The Healer's Guardian

Back Again

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Stepping into the club in an almost cautious manner, Alyson was looking every which way for a man who went by the name Cody. Who she only found out later to be the owner of this joint. But of course not before she had verbally assaulted him with a case of misdirected rage. It was hard for her to pretend she was just here for the music this time. Truth be told she needed to see Cody. Maybe "needed" was a strong word, but "wanted" didn't seem to quite cover it. She had so many questions and things she wanted to discuss with him. He made her feel comfortable around him, and maybe that wasn't the best thing given she had almost no idea who he really was. For all she knew, this could be a hobby of his. After all he was one smooth talking Casanova. Still, here she was, walking around his club, acting like if she took a wrong step she would be caught off guard by a land mine. Her internal battle of yes and no had her milling around rather quickly, but she never took her gaze away from the door for too long. It was too easy to get lost in a crowd this massive and if she decided to leave she wanted to make a quick get away. Listen as the wind blows from across the great divide, 

Voices trapped in yearning, memories trapped in time 

The night is my companion, and solitude my guide 

Would I spend forever here and not be satisfied?

The club was packed as usual on the nights nearing the weekend. Throngs of people crowded onto the dance floor and moved as one to the music. From an outer perspective, the people looked much like a wave rising in sync to the music's rhythm. This was particularly evident from the view of the cameras watching over the patrons. From his back office, Cody scanned the screens occasionally, ensuring that no one disrupted the ebb and flow of his business. He had been having issues recently with strangers invading his territory. This caused him to be more wary of who came and went in the club. He was considering going out into the room to mingle when he saw a familiar face. Mere second passed before he was at the door of his office, on his way to find her.

Navigating the crowded room wasn't always the easiest feat to accomplish. Hands grasped and grabbed and pulled, trying to get him to join in. Whether they knew who he was or not, the club-goers tried to get him the follow the flow. Cody stealthily ignored the hands that swiped down his back and arms, calling to him into the hypnotic crowd. He swiftly cut a path to the girl he had met not long ago. Intrigued he was, even though he knew better. Humans were incredibly fragile and short-lived. It was somewhat like getting attached to a pet. You couldn't help yourself and it tore you apart when they eventually expired. To some vampires, this was a minor consequence but Cody took it a little harder than most.

Not having learned from his last meeting with the girl, he stalked up behind the girl and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "Did you miss me that much, sweetheart?" He would probably be less daring had he been human. He knew he had the reflexes to dodge anything thrown his way yet if he was caught off guard, she might injure herself. That would involve a lot of explaining and wasn't really the best way to start off after meeting someone.

Into this night I wander 

It's morning that I dread 

Another day of knowing 

The path I fear to tread

Wanting to turn around and face the owner of the familiar voice, but not sure if it were a safe idea given he had out an arm around her, she just remained rooted and instead moved her gaze to get a better look at his far too attractive face. "Still insist on calling me sweetheart huh? Well this time I'll try to not be so venomous." Finally comfortable enough to move Aly took his hand and gently removed his arm before facing him, but making double sure to let go of his hand around the same time. It was hard to put a finger on why she was so drawn in by him, it was almost unnatural. "I'm actually really sorry about that by the way...I'm not sure if I said that or not already, but I do feel bad about it." Looking sheepishly to the ground there was a wave of something resembling the feeling of being out of place sweeping over Alyson. Like she didn't really belong there, but at the same time she didn't want to leave. "So...how have you been Cody? I didn't see you hanging around with your throngs of fan girls this time?" Finally looking back up to Cody she felt more confident after having turned the conversation on to a lighter topic. Smiling coyly to him she was hoping to start this little meeting on a lighter note then the last one had. "It's obvious they want you to come dance." As if on cue Alyson jutted a thumb in the general direction of a group of blonde Barbies making gestures towards Cody and giggling about it. One even looked like she might want to walk over, but as to what was stopping her was beyond Aly's knowledge. Oddly enough this made her feel a lot like looking over and asking what their problem was, but it wasn't her place to harass patrons of Cody's club just because they were checking him out. There's a game that I play 

There are rules I had to break 

There's mistakes that I made 

But I made them . . . 

My way

The life of a vampire is a somewhat dangerous one. They are hunted by each other for territory disputes and simple disagreements that span the centuries. They're particularly good at holding grudges and making good on them in time. The disagreements over land can get particularly bloody. Not only are they defending their space, but usually their family and friends as well. It is not unheard of for the leader to lose and be killed next to everyone who found refuge under their rule by the challenger. It's the harsh reality of it. Purebloods have often felt the need to exterminate changelings simply because they were once human. Many hold the belief that there is strength only in purity. Cody had encountered many of those in his time and narrowly avoided them. Some have been almost militaristic in their ritual extermination of changelings.

Hybrids would occasionally start uprisings thinking that they were the superior species since theoretically they had the best of both species. However, these uprisings were usually quelled by vampires due to their superior strength. Other than vampires, humans posed the greatest threat. They had the sunlight on their side and could nearly effortlessly exterminate large groups of vampires just by opening a door or window. Vampires did their best to hide their existence from humans but hunter groups still formed to rid the world of their existence.

For Cody, opening a wildly popular night club in the midst of a large city probably wasn't the best way to avoid being detected. Hiding his entire court underneath said night club made the predicament even worse. He did his best by keeping the local authorities on the payroll to hold the hunters at bay. However, any murders occurring on the grounds or nearby could very well end in a massive bust that would spell disaster for anyone involved. Vampires and hybrids would be interrogated and killed. Any humans involved would likely be jailed for a long time. It wasn't a pretty situation and Cody did his best to keep things under wraps.

Despite the fact that he knew getting close to a human was not the best way to prolong their life, Cody felt that maybe being friends with Alyson for a short while wouldn't be so dangerous. He would just have to be extra careful to keep her safe. Easier said than done unfortunately. "Venomous? With that innocent face? I beg to differ." A crooked smile formed while carefully hiding suspiciously pointy teeth. When she moved away from his grasp, he leaned a shoulder against a nearby post and crossed his arms across his chest. "Apology accepted, though highly unnecessary. I may have been a tad bit too forward. Besides, I've been around a while, sticks and stones and all." Cody smiled sardonically before answering her next comment. "Aging gracefully, I suppose." Oh, if only she knew the degree of truth in that. "The 'fan girls' as you say, aren't really my type." The double entendres were starting the pile up. Not only were the girls not really the type he liked to keep company with, but most of them were either human or hybrid and not even the same species as him. His general dislike of them mostly stemmed from their lifestyles of constant partying and lack of decorum. He'd had the way of the court deeply ingrained in him and lack of etiquette sometimes made his skin crawl. "If I'm not mistaken, I have somebody right here who's more important. They can wait."

So take this night 

And lay me down on the street 

I know I'm not forgiven 

But I hope that I'll be given . . . 

Some peace . . .

"You really think I have an innocent face?" Reaching up to cover her now bashful expression with both of her hands, Aly wasn't sure how to properly react to the statement. It was the closest thing to a compliment she had heard in a long time, well from a guy as cute as Cody was. Swept up in the moment of having been called innocent Alyson failed to recognize anything weird about Cody having said that he was "Aging gracefully". But this ignorance could have also been brought on from the fact that he was so gracious about her apology. There were many things not normal about Cody, but it was in all the right ways. She actually had to stop and reminded herself of her earlier thoughts on him possibly just making a hobby of this, but then she was really reluctant to believe it.

"Well that makes me feel a great deal like a VIP, who would have thought?" Pulling her hands down, Aly was desperate to regain composer and just act natural again. She didn't want Cody thinking she was easy, not that there was any chance he could possibly be interested. "So Mr. Boss man, what do you suggest we do first? I mean the night is young and I'm sure you could show me a thing or two around here that I know nothing of." Pushing a lightly curled fist into Cody's arm she was taken by surprise to find that it didn't give under the pressure like a normal guys bicep would have. "Wow...you must work out...a lot." This intrigued her a great deal more then it should have. All she could do for a moment after was wonder what he might look like with his shirt off. No stop it! You'll stare if you keep thinking like that! We're all like you 

We've all seen through your eyes 

With our lives 

It's not easy to go on, believe me 

It's alright 

We're all alike

Cody gave a somewhat sad smile. "You are definitely innocent. Too good to be spoiled by me. Yet I still want to be your friend." Humans, to Cody, were like children. They were clean and relatively absent of sin. They generally didn't kill each other for nourishment or over bits of land. The life of the undead was quite animalistic. Ethics and morals sometimes got tossed out the window. The older vampires were the worst, and were often so desensitized that cruelty to humans no longer fazed them. Even if they had once been human themselves. Cody dearly hoped that he would never become that and fought it every step of the way by associating with humans as equals rather than subordinates.

At her request of something to do for the night, he was tempted to show her the court. It was empty of courtiers of course, but the sprawling expanse of rooms underground was quite beautiful. It was designed with gothic architecture and made mainly with medieval design. The walls and floors were stone but light was provided with electricity rather than fire. The main hall took up most of the space and was used as the ballroom. The ornate thrones that stood at one end were crafted out of obsidian. The bedrooms were in a hall leading away from this room. The master bedroom, where Cody stayed, was behind a massive oak and wrought iron door behind the thrones. His manner of governing the court closely mimicked that of medieval times because of his time spent in such a court after his changing. Many vampire groups kept this style of government and it functioned well for them.

Since showing her the court seemed a little bit much at this point, he chose instead to show her something a little less shocking. "If you're interested, I could show you my library?" The library was not immense as the rest of the court and it could be accessed through a different door even though it connected through a hallway to the main courtroom. "I live in the club's basement rather than having a house." Cody assumed that explaining this would be important since a library seemed out of place in a night club.

Cody tensed slightly at the impact on his arm, not out of pain, but out of concern at what her reaction might be. He laughed nervously at her comment. "I do a lot of... heavy lifting." It wasn't entirely a lie. When rearranging furniture that normally took a team to move, he could do it alone. It didn't attribute to muscle growth but it worked as a cover up.

Nobody knows me 

Nobody will 

Nobody knows this pain I feel 

Taken for insult or taken to heal 

Or taken away

Seeing Cody frown hit Alyson harder then she thought it would have, considering she didn't know him at all really. The worst part was she couldn't place a finger on what about him drew her to react and feel so much more then anyone else. It reminded her of something but what ever it was, was escaping her at the moment. Just what does he mean by spoiled by him? Trying to keep the question from her eyes, she allowed herself to just be happy with the fact that he still wanted to be her friend.And the first step to becoming closer friends was getting to see a little more of what he called home. Which was apparently the club itself.

It almost made more sense for someone to live in their place of business, especially if you wanted to keep it safe. On the other hand this was most definitely the strangest living situation she had heard of to date. "That sounds pretty cool actually, lead the way." Settling for his heavy lifting excuse Aly was comfortable with taking his arm, so he could escort her. The thing was, upon further inspection, Aly found his arm to be much more muscular then she had thought, and cold too. She almost pulled away at first, she was that taken off guard by how almost bitterly cold it was. On the other hand she didn't want to seem rude on the off chance it was something medically wrong with him, like very poor circulation. "Hey when we get to your library you may want to grab a jacket, you seem pretty cold." Smiling up at him she didn't want to seem like she was mothering him, but just looking out for him. As a friend of course. High above the serpentine 

I cross below the well-worn lines 

Entangled in a missing memory 

A violent oversight 

A formless order will give rise 

To something some new world is here to seize

Cody put his hand over hers at his elbow. "Follow me m'lady." He led her carefully through the very crowded room. On the way, he gave a surreptitious and very serious look to the bartender, a hint to him to watch over things while he was gone. He was a hybrid Cody had met years ago and had hired because he was easy to work with. On the rare occasions when Cody was neither in the main room or in his office watching the cameras. He felt he could trust him to keep things under control. They weren't friends per se and never spent time together outside of the club but they had an understanding, similar to the one Cody had with the local police department. Have to keep things hush hush and all.

Cody grinned crookedly at her comment about the cold, very nearly exposing his rather pointy teeth. "Worry not about the cold, Sunshine. It's totally normal." Most of the time he could warm up to room temperature but there were days when his skin absolutely refused to be anything other than frosty. At least his fingertips remained mostly the correct color.

To get to the stairs leading underground, they had to go through a metal door in a hallway off of the main room of the club. It was locked to keep out the unwanted guests but Cody kept a supply of keys to give out to anyone who became part of the court. He locked the door behind them and went down the flight of metal stairs into a hallway that resembled most utility basements in business. A few doors came off of this hallway all of which were wooden and held together by wrought iron bands. The doors were exceptionally heavy but not so much so that a human couldn't open them. A set of double doors opened into the main hall of the court and they passed it to get to a plain single door into the library. He pushed it open and gestured for her to go ahead of him. The library had a diagonal ceiling and no windows so it had to be lit with lamps like the rest of the underground rooms. Cody's old piano sat on one side next to his small reading desk. On the edge of the desk sat a rather inconspicuous jar of dirt. Black distressed leather couches lined the left wall. Overall, it was relaxed and mostly informal. The back wall was lined with books, some new, some large, and some that appeared to be cracked, ancient books likely bound in baby's skin - or worse - with knife-thin pages to slice your fingers off and laced with arsenic should you decide to lick your fingers as your turned pages. Those were favorites.

Cody smiled charmingly at Alyson before closing the door behind them. "I guess 'be welcome friend' sound nicer than 'here there be monsters' eh?" Either phrase would suit the room. Some of the rooms contents were a little unusual and possibly alarming to those given no explanation.

Into the wild 

On with the mission 

Over the hill 

Come here with me Normal for who exactly? Not wanting to offend her kind host Alyson kept the question to herself. Truth be told there was nothing really normal about being freezing cold but if she was right in her previous guess about the poor circulation then maybe in it's own weird way, freezing was normal. At least as far as Cody seemed to be concerned. Alyson was almost too distracted by this fact to notice that she was actually being led to the underground section of the club. This thrilled her and at the same time scared her to a point where she considered giving an excuse as to why she suddenly needed to leave. Everything was much more quite once they left the crowd and music behind, but the noise was replaced with a comfortable silence. There was much to marvel, given the sight was all new to her. It only got more magnificent when she was finally allowed access to the expansive library. Alyson didn't think it possible that one person alone could own so many books in this day and age, but then again she was beginning to see that Cody was not like most people in this time.

"There are so many books...I don't even know where to start looking..." Scanning slowly, Alyson was drawn in by the old-timey feeling that this room brought to her. She was into antique objects and older ways of life. If it were up to her she could spend the next eternity just relishing the feeling of a time long since passed. "I think I might make this room my second home...Oh my gosh you have a piano!" The second part of her statement she almost yelled out of pure excitement. Racing over to the older looking, but still beautiful instrument without really thinking Alyson let her fingers just slid over the keys not really wanting to play anything at the moment. It was a much older model of piano then the one she had at home, and only then did she realize that she wasn't home and this was not her piano to mess with.

Jumping back like the keys were suddenly red hot Alyson put her hands up in the air and looked to Cody hoping that she hand't done anything to offend him. "I am so sorry..I just...I can get carried away when it comes to things like...well a piano." Tripping on her words she glanced once more at the piano before taking her hands down and looking back to Cody. "Sooo...do you play?"

Author's Note

ignore grammar problems, what do you think of the dialogue