St. Cecilia Catholic Church
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At ten o'clock in the evening, the church is fairly quiet. It is the perfect opportunity for an extremely young, delicate looking woman to find herself kneeling before the a large stained glass window in front of which is a table of candles and a statue of Mary.
Isobel's manner of dress is odd. Something out of a Gothic romance novel caught somewhere between the fourteenth century and the Victorian era. Elegant and lacy, the dress that covers her body is trailing in the back but short enough in the front that it is with bare knees that she kneels.
Her head is bowed forward, her blonde hair for once allowed to fall about her shoulders and causing her to look even younger than she normally appears. Her fingers drift along the beads of a platinum rosary. "Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc, et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen." « Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now, and in the hour of our death. Amen. »
There are a few moments in church people hate the most. Getting in front of the altar is one thing, the other situation you want to avoid is using the big front portal to make your entrance. You probably interrupt someone, you may even violate a silent moment, but you get all the critical glances anyway. But it is just nearly impossible to avoid that in the evening.
A loud creaking echos through the resonant walls of the church as Tucker enters. His brown leather shoes give downright clacks on the cold stone tiles of the church as he takes his first steps away from the huge wooden door. As the wing of the entrance closes a enormous reverbative bang should make the last person inside aware of his presence.
Tucker stops as he waits for the silence and the peaceful feeling of the church to return for him and closes his eyes for a second as he sucks in the cold air of the thick stone building.
Schooled as she has been in the ways of the church, Isobel does not bother looking up. Although she can tell that the one entering is another vampire. There are, shall we say, distinct smells about them.
The sign of the cross is made, and she brings the cross of the rosary up to her lips. Slowly she rises to her feet. Her body turns in a silent manner so that her icy blue eyes can hone in on the youngling that has entered.
Someone she does not know.
When he regained a feeling of secureness again Tucker opens his eyes. He scans the church with an concentrated look on his face. His eyes do not seem to move from certain points to others, he actually seems to rasterize his surroundings. One can tell he obviously is not looking for a certain person when he starts looking at the ceiling and the big windows.
For a short while he continues watching the scenery until his body freezes and his head suddelny turns. Obviously even he finally noticed the presence of another vampire here. His eyes narrow as he looks at Isobel and starts to eye the woman up. As her presence fully gets hold of him the hairs on his neck start to stand up and all his muscles seem to tighten, maybe even cramp. His posture is unnatural and one can see he is uncomfortable, but he just cannot help it when he feels this presence of the old and mighty…
"I would not concern yourself with the tales of burning up when in a holy location," Isobel states in an extremely dry, neutral manner. "Those stories are false. Mentioned by our kind hundreds of years ago, so that we could still attend mass in the evenings and not be thought of as demons."
Noting his discomfort, she shows the first sign of 'humanity'. A smirk appears upon her lips, and she motions him toward a pew. "I would know who your maker is, child. Why it is he or she has not seen fit to introduce you to the city as of yet."
Indeed her words help Liam to losen up a bit but he still does not seem to be courageous enough to approach the woman. He shifts his weight on his other foot and turns fully to the vampire. For a second he thinks about what the she said, then his face turns into a big frown.
"Introd— Huh?" seems to be the only answer he can offer at the moment, his confusion visible in his eyes. Anyhow he whispers, a suitable tone for a church and his words are decisively calm.
While Isobel's abilities are not the type that enable her to effectively glamour another vampire, Isobel points toward the pew again. "Seat yourself." The words are forceful, determined. As though she will not move until he seats himself.
"Let me ask again. Who is your Maker? You are far too young to not be with the one who created you. You are far too young to be wandering on your own. You should know the ways of your kind, and the ways of this city before you set foot in it."
When her tone gets more firm Tucker's whole body seems to tighten up again and he sits down on the pew immediately. He seems to wait for a second till he answers, his head lowered, his hands tightly clasped in his lap.
"I don't…" he begins, hesitantly, "I just don't know…" he lifts his head and looks back into the woman's eyes. "My maker. I think he's dead. But… Maybe not." He shrugs when he is finished as if he does not know what else there would be to say.
There is a flash of fury in her eyes. If there is one thing Isobel cannot stand it is an irresponsible Maker. That could, very well, be because her relationship with her own Maker was miserable for a great many years.
When the fury subsides — which involves her nearly taking off part of the back of the pew in her clenched fist — she seats herself next to the newcomer.
"Please then, allow me to let you in on our rules. When entering a new city, you are bound by the rules and laws within that city. Upon visiting a new Area, you are required to make yourself known to the Sheriff, as the Sheriff has the right to know who is within her Area. When you leave the Area it is also mandatory that you tell the Sheriff that you are leaving."
This, she allows to sink in before continuing.
As he sees the woman nearly redecorating in fury Tucker gulps hearable. As she talks to him again he listens very closely, not moving at all. He remembers one of the shifters mentioning a sheriff. At the first moment he smirks, even suppressing to snort at the picture of a vampire sheriff for Dallas.
But then, when the realization that the things the shifter mentioned could be true kicks in his smile breaks and collapses into an grimace of fear. There seem to be some clockworks moving in Liam's head for a few long moments, recapturing and rethinking what he might have heard about vampires. After a while he just shakes his head as if he wanted to throw away any unneeded thoughts for the moment, concentrating on what was in front of him.
"So…" He finally says, "Since you wanted to know who my maker is I take it you are the… Sheriff?"
"Mm." Isobel does not answer right away, though the church is empty but for the two of them.
"The destruction of another vampire is strictly forbidden. Should you kill another vampire without the knowledge of the Sheriff, King or the Magister, you will find yourself before the Tribunal and you will likely not be pleased with the results." Icy blue eyes lock onto his face and she adds, "Respect for the property of another vampire is required. This includes but is not limited to their wealth, property, or the vampire's vessel. Should you feed from a human that is claimed by another vampire it will likely lead to your death. Your Maker is responsible for your actions. I suggest, Mr…" She waits long enough for the answer before she continues, "That you find out promptly if he or she is still alive and alert them to your existence."
"Tucker," leaves his lips promptly and "Liam Ulrich" is added after that, in a more insecure way. When she mentions a maker again he sighs quietly. "That might be a bit of a problem, since… Well, it's a long story." He pauses again, waiting for her to continue or give any sign that she is done for the moment.
"Well, Mr. Tucker, long story or not it would be advisable for you to find out for certain. If your Maker is still alive, I cannot see them simply leaving you to your own devices. That reflects very poorly on them. If they are not alive, then you will need someone to teach you the protocols."
Isobel flips a phone out of the folds of her skirt and quickly dials a number. "Gwen, I need you to secure yet another room at the Carmilla for me. It is necessary that it be readied as soon as possible." There is some silence and then she hmms. "The room beside Reynolds will be fine."
As she takes out a phone inside the church Tucker turns his head to see if anyone was watching them. Of course there is no one at this time just hanging around in a church but cell phones in sacred surroundings are definitely out of place — at least for him.
When he hears about a room at the fancy hotel for him his eyes light up just like the ones of a child if you offer treats to them.
The phone is quietly shut and slipped back into the folds of her skirt. From the same location is drawn out a card.
Handing the card to him, Isobel states, "Your room at this location will be paid for until the end of the month. Enough to give you time to attempt to locate your Maker or otherwise become acclimated with my city. At the end of this time, either myself or one of my associates will contact you to see whether you plan on remaining within Dallas for the long term."
At that time, she'll assess whether he can be put to work or not. Meanwhile, a carefully placed call later to Gregory will see that a full background check is run on that name.
Tucker takes the card and gives it a short look before he puts it in his pocket. "Thank you", he whispers. "Thank you so much." He seems to be honestly surprised by that turn of events since he had to live through a few bad weeks when he arrived here. But a nice hotel room or a (more or less) permanent place to sleep boosts his standard of living by an amount he was unable to put words.
For a moment there he restrains from trying to hug the woman when in the next he has not even the heart to ask her for her name. It will probably be on the card anyway, printed very small at the bottom, next to the word owner…
"They will provide you with the bottled synthetic. Should you find you desire more, there are willing donors that work at the hotel that they will deliver as room service. Just ensure that you do not over imbibe on them." Isobel brushes her hands down over her dress.
"You are welcome, though I do ask that you do not relay my kindness to others. I have a reputation to maintain and at the moment I need nothing tainting it."
"So I… won't." Tucker replies, shrugging indifferently. When he hears about the willing donor service he shudders. People can drop to low standards, but working as a blood snack at a vampire hotel was just… wrong. A whole new level of stupid!
Liam shook the thought away with his head (again) and looked up to the woman again.
Noting the shudder, Isobel smirks. "You must consider, Mr. Tucker, that for centuries our kind had no access to the synthetic blood. It was non-existent. People have been willingly offering themselves to our kind since well before the time I was created."
She turns to begin heading outside of the church. "Someone will be in touch, child. Please try to keep yourself out of trouble until that time, hmm?"
Not sure if the woman was simply lying or telling the truth Tucker just nods. There are probably no differences in body language for both possibilities with this woman since she… well, has no real body language. On the other hand he did not care enough to seriously think about that right now.
He exhales slightly, one would say humanly, when the presence of the old vampire stopped giving him a feeling of complete weakness and helplessness. Now he could breathe freely again, if he would. He still looks at the door for a while when Isobel left, maybe making sure she is really gone, maybe just fascinated. After that he takes his time to say his prayers, wondering if someone answered them even before he could even say them…
