happy birthday yadda yadda

 I really wish I had time to get a beta on this, and another day to fuss with it, but Everisse will be unhappy if I ask for another extension on her present.  She might, like, stop being my friend or something, and that would be tragic, so. 

ETA:  More information about two of the three characters used can be found at biorama, here and here.  The third character, well, if you don't know him you're probably here for goats and should just ignore this post.

When I used to write fic, I had a little disclaimer to stick on it, but I don't remember how it went.  Not my characters, not my universe, no infringement of anything intended, no profit will be made.  This is just for fun.  Please don't sue me, Mr. Landy.  Not that you'd do that, anyway.  You're cool.


Elevation

Everisse Eterna was not happy.  She had been buried alive - or as well as - and worse yet, she wasn't alone.  A man was with her, and his hot and slightly rancid breath  brushed across her ear, along with a drawn-out whisper:  "I've had  my share of pretty young things.  I know brown sugar's the sweetest.  Why don't you give me a taste, honeybunch?"

Then he was still beside her, open mouth resting heavily on the shell of her ear, hard teeth against the cartilage.  The faint stir of air had ceased.  She exhaled and breathed in, catching the faint scents of ozone and charred flesh behind the overwhelming one of dank earth.  She listened, but there was no sound other than her own heart, her own breath, her own tiny movements disturbing the dirt that pressed in on her.

Billy-Ray Sanguine was dead.  Oops, Everisse thought.  Temper, temper.  Didn't mean to zap him quite that hard.

She felt around her, testing the ground on all sides.  A little crumbly right around their cramped cavity, but firm just beyond that.  She remembered seeing the floor heal behind him when he rose out of it – cracked, but solid nonetheless.  She tried to calculate where they were, estimate how far underground.  How much air she had left.

Not good.

No sense wasting time, then.  She pushed up the front of  his shirt and – shoving instinctive revulsion to the back of her mind – put her palms on his chest, one on each side.  “Clear,” she muttered to no-one in particular, and shocked him.

Nothing.

Breathe.

Breathe.

Try again.

He spasmed suddenly, coughing into her neck, and she tried to withdraw her hands before he noticed them – but too late.  He gripped them and held them to his chest.  “Fiesty, too.  Everything I like in a woman.”  He laughed and wrapped his arms around her waist, crushing her against him.  “I knew you couldn't resist me, darlin'.”

Briefly, Everisse regretted the circumstances that dictated reviving him, but regrets could wait.  Survival could not.  She tried to relax against him, act like she had no intention of fighting.  “What can I say?  I've never met anyone quite like you.  You've swept me off my feet.”  All technically true, she reflected, in letter if not in spirit.

He laughed, sounding unconvinced but humoring her.  “Maybe not, sugar, but give me a chance.”  His hold loosened slightly, and the earth parted above them.  They rose through it with a rumble, and emerged in her bedroom.  She spat dirt, and blinked more out of her eyes.

“Now darlin', let's get cozy while you tell me what I need to know about the Sanctuary's search for tha-”  The lazy drawl was cut off as he stumbled forward into her, then whipped around to face the bed, one hand suddenly wielding an oddly-shaped knife, and the other gingerly cradling the back of his head.  A small child, brown eyes wide, stood on the bed, brandishing a laptop computer.  She dropped it, and slowly raised her hands in surrender.  She'd sucked her lower lip into her mouth, and was biting it nervously.

Everisse peered around Sanguine, and silently mouthed, “E. Van. Ge. Line.  I am going to KILL you.”

Sanguine, meanwhile, was boggling.  “I knew the Sanctuary was hiring young these days, but this is ridiculous.”  He folded his blade into the handle, and put it away.  “You're gonna get a whuppin' for that, li'l un.”  He advanced on the girl, cracking his knuckles.

Evangeline whimpered and retreated to the far side of the bed, a picture of abject terror.  He coiled to lunge after her, but the picture of terror changed to one of smirking triumph, and the girl vaulted backward through the open window behind her, leaving a giggle and “See ya!  Wouldn't wanna be ya!” in her wake.  Then Everisse's heel slammed into the small of his back.  He sprawled on the bed, rolled and was up in an instant, his blade back in his hand.

“Now, why'd you have to go an' be like that, after I was so nice an' all?”

Flabbergasted, she replied, “When were you nice?”

“Well, I was gonna be nice, right after we finished that little piece of business I came here for.”

“That.  Would not.  Have been nice.”  Her hand crackled with electricity, and she raised it and blasted him.

“Yee-ow!”  Sanguine was on his knees, looking, well, shocked.  “Now, hunnybunny, that just ain't polite.  We could have had a good time.”  He got his feet back under him, and waggled his blade like a chastising finger at her.

“Whatever,” she said, and kicked out again.  He slipped to the side and caught her foot, twisting it until she lost her balance.  She hit the floor and rolled away, reached under the bed, and came up on her feet with a katana in her right hand and a ball of electric energy sparking in her left.

She gestured at his knife with the sword.  “Mine's bigger than yours.”

He laughed.  Again.  His laugh was starting to grate on her.

“Who told you size is everything, li'l girl?”  He took a step towards her, staying barely out of the range of her weapon.  “It's technique that really matters.”  In an instant he'd moved in and had a death-grip on her wrist, and her sword hung uselessly from her immobilized hand.  Another instant, and he had a face full of lightning.

He yelped and jumped back, which was all Everisse needed to have the tip of her blade at his throat.  “Now, now,” he whispered, very slowly and carefully.  “No need for that.  I wasn't goin' to hurt you.  Jus' wanted some information, is all.  Why don't we call this a draw, an' go our separate ways?”

“You wish,” piped a voice from behind him, and then his hair was on fire. 

He howled.  “Dammit, you li'l brat!  I'ma-”  Everisse hooked his ankle with hers and yanked it from under him, while shoving him to the ground.  She poked him with the sword, hard.  “...be goin' now.”  And Billy-Ray Sanguine sank into the floor.

Everisse looked up to see a grin plastered on Evangeline's face.  “Ange, what have I told you about interfering with my fights?  You scared the bejeesus out of me!  I've half a mind to spank you myse...”  She broke off as the girl disappeared through the window again.  “Brat.”