Here, Like This.. (Open)

[Hilde Ryder]

Hilde patiently placed another round, smooth rock in the pouch of the leather sling she had fashioned for Aislinn and handed the instrument over to the child. The seven year old was, as her human father had always wanted, a girl just like Hilde. She had taken to weapons the moment Hilde had offered them and practically drooled for more. She was already decent with a .22 Rutger Hilde had picked up one day at a pawn shop. The vampire wasn't going to get the child something with too much kick. There was no sense in scaring her away from the battles before they even began.

Hilde and all three of her sons had served in some kind of militia. Hilde, for her tribal people. Her sons for the Cesar of Rome. She suspected now, she could sign up for the human militia, but she doubted very many of the soldiers would like to sleep knowing a vampire stood outside on guard. That aside, Hilde was not known for working in groups any more. She had too long been too self sufficient to rely on someone or to account to someone. And, so, she was sitting on the peer, legs crossed, enjoying the scent of the ocean despite it being marred with dead fish and trash, while her own off spring learned the weapons she was first taught. Granted, Aislinn had a wooden sword from an even younger age. Hilde was loathe to give her a real sword lest she actually harm someone. Fifteen hundred years ago, that might not have been considered bad. Today, however, it was very different.

"Heart, you're not winding it up enough," Hilde reiterated, "You need momentum, and you're letting it go too soon." Standing, Hilde grabbed her own sling from the ground and loaded it with a tiny stone. "Here, like this." She swung the sling a couple of times in small, quick circles around her fingers before letting one end fly, the small stone shooting out with accuracy and the deadliness of a small bullet. A soft ping indicated its contact with the small metal discus they had been using as a target.

The child mimicked her mother's actions, the stone flying faster this time, although not accurately at all. Still, Hilde's instructions were rare and non-specific most of the time. She had learned what her own weapons felt like, and she figured her daughter could learn the same in the same manner. As such, the old vampire opted for sitting against a pole meant to stabilize the dock in the water, the rough rope scratching with familiarity against her back, as she watched her only female off spring continue to try to master the sling.

[Georgiana Dimitriou]

There wasn't much Georgiana could do about her brother now. He had had plenty of chances to remove himself from the bar but he hadn't. Six hundred fifty years later and George was still cleaning up after Elek. She looked down at her cell phone and watched the glowing screen as Elek called for yet another time. She pocketed the cellular device and tightened the holster around her shoulders before pulling on her leather jacket. In a few weeks Elek would be heading back to their home land and Georgiana could focus on
work.


Georgiana jumped on top of one of the steel cargo containers and looked down at the dark shipping yard. It had been a while since she had taken a walk on this end of the city. It was quiet and she could hear the gentle lapping of the water against the wood and concrete of the shipping yard. A few ships were docked but most had already left earlier in the day. There was a small dot of light about a mile out bobbing in the slow churning of the waves. George cocked her head and she fixed her gaze on the blinking red light.


George's blue-green eyes remained fixated on the red light until she heard a dull whipping in the air. She looked around with her narrow, feline-like eyes before bending down and looking past the edge of the cargo container. Close to the docks were two dark silhouettes, one an adult and the other a child. She cocked her head in a curious manner but immediately dismissed the curiosity. There were people down at the docks almost every night, that wasn't new.


Georgiana stepped off the cargo container and caught herself when she landed on the ground quietly. She stood up and readjusted her jacket before slowly moving towards the pair by the docks. She kept her distance, however, stopping when she was about one hundred feet away. Georgiana wasn't one to confront strangers on a regular basis but there was nothing else going on for the night and so she looked out over the water quietly before her gaze fell on the small child.

[Hilde Ryder]

She was never sure if she heard, smelled, or simply sensed the presence of those around her, but the air seemed to grow thick with company. Hilde had been vaguely aware that they hadn't been alone, but that sort of thing in this area was not wholly uncommon. Drunken humans, vampires looking for an easy meal, Hilde had even seen a lycan or two which was rare so far from their home domain. Though, she supposed, not all wolves could live in one area. Humans and vampires spread out. It seemed, so too would the wolves. As such, however, she was aware of her surroundings if for no other reason than to protect her off spring, but she wasn't paying particularly close attention to it. There was only one person in the entire state where she thought she might be attacked at random, and Tristan was likely too paranoid to spar with her in an area like this, not where he'd potentially get his own handed to him.


She continued to sit and watch her off spring pick up rocks and try to better her aim while keeping the second in her line of sight. If Aislinn had noticed she had a spectator, she hadn't shown any sign of it. After a few seconds, Hilde opted to test her awareness of her surroundings by throwing a small pebble, clipping her elbow. "Tik," the child grunted, grabbing her elbow, wrinkling her nose at Hilde, her upper lip snarling a little.

"Skrejya oskilgetinn," Hilde returned with a true snarl, "Pay attention to your company." Hilde nodded to the female vampire lingering at a distance. There was nothing quite like the relationship between the nearly 1600 year old vampire and the seven year old child where the child could freely call her mother a bitch in her mother's native tongue only to be called an incompetent bastard in return. And, yet, it was clear that Hilde was incredibly protective of her young and the two had a close bond.

Aislinn picked up a rock, frustrated that, once again, she had missed something important in her surroundings and was preparing to throw it at the woman when Hilde grabbed her hand and forced her to release the small stone. "It's not her fault you didn't see her," Hilde chided her child before looking back up to the woman. She had noticed that the younger vampire seemed to have been watching Aislinn, and she wasn't sure she liked that so much. The woman reeked of the Coven even from a distance, and Hilde wouldn't put it past Tristan to do something foolish. She knew he was almost waiting for her to make her move to take over the Coven. And, with the unrest surrounding the lycan ambassador and the general unease growing within the manor, she suspected he was liable to believe whatever he wanted despite the fact that if it weren't for her inexplicable attraction to New York City, she probably would have even less to do with the Coven than she already did. And, her extent of interaction now was nothing more than the fact that she resided in the same territory.

"Did you need something?" Hilde asked, never raising her voice as if she needed to be heard by a human. This woman would likely hear everything Hilde said. Not only did she reek of Coven, she smelled of power and authority. She was a woman accustomed to getting her way, though likely not yet as accustomed as the dark haired mother.

[Georgiana Dimitriou]

There was nothing new about seeing a vampire with their offspring, after all Georgiana had been born to two vampires. Her interest was peaked as she watched the little girl, but she couldn't say why. Georgiana didn't have much going on that night and so she figured it was just a way to buy her time. She certainly didn't have any ulterior motives involving the child. She wrinkled her nose as she thought before turning away from the child to look out at the dark water. Georgiana didn't really like children anyway and her interest in the child was lost completely. She hated their crying and constant hopelessness. For the first few years of a child's life they couldn't do much of anything on their own and Georgiana hated that, the weakness...


Georgiana heard the vampire begin speak to the child but she didn't need to turn her head to hear what was being said. She just didn't understand some of what was said. The entirety of George's language vocabulary was Greek, English and a few words in Spanish and Italian.


"Did you need something?"


Georgiana heard the words that were directed at her but she didn't show any sign of having heard the woman speak. She had her arms crossed over her chest and she could feel the handle of her guns against the inside of her arms. Georgiana let out a quiet breath before she turned to look at the other vampire.


"Not at all. I am out for a walk, that's all." Georgiana said quietly. Just like the other vampire, George's voice was quiet. Despite the fair amount of space in between them, there was still no need to raise their voices. Georgiana barely glanced at the child before her eyes fell back on the other vampire. "I was not expecting anyone else to be here..." Georgiana's voice trailed off and she was once again looking out over the water. The water here did not smell great and it certainly wasn't like the ocean back home. Georgiana missed the crashing of the waves on the white sands at night. She had never seen it during the day, but she could imagine how beautiful it was.

[Hilde Ryder]

Hilde's brow went up in skepticism. A vampire reeking of that much power and authority would have little reason to merely go for a walk. It meant one of two things. Either something was bugging the woman. Or, she was attempting to escape something-- real or imagined. Not expecting someone else to be on the docks was foolish. If nothing, drunks and daring prostitutes were typically found, though Hilde had found that a flash of fangs and a snarl usually sent both the opposite direction. What the older vampire found to be most curious was that the other had made that comment but then not decided to leave. In fact, she had stood watching Aislinn for a considerable amount of time-- with or without intention-- and now remained staring over the water. While the woman may not have expected company, it was unclear whether or not she would accept it now that it was here.

Curious and, quite frankly, maternal, Hilde was as brutal as she was protective. The vampire was young to have such power, not more than a teen as far as Hilde was concerned. She was probably too young or too headstrong to realize that power was the very thing that made a person vulnerable. Power, rage, grief-- anything that could simmer, really, was as dangerous to the self as it was to those around the self. Hilde would know. She was very intimate with the kind of self destruction caused by such emotions. There was a very good reason she would never challenge Tristan for his place as Master Vampire. That didn't mean she wasn't familiar with anger and hurt. She was familiar with both. One did not outlive empires without gaining that kind of experience. Age, as much as youth, could make a person weak.

As the woman continued to gaze over the water, Hilde picked up a melancholy sensation pulsating from the young woman. After a few minutes, the child back to pinging stones around the target with the sling, Hilde stood up, her footsteps all but silent as she came up behind the other vampire. She wasn't trying to be sneaky. There was no doubt in her mind that the young vampire was aware the dark haired Scandinavian had approached her. "There are far nicer places in this city to be homesick," the woman said, her voice low and soft. Had the other vampire known Hilde, she would have thought the tone odd. As it was, the lack of knowledge between them would save Hilde the bother of an explanation.

Still, the vampire knew of homesickness. She had spent a couple hundred years homesick in her Rome when she had lived with her first husband. It had only stopped when she had realized that the home she longed for no longer existed and would never exist again. She had been among the last generation of goddess worshiping Norse and among the first generation of a warrior tribe. She had been born with the Vikings. Even her native tongue was a mixture of the recognized Old Norse and the prehistoric tongue of her ancestors. That home, the one that had brought her the most comfort as she trailed around after her brother with a sharp knife large enough to be a sword in her tiny hands, chopping at plants and terrorizing small mammals, the one where she had learned how to kill and how to heal and how to prolong death both peacefully and painfully, the one that wasn't here where she often times was very much alone, was long gone. It had died with the setting sun, and Hilde had learned to accept where she was. It had been a hard lesson, though.

[Georgiana Dimitriou]

Georgiana could hear the gently clinking of the young girl's target practice and despite the fact that such a thing would have normally bothered her, she ignored it. Sure she didn't like kids all that much, but there was a time and place for everything and childhood was the time to learn and to be annoying. A small smile pulled at the corners of George's lips. She loosened her arms across her hip so her holster wasn't jabbing into her arm. She looked down at her pale hands before glancing up at the barely visible moon.


The large pearl orb dodged in and out of the murky clouds. She could make out a few stars in the sky but it was always hard to see very many stars in the city. If you wanted to stare up at the stars you went out into the country where everything was peaceful and it was just you and the night sky.


"There are far nicer places in this city to be homesick,"


Georgiana looked over her shoulder at the woman before pivoting on her heels to fully face the woman. Georgiana stood looking at the other vampire quietly for a moment. Sure, the shipping yard wasn't the cleanest place in the city but it was also one of the quietest at night. The smell of the water wasn't very appealing however...

"Yes, I suppose." George said quietly. She looked down at the ground and then back up at the woman. George didn't really know what to say at this point. She wasn't one to strike up conversation easily with strangers. "But I always come here, it's the most convenient place near the water." Georgiana was disappointed in her own response. She glanced back at the water with a wrinkled nose. The water was fairly polluted by the shipping yard and Georgiana had a hard time ignoring the unsavory smell it gave off.

Georgiana ran a hand through her hair before letting out another soft breath. She looked at the vampire, who clearly had more years on her than Georgiana. "I'm Georgiana Dimitriou." She said with a slight nod of her head.

[Hilde Ryder]

Hilde frowned. The woman sounded more like a depressed novel character the more she talked. The vampire found that a little disconcerting considering she had never been a fan of those kinds of stories. Then again, she wasn't a fan of dark brooding vampires who existed in the world anyway. They were largely useless as far as she was concerned. In a way, though, she hoped the youth wasn't nearly as depressed as she sounded on a regular basis. There was too much potential in the world, but Hilde did believe that certain things were set up purely for the sake of enjoyment. Her form of enjoyment just happened to be a little more on the sadistic side than most in the society cared to think about. Ironically, she did caution her daughter that because the child had never taken a life that she ought to not start doing so. For her, life was a box of paradoxes. She needed something to keep herself entertained.

Resisting the urge to say 'Well that sucks,' Hilde shift her weight, setting one hand on her hip as if her body was sighing without her actually releasing the breath. If Aislinn weren't around and Hilde didn't think the child needed some form of supervision, the older vampire might have cuffed the younger one despite knowing it would probably start a fight. Still, the answer seemed a rather pathetic cop out to the real issue at hand. A good boxing actually might do the other vampire some good, at least it might put things in perspective for her. "Why not just go back to where you came from, then?" she asked knowing full well why the woman wouldn't do that. Going back wasn't an option if only for the fact that wherever 'back' was for the younger woman would not be the same as when she had left. It would not be the same as what she missed, and the younger woman would probably continue to pine for it.

Hilde nodded. "Hilde. The off spring is Aislinn." At her name, the child stopped throwing stones and looked over before shrugging and deciding she had better things to do. Namely, it involved wandering off through the cargo containers, testing doors to see which ones were open and worth exploring. Hilde didn't even bother to caution or chide the child. If she wandered into danger, she would learn really quick or die trying. Well, no. That wasn't entirely true. Hilde wouldn't let her off spring get killed. Maybe gain a bruised ego or a few scrapes, but nothing too serious.

Hilde pursed her lips, her ears pulling back on the sides of her head. A small sound in the distance had caught her attention. It wasn't too far away that Hilde believed it to be irrelevant but not close enough that she could visibly see the cause. "You lock yourself in there, Girl, and I won't rescue you," she warned, loud enough that her voice made its way to Aislinn's ears in one of the cargo containers.

"Whatever." The response floated back followed by a loud clang that couldn't be missed. Hilde resisted the urge to roll her eyes as she focused her primary attention back on Georgiana, Aislinn drifting off to the sides of her mind.

Rocking onto her toes, Hilde arched her back, her arms stretching out over her head. "Byzantine or Ottoman?" she asked. Hilde was more partial to the Byzantines than the Ottomans, but she had to admit to having enjoyed observing the different tactics used by the Ottomans in their quest for domination. It was almost amusing, and she had learned a handful of things despite her many years as a warrior before that. The Ottomans talked a good talk, too. They just sucked at successfully managing things. Still, 400 or so years was no small achievement for a human culture to establish rule. What impressed her most about culture, though, were the ones that survived despite the many series of ruling cultures. Those amused her and she sought to examine them as she could. Hilde liked to examine, to see how far an individual or a group could be pushed before they broke.

[Georgiana Dimitriou]

Georgiana gaze was foggy as she thought about Greece. Her parents were there and so was her brother and that was one of the reasons she wasn't going back to Greece. She went back a few times a year but that involved a red eye flight and staying inside most of the time. Georgiana looked up at the vampire when she spoke again.


"Hilde. The off spring is Aislinn."


Georgiana looked over at Aislinn and she watched the young girl. She was a curious little thing and Georgiana couldn't help but smile ever so slightly. Kids were cute but that wasn't enough to change Georgiana's mind about them. She watched the Aislinn for a few more seconds before turning her gaze back to Hilde. She felt like she recognized the name from somewhere but she figured there were plenty of people in the world named Hilde.


Georgiana watched the interaction between the mother vampire and her off spring. The young girl was wandering around the shipping yard and if her mother hadn't been a vampire George would have been a bit worried. She listened to the quiet sounds of the girl running around the shipping yard. Doors to the large containers were being opened and closed.


"Byzantine or Ottoman?"


Georgiana almost missed Hilde's question while she watched the dark shadows around the shipping yard. Georgiana's head snapped up and she looked up at Hilde. "Byzantine." Georgiana's head was cocked and her eyes were narrowed. She didn't understand the relevance of the question but she didn't mind answering it. It was always interesting to see when and where everyone was from.


"She's cute...An adventurous one too." Georgiana said quietly. There was a soft smile on her face and she straightened up and began to relax. She didn't normally strike a relaxed conversation with people and in a way it felt good to be talking with another person.

[Hilde Ryder]

It had been ages since Hilde had heard the Dimitriou name, but there was no doubt in her mind, the young vampire before her was the spitting image of Alexis. Adrian's features had wormed their way into the woman's genetic profile as well, but Hilde was struck with the very distinct memory of Alexis comparing Bjorn and Marco to Hilde and Calogero stating that both boys looked like their mother. Both boys had their mother's violent streak as well. Absently, Hilde wondered which parent Georgiana took after. Though, Bjorn and Marco had spent an uncanny amount of time with Hilde and Calogero. Helio was off on his own by his sixteenth birthday whereas both Bjorn and Marco had been well over fifty before they left their mother's side. Perhaps that had to do more with the older two boys' personalities. Though, Helio wasn't much different ultimately. And, all three had fallen prey to the older vampire's lycan brother. The pleasant memory of Alexis faded to a frown as her brother entered her thoughts.

"Interesting," she mused, "It's been some time since I've met someone who aged in the dwindling era of the Byzantine." She had been older than both Alexis and Adrian when she had met them and had considered them youth then. But, in respect, where they may have been the equivalent of teenagers immortally, she was no more than a new found woman in her twenties. Suffice to say, in terms of immortal, they had not been that far apart in age.

Hilde smiled faintly at the mention of Aislinn's state of being. It was probably safe to say that Georgiana was not a parent. Hilde had not planned on becoming a parent again, but after several hundered years of exemption from parenthood, it seemed the Fates deigned that she try her hand at raising a girl. Three boys had been raised to be warriors, like Hilde had been. She didn't know what made the Fates think that Aislinn would be raised any differently just because she had been a girl. After all, Hilde had been a girl. But, the child had made Aislinn softer in some respects. Not in all, and not in enough, but at least the woman wasn't a terror so often. That she could hold a conversation without choking someone out was testimony to that.

"You say cute now," the vampire murmured with a knowing smile. In the distance, she heard a metal door slam shut, a clear cue that the child had done precisely what her mother had warned against. She had locked herself into one of the cargo containers. Hilde sighed, but true to her word, she didn't move to go rescue the girl despite the loud banging that followed.

"You're not much of a socialite, are you?" Hilde asked, looking over the other woman and noting her slightly uncomfortable stance. Between the smell of the Coven, the aura of authority, and the discomfort with talking, Hilde imagined Georgiana tended to lean towards the side of force, brutish or otherwise, but the younger woman most likely resorted to force of will more often than not. Hilde found that interesting. Tristan didn't strike her as the type to promote those who were accustomed to utilizing sheer will to get their way, but here, the young Grecian seemed to be just that type. Perhaps over the years, Tristan was changing, too. Hilde took that to note before dismissing it, her attention drawn to the uncanny quiet in the yard.

"Aislinn," she mumbled under her breath, "So help me if you're going to do what I think you're going to do." As she muttered that, she glanced around the yard, listening for the sound she guessed was coming. A loud, low thud echoed through the yard followed by a second and a third in a repetitive pattern, the sound of a few short steps of running reaching only the supernatural ears. Hilde's eyes darted around the yard, following the echo back to its origin each time it rang out. Hilde had to admit she was impressed the seven year old's weight was enough to cause the kind of noise they were hearing. Either the child was using something to add to her weight or the mother had seriously underestimated her offspring's growing speed.

Instinctively, Hilde pressed her hands over her ears as the final clang actually caused the air to vibrate. Once the air had settled, though, Hilde started laughing. It didn't take long from there for the tiny bodied person to wiggle her way through the gap created in the now torn metal of the container and stumbled back to the two adults clearly dizzy, her ears still ringing as she had been closest to the sound. "You cause too much noise, Aislinn," Hilde chided, her fingers running through her daughter's hair, "If you had been captured instead of getting yourself stuck, everyone would know their prisoner had escaped."

The child grinned cheekily at the older woman. "Then, they are fools for attempting to imprison me in the first place," she fiercely declared.

Hilde clucked her tongue. "And, here, I was just told you were cute." The vampire directed the child's attention to the other woman. "Aislinn, this is Georgiana."

Aislinn eyed the woman with scrutiny. Hilde may have seemed comfortable around the woman, but the child detected that her mother did not yet trust her which meant the woman was new to Hilde as well. That did not happen often. Most of the Coven vampires were known to Hilde. Yet, Hilde's comfort also bespoke of the older vampire's opinion that Georgiana was not to be dismissed in the same manner that Hilde so often dismissed one of Tristan's followers. There was clearly something about the Grecian vampire, and Aislinn did not understand what. It was this more than the woman herself that the child scrutinized.

Without warning, Aislinn grinned at Georgiana and ran to the peer not fifty yards away, nearly sliding to the ground as she picked up the metal sword that had been crafted in both weight and size to fit her smaller frame. It was just as sharp and lethal if used appropriately as one of the many swords Hilde owned. She assumed a slightly off balance stance, the sword held between both of her hands. "Fight or die," the wide eyed child of the insane demon challenged their new Grecian acquaintance.

Hilde shook her head. "You'll lose, Aislinn," the older vampire counseled, "Assuming anyone is willing to play with you." Hilde's attention turned back to Georgiana. "With apologies, you say cute, I say crazy." Despite her words, though, there was a humored note of pride in Hilde's voice. Her stance implied, too, that if the child was ignored, she would stop her antics. Aislinn was merely attempting to assert herself to the new comer and prove something to Hilde. The child did not yet understand that her mother did not expect her to prove herself to anyone, least of all her, but that knowledge, Hilde hoped, would come in time. Until then, Aislinn had drawn on Hilde before, too, and lost, though Hilde had never damaged more than Aislinn's pride.

[Georgiana Dimitriou]

Georgiana knew plenty of vampires that were from her generation. There was fewer elder vampires than younger but Georgiana was in the middle and somewhat towards the older side of vampirism. However, age didn't really concern Georgiana. You may be thousands of years older than her but you had to prove it. She had met very young vampires who could handle themselves extremely well, ones she respected. And then she had met the occasional elder vampire who acted like a newly made vampire and who deserved to be turned to ash. Age was nothing to her.


"You're not much of a socialite, are you?"


Georgiana perked up a bit and she looked at Hilde with a slight smile on her face. She could be social when she wanted to or when the time was right, but normally she hunted, killed, and protected. There wasn't much use for socialization in that career. "Not anymore, at least." Georgiana said with a quiet laugh. She had once been a bouncy little baby vampire but she had grown out of that a long time ago.


Georgiana listened to the quiet shipping yard. She could her the quiet movements of Hilde's daughter and she listened closely for a few minutes before turning her attention back to the mother vampire when she spoke again. There was a soft grin on her face as she heard the slam of one of the cargo doors shut. It was quiet for a while before repeated low banging echoed in the shipping yard.


Georgiana looked up and had a disgruntled look on her face as Aislinn came walking over to them. She looked down at the young girl before she raised her head again in surprise at how feisty the girl was. Georgiana lifted a hand and gave the girl a slight wave of her hand before returning her attention to Hilde. "Well I suppose once they start growing up they do get a bit crazy." Georgiana had never worked a whole lot with kids, but she knew how kids got when they started growing up. They got rebellious and started acting out.

[Hilde Ryder]

Age was a fickle thing. Too young and one didn't know better. Too old, and one often got bored. And, boredom meant reckless. But, Georgiana sat somewhere between, perhaps on the younger side. She struck Hilde as not yet being entirely comfortable with herself. The homesickness somewhat proved that. Then again, she had to wonder if anyone, at any time in their life, was completely comfortable with themselves in order to not long for the ties and security of home. Even if home was impossible or, ironically, unsafe.

Hilde chuckled softly. Georgiana didn't know Hilde very well, but if she did, she might have amended her statement a little. Aislinn had a head start on crazy over other youth. After all, she had Hilde to learn from. "I'm bored," the child whined.

"Then go do something," Hilde chided, "You know the area well enough. Be back well before sunup." The child growled softly before running off, dropping her sword where she had picked it up in the process. Hilde watched her run off with a small sigh. There were nights where the child supervised herself within the city. Often, Hilde wondered how long it would be before the small girl opted to piss off another vampire enough that she would be attacked, but that would have to be a lesson the child would learn. Hilde had spent her days as a child wandering around. She had allowed all of her sons to do the same. Times may have changed and the culture may have shifted, but the paradigms were much the same. Hilde kept an eye on the child and knew, almost instinctively, where she was at all times, but she didn't hover over the child. Or coddle. Hilde doubted she even knew how to do that.

"What do you do for Tristan?" Hilde asked as she rocked onto the heels of her feet. She was still somewhat surprised that someone from so far in her past had sprung into her present. Not that she would forget Georgiana's parents. They had gone out of the way for her and her off spring and, though she hadn't spoken to them in many years, were as much family to her as Aislinn was. The girl, too, had potential. As odd as it was, and maybe it was because of Alexis though Hilde doubted it, finding that she might have felt the same even if Georgiana had not shared her last name, Hilde hoped that the younger woman would be given fair opportunity to reach her potential. Anger, though, the demon had learned, was as much a restraint as anything else. Anger was a good tool, but to survive entirely, one needed so much more.

[Georgiana Dimitriou]

Georgiana ignored the young girl like she did with all kids. She glanced at her from the corner of her eye when Aislinn spoke again. Georgiana observed the interaction between mother and daughter quietly and politely.


Normally Georgiana stayed away from kids. They could be quite destructive once they reached a certain age despite their small size. She had met plenty that were too smart for their own good. However, they didn't make her nervous, she just didn't like them.


Georgiana watched the young girl go off on her own. She had been able to break out of a storage container and she could see why her mother trusted her to go off alone. Georgiana stood unblinking as the two stood in the dark of the shipping yard.


"What do you do for Tristan?"


Georgiana looked over at Hilde with an expressionless face. The real question was what didn't Georgiana do? The Lieutenants did a lot for the Council and Council Master. George thought it was an odd question but she would still answer it anyway. No one really asked what she, as a Lieutenant, did for the Council and the Council master.

"I serve mainly to protect the council members. But I do an occasional errand for them as well." That was the shortest answer Georgiana could give. She did a lot and she did keep a lot of it to herself because some of the things she did for the council was a secret. George didn't feel at liberty to say much more. Her father was about the only person, other than the council and Tristan, that knew about what she did and had done.

[Hilde Ryder]

Hilde nearly chuckled at Georgiana's response. It was just vague enough to be noticeable. "Then, I suppose, Lieutenant," she purred, "That it's a pleasure to meet you." Hilde wasn't sure whether or not to feel proud of herself or disappointed that her first thought was how she could use Georgiana to play mind games on Tristan. Opting for the latter, she dismissed the thought. The child's parents had done her a humble favor, and that was no way to show her gratitude. Georgiana and her brother were free from the abuse Hilde usually subjected people- humans, Damphirs, or vampires- to.

"Tell me, Georgiana, what kinds of night to night activities do you have planned?" She didn't often inquire into the future. It seemed rather fruitless since she tended to act on a whim more than anything else. But, it might still prove useful to know. The other woman wasn't too social and neither was Hilde, but it seemed as though the younger of the two was slightly more awkward in the world in that she actively resisted it. Hilde didn't want to become a mentor or a guard, but perhaps just a co-adventurer. Hilde, aside, could use more adult company. Aislinn was a dear child, but she was still a child. Hilde wouldn't mind interacting with people she didn't have to concern herself with disciplining. For now, she would remain actively non-trusting of the other vampire but still interact with her. It would be a while before Hilde would trust or even confide. Still, the prospect might be interesting. Test the waters, as it were.