The twilight had waned into a darker night as I spent time abroad the Ark. It seemed only natural to start back where I had began, the distinct lack of comfort having driven me from the small pallet I had created in my newly minted shop. Life had changed at such a speed that I felt often as if my head was spinning and the earth had stopped. Certainly it was more empty. Even now my lean hand fingers the old flip phone in the pocket of my lean black peacoat, a luxurious item that I had taken from my parent's estate. It still smelled of my mother and I ached to call her, but no one would answer on the other line. No one would ever answer again. It galled me the way my throat tightened, the way my eyes pricked. Even after months I couldn't contain the desperate hope that it was a dream. I cleared my throat, mossy eyes flicking around the Ark to note a few steely gazes given in my direction.

Tobias had allowed me to return to the Ark to sell my goods but I only came once a week. The Shifter's were not as jovial and accepting as they had once been. Tetradore was dead. I had been incredibly shocked at the news, delivered so vehemently from Tobias. It explained their behavior towards me. Cool, threatening, wary. It also made me more concerned for the man named Frost. I remember the way my blood had seemed to burn within me, a product of his icy powers, the way he threatened me. If he scented me around the Ark again I don't think things would go as smoothly, but I also held onto the belief he wouldn't wander so close by this time. After all, he had a whole pack after him now.

My powers had begun to grow and strengthen. My parent's Coven had explained my grief had allowed me access to much of it and that if I had only stayed, they could groom it even more. Yet I had sensed an eagerness beneath their voice that bothered me and so had turned it down. Instead my mind had been cast to returning to the city I had once called home. It had changed a little and I had changed a lot, but I took comfort in finding those old friends I had once had. Well, friends might seem strong a word but perhaps I was just desperate for company.

The months have changed me into something more refined. I was still wild on the inside but my curly, unmanageable locks had been tamed for the moment, now sleek and black without the flyaway frizz. My face had become leaner, more refined and my clothing sleeker as well. My parents had left me a small nest egg and I had been forced to wear such apparel for the Coven had strict standards. Somehow I hadn't cast them off yet.

Frost is blown from my mouth as I slink through the cold night, huddled deep within my jacket. I had brought some potions to the Ark and managed to sell them all, stuffing the small bag into one of the deep pockets of my coat, and was more than ready to get to the train station to catch a ride to the east side of the city. Knowing the dangers, I move as quietly as I can, using my powers to call up the dead weeds into something lively so that they coat beneath my steps to silence much of the noise.

I peek around the corner of a building, a habit from the time I had ran into a vampire, and freeze. A dark haired man stands beneath a streetlight, pulling an envelope from beneath a bench. If that wasn't shady enough... Yet as he stands up and flicks the cigar down I am struck by something familiar. His profile seems...

So I take a step forward, focusing my energies on maintaining my silence, only he is a vampire of course and could probably hear me anyways. My heart beating rapidly, the sound of my quiet breathes. "Dareios?"

The name comes out in a sort of unbelieving voice because I am almost CERTAIN it is him. If not, I'm about to get caught spying on some shady dealer but I have confidence I can take on a human, if so. I take a few steps towards the light now, my steps sounding rough on the asphalt for I no longer try to conceal myself, and then I break out in a beaming smile. "It IS you!" Perhaps I should say more but I am overwhelmed. Happy, to say the least, at having come across another that I had once known. Maybe I should feel a bit of guilt since I had disappeared unexpectedly and without much notice for months but I don't. It wasn't as if Dareios hadn't had a thriving business before I came along anyways. My eyes narrow a bit, mouth pulled up slightly in a smirk as my eyes flick down to the bench then back up. "What is a vampire Mayor doing out in the dark on the west side of the city?" There is a teasing lilt to my soft voice.