Sable

"Conor, are you okay!?" Sable exclaimed. He made unintelligible noises as Akeem moved to sit beside them. "What happened? What's going on with his eyes? Why is he shaking so badly?"

"I've seen this before," Akeem muttered, more to himself than to Sable. "It's a blood high; he's crashing from it now. We need to get him into the water quickly before he burns up."

"A blood high!?" Sable said. She helped Akeem lift Conor to his feet. "From what?"

"I drank- them," Conor gasped out. His voice was incredibly rough; he sounded like he was in a vast amount of pain. And then he laughed eerily, swallowed hard, and grinned stupidly. "The demons. So many of them. Tasted good; they deserved it."

"Oh, no, Conor," Sable sighed. Akeem tore the shaking vampire's shirt off. When Sable put her arm back around him, she immediately drew back and hissed in pain. "His skin is burning!"

"I need to hurry," Akeem nodded.

Akeem quickly dragged Conor over to the river, which wasn't very far from where they were luckily, and stepped into the water with him. Steam rolled off of Conor as the water touched his skin. He groaned audibly, trying to shift away from Akeem.

"Oh, no, you don't," Akeem said. He pulled Conor closer. "Prepare yourself for this."

Akeem took Conor with him under the water. When they resurfaced Conor spat out water, and there was significantly less steam rolling off of him. He was about to speak when Akeem pulled them both under the water again. They resurfaced again, and that time there was no more steam rolling off of Conor. Conor spat out more water and then turned on Akeem.

"What the hell is wrong with you!?" Conor yelled. He appeared to be feeling a lot better, Sable thought. He followed Akeem out of the river.

"You were high on blood," Akeem explained. "You drank too much. You still need to purge it all from your system, or you'll be going through that process all over again."

He turned to Sable then and said, "When a vampire overeats, it's pretty extreme." He then turned back toward Conor. "Now, would you like assistance in vomiting it up, or would you like to bleed it out?"

Conor glared at him; Sable noticed his eyes were still red. He held his arm out to Akeem. Akeem pulled a blade from his belt and made a long incision on Conor's arm. Sable watched with wide eyes as he turned the wound toward the ground, the blood falling in a slow, but steady stream to the ground.

"Have- have you been through this before?" Sable asked quietly. She didn't know why she was panicking about it. Shouldn't she have been used to all the strange things going on already? She shuddered still.

"Once, or twice; when I was younger," Conor shrugged. "Not a very pleasant experience, but I was so- unbelievably hungry, and pissed off. And Akeem, you have it wrong. It's more like taking drinking too much alcohol to the extreme."

Sable looked away, not able to watch anymore. It made her stomach turn. Vampires and blood. Suddenly it was like she had been kidnapped and thrown into a strange new world all over again. It was all overwhelming her again, and her head was reeling, as she thought more and more about it all. The desire to be back home with her family and best friend grew just that much more stronger.

But there was no longer a best friend to go home to, she remembered.

When she looked back over to them she saw that the red of Conor's blood was mixed with something black and purple. Slowly his blood returned to being just red, and the bleeding stopped as the wound healed over. Sable wandered over to the pool of odd liquid.

"What is that?" Sable asked.

"The excess blood," Conor said. He sighed and ran a hand down his face. "It was becoming like poison- my body had no idea what to do with it; it was so full. I feel so much better... Ah, well... I see I- interrupted your picnic, here?"

Sable rolled her eyes at the sudden change in topic.

"I think I lost my appetite, anyway," she muttered. She shook her head and sighed, and then looked to Conor. "Watching you bleed was a bit much. And... you made it out alive."

"I did," Conor said. He placed his hand on Sable's back; Akeem tensed up. "Now, please eat. You look like you've lost a bit of weight."

"I haven't even been using my magic at all," Sable said. She pursed her lips and her eyebrows knitted together. Akeem looked back and forth between the two in confusion. Conor took note of the look on Akeem's face.

"She requires a great deal of energy in order for her to be able to use her magic," Conor explained. "It eats up her body fat, unless she is around plant life. We assume it's how Inara obtained energy."

"Lucca had told me she was the goddess of nature," Sable whispered. She spoke louder then, "But she was so much more than that. If she was the last god in existence, then she was the god of everything. How did she become so familiar with obtaining energy plants?"

"The god of nature died early on," Akeem reminded her. "Well, was absorbed... She must have been so young then; they both must have been. They were among the first gods."

Conor stared intently at Akeem, who just shrugged. Sable gritted her teeth together.

"Why tell me she was just the goddess of nature? Why lie to me about everything she really was?" she growled. She chewed on her lip and looked up at Conor. "Just how much has he lied to me about, really? There was one question he avoided answering when I asked him. How he had become so strong- strong enough to fight me off."

"And I will not answer it for him," Conor said, shaking his head. "You'll need to ask him again yourself."

"Fine," Sable said. "You need to gather Lucca's army, anyway. And you're going to take me with you; I need to talk to him."

Both Conor and Akeem froze and stared at her wide-eyed. They exchanged looks before turning back to her again.

"No," Conor said.

"Absolutely not," Akeem said at the same time. "You are staying here until the ritual time passes. It isn't safe out there for you, Sable."

"You heard what the guy said in that- temple building thing," Sable sighed. "It's not safe for me anywhere. There are always going to be people after me. Just as there always were people after Inara, and the other gods."

"Sable, it's out of the question," Conor said. He placed his hand on her arm and guided her back over to the food laid out on the ground. "Now finish eating. I'm serious; I won't take you anywhere at all if you don't eat."

"You won't be taking her anywhere, period," Akeem growled, sitting with them.

Sable rolled her eyes and picked her sandwich back up, taking a bite from it. All the while her familiar and her vampire were shooting each other glares that could freeze hell over. Sable threw bread at them both, and they looked at her confused, to which she just grinned at them.

"Knock it off," she said. The words combined with the grin made her seem all the more hostile.

They looked away from each other. Sable shook her head and finished the rest of her sandwich in a tense silence.

"So, I need to gather an army," Conor said as they were walking back to Akeem's home.

"Lucca's army." Sable nodded her head. "Those men seemed to have abilities like yours. You know, the psychic visions and stuff. They said his army trusted you more than Lucca."

Conor let out a slow breath. Sable watched him carefully. Akeem followed silently behind.

"I should have seen this coming," Conor said quietly. "There were so many demons. They kept coming and coming- I was so gone, I don't know how I managed to get away."

"Maybe I should fight along side you guys," Sable offered. "Help keep you sane." Conor laughed and Akeem cleared his throat.

"You haven't had enough training," Akeem said. "And you aren't strong enough just yet."

"You've been training with her?" Conor asked.

"Is there a problem with that?" Akeem shot back. "I don't want her to feel or be completely defenseless." Sable wondered what was wrong with him.

"Stop it, you two!" Sable growled at them.

"I didn't start anything," Conor said. He held his hands up in front of him in defense.

"You-"

Sable cut Akeem off, "Just stop. I don't care who started what, or who didn't start what. There's too much testosterone right now. I am fine. And you are taking me to see Lucca."

Conor whipped around and caught Sable by her shoulders. The look in his eyes made Sable almost wish she hadn't said anything. Almost.

"No, I am not," he said. "You are going to wait here with your familiar until I return."

He turned back away from her and started walking again. Sable glared at his back as she followed him.