Family Business
There was a proverb about being careful what you wished for. There was another one about how living in interesting times which could be interpreted as a curse. For Victoria Foxworth, business owner, writer, producer, director, actress, part-time accidental traveller through time and, yes, even vampire, there was a recognition that 'interesting times' could also be very much of a blessing, too. She had experienced far more and on a much greater scale, than she ever had while human. Granted, there were certain, select episodes in her unlife, which she would have preferred never happened, although a lot more she cherished.

The trip to New Work was... She was unsure quite which cetegory that belonged in. It could be annoyingly difficult trying to orchestrate and plan such a thing, when having to factor in exposure to daylight. In the old days, catching a plane might have been a good answer, but airport security was no longer the easiest of things for an average vampire to make her way through. So, Victoria was left with having to effectively hop between destinations, time her hotel bookings in advance and then recalculate, if one of those nearest available happened to be full up.

By the time she had arrived, however, one would not have known it. She would have been well-rested during the day, telephoned in advance and dressed for the prospect of meeting her fanged maker for the first time in a while. With a knock on the elder redhead's door, Victoria only worried that yet another long-lost bloodied 'sister' had not taken her place.

Or a new one, come to that.

Paper cuts on her fingers. Sunova but that hurt. Despite modern technology, Deanna favored the old fashioned approach to writing and rewriting. Notes in the margins, scribbles and cross-outs. Her book rewrites were taking longer than planned and she was quite the grumpy vampire. It didn't help that she'd kept clicking on the web address her nemesis provided on the back page only to find some trifling story of Slayers in Searchlight. She'd expected... more of Rhiannon. That was a weird thought.

The knock brought the redhead's focus back to her room at the Waldorf Astoria. Padding lightly across the plush carpet, Deanna peered through the peephole and let out a squeal as she saw her childe rocking on heels on the other side.

"Password?" she teased.

It elicited an aggravated lifting of eyebrow on Victoria's behalf, because this was just like Deanna - get the brunette to travel to her, then beg for the priviledge. Vicky only had herself to blame, in part, of course; it had made up the initial core of their dynamic and been played out during her eventual turning. Many years from now, precisely the same sort of thing might still be going on. Only time would tell.

"Marie..."

Victoria had sauntered right up to the door, announcing Deanna's real name in just about the most intimately erotic tone she could. A deliberate subterfuge, needless to say, but she knew how saying it could affect redhead. Everyone called her 'Deanna' - not many knew the other title. Something symbolic of the bond of trust the pair had built up, for Victoria to even be aware of it.

The door swung open, and the maker greeted her childe with a wicked smile. "Close enough," she offered, allowing Victoria access to the hotel room.

The redhead was dressed in a simple burgundy dress, tied off at the waist. Her hair was slicked back in a ponytail, a pencil behind her ear. "One of these days," the elder teased, "you're gonna make me come to you."

"Hmm," Victoria sceptically replied, "hasn't worked, so far."

Indeed, it had only been the mention of a shopping spree which had caused her to finally relent to what had felt a little like emotional blackmail. At least the brunette had grown independent enough to not simply jump when Deanna clicked fingers, which was something. Sometimes, she thought that such behaviour might come from Deanna's irregularly mentioned fears of being abandoned by her, but if the debacle over Celine had not led to that, then it was unlikely that anything would. It suited, the redhead, of course, to act so... Imperious. It could just sometimes disappoint Victoria for her agreement in decisions to be taken for granted.

Moving past her and into the room, Victoria's most immediate feeling was one of nostalgia. Her own on-again-off-again luxurious hotel suite, back in Las Vegas, was coming to mind. Oh, she missed that... A reason to sigh, if ever there was.

"So, eat anyone interesting, while I've been away?"

The redhead pushed the door closed and latched it, lest unwelcome passersby peer in. "A German undersecretary to the interior, but in my defense he was asking for it." There was a chuckle passed then. Victoria knew her maker never needed a reason to indulge. She was unabashedly proud of who she was. Since the world came to know of their existence, it made feeding slightly more difficult, yet at the same time, easier.

"Turns out he had a fetish for our bite, my lovely," Deanna continued. "You'd be surprised how many clubs have opened up in western Europe that cater to us now. Fang Noir was slightly ahead of its time."

She poured herself a glass of ice water and took her seat again upon the plush couch, collecting papers and collating them on the coffee table. The vampire padded her hand on the seat next to her.

"I know," replied Victoria, although, this time, with a slight edge of resentment. Her beloved Fang Noir could have potentially become a franchise, by now, had it not been for getting trashed by armoured monster and human fighters! Still, what was done was done and she had her memories of it. She could have rebuilt, but cinematic art projects had proven a more intriguing calling. "I keep getting calls from people asking if it relocated. Part of me wants to lie and pretend it did."

Now she knew how Betamax felt, after VHS took over. Or whatever that other one was before 'Blu-ray'. She was an out-dated format - a used substitute. Oh, woe, thy name is Fang Noir...

Deciding to do as request by hand, Victoria joined on the space beside, sliding herself in next to the other woman. There was a certain feeling a vampire tended to get from doing that, when it was with the one who had made them. Or at least, in Victoria's view, there was. Perhaps that was just because she had made sure to swallow down as much of the essence as she could, when it came to the moment which had simultatneously ended her life and damned what became of her. Or maybe because she had simply spent do long with her, in the early days, doing whatever she could to focus on and attune herself with that mystical bond. Whatever it was, the emotion seemed not too different to that experienced by the setting in of a final piece into jigsaw puzzle.

"You'd be surprised at the number of people I've noticed who've come over to Chicago... Even Bethany's there."

As Victoria talked, Deanna closed up her laptop and shuffled the papers into a cloth bag. "Bethy? Oooh, now there's a face I'd love to see again!" Not that the redhead would admit to such, but she missed the people she'd connected with back in Las Vegas. But sometimes a girl needed her alone time, and this past retreat resulted in a book deal. However, with the final rewrites coming to a close, she would have plenty of down time before it was published. "Maybe I need to see Chicago in the 21st century, hmmm?"

That was when Victoria drew her own hands together, closing them over one another. Her face might have been expected to light up at that suggestion. She could have suddenly squealed and danced around the room. Deanna is coming! Deanna is coming! Deanna is coming and not even because of sex! But, instead, she became forlorn and perhaps even a little regretful. their first major time apart, when Victoria had first moved to Las Vegas, had been mostly positive. This one, however, had been quite different.

"Things are boring," she confided. "The weather's cold, there's not nearly as much neon, I miss the Strip and even when I travelled through time, again, all I got to be was a school nurse... Um, yeah, that happened, again. It was a whole big thing, which... You're probably better off not getting confused by knowing about," the younger vampiress excused, with a wave of her hands. "And when the monsters all came out, at the new year, they tried attacking me! It's not fair!"

Which was about the size of it, really. Victoria did not realise it, looking down at the floor, rather than at her teacher, but she was pouting. Not quite a petulant little girl, by any means, but where Victoria had become accustomed to a world of neon magic, in Las Vegas, the new place was quite the opposite and she had not rightly prepared herself for it. Not since the ad hoc 'world tour' she had at least attempted with Deanna and Star, after their collective Las Vegas phase. she had gone from havens of glamour to... What? Mediocrity? It was difficult to describe, other than by saying...

"It's like an anti-climax," Victoria added, finally turning head to speak straight at her. "Even Bethany's kind of... Like, settled down, with the same boyfriend. Since the wall came down, all I can put about that in my book is an epilogue about it. I don't know what to do with myself. You'd know how to change that, right? You went through all sorts of stuff! Like... Like, wars and things! You'd know how to make it fun!"

Slender, cool fingers reached up to stroke the brunette's cheek, before caressing an earlobe. "Some of it I stumbled into. And some I made on my own. I think that's why some places I didn't stay long. Because I couldn't make it fun."

Deanna lifted the glass and took a long drink before setting the crystal back onto the table. "There were times I made it fun because I didn't want you to get bored of me."

"You want to know why I wrote the book?" Deanna now cupped Vicky's chin in her palm and lifted so their eyes could meet. "Everything I've witnessed, living through history, it's so you'd remember me when I'm gone. Don't misunderstand, I'm not about to go on a suicide by watching the sunrise, but... some day. When you get tired. You know?"

That brought out the resolve in Vicky and the brunette frowned in determination. "I won't. Stop saying I will. Hasn't everything we've been through, been proof enough of that?" Her jaw setting in seriousness, because, although it was the type of ploy Deanna could sometimes use to talk her into bed, Victoria Foxworth was quite sure of this fact. "Saying I'll get tired of you, is like saying I'll get tired of fangs... You realise how many parental talks I had about that? This is no different. It's not a phase. If I was ever going to walk out, it would've been over Celine... I didn't. Remember that."

She could have brought Star into the equation, too. Deanna had once assured Victoria that she would abandon her, when she managed ot turn someone of her own, which had been proven false. Not that Vicky considered her girl 'better' or 'worse' than her maker - they were simply 'different'. Represented different portions of her unlife. Star had her fixation with Tyler, which had seemingly snatched away much of the time they would have otherwise spent with one another, but that made their bond no more false than the one Victoria shared with Deanna.

And she was giving up neither. Not unless forced to.

"Besides, if either of us is going to end up getting stabbed with wood, it won't be you..." She added in a teasing tone of her own, a chaste kiss pressed to Deanna's lips, just for good measure. "You're the one who keeps tangling with Slayers and surviving! The last time I had a legitimate confrontation with one of those... Gosh, I had to get awfully creative to talk myself out of that one."

Deanna dabbed her eye. No, she was most certainly not crying. T'was dust, was all. And if anyone challenged that assertion, it would be the fangs for them! And not in a good way!

"And you don't think that's interesting?" The redhead refocused on her daughter. "Slayers are all STABBY STABBY STAB! and you didn't even break a nail!" She shifted slightly on the couch, bringing up her legs underneath. "I'd kill to pull that off. Can you imagine me walking out of a confrontation with that stubborn bitch without a single scar? If we weren't so adept at healing, plastic surgeons around the country would make a mint off me."

"If you're talking about who I think you are, I can't see her reacting how the one I met did! She was all young and fresh-faced... I made like I was demented and suddenly fell in love with her. The poor thing ran off! If I did that to Rhiannon, she'd tell me to keep my fantasies to myself, five seconds before turning me to dust - if she was feeling talkative."

Victoria had only interviewed the Slayer, not battled against her, but between that and what Deanna had often recounted about the young woman, Victoria was intelligent enough to know there was an obvious difference in the veterans of that particular cause. If someone like that ever came after her, the brunette knew she would have little option but to try and actually fight, which was precisely why the intervening year had involved learning from Deanna and a select few others, on some of the more murderous techniques she had not seen fit to explore, while in Las Vegas.

"So... What was this about painting the town red?"

Deanna shook herself out of self-imposed examination, shedding a layer of dust that had settled in her solitude. Victoria was in New York, and they needed to make new memories. "How good are you with finger paint?" she teased. "Dipping into a palatte of crimson?"

"I think you know the answer to that," Victoria supplied, smile bright and breezy. She could have mentioned some other artistic talent which involved her fingers, but her maker would know about those, too. "I try not to be a messy eater, though..." She added with a wrinkle of nose. "That's just... Unhygienic."

Granted, neither of them had any need to be mindful of illness or disease, but Vicky was hardly a sewer-dweller, either.

"You know how those restaurants where patrons dine in the dark?" The redhead's customary wicked grin was back in full force. "They have cutlery and everything."

Victoria opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out, aside from a momentary pause and puzzled, "No." Because she had honestly never heard of such a thing. Vampires, sure, but imagining humans eating in pitch black... Unless she misinterpreted what Deanna was trying to get at, then whatever this was, it must have been a fad which had somehow passed her right by.

Then again, it was hardly as if the brunette had a reason to go out eating at such places, on anything even approaching a regular basis. Or even an irregular one.

"They just... Sit there in the dark? Not even a candle?" She frowned, quite at a loss. "I guess it's as good a way to save on the electricity bills, as any."

Deanna laughed, more of a giggle really, but infectious nonetheless. Her childe's innocence was a song the vampire never tired of. "They say," she swirled an arm in the air, mimicking high society in both tone and aspect, "that it enhances the senses in an orgasmic delight!"

"Oh..." Victoria blinked, brow raising. "Well, that's understandable."

Not that she meant it to look comical, even if it did. Perhaps Bethany was right about the sex therapist thing. The brunette did have a tendency to encounter all sorts of weirdly useful information.

Shifting to face Deanna more squarely, Victoria was still unsure as to what was being hinted at. "So... You want to go in one and gag each person? Or just lock the door and the fire exits?" The younger of the two vampires was no shrinking voilet, when it came to deaths, but she still found some beheaviour of their fanged brethren wasteful and now contemplated her fingernails. "I don't know... It sounds awfully... Well, not destructive, but... I'm not sure if something like that would give me much pleasure..."

Deanna took her childe's hand and held it in hers. She was most accustomed to showing intimacy in grand gestures, but smaller moments such as these spoke more between the two.

"Bar the doors, gag them, feast on their entrails..." Their eyes locked. Bathe and make love in their blood..."

"Feast on their entrails?"

Victoria was wearing her sceptical look. The one with head tilted down, eyes glancing up and one eyebrow raised. There had been a time, in Las Vegas, when she would have been all for that, when she had been temporarily corrupted, placing her in touch with supremely demonic urges. She hardly remembered even undergoing that, though and ahd since been returned to her usual self. The idea of munching her way through intestines - especially when considering what was probably inside them... Was none too appealing for her.

"Well," she refreshed, after a fashion, "the sex part, I could definitely go for!"

"Baby steps." The redhead knew there was a baser nature to be nurtured, and she was in no rush.

No admonishing for getting too non-violent in her absence? No attempt to seduce her into it? No beginnings of a sulking tantrum? Not even the tiniest of remark about alleged lop-sidedness of rear, in order to gain sympathy?

Times, Victoria decided. They had a-changed...

"OK!" She replied, making a happy little shrug of shoulders at the lack of resistance to her unwillingness to more fully engage. "You should've invited Star, too, though... She'd have loved an excuse to exhaust New York's supply of footwear. Speaking of which," the younger brunette added, making a slight squeeze of the hand in her own, "wanna' go shopping now? I promise you can molest me, after!"

The elder vampire's turn may have come across as strange. But it was a New World out there, and Deanna was rethinking her priorities. New lessons to be learned.

Perhaps one day, the redhead would spin the events of her time in Patmos. It would put a lot of things in perspective for Victoria.

"Shoes, some Dolce + Gabana dresses, and hot sex." The redhead stood, ready to begin the night in earnest. "Three of my favorite things."

"You'd make an interesting Mary Poppins, that's for sure," her fanged daughter observed, clearly amused with the mental image she had just conjured up for herself. "Can't see you singing on the chimney tops, though..."

Raising to feet, she could not help but smile. This was Deanna, after all. She was back with the one who had made her and, as aimless a turn as her unlife had recently taken, the redhead would undoubtedly give her a sense of purpose in at least one respect.

Who knew? Maybe the woman could tell her a tale or two about Chicago from the old days, too...