who might be able to answer her questions were tucked away in Hong Kong; The Witch's Council. If they were still around, they'd never made themselves known. Not even to Rhea. But then, the old witches who had survived the Great War had tended to function primarily in seclusion.
"Neither did I," Ana said, focusing her attention back on the man standing motionless before her.
Ana tentatively placed a hand on Julian's cheek. She didn't know why, but she'd felt an urge to touch his skin. Maybe it was a need to connect, to see if he would respond to skin to skin contact. His face was soft, the barest hint of five o'clock shadow gracing his jaw.
She looked up, trying to search his eyes for something, for any hint or glimmer of recognition. She found herself staring at the line of his straight nose, distracted by the harsh masculine beauty of his face which seemed to be soften by a sensual mouth.
How was it fair for a man to be so
beautiful
?
She was wholly unprepared for his whole head to whip into focus on her. Ana jumped back, holding her hand as if it had been burned.
"Fuck me," Lola muttered, inching closer to the cage.
Ana was caught momentarily by his gaze and for a second, just split second she could have sworn his eyes had held a hint of
something
. Some sort of life force, some sort of
energy
.
"Julian." Ana repeated, "Are you in there? It's me, Ana. Something's happened to you."
He stared at her blankly and blinked. If he recognised who she was, he didn't show it.
"He's in there, isn't he?" Lola's voice so close to her ear made her jump.
"Y-yeah," Ana stuttered, moving back away from the vampire, a bit too quickly though, bumping into Lola.
"Awfully weird to see him like this, don't you think?" Lola smiled at Ana, all teeth.
"I didn't know him well before this." Ana bit off.
"Just as well - that face
plus
the personality," Lola nodded towards the vampire, "Well, you wouldn't have stood a chance, now would you?"
Ana just shrugged, "I don't know what you're saying - besides you may recall that I did, in fact, stand a chance the last time I faced him, damn well blew up his office and then some."
Lola snorted, "That's not what I'm talking about, you had your anger to hide behind then," How did the damnable witch read her so well? Lola continued, "No, darling, I'm talking about the here and now. I'm talking about the fact you're drooling over the guy. And I'm letting you know that he's a dangerous sort, and even like this I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him."
"I am
not
drooling. I was checking his face for signs of a soul," Ana rolled her eyes, "As if I'd be tempted by some
second-rate Casanova
