a dance with death

lenny mercier dauphine. twenty-seven. black magic traveler. manager at howler's.

[lennydauphine]

zckecxlln‌:

However faintly her humor might have fallen, he couldn’t pick it up, couldn’t grasp it between teeth that’d clenched all too tightly over his personal affair becoming slightly less personal every time he seemed to turn his back. “You really think that’s enough?” He couldn’t hide how heavily he disagreed, even if he thought to try. “You think trusting a hunter no different to me is enough? Because there’s a reason I hunt alone, Lenny.” She could entwine their fingers in much a permanent state and he might have still thought to find a way to pry himself loose from such attachment, the lingering gentle squeeze he offered before pulling his hand away and furthermore moving to stand not nearly as reassuring as she likely hoped it would be. Leaving seemed dramatic, the apex of his nature stemmed from everything that lived within Red Creek, everything that he’d come back for in the first place – ground zero was where he’d always belong, no matter the war he fought. “– You’re gonna’ wipe it from his memory.”

You really think that’s enough? She had to believe that it was, somehow clinging to the tiniest shred of whatever hope remained within her bones as she laid an unsteady faith in one man’s loyalty to another. "I’m not trusting any hunter, I’m trusting Sawyer---” It didn’t matter and she could see as much, plain as day on Zeke’s features, and thus the words died within the confines of a slender throat. A sigh near soft as a dove escaped her parted lips as he vacated his spot beside the young witch, only to offer up what might have been considered the worst option of all. For the first time in quite awhile, their relationship having reached an even and admirable plateau until this point, Lenny was taken aback by his words. “Excuse me?” It didn’t feel right, on any level, and the fervent anger billowing beneath the surface of her skin at how far he was willing to take this... She became a simmering pot, ready to overflow at any moment. “Let me get this straight: you think it’s safer to wipe the mind of your best friend, someone who can-- and will kill me if he figures it out, and to somehow do this all behind Cassidy’s back as if she won’t notice. You’ll be sending two dogs after me if I can’t pull it off so either you’ve got a hell of a lotta faith in what I can do... or you’re willing to throw me in front of a train to save your own ass.”

[lennydauphine]

zckecxlln‌:

It wasn’t Sawyer’s secret to keep, and that most of all dug in against his ribcage and threatened to pierce through. A pill easier to swallow when they were the only two in control of how and what was said or done about one another and their effervescent connection. “Aren’t you?” Knuckles dug into the mattress below, Zeke swiveling in place to cast incredulous hues back to her. “That’s not how it works.” Not to mention he had, with greatly terrible intentions tortured his own other half and scarred her beyond immortal healing. Too many factors that he couldn’t openly control flit between a moment of overthinking and another where his worry was perfectly reasonable. “Between him and Tripp – they know too much.”

“He swore to me that he wouldn’t tell and as crazy as I feel saying it, I trust Sawyer. If you’re worried about him betraying you, then just remember you’re not the only one in this equation. He’d also be betraying me and I hear I’m a real pain in the ass if you’re on my bad side.” The petite witch began disentangling herself from the blankets, crawling ever closer to Zeke’s side where she belonged. Slender fingers reached down to unfurl his fist, a wordless disengaging him from the next fight he sought out. Her head tilted slightly as she observed how their hands slotted together, a perfection and contentment she couldn’t even achieve with the darkest of spells. No, this was pure; this was holy. “---Then what do we do now? Run away from Red Creek? Or are you planning to lock me in a tower?”

[lennydauphine]

zckecxlln‌:

Feeling her shift behind him did little to uncurl the knot of his shoulders, the subtle shake of his head one aimed purely at her ignorance for why it bothered him so much. “I’m not asking you to take it back, I’m not asking you anything at all, Len.” He cut back, the deft sharpness of his tone not lost on irritation as he opted to shift and glance back at her. Buried among the covers, a woman so much smaller than she actually was, a vibrant piece of his past – present and for lack of his own self control, his future too. “That’s not what this is about, babe.” In truth, he was just concerned with who’d find out from here on out; who could wield it as some sickly sense of revenge, he’d pissed off a great many people, and killed a whole lot more. 

Brows threaded together as she attempted to unravel her other half, forever seeking to pry apart the ins and outs of Zeke Callen’s moods. He had long since been her favorite riddle and she never grew tired of understanding him. "You’re worried he’s going to tell someone.” Not a question. “He’s your best friend, Zeke. I’d like to think that means something, to him especially.” Though perhaps hunter loyalty was as fickle as that between supernaturals when they discovered one of their own voluntarily shared a bed and a life with the enemy. “Besides, wouldn’t it be hypocritical of Sawyer? I mean, Cassidy’s over a thousand years old and a werewolf. And he’s been in your shoes before.”

[lennydauphine]

zckecxlln‌:

The stark roll of hues couldn’t have been any more blatant than it was, whites of his eyes vibrant in the dim glow of her room. It shifted his already wavering comfort until he perched the edge of the bed, calloused palm rubbing in across his shoulder with a hefty sigh. “Would you stop apologizing?” He could stay mad, and he would – their lack of caution, cast aside months ago now pressed an effervescent threat in against his throat. “I know it was a damn mistake, it shouldn’t have happened.. — it shouldn’t have even been a possibility that he’d find you there.” 

Now it came her turn to exhale slowly, shifting blankets until Lenny herself sat up within their clutches to face him despite his back angled in her direction. Exasperation flooded the witch’s system as both hands came to land dully against the fabric across her lap. "Then what else do you want me to say? I can’t take what happened back.” Though she would very much kill for the opportunity to lift this weight from broad shoulders. “I got it, you don’t have to tell me again. I overstayed my welcome on the wrong day, message received loud and clear.”

[lennydauphine]

"You know, you can’t stay angry with me about the Sawyer thing forever.” The words poured into soft lamplight hanging between them, barely a sliver in the night and yet piercing all the same. An open window provided some version of a calming breeze, though without his arm enveloping her, it felt no more refreshing than an arctic chill. Gooseflesh littered bare skin, a roadmap of longing. “It was a mistake. I’m sorry.”  @zckecxlln

[lennydauphine]

zxchkattalakis:

There were more than enough people within the tavern capable of being useful, despite the choice to stay here, he wasn’t foolish enough to think it’d last. However, knowing that both pack alpahas were within the building with him didn’t at all shirk his built in need to do something, the automatic instinct of those meant to lead, even if he no longer did.. Zach wasn’t by any means scared or worried about the prospect of death; but drowning didn’t seem like a good way to go, not today. Perhaps that alone, mottled with the uncertainty of where the last remaining members of his own pack were pulled him from his usual place in lingering shadows. “That door isn’t going to hold when the water rises.” The bar wouldn’t hold against flood waters, no on with any wits about them could believe as much, even with the water already slowly trickling in through the sliver of space between the floor and rich mahogany. 

Nothing irked the traveler more than the itching desire to move, to work, to occupy a reeling mind as it attempted to convolute a whole host of ways in which those she cared about might have been injured in the storm or worse. Then, of course, someone had to point out the rather obvious weaknesses of their current stronghold. "Keep your voice down before you cause mass hysteria,” she warned. “So what do you suggest that we do? People can’t exactly go running for the hills in weather like this, it’s a suicide mission.”

[lennydauphine]

jason-berry:

“You could spend your time worrying, sure.” Jason grinned, despite the winds and the rain hitting the windows, creating terrifying noises one could find only in a nightmare. All he could think about was Nick and where he was, hoping that his younger brother had made it to one of the safe locations. “Or you could come join me and have a drink. Sounds like a better idea, don’t you think?”

“I spend my life worrying, but the sentiment is nice. I appreciate it.” Her mind reeled over the locations of various important figures in Lenny’s life, where they could be holed up and whether they made it past the flooding to safety. Another crack of thunder and she pivoted towards the man with a smile. “---Maybe just one drink.”

[wnq-writers]

Don’t let them cut away your thorns in order to deem you a better rose.

heartlines-and-stanzas (via tjnagoldstein)

[lennydauphine]

cxthmpscn:

“What?” Caitlyn sat up slightly, incredulous hues all but glaring across at her best friend. “No..– No you don’t have to be okay with it. What kind of question even is that? Oh right, because my one failed relationship went’ perfectly.” Before Joshua, she’d been little more than terrified of letting anyone close enough, too afraid of relapsing, her expertise didn’t run all too deeply. “I might have followed that rule if you’d told me about him in the first place — how else am I meant to find everything out? Sometimes you make dragging you too easy. Maybe you should find out though — Do you want to know if it’s even possible?” She could have begged for conversation to go back to the mysterious man that had clearly caught Lenny’s attention, but she’d never been all that confident in brushing things off. “You say that like it’s easy, like I haven’t been trying.” How could she? Everything she’d become had gone so violently against the person she was – who she wanted to be, that guilt etched itself beneath her skin like a scar she couldn’t stop covering. “I’m not..– I’m not waiting for him. He hates me, Len.– He still hates me for leaving and I don’t know how to make him understand why.”

"I just... I don’t know what I’m doing anymore, Cait. He and I have been playing this game long enough that it doesn’t really feel like one for me anymore.” The gravity of her situation held the weight of a fighter jet now, what once remained the simplest arrangement of her life now spun webs of complexity that even Lenore couldn’t unravel. How juvenile that it took a girl’s night in to unveil her eyes to it. “He’s over all the time, I do his laundry, he’s in on all my secrets, I know--- this is so stupid, but I know the exact sound his truck makes when it’s parking down the street or his boots when they’re walking up the back stairs.” Yet, to him, she existed as nothing more than a means to an end; a source of warmth and comfort and convenience. “I know, I’m sorry. You know how I am with secrets.” Bronze fingers wrapped around the shrouded pieces of her past like a security blanket, steadfast and unwavering. “Part of me does. The other part doesn’t want to ruin this because for all of his faults, I like having him around. If he turns and runs, I don’t know what I’m gonna do. Other than feel completely pathetic and stupid.” Hues flickered across to her other half, an expression akin to empathy and deep understanding filling them to the brim. “That’s not what I’m saying. Trust me, forgiveness is a difficult and long process. Especially towards yourself.” Brunette tendrils shook in the yellow lighting of her bedroom lamps. “I don’t think he hates you, Cait. He asked about you the other night, he even joked about how stubborn you are.”

[lennydauphine]

quinnadams:

Quinn eyed her friend with a knowing look, biting down into the lime to calm the burn in the back of her throat. “Take your pick of spirit”, she laughed, knowing her drinking face had yet been mastered or that her tolerance measured up to much of the other’s. She ended her nights with a stiff drink, but it was only one before crashing into her nightmares. This was a whole new kind of evening for her. “Not for me, I can tell you that much. Quinn doesn’t make good decisions on tequila.”

"Both, please and thanks.” A genuine, inebriated cackle spilled forth as Lenny imagined her friend atop the bar behaving erratically while under the influence. “Am I about to see a lot more of you than I bargained for? Sounds like we need to turn up the good time and find you somebody cute, I like the idea of you making a bad decision tonight.”

[lennydauphine]

joshxwilliams:

         “Because it’s your home, and as much as it would be the easy road to leave and never look back — you can’t. The people here stop you.” The words left his mouth before he could so much as give them a second thought. Though it was clear he was speaking for himself as much as he was her. “Never sounds about right.” He remarked, an attentive chuckle surpassing his lips at the thought of Caitlyn and her stubborn tendencies. “How is she?”. He asked somewhat curious. “I doubt she’ll want to hide away, never has been her style.”

"I guess I never really think of it that way.” New Orleans had always been the beacon of home for Lenore, a hallmark of the brightest time in her life and also the darkest. “She’s... Dealing. There’s still a lot of guilt in her over the lost months. She regrets a lot of what happened when she turned off, which is understandable.”

[lennydauphine]

sethverona:

          “I’m not believing anything until I saw it with my own eyes. That idiot should make his words come true, better sooner than later, and if he does, he gets drinks for free from me for the rest of his life. But until then – nah, don’t really think he’s telling the truth,” Seth pointed out with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Agreed. People in this town like to blow a lot of smoke about their abilities or what they’ve got up their sleeve. Until I see it with my own two eyes, I’m not putting much stock into his claims. Free drinks for life though--- how does a gal go about securing that?”

[supagirl]

[lennydauphine]

cxthmpscn:

“So what you’re telling me..— Is that it’s not nothing to you.” At least, that’s what she deducted from her very vague explanation. “But he’s made it clear it’s nothing and you’re.. pretending to be okay with that? Or you don’t even realize you’re not okay with that.” Pulling at her own dark locks, she lazily began twisting and tying knots as she spoke. “Easier said than done,” a lame comment with a sharpened sigh. Caitlyn had more than a little trouble letting go of the eight months she’s reigned her own terror on the people she’d known. There’d always been the possibility of forgetting completely, but in her mind, she couldn’t so easily find a way to live with it by cutting the loss of others by her hand out of her mind. Taking hues from her hair only long enough to peer up at the witch, she shrugged, “Nothing. — Not really.”

"No, I--- Look, I’m fine with it. I’m seriously fine. This is what he wants and if all he’s interested in is the sex, then I have to be okay with it, don’t I? I mean you tell me, you’re the one with relationship experience here.” It suddenly began to dawn on her in that moment just how attached Lenny had grown to the hunter, a slippery mistake that she buried beneath the floorboards of her mind until now. “Wow,” she released a humorless laugh. “Can we make a rule? No dragging me before five pm... But you’re right, I guess. I don’t know if I want more or if that’s even possible.” Or what it would look like for a hunter and witch to create something more serious, how they would manage to keep something so momentous from the world. “You have to forgive yourself, Cait.” The first lesson learned by a witch who assisted her coven in committing so many heinous acts that she herself lost count. “Then why not go out and try to find someone new? Maybe don’t sleep with them right off the bat, but there’s so many people in the world. Unless you’re about to tell me you’re still waiting for Josh.”

[lennydauphine]

zckecallxn:

“So kick up that witchy woo bullshit and fix it.” he shrugged almost nonchalantly and with little care for whatever mark he’d left on the solid wood door behind him. “Technically, I’m helping .—- gotta give you something productive to do with that power of yours.” A backhanded compliment at best, his distaste for one of the only reasons he kept her around wasn’t some secret, and nor did he even try to hide it. “The most what? Charming? Handsome? Chiseled? No point getting all shy now.” He hadn’t missed it – he very rarely ever did, the linger of doe like hues that skirted their way across his chest. “You’re bordering house wife, don’t tell me you quit your job at that cesspool and decided catering to me and my laundry needs were more important.” Pulling the fridge open only to close it a moment later, he laughed roughly. “Civilized, she says.”

"I do every time that you come around. Last week was the headboard, or don’t you remember? Stop playing Incredible Hulk with my stuff.” Her nose scrunched for a moment, the itching desire to grow angry with his comment bubbling beneath the surface until she simmered. God did she loathe when he insulted her abilities. “I’ve been very productive lately, thank you. I’m actually in the middle of mentoring someone, he’s been teaching me a lot as well.” Then she tacked on, just so he wouldn’t garner the wrong impression, “Light magic and all that jazz.” Each of Zeke’s words were true, though she refused to give him and his ego the satisfaction. “---Intolerable.” Now the brunette turned back to him, green hues shooting the hunter a genuinely irritated expression. “Like hell I’d ever quit my job and give up my independence to play housewife for you. I’d rather choke.” Was he wrong? Lenny refused to dwell long enough to give his statement credit. “You’re an idiot.”

[lennydauphine]

officer-berry:

“Uh, this one right here. The ‘Lesser Barrier Casting’ right here,” Nick said, scrambling to get the book to show it to her. It didn’t occur to him there was a reason not to trust her; he was happy to find someone who understood his problem. “I…” He paused, thinking about her words. “I guess I was a little distracted. Do you think that’s what threw it off too?” Nick tilted his head - a deal? The offer by itself seemed…not the way he usually did things. But curiosity piqued his interest, and after a  moment he nodded. “Sure. What kind of deal? I mean, I don’t have a lot to offer, honestly, but…”

"Easy.” She replied after a moment’s glance at the spell in question, attempting to mask how her hues already probed at the next page for any valuable information. “Absolutely. You need perfect concentration or else your spell could backfire and somebody in town will notice an invisible barrier around the produce section.” A light shrug lifted her petite shoulders as though it were the simplest of offers. “You let me take a peek at your grimoires and I’ll help you master these basics. A win-win for both of us.”

[lennydauphine]

joshxwilliams:

          “That was one night, and through no fault of their own. Then again this town has never been all happy endings and white picket fences so I don’t know why we expect anything more. Mhmm, more like never.” He remarked knowing too well just how stubborn the brunette was. “Yeah, since that night everything went tits up. I’m sure you’ll run into her sooner or later. Doesn’t it always suck?”

"Nobody is blaming them, least of all me. I don’t know why I bother to stay with all of the insanity, but here I am... Walking around with you in the middle of the night like a fool anyway. Yeah, maybe never.” She chuckled into the darkness surrounding them, fully accustomed to Cait’s stubbornness on her own end. “It’s a small town, she can’t hide away forever. No, this one especially.”