OTA

[jageskro]

Sometimes, bar fights just didn't happen the way you wanted them to. As in, they were cut short before you got much more than a bruise and a cut on your cheekbone. Jag was pissed off as he stumbled away from the bar, holding a kleenex to his cheek. With his other hand, he was fishing his mobile out of his pocket. Who knew, maybe Coby would be in the mood for a little mutual pain tonight. Or even just a blowjob, Jag wasn't going to be picky.

He threw the kleenex in the gutter and scrolled through his contact list, but before he could find Coby, he found himself shoved up against a wall in the deserted street. By a woman. A really fucking strong woman, who licked his bleeding cheek before telling him, "You're delicious."

"And you've got weird kinks," he muttered, eyes flicking away from her and at the nervous-looking girl behind her.

"Are you sure you should be doing this?" the girl asked, switching from foot to foot. "The sheriff -"

"The sheriff isn't here," the woman cut her off, then grinned at Jag, baring bloody fangs.

Before he could think anything of it, pain lanced from his neck as she buried them there. "Fuck," he muttered, not exactly sounding as if he disliked getting his blood sucked out of him. Not as long as the pain of those fangs didn't go anywhere, anyway.

"Just, maybe don't kill him?"

The vampire pulled back from him with a roll of her eyes, still holding Jag against the wall. His neck was still hurting beautifully. "Of course I'm going to kill him. I'm tired of being on a leash. Do you want a drink, or not?"

Right, okay. Wonderful pain was one thing. Being drained dry, another. "No one's killing me," Jag muttered.

"Oh yeah?" The woman snorted. "The food thinks it's got a say in..."

She never finished her sentence, as Jag's fire washed over her. Jag expected it to hurt the fuck out of her, and make her back off. But apparently vampires were extremely flammable, because she caught on fire properly and was reduced to ashes within seconds.

"Fuck," Jag said again. He looked up at the girl vampire, who screamed and then ran off, faster than his eye could track. "Fuck," he repeated, and began to sag to the ground now that no one was holding him up against the wall.

Comments

[hollow_moon]

"I'm not an expert, but I don't think that's how it works," Val replied quietly.

[jageskro]

"Love's shit," Jag answered on the same tone. "Are you about done?" He ought to go, really.

[hollow_moon]

"I've hardly begun," Val assured him, even as he pulled the cloth away and took a step back. "Tonight's going to be quite long, I'm afraid."

[jageskro]

"No, it's not," Jag answered with a frown. "I'm going to sleep it off." He made to step away, hoping his legs would carry him to the Tube.

[hollow_moon]

Val watched him, not certain what would happen if Jag attempted to leave the circle while still cursed.

He really hoped Em got here soon.

[offthebeatenpath]

It wouldn't have taken nearly as long to get from the squat to the museum if Em had been able to fly, and the need to hide her abilities chafed more than usual. Working through an Askani meditation kept her from stewing over that or all the questions Val's text had raised, and she was calm by the time she arrived.

She sent up a quiet thanks to Val for leaving the door unlocked, and she followed the buzz of voices back to his office in time to hear Jag say he was going to sleep it off.

"Everything okay?" Em asked, her gaze going straight to Jag to see how badly he was hurt, while inwardly directing the question more toward Val. The "I found what you were looking for," that followed, on the other hand, was obviously to him.

[jageskro]

"What are you-" Stopped dead in his tracks, Jag frowned at Em. "What's going on?"

There was none of his usual hostility of the last few weeks in his voice, however.

[hollow_moon]

Val moved closer to Em, nodding his thanks and offering a sad smile. "Thank you, Em. My apologies for letting it be in your home so long. I should have retrieved it sooner," he said quietly, eyes drifting to Jag.

"Do you remember that night we spent in the woods, Jag? The mirror we found?" he asked, speaking to Jag, but glancing over at Em. Val had a talent for looking a bit like a kicked dog when he was feeling guilty about something, and since he'd made the connection between the mirror and Jag's odd behavior, he'd felt nothing but guilt.

[offthebeatenpath]

If she thought about how long Jag had been out of sorts, and further back to when they'd gotten out of the city for a night, Em would agree Val should've done something about it sooner, but for now she was more focused on the present and what to do from there.

"It's cursed, isn't it?" Ghosts she was used to, fond of even in some cases, but cursed objects were more Val's expertise.

[jageskro]

Jag's hand had found the back of the chair again, to help hold himself up. His neck injury still hurt, his head was starting to pound, and there was too much alcohol in his system still. "I'm not cursed, yeah?" he told Val, sounding tired now, rather than argumentative. He turned his gaze on Em, pleading. "I just wanna go home. Please."

[hollow_moon]

Val said nothing to that, but he did turn his attention back to Em.

"It's cursed, yes," he told her. "But I think I can fix this. I just need the mirror and some time. Can you keep him here? The circle in the floor should hold him, but..."

Well, he wasn't keen on assuming everything would go so smoothly.

[offthebeatenpath]

How could Em do anything but want to help, when Jag looked at her like that? Especially with how he'd been for weeks.

"Home's people, not a place," Em told Jag as she pulled the scarf-wrapped box out of her bag and offered it to Val. "And I'm not going anywhere until we get this fixed." And neither was Jag.

"Just let Val do what he needs to do, yeah?"

[jageskro]

The circle in the... Jag looked down as if the thing would now be obvious, then looked up at Val with a betrayed expression. He turned his gaze on Em when she spoke up. "I don't need to be fixed. Or bound in a circle." His lungs felt too tight, and he dropped back on the chair. He wiped his hands over his face, trying to ignore the way they were shaking slightly.

[hollow_moon]

Val felt guilty, but if Jag hated him for this later, he'd live with it. Right now he only cared about making him well again.

"Thank you," he said, taking the scarf from Em and carefully removing the mirror from the box. He glanced at Jag, then looked away, ducking his head as he set to work.

The first thing he did was cover the mirror with what looked like a slightly sheer alter cloth, obscuring it slightly as he began to dig around in the cupboards. Pulling out a few small bottles, he glanced at Em again. I don't suppose the cards have had anything to say?" he asked softly, his gaze drifting to Jag and lingering a beat, before his guilt won out and he had to look away again.

[offthebeatenpath]

Unlike Jag, Em couldn't even try to ignore the slight tremor in his hands, but she limited herself to resting one of hers on his shoulder, half expecting him to shrug it off.

"Nothing helpful so far, but that's what I get when I don't know what to ask," she told Val, mostly keeping the frustration from her voice. "I could look again, now I have some idea what's going on."

[jageskro]

Jag didn't shrug Em's hand away; on the contrary, he leaned into the touch, eyes closed. None of this made sense. The entire evening made no sense. He had missed out on a good bar fight - never mind that it seemed a terrible idea now - and almost been killed by a vampire he'd turned to ash, and now Val had him bound in a circle so he could lift a curse off him. A curse he couldn't feel. None of it made sense, and his emotions were all over the place. It might be selfish to take comfort from Em's touch when he'd been such a shit to her, but there he went anyway.

[hollow_moon]

"In my defense, I only recently made the connection myself," Val replied, his body language making it clear he felt dreadful about that as well. Had he been in his wolf form, his tail would have been tucked tightly between his legs. "It's alright though, I think it's just a simple hex. I've seen it before, though the last one seemed to encourage vanity rather than aggression."

Carefully he removed the mirror from its small frame, turning it over and looking at the markings on the back. Yes, he could fix this. Quite easily, actually.

Using the alter cloth, he wrapped the mirror tightly and took a hammer to it, breaking it, and then dropping the shattered glass into a plain marble mortar as he picked up a pestle.

"Do me a favour, Em? There's an electric kettle in the corner, and some water in the fridge. Boil some, would you?"

He glanced at Jag next, and wet his lips. "And you- You should really just try and relax. ...Please," he added softly.

[offthebeatenpath]

"Wands, no cups," Em murmured to herself, only making the connection when the word 'aggression' didn't feel entirely right. But that didn't matter, especially not now, and she gave Jag's shoulder a gentle squeeze. "It'll be all right," she told him in Romani.

It would be all right, because it had to be. But first – water. Em rubbed Jag's back, then went to put the kettle on, keeping an eye on Jag all the time. She'd been worried too long to do otherwise now there was an end to the problem in sight.

[jageskro]

Jag looked less miserable than he felt, which was saying a lot. Relaxing was so far out of the realm of possibility that he nearly responded to the suggestion with anger, but Em's words and the squeeze of her hand stopped him, and he felt terrible all over again. He wasn't even sure what 'it' was that was supposed to be all right, at this stage. Everything felt fucked up, and he was exhausted. He resisted the urge to touch the itchy wound on his neck and fiddled with his rings instead, staring down at his hands in his lap. But even that felt too taxing, and he gave up with a quiet sigh, glancing over at Val, then Em.

[hollow_moon]

Val managed to get the mirror down to a fine powder, glancing at Jag and then making his way over to the other man while they waited for the water to boil.

"How's your neck?" he asked softly.

[offthebeatenpath]

Em was torn between curiosity over the curse and what Val was doing to break it, concern wanting to keep an eye on Jag, and feeling like maybe she should give them this minute.

As she waited on the kettle, she pulled out her cards, mostly shuffling to give herself something to do with her hands, but with her mind the way it was, she wouldn't be surprised by any cards that might fall.

[jageskro]

"Smarts a bit," Jag answered quietly, having glanced up at Val and immediately looked away. "Itches, too." He wasn't sure what he could possibly say to him.

[hollow_moon]

Val ghosted his fingers over the familiar looking marks, though he didn't touch. Not now. After all, Jag wasn't his anymore. For all he wanted to blame the curse for the somewhat volatile end of their relationship, a large part of him wasn't sure he could. He was hardly the ideal mate, after all.

Drawing his hand away, he looked over at Em.

"Is it nearly boiling?" he asked softly, turning to a nearby bookshelf and selecting a very small but heavy looking cauldron.

[offthebeatenpath]

"Almost," she agreed, the cards in her hands coming to a stop, one sticking out from the otherwise neatly packed deck. She glanced at it, eyes going distant for a second before putting it back in the deck and the deck in her pocket.

"What do you need me to do?" she asked, picking up the kettle.

[jageskro]

Jag didn't move when Val reached for his neck, a little too still. He realised he'd been holding his breath when Val pulled away, and he sighed out before breathing in again. He looked over at the two of them as they talked, and worked. Better people than he deserved, both of them.