Not how I imagined you

Suddenly it clicked and she sat more straight up in her seat, looking from side to side, out of every window she had access too. “Hey! You’re going the wrong way. You’re going way too from centrum,” she pointed out with desperation filling out her scared voice. No response. Not even a flinch or a batted eye by her loud complaining and explanation. “Sir?!” She moved further forward in the seat towards the space between the two front seats – herself having seated herself in the back. “This is an emergency! There isn’t any time for experimental short cuts! Plea-…” Her hand had been just about to reach out and grab the driver by the shoulder when the car stopped very abruptly, throwing her back in her seat with a viscous force and a choked groan from her throat. She should have worn the seat belt…
“… Your stop.” Huh? Tumbled around a bit, Maeve looked up in confusion as the taxi driver finally spoke. He did so in a very monotone voice. No emotion what so ever. She could even have sworn that he hardly moved anything else but his jaw. She tried getting eye contact with him through the back-view mirror but… he was blankly staring down the road. “The front door is unlocked.” With that Maeve dared turn her head to the side and see through the window. She had arrived…somewhere. And they were parked just outside a lovely little house. But it wasn’t anywhere near where Cecilia lived. Just whe-… The sound of the front door of the car opening startled her. As well did it when the taxi driver opened up for her door aggressively gesturing for her to get out. So, she did. Reluctantly. She would have started yelling at the driver, if he didn’t seem to be so far, far away. And on top of that; she had only just gotten out when he had returned to the steering wheel and pushed down on the speeder. Not even closing the passage-door before leaving her alone in front of the unknown house.

For a good minute, Maeve just stood there. Pulling her jacket closer to her body as the cold creeped tighter and tighter around her. This felt… not right. Not ‘wrong’, thought. Just… ‘not right’. But alas she walked closer to the front door. It was closed, but the driver had said it was unlocked? She wasn’t feeling the panic attack anymore because of the strange occurrence but as she reached out, her hand was still shaking violently. The grabbed the handle and turned it… The door opened up to a silent home. “…Hello?” she tryingly called out as she put her foot inside, big eyes looking around the entrance. “Anybody here?“

The cough almost made her jump since she was already so much on edge that she felt like a fully-wind-up Jack-in-a-box. It seemed to echo out-through the house when it in reality clearly came from the room on the other side of the closed door. In here. One would think the sound of the voice, sounding as weak and as non-menacing as it did, that it wouldn’t make Maeve so uneasy. But it wasn’t the voice itself that made her feel that way. It was the words. It sounded like whoever was calling her, had expected her. And her specifically. Actually, that would explain the strange behaviour of the taxi driver. She… She didn’t like this.

She moved as carefully as she could, yet the floor boards under her still creaked and announced her approach. Why was she even sneaking?! She had already yelled out and someone – she hoped – had heard her. She gulped as she pushed the door open, the closing-hatch not having properly caught onto the ledge on the doorframe. Slowly, so she would take in the room bit by bit at the same time. She noticed the fireplace. The cosy furniture. The blood.
All of the sudden the door was all the way open and Maeve squealed by the sight she was meant with. Both her hands had shot up to cover for her mouth to mute the scream as if she out of nowhere was scared to have the neighbours hear her. Or someone else in the house. What if they weren’t alone?! Her chocolatey brown eyes were as big as tea cups as she stood there, staring straight at him in horror. She had recognised him almost on the spot, which only made it so much more surreal. He was bloody, bruised and a… “Oh my god! Joshua! Your leg!” In the matter of micro-seconds, she had defrosted and was removing the distance between them within some pretty long and quick steps for someone of her side. And reaching him, she hurried down on her knees near his leg. It was even more grotesque up close. Her panicky eyes shifted from the bleeding leg and up to his face. His way too calm face. Not only that. He was SMILING. “How-… How am I?!” she repeated in disbelief that it was his first instinct. “What happened here?! How are you still conscious? How…” She went silent as the first puzzle piece fell into place. It was even as if her shoulders relaxed. Just a tiny bit. She was still very tense. But… Of course. Who were ever completely ordinary in this place? Her thick brows frowned at the discovery and she couldn’t really stop herself from looking at him with a disapproving glance. Though the worry was still present as well. It didn’t really go away. She couldn’t help it.

“I don’t see or hear anything from you on 6 months and then when I do…” She didn’t finish the sentence. She probably didn’t need to. He was surely smart enough to get it.

With him reenacting the sound of a celebratory ringing, the frowning wrinkles between her bows only grew deeper. He wasn’t only smiling, no, now he was also laughing. It was all very surreal, she had to admit, but then again, what part of the supernatural world hadn’t been completely surreal as of yet? However, this still seemed far from normal even when reminding herself that nothing was ‘normal’. “Why thank you,” she yapped back with unamused sarcasm as he complimented her for being smart. Mostly because It didn’t actually sound anywhere close to an sincere compliment, more a mocking comment as if entailing that she had taken her sweet time getting to any of the conclusion which she slowly - but surely! - came across now. He gave of a bit of a different feeling, than the one she remembered the day he had come for a visit, as short as it had been. “From the fridge? You want a snack while your leg is im-…”
Joshua came a few steps ahead of her before she could even finish her sentence. She had gotten as far as to figure out that he wasn’t really human, not even in the sense of how Ethan or Cecilia was human, but.. “Blood? Ah. Got it.” He needed blood. With her brain still all over the place, she didn’t actually think that much more of it. It helped how nonchalant he had been about it as well. It just caught her a smidge off guard, which explained the slightly baffled expression she showed him. She quickly turned to look around her, searching for where she’d have to go to find the kitchen in this house, but then her eyes returned to him shortly thereafter. Fleetingly down at his leg. It didn’t look good… “I... I’ll see what I can fine. Just stay.. put.” Then she pushed herself up again and took a step back as the momentum had caused her slightly out of balance. So to not stumble and fall. She allowed him one last worried glance, before she with fast steps walked out of the living room.

The house wasn’t that big, and with a kitchen for the most part placed on the first floor, it didn’t take her long to find it. Going on autopilot she turned the light on in the room although she was in kind of a hurry. She B-lined towards the fridge without taking much time to look around. She could seem calm from people looking from a distant, but she was anything but that. If it wasn’t because she feared her heart would give in or the mechanism operated in it would have her faint from overstrain, she wouldn’t have been able to keep somewhat of a composure. She opened the fridge, and as he had said; a bottle of red liquid stared back at her. This really wasn’t her expertise. This was Cecilia’s. And for all she knew, her cousin could be in just a critical… wait..
Maeve had just grabbed the bottle when her eyes caught the glimpse of a piece of paper on the counter next to the fridge. It had caught her eye out of habitably curiosity at first. Seeing his name written there at the top. Joshua Ligh-.. But not. That wasn’t the name written. She felt a surge of something run through her and down her back. She felt herself both grab the bottle tight but she also felt kind of weak. But most of all she felt stupid. The blood, nourishment for a vampire. But she had met him in bright daylight. She doubted a normal vampire, though she wasn’t sure of course, could be walking freely in the sun like that. With the might of a angered human girl she swung the fridge door shot, creating a loud enough sound, that the siphoner in the next room would surely hear it. And as she tramped back out from the kitchen, she fished her phone back up from her pocket.

She stopped a good amount of steps away from him. Bottle of blood temptingly in her one hand. And the phone held up in the other. Though, her eyes were fixated on him. Joseph. “I was thinking I’d call for help but I believe I should be calling the bloody authorities on you instead.” Or whatever equivalent there was for the supernatural. “You’re no insurance worker. Your name isn’t even Joshua. You must feel very proud of yourself for me not to notice anything earlier, huh.” She.. should just leave. Cecilia needed her.

“No,” she blurted out in all seriousness. Nearly interrupting him mid-sentence. “First thing first, you don’t tell me what to do. So, here’s what’s going to happen. I’m only handing over the blood, so there’s a sliver of a chance that you’ll be able to fix this problem you’ve caused and I get a feeling that there won’t be much help anywhere else right now.” She had technically just repeated what Joseph had been saying and only changed the tone of it to make it clear that, right now, she was the one in charge. She was the one with that golden nugget that he wanted and, more importantly, needed. “And you’re not only going to heal up yourself. You’re going to come with me and do the same thing to Cecilia. And then you’re going to leave us alone.” He had already shoved himself a good way onto her bad side. Not just of the reveal of who he actually was, that was actually a pretty small part of it. No. Mostly it was his attitude. He hadn’t really made it hidden just how much he had enjoyed having her run around his little finger with a tight blindfold over her eyes. She must have looked like a damn sheep in his eyes. And it made her feel… horrible.
Maeve kept a darting gaze upon him for a few moments longer, just to make sure that he understood that he didn’t have much to discuss with her on the matter. At least not if you’d ask her.

But then, the hand with the phone got lowered, and her angry expression mellowed a bit more back to the worry of before as she looked to the side as if she tried looking towards were Cecilia was. Hopefully not alone anymore. And as he had said; unconscious. And with a silent sigh she took those firm steps towards him and got back down to sit on her knees in front of him. Even she was actually a little surprised as to how close she had dared. As if he didn’t scare her, which might be a little true. How could she be afraid of a man like Joseph when he was almost begging for her help like that? The phone returned to the pocket and the newly free hand got to work to open the bottle. Luckily it was a twist-off cap or she would have looked silly. She could have just given him the bottle, he did seem to be doing alright beside the impaled leg and… broken ribs, but she still scooched a millimeter closer and held the bottle steady by his mouth. “Drink then.” It’s just tomato juice, Maeve… Just tomato juice.
“You say this will make you heal up, but how good does that do when a piece of wood is still sticking right through your leg?” she asked with a pretty low voice. She really didn’t want to be looking at him, a kind of way of still giving him the should shoulder treatment while still helping him out, but her brown eyes still looked to him once in a while, just a second or two. “And if you knew how to break the bloody curse, why didn’t you do something about it from the start! As far as I’ve gathered, you didn’t exactly plan on being caught in between yourself. Pandora, the fairy, right? She works for you. You would have very easily just had her remove it then!” The longer the spoke the more irritation appeared in her voice although she still kept it quite calm and …somewhat controlled.

Maeve caught herself staring at the veins, seeping through near his eyes and while she would surely feel uneasy by how his eyes looked under his eyelids, she couldn’t kill the feeling of interest towards how they might have changed as well. She hadn’t seen anything like it before outside of movies where she had known it was all just makeup and post-shot editing. This was real. Very real.

With how she had been staring, their eyes almost automatically met, then moment he opened them again and it startled her over so slightly. She had always imaged Joseph Blackwood to have evil oozing from his very being. That his eyes would be dark and cold and playful. They were playful but not dark. Or evil. And they weren’t any different from before he drank the blood except for maybe a little less dazed as the effect of the nourishment kickstarted whatever it was, that he claimed healed him. He then accomplished to actually make her laugh. If one could call it a laugh. It was a half-hearted chuckle, brought on by the obvious joke. “Yea, let me just get my tweezers,” she added on to the joke. Because, surely, it was a joke. He didn’t actually mean that he wanted her to just gently pull out a bloody chair leg from his leg. She looked down at the injury and then back at him before the humour left her and she almost immediately pushed her brows together. “You can’t be serious. I know how to take care of a scraped knee, not a penetrated oversized splinter! I could make it much worse than it is.” And potentially make things much worse on the other two ends of the connected lines.
I don’t know how to break it.. Well that wasn’t what she’d wanted to hear. And he had even sounded rather sure about it before, that he had a good idea of how to get rid of it, to save Cecilia. And this Ajax chap as well. But alas; no. A big old ‘what’ was sitting on the edges of her lips but she never actually said it out loud, partly because he didn’t give her a chance to speak. He kept talking. And… she kept listening. Having almost gotten used to the irritable way he spoke it all stuck onto her. He wasn’t wrong. It did make it more interesting. ”It’s not really a shocker, y’know. But it does make it less difficult to hate you, knowing you’re just pretending to be all-known but really isn’t,” she recognised rather quickly and therefore didn’t spare him for much of the spite in her voice either. She sighed a tad bit theatrically. “Can’t you all just take a chuck of blood?” she asked, not actually thinking that would do the trick at all. It was more of a desperate attempt. “It healing you as we speak, right? Never mind. Of course, it’s not that easy.” She wished it was. Oh, how she wished.

It would have been a plethora of the words he just then said, that triggered the glare, she abruptly sent in his direction. Be it his poke to her harsh and demanding attitude or the mocking of her hopeful nature. Hadn’t a clean conscious stopped her she might have just slapped to the piece of wood still sticking out of his leg. Or at least thought of doing it.

Firstly, there was absolutely no way Maeve would feed her cousin vampire blood. She didn’t need a beastiary of the supernatural to know that such procedure could only go one way, which most definitely wasn’t a way she wished upon Cecilia. Especially not, if it wouldn’t even do anything about the curse… link… Whatever it actually was, that connected the three people, it had gotten quite a few different names over the causes of the passing months. Personally, she had tried not to think of it too much as a curse, simply since it never sounded like anything good. “You clearly haven’t had anything against using other people for your own sick entertainment, so what’s stopping you from just forcing a few test subjects into your dungeon?” she asked, obviously not believing that he wouldn’t have done just that, had he actually wanted to test a few things out. And from that, it only became clearly for her, at he really didn’t care. That the link – or curse – only really was a problem for him now that he felt the hits the others got dealt. Of course, she didn’t condone kidnapping! And it wasn’t anywhere near an invitation.

However, what she didn’t understand was when he decided to remind her to breathe. As if she was hyperventilating or over all hysterical. None which were true. In fact, she realised how calm she was instead. She wasn’t completely content but her weakened heart wasn’t pounding with the power of a thousand houses as it had done the moment, she had managed to stop a car in the middle of the street. It was good. For her.

Quickly he brought her right back to the more pressing matter at hand and she had to turn her attention to the pretty morbid view of his leg. Just… how had he managed to hurt himself like that? She looked around the living room and confirmed with her original conclusion. No signs of any other person having tumbled around other than Joseph himself. The door had been unlocked but not open. She shallowed a large lump in her throat as he continued to speak. He was the best hope right now. But it was, for some reason, the like everyone else that stuck around for the longest. Then in a quick swoop she pulled the green windbreaker off her shoulder and shimmied her arms out of the sleeves, at last throwing the jacket out of the way. “You don’t trust yourself to not make it worse, but you trust me. It’s almost comical how the one you linked was the doctor.” She pushed the sleeves of the sweater up about her elbows. The injury from the car crash was nowhere to be seen. Fully healed and with no scars. “You should have linked me. Not Cecilia,” she fleetingly added all nonchalant, before she got back up on her feet.
She stepped over his legs, so to stand with a foot on either side of him. She grabbed some of the other pieces of the broken chair which were laying around, and throw them like she had done her jacket; out of the way. Before then kneeling down and reluctantly took hold around the chair leg. Fright suddenly looked through the brave and stubborn face she had plastered on. Everything she had been taught but having not one, but two medically educated people in her life, went against this exact thing she was about to do. “…Brace yourself, I guess.” She got all the way down on her knees away, still with a leg on either side of this impaled leg. She moved her hands all the way down the wood to the root where it had buried itself in his flesh, and she then started to pull. Her face grimaced almost as if she was the one feeling the doubtful pain from it and she both wanted to stop and keep going. Specifically as she felt it move and…
The chair leg was suddenly completely out and free. It was partly a reflex, how she in panic, threw it to the side to have free hands and then hunched to press her hands firmly against the deep gauze in Joseph’s thigh. Blood painting her hands red in no time. Strange. It wasn’t exactly… warm.

Joseph was relaxing. Maeve was not. While he laid back and just enjoyed the relief of not having to deal with an actually pretty big piece of stick in this leg, she stayed where she was, putting pressure on the wound, feeling the fleeting thick blood seep slowly through her fingers. Not a feeling she was particular fond of, if she had to be honest. She wasn’t squeamish per se, she had seen plenty of blood before however only in the category of busted chins on street pavement and violent nosebleed caused by the summer heart. No, it wasn’t the blood. But the pulsing feeling against her hands. Well. She would have described it as pulsing but like the temperature of his blood, it wasn’t quite that She guessed that was made him what he was. Her run-ins with vampires hadn’t been educational so all she would get at, was that vampires were pretty much dead. And this man was half that. Although something clawed at the notion that it probably didn’t even work like that… She, after all, really knew nothing of that world. It wasn’t hers. Even know, being smack in the middle of it, she felt out of place.
She turned her lips inwards before lifting her eyes away from his legs and all the way over his body to his face. She could just ask him. She had found it much easier to get the knowledge about the different kinds of person from talking with the direct source rather than reading up in a book. And she had him right there.

But then she looked away again. Down at the wound as she carefully took her hands away from it. His pantleg was soaked in blood, probably from bleeding until she had come to his rescue. But the bleeding wasn’t overflowing anymore and she didn’t feel as compelled to resume the pressure. He had been right. He was really healing. “…unfair..” she mumbled mostly just to herself. Because it really was unfair. With a bit of magical healing and she could have not had to deal with a arm in a cast for so long. Cecilia wouldn’t have had to deal with the horrible scaring her car crash had coursed her.

Maeve fell back down to sit with a heavy sigh. Her behind landing upon his shin. But honestly, she was a bit too stressed out to even think of how he minded it or not. Actually… what even allowed him to ever complain! “Up. It’s time for you to take care of your end of the bargain,” she commanded, just as she managed to stand up completely herself, not giving him reason to make excuses such as she was still weighing him down. And she stepped off him. “Work your magic and get a taxi back over here. The one I came with ditched me faster than anything, which you surely had something to do with. So, that much shouldn’t be too hard for you. Also, my cousin better had been too unconscious to feel any of that.” She was standing for quite the amount of time, just looking around the room. Contemplating whether or not she should leave Joseph to himself to go wash her hands. Even though she was demanding him to get going then and there she wasn’t confident that he had healed up enough so it wouldn’t take much ti-…
Suddenly, precisely like if he had been baking and had flour on her hands and was wearing a washable apron, she just dragged her hands over her sweater. The blood immediately ruining it, standing the off-white colour with untasteful red smudges. She looked like a slashermovie…

Bossy? Was she actually that bossy? Maeve couldn’t help but look at him funny. Sure, she had her moments of sternness which was almost required when having anything to do with children. But she hadn’t really noticed it herself too much, except for the few comments her friends probably had thrown in her direction. However, the thing now was how utterly uncalled for such a comment was, so out of place - much like his bloody carefree smiles and random mentions in the middle of everything else, making it impossible to actually say anything to it before she had to deal with something completely different – that in this case it mainly just left ticked her off. “I’m doing no such thing!” she was quick to claim, as he again made it seem as if she was actively draining him for magic. Because she really wasn’t doing anything! She wasn’t even succeeding in getting his sorry ass dragged out and off to Cecilia. The most urgent thing at that very moment. Him stating that she was fine immediately left the tiny human with a sense of helplessness which wasn’t shy from showing up on her face. Cecilia is fine. Maeve didn’t believe that. Not until she could see it herself. “…Eden.” The reply was very faint, almost as if it didn’t actually matter whether or not he heard her. So… Eden wasn’t human either. No one was human... That was how it felt. She had even thought she was human but new information had come to her over the last few months. Information which ultimately had been hinted for a lot longer than that.

In the blink of an eye, Maeve’s head shot up and big, confused eyes looked up at Joseph. One would even be able to sense the disgust in her face even before she opened her mouth. “What?!” she yelped. “You can’t be serious! How you look doesn’t matter right now!” But of course, he didn’t listen. He was even well into undressing right there in the living room, right in front of her as if he had just gotten home from a muddy run and wanted to freshen up before dinner. She was absolutely baffled even though the shirtless and bruised back she was met with, did caught her slightly off guard. Still, as she was left alone in the living room, she was left with anger-induced breathing.
She closed her mouth and she locked her jaw, looking in the direction where he had run off in for a few moments longer before suddenly stomping over to pick up her jacket with the intent of just leaving. But sitting squatted down and reaching for the green coat, she finally noticed just how much her hands were shaking. It was almost enough to make her dizzy just by looking and all the discomfort of the shaking overwhelmed her. Quickly she just pulled her hands into her chest and sat curled up on the floor while desperately trying to calm herself down. He could probably hear her irregular heartbeat because she could. And she was but a hu-… The sound of his footsteps, returning to the living room, had her look up and meet him with her eyes the moment he stepped back inside. Dressed and almost looking as if nothing had happened. She only got halfway through a gulp before suddenly having to stand up to catch something thrown at her. A sweater? She looked up at him in confusion yet again. And then at her hands. Then down at the bloody smears on her own sweater. This didn’t matter! Why did it matter?! She couldn’t get her head around it. This nonchalant way of the supernatural.

It was weird… Because she did hear everything he was saying. But something had clicked in her which made it feel as if she just skipped the following seconds and let her body go auto pilot. The chanting of a spell had had her back half a step back but then afterwards… She felt her feet carry her with determination the last distance between her and Joseph and the moment she arrived there in front of him, no, even before she reached him, her left hand had lifted and then not hesitated to slap him right across the face. That was what else she could do. Maybe not the best move to slap a sociopathic maniac but the fact that this man had yet to ever do anything to her had given her a false sense of safety to do just whatever she wanted and he wouldn’t kill her for it. Naïve indeed. “What’s most important if the safety of my cousin. I want the link broken and gone as much as anyone else but right now she’s badly hurt! And a deal is a deal. You help her!” Tears appeared in her angry, scared eyes and she didn’t look away from him even when the first tear escaped down her cheek. “That was the deal.”
Maeve sniffled one time and hastily wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand before turning her back at him and walked back towards her jacket. “I’ve been trying to use what little power I have but it doesn’t work. I can’t just touch this curse and it’ll disappear like the others.” The sweater, he had thrown her, got pulled over the one she was wearing and was obviously too big on her. The sleeves long enough to reach over her small hands. At least the fabric was soft and she could use the overspill to wipe her eyes free from the rest of the tears. He wasn’t going to help and she felt stupid for ever believing that. She shouldn’t have hesitated with calling someone who’d get the man behind bars. Michael… she didn’t have that man’s number… Imagine that… Having Heaven on speed dial.

A good amount of the tension having built up high in her body from the moment she had slapped him, seemed to just disappear like air from an over-filled ballooned the moment he broke the silence. She had been ready to go, leave the house without so much as turning around to say goodbye, because honestly; he didn’t deserve such curtesy. And at the same time, she had been completely convinced that he would led her and not mind one little bit. That was how she viewed him. As a self-centred bastard. And that was still her being kind to think of him as such. The darker titles was still hidden away a bit deeper in her head. Slower than her stomping movement from before she stood up again after having bend down to pick her jacket up. She stayed like that for a while, back turned to him and hands fiddling with the green wool. He couldn’t see it, but she gulped. Wetted her lips. She’s in good hands. Maeve did believe that. However, she had almost burst out how that didn’t matter, that she simply wanted to be there, when he said it instead. Please…
She visibly took a deeper breath, well down into her lunges and stomach and then finally turned around. First, looking over her shoulder at him before the rest of her body followed. “How?! Why don’t you just tell me in what way you think I’m ‘the key’? Stop expecting me to know what you know. I don’t read minds.” No. For that, Joseph would have gotten his hands on the woman. “You clearly know more than me. I’d even go as far as to think you know more about me than I do.”

Gently, she folded her jacket over one of her arms, looking like a big mismatch of fashion statements as she found the courage to actually step back towards the siphoner. She hadn’t felt any fall backs from the slap, only a somewhat awakening in him, which she subconsciously took as a good sign to not be scared of getting too close. Although she still kept a couple steps between them, still remembering how he had imitating closed their gap even further before. “Please.” she said, mirroring the way he had said the word. Possibly with more open feelings, though. What didn’t come natural to him, did to her. And vice versa. “If you’re actually going to help as promised then.. Help me, help them.”

The remainder of tears were still present in her expression. Her eyes weren’t nearly as watery and she hadn’t cried enough to make the white of her eyes red, but still the surrounding skin of her eyes had a redder taint. Her cheeks were even red, but that was the aftermath of the anger that had led to the slap. She didn’t take her eyes away from him. She stared at him with brave begging. She shouldn’t be giving her trust to him again. She really shouldn’t. One minutes. She’d give him one minute. And nothing more.

It made sense. How she had had no success by breaking the curse herself. She had originally just thought that she didn’t know enough about how her ability worked, on account of that it hadn’t been very longs since she had discovered it. She had thought she had been without. An easy mistake to make, she was sure. It wasn’t so well-spread that normal human beings, such as herself, had anything special about them in the supernatural sense. But if the link hasn’t just a spell or of there was something keeping the curse blocked off from her direct touch – such as being internal – it was obvious!
She blinked a couple of times and then looked down, still feeling his eyes on her. She turned her head slightly to the side before mumbling a low whisper for mainly her own ears. “I can’t say that I trust Lucas that much either…” However, she did trust that coward of a man more than she could say she trusted the one right in front of her. A part of her still doubted that Joseph wouldn’t just break into a big, gloating grin and revealing that this vulnerable act of his was in fact just an act. He had already shown that he was capable of switching between believable expressions by the snap of his finger. But of course, the part that desperately wanted to trust him was also the one in change at the moment, pushing away doubtful thoughts. Because, honestly, what else were there to do?

The mentioning of her blood automatically got her to pull up her chin and looked back at him. The slightly annoyed confusion back on her hamster-like face. Now that didn’t make as much sense. What did her blood have to do with neutralizing? And then he finally laid out his plan for her and her before folded brows flew up into her forehead as her eyes widened spectacularly. “You what?” she exclaimed, her voice not even sure whether or not she had meant it to sound scared, angry or astonished. The shock faded from her face as she took her first half a step backwards. “Oh no no. That’s not... I’m not about to let you drink my blood.” A raised index finger got softly, yet sternly held up between them, though it was her hand which she moved from side to side. Her eyes never left Joseph. And a disbelieving smile popped up on her lips in a laughable huff for just a second before it disappeared again.
“Just on what basis have you built this theory of yours on? Whatever ability it has turned out I have – crazy as it sounds – had worked through touch. I haven’t been bleeding on things to neutralize their supernatural aspects. And besides; You’re a vampire! I would be even more stupid than I already am for trusting you, to then let you drink from me.” She didn’t bother wrap her sceptic opinions nicely with a sweet little bow for him. She was not about to be some blood bag. She was already a blood donor at the hospital. She only had so much of the red life liquid to give. And he had already filled up his hunger so she’d surely only be a snack if she let him sink his teeth into her. Even just the thought of it made the skin on her neck tingle.

For a long while the short brunette just sorts of stood there and stared at Joseph without saying much. Or doing much, either. She hadn’t predicted that she could have so much power over someone like her. Leaving him as ‘nothing’ as he descripted it himself. The way he phrased it almost made it sound as if her blood would be something along the lines of poison to him. If only she had known about that way beforehand, then she would have… What would she have done? Would she actually have been taking joy in doing so?

Maeve slowly lowered her hand again and wrapped her arm around the one that held on to her jacket, grabbing the elbow. Her cheeks tenses, empathizing her shallow dimples. She didn’t like the idea of it. Not one bit. He could be lying to her face! And yet that was a very hard thing for her to convince herself of. Like every fibre of her was sure that he was being sincere and only a part of her brain remained uncooperating. “This just doesn’t…” she tried but the sentence got cut short as she realised, she didn’t even know what she was trying to say at that moment. And then she sucked in a mouthful of air that didn’t even pass properly down into her lunges, before she breathed out. “Alright! Just… Just don’t take too much. I know you promised to drive me off after this but I’d really prefer not to be incapacitated because of blood lost. You can control yourself, right?” She had to ask. He hadn’t really tried drinking from her at any point back when he was actually craving nourishment. He had even seemed very clear headed. But she still needed a verbal confirmation. Something she was sure he had probably noticed by now. “You should be able to. If my blood is as poisonous to your kind as you made it sound like, then I don’t think it’ll taste very good. Right?”
It was a total shot in the dark. To her, every kind of blood tasted the same. Metallic and like lukewarm water.

“How are we going to do this? Will my wrist be sufficient?” she quickly asked with much of the same feeling as ripping of a sticky bandage. To get it over with in one swoop. With help from her other hand, she folded too long sleeve of his sweater up to about halfway to her elbow and then held it out to him. Inviting him to bite. Not sure how else this whole thing was going down. For all she knew, siphoners only drank from the neck. Or from the thigh. Or from the arm. Or any other place, really! The through of letting him bite and drink from her, wasn’t only nerve-wrecking but also intimate which had been part of her rejective attitude. “Do siphoners have fangs as well? You know, to break the skin?” Maybe it would be best to bring a knife from the kitchen and make do with a little slit.

It must have been the very tense and strange atmosphere in the room, but his little joke managed to bring out a half-hearted chuckle from her as if such a sorry attempt had worked on lightening the mood a little bit, remove some of the obvious nervousness she felt and her eyes escaped away from his to instead look down at her own wrist. Looked at how he held it. “Right,” was all she could muster up in a response. Just the fact that a joke had landed – somewhat – was in and of itself very comical and it had kind of proven, that Maeve apparently wasn’t the only one in the room who leaned towards comedy as a way of coping with unease.
She had intentionally not asked about how it would feel to be bitten by someone like him. Whether or not it would hurt horribly or if she’d feel some sense of numbing effect. She hadn’t really wanted to know. It wasn’t so inviting anymore if she had been told she’d be in a shit ton of pain. His fangs sank down into her flesh, broke the skin like It was soft butter, and she gasped loudly of the pain. Quickly her other hand shot up to broke any potential scream from exiting her mouth, knowing herself well enough that it certainly had been on its way. She automatically stepped even closer to him and squeezed her eyes shut due to the sheer discomfort. She was sure, she could feel her blood getting sucked out of her veins.
The moment she removed her hand from her mouth, she let out a soft and silent moan-like breath, which she wouldn’t have been able to shallow in that moment, had she tried. The free hand had instinctively found shelter on top of his closest shoulder where it gripped his shirt. It’s was okay. It didn’t hurt anymore. It was fine. Her heartbeat had steadily been raising.

The release startled her immensely and although he had let go of her, she forgot to do the same. He fell to the floor and so did she, her nearly landing on top of him. However, she did, to her surprise, end up more or less in between his legs. She sucked in air, as if she had forgotten to breath through the feeding as well. And as soon as the most critical function had been restarted, her next concern was the bleeding, his fangs had left behind. She had been about to lift her write upwards for her to see when he made effort to try and get up again, which he failed again, which only complicated their position some more, as she herself loft balance from his sudden movements and fell further into him. The only thing stopping her face from taking a landing on his chest, was her quick reflexes, having her place a hand to the floor on either side of his hips. Though, this acting shot a jap of pain through the bitten wrist, making her grind her teeth.
Working..
Like dog hearing its name being called, Maeve’s head shot up to look at him. She saw the remainder of those grotesque veins around his eyes but she only really saw his blue irises. The veins had also been there the first time he had fed. “Are you… Really?” Relief overtook the human in seconds. Her face lost almost all edges and hints of a growing smile was creeping in the corners of her mouth. “After so long… a little blood was all that was needed?” And not just any kind of blood. Hers. She had been there from the start! Her eyes wandered down to his lips as the red colour of blood always seemed to attract attention. “I can see how you’d prefer drinking from a bottle. You’re a messy eater,” she commented, sounding out of breath before wiggling the sleeve of her other arm further down over her hand and then reached over to wipe blood away from his mouth. After that she sat up properly and grabbed around her bleeding wrist with the same sleeve-covered hand. She cringed. It was unexpecting sore. But her eyes were still turned to Joseph.

Why was he looking at her like that? It made her feel… strange. It wasn’t a bad feeling, like, it didn’t give her chills or made her think he was planning something wicked behind his baby blues. But if that wasn’t the case then why? She could even feel his gaze when she drew her own eyes away from him as if he never actually looked away himself. Her train of though was working a bit of overtime but then got interrupted and partly forgotten, the moment she sense him starting to move around. And then as he got up from the floor, she automatically pushed her shoulders tighter in as if to make herself slimmer and thereby easier for him to remove his legs which surrounded her. She looked up at him much like a slightly confused little mouse but still reached up to take his hand, as he offered it to her, although it was with a bit of hesitation since she wasn’t fond of the idea of separate the sleeve from the wounds.
But it was a quick event and as soon as she was back on her feet, the sleeve-covered hand was back around the wrist. “…Thanks,” she uttered carefully. She was conflicted. It was such a natural thing for her to say thanks, when being helped, but also.. Joseph wasn’t particularly someone who she felt deserved much of it. And yet… “Will you be alright?” She looked at him with a peek of concern. He was quite wobbly, if it wasn’t her who’s foggy mind making it seem so. He hadn’t taken much, but still she felt like how she did after a usual donation at the hospital. There was a reason for those ten minutes patients always were recommended. “Alright.”

Maeve nodded, folding her lips inwards, as she stepped towards the bathroom with him. He had pointed her in the direction before, but surely he wouldn’t have her look around in his cabinets for supplies himself? “Can you perhaps bandage it up as you would a sprained wrist?” she then asked. It wasn’t by coincidence that she had let him eat from the right wrist. The one which has been broken those many months ago. The one that had been in an overdrawn cast the first time the two of them had met. At least met officially. She hadn’t completely glazed over the siphoner’s countless hints about how they had passed each other more times than she thought. “I doubt anyone would be pleased to know that I let you drink from me. Not even for breaking the curse. Which we aren’t even sure is fully broken yet.” She needed to confirm it with Cecilia. And that demon, except she probably would never come across him. She suddenly realized how little she had cared about any other than her cousin in the whole matter. Did that make her bad?

Stepping into the bathroom, she was quick to sit down at whatever she could - the toilet, and edge of a bath tub - before she started following Joseph with her eyes. Maybe it was the lack of magic that probably used to ooze out of him, dark and suffocating magic, but now he really didn’t feel so intimidating. Her lips parted slightly before she spoke. “You can eat cheese burgers? Does that mean you get nutrition from other things than blood? Since you’re only half.”