Stop and stare -Tiberius-

[Desdemona Riley]

An advantage to being blind is not caring whether it's light or dark out. While some people would take a look at the sky and think "it's getting late", Riley would feel the fading sun on her face and be happy that the streets should be getting quieter soon. Riley had just walked into a coffee shop that bordered one of the lesser used roads of Port Angeles. It had the perfect amount of people inside for her tastes: enough that nobody would bother giving her a second glance, but empty enough that she wouldn't be hitting every single person in line with her cane (though she wouldn't exactly be sorry if that was the case. It's not like she can watch where she's going, she'd often remark sarcastically when someone would protest being hit).

The cashier hadn't heard the bell signaling that somebody had come in, so he wasn't standing where he should have been. He was roughly six feet away, crouching down towards the floor to clean up a spill that a new employee had made. Riley, however, was not aware of that, so she ordered her coffee to the air. The cashier was more than a little confused. He had noticed the red-haired girl after she had spoken, but it didn't occur to him why she didn't wait for him to walk back over to his post. Even the dead giveaway of sunglasses on a cloudy day didn't make the fact that this patron was blind click in his mind. This fact was not lost on the new employee, however; a girl of about 19. But she got all flustered when talking to Riley, which made her snap at the girl, which made the senior employee (his name was Sage according to his nametag) defend her, which drew the attention of everyone else in the shop. Riley was all but bristling with all these stares upon her. All she had said to the girl was, "If you have something to say to me, just say it!". She hadn't insulted her, or raised her voice. She had just wanted to get some coffee, was that too much to ask?

If Riley had known what the color red had looked like, it would still be tinging her mind as she sat on the bench outside the coffee place. After explaining in a voice that barely concealed her annoyance, Riley had gotten her coffee, and had then left the store promptly. It always seemed that people were staring at her when she went into public places, and she hated it. People at her old school had called her "Picasso" because she looked completely normal, but she could never meet your eyes, just like a painting, or a statue. Unlike a painting or a statues, however, Riley was not ok with being stared at. Ever. No exceptions.

There was no more heat filtering down onto the top of Riley's head, a sure sign that the sun had set. People were walking back to their cars and driving off, their heels and car motors echoing clearly through the night air. As she took a swallow of her bitter drink, Riley felt a familiar sensation on her shoulder. Somebody was staring at her. Again. Anger surged up inside her, and she swallowed harder than necessary. Why did everyone think that she couldn't tell that they were looking at her just because she was blind? "Can I help you?" She asked scathingly in the direction she knew the person was in, not caring that she might not even be close to his/her face.

[Tiberius Maximus Aurelias]

A smirk grew on Tiberius' lips from the thought of the little annoyance he found himself "attached" to. He admired her courage and passion and her strength and conviction. Many things about her made him smile. Tiberius found her to be "cute". She acted like a child but certainly didn't look like one. He felt a vibration coming from his suit pocket, he reached into it and pulled out a cell phone, opened it up and put it to his ear, it was Alexander. "Hello old friend." Tiberius spoke to him, his ancient tone and Italian accent obvious as the sun. "Remember, no more killing of humans until we figure out exactly what we are dealing with here." Alexander spoke, always the more mature and authoritative one.

Tiberius nodded. "Of course brother, what is our next course of action to be?" Tiberius asked him. Alexander paused. "I have a few leads and your powers will come in handy, we must regroup soon and discuss this matter further in person." Alexander answered. "As you wish my friend, see you soon."" They both hung up, he placed hiss phone back inside his suit pocket and just as he was ready to leave he heard a ringing noise indicating someone was entering the coffee shop. Tiberius gave a glance and turned away then quickly turning back for a second look.

A girl walked into the shop, she was beautiful. His eyes glazed over and couldn't keep off her but he managed to look away before she could notice he was staring at her. Though that made him laugh quietly to himself since he knew she was blind. Sunglasses on a cloudy day and a walking cane used to "see" things for blind people. obvious give aways. She went up to the counter and tried to order some coffee only to get into a little scrap with the employees. Tiberius blinked confusingly and watched the girl leave the shop.

Tiberius got up, straighted out his suit and left in the direction the girl had. He was just sincerely interested in the young girl, he wondered about her affliction, what caused it and why. He wasn't the nosey type but, this girl was interesting to her. She turned back to face him as he had been caught by her sixth sense. He stopped dead in his tracks. "Yes, you can help me by telling me your name." His Italian accent and ancient tone seeping through his teeth.

[Desdemona Riley]

Riley frowned. This Italian guy wanted to know her name? Or, Riley thought he was Italian at least. She hadn't met many people with accents, so the only thing she knew for certain that it was not American in the slightest. The fact that she couldn't place his age either was a bit worrying as well. His voice sounded relatively young, maybe 20? But the way he was speaking reminded her of Professor Zurell, a friend of Uncle Ozymandia's that was in his late thirties but acted like he was a decade older sometimes. Riley tapped the bottom of her empty cup against the top of the trash can that sat next to the bench and let go when it landed on open air. It only took a few tries to get it in the trash successfully; part of her mouth rose in a smile. "My name's Desdemona, but you can call me Riley." Why not just tell him? He couldn't do much with knowing her first name (and her last name, but he didn't know that). He had asked nicely, she guessed, and her manner-nut uncle told her almost every day that if someone is nice to you, you should return the favor. Riley didn't always listen to that rule of his, but this time she was straying from the norm.

"What's your name? A little more common than mine, I'm guessing?" She grinned at the space just to the right of the man's face. Riley was pretty sure that she was a little off on her calculation of where his face was, though not really caring. Most of the time when strangers spoke to Riley when she was alone, they just had a question about blindness. If he was one of those people, he would just have to get over the fact that she wouldn't be able to make eye contact if he hadn't understood that beforehand.

Riley pulled her sunglasses off and started cleaning the lenses absentmindedly with the edge of her black and grey striped shirt while she waited for the stranger to respond. She didn't know if something had actually gotten on them, but they had been slipping all day and it was starting to get annoying. Riley brushed her hair out of her eyes and began to put the glasses back on. Then she stopped lifting them midway to her face. What's the point in putting them back on? If the guy got creeped out by her staring eyes, he didn't have to talk to her. Sticking an arm of the sunglasses in her jeans pocket so it wouldn't fall out, Riley stood up, but held her cane at the wrong angle to show that she wasn't planning on walking away. Yet.

By chance, when Riley had changed positions, her gaze "locked" onto the stranger's face. Her blue eyes were looking at his, but the fact that she couldn't see that was more than apparent, even in the low light given off by the stores surrounding them.

[Tiberius Maximus Aurelias]

Curiosity teeming in his ancient and knowledge filled head. His mind was like an ancient library full of secrets, ready to teach the world the way man was meant to live though Tiberius, being not a man, cared not for the fate of mankind. There were a select few humans who did catch his attention here and there. Such as this girl who was in front of him, a humble blind girl by first appearances. Though he knew better then to judge a book by it's cover. Her name, she said, was "Desdemona" but asked to be called "Riley" instead. He bowed his head in courtesy, though he knew she would not see it. "It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance Ms. Riley." He said as his accent seemed more pronounced in this sentence.

Riley asked him his name, he saw no harm in telling her his first name, his full name was too long and perhaps too formal for this seemingly "punk rock" girl. "My name is Tiberius, not a very common name is it Ms Riley?" He spoke with an assertive tone and he rose his left eyebrow in sarcasm. A small glimpse of his white teeth showing from the corner of his mouth. He looked up at the sky for a second, seeing sun rays beginning to pierce through the veil of clouds in the sky. It was only a few, he was sure the sun would not show today. If it did, not like Riley could see anyway.

He turned back to look at Riley, who had wiped off her sunglasses then turned back to stare his directly in the eyes. He was mesmerized. Her eyes, were a beautiful shade of blue, he smiled at her but then he remembered, she could not see him. It slightly saddened him on the inside but he didn't let it show, then again not like it would truly matter. He held the gaze at her for a moment, then he had to look away, he could not bear to think of how hard it was to not be able to see the world around you. Tiberius, being from a time of the arts, could not live without his eyes, not only were they the outlet of his power but he must see art in it's physical form and admire it's beauty.

Though he'd argue that no art he has seen yet, could compare to the girl who sat before him. He looked around for a moment. "What business does a beautiful young girl like yourself roaming around alone?" He asked with his tone becoming slightly worried right at the end. A girl in her condition and with her looks shouldn't be out alone, Tiberius knew that there were sick humans around and that other vampires would see her as an easy meal. One would ask how Tiberius could fit in so socially to the human world and it was quite simple, he had over three hundred years to practice control over his thirst for blood.

[Desdemona Riley]

Riley smiled at Tiberius's formality. It was so much like her uncle mannerisms, that it was almost funny. He was very polite, going as far as adding a "Miss" in front of her name, even though he was obviously older. She wouldn't have even thought of putting a "Mister" in front of his name: it was like they had reversed on who should be giving whom their respective title. It was nice, not feeling degraded by a way someone was speaking to her. In restaurants, the waiter would ask her uncle what Riley wanted to eat like she wasn't there, or she couldn't hear him, or even like she wasn't smart enough to answer just because she was blind. Uncle Ozymandias knew how she felt, so he'd always respond: "Why don't you ask her yourself?". It was one of the reasons she loved him so much.

The smile broadened when she heard his name. Tiberius? And she always thought her name was bad! Any name with four syllables was too long in her opinion, but his had a certain charm to it. At least there was more than one family who loved giving their children odd names: Othello Riley named his daughter Antigone- Antigone Riley named her two sons Ozymandias and Icarus- Icarus Riley named his daughter Desdemona, in honor of her great-grandfather. Understandably, it was a pain at school. And Tiberius must have been in the same boat, if he had grown up in America. His accent didn't make that likely, unless he was a first generation. Thinking of his accent made Riley notice how melodic his voice was. She didn't think she'd ever heard a more appealing sound come from a person. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as someone said, and Riley saw beauty in places most people didn't care to look. Blindness forces a person to look at a person's actions to decide whether you like them or not. They could be the most beautiful person in the world, but a blind person would not see that: they'd judge how "beautiful" they were by how they acted. A jerk isn't "pretty" in the mind of the visually impaired. Tiberius was proving to be "handsome", a nice voice and kind actions were giving him a good review, a rarity coming from Desdemona Riley.

Her smile faltered when he called her beautiful. The only person who had ever called that was her uncle, but uncles are supposed to think their nieces are beautiful. She didn't know what she was expected to do in response. She couldn't return the favor: she had no idea what Tiberius looked like! Saying "thank you" seemed odd. When his tone turned worried, she stopped thinking about his compliment and her smile turned back into her average neutral expression. Nothing was wrong with somebody worrying about her: her uncle pointed out all the time the difference between worry and pity (she's yelled at him enough times about helping her when she didn't need it for her to have it all but memorized). That didn't mean she exactly liked it, but no point in yelling at Tiberius. Yelling meant he might now want to talk to her anymore, and she was enjoying listening to his mellifluous voice at the very least. He was also nice company, from what she could tell so far.

"You're right, Tiberius isn't very common either. My bad. And for what I'm doing out here... I was just getting some coffee. Since I've done that, I should probably be heading in the direction of home." Her tone mirrored that of a person politely informing a stranger, which was what they were to each other. Knowing one another's names did not make them best friends. If he had been her best friend, he'd know that "heading in the direction of home" meant "I'm going someplace else, but I don't want to tell you where exactly because it's none of your business". "I'll see you around." Riley smiled at her own joke as she flicked her wrist, putting her cane at the correct angle for walking.

Riley had left to go to a coffee shop, but she also had planned to catch a movie. There wasn't any school tomorrow, so it wasn't like she had to be home anytime soon. Swinging her cane in an arc, she walked in the direction that she knew led to movie theater, and away from "Mister" Tiberius. If he followed, and if he didn't have a good reason on why he was doing so when she asked him, he would learn what it felt like to have a cane brought down upon his head.

[Tiberius Maximus Aurelias]

Seeing her smile drop to a neutral frown, sorta disheartened Tiberius. Shocking that he still had one after three hundred years but it did hurt to watch her turn her back to him and walk away. H shot a glance over to someone staring at them both, he seemed rather strange but he turned back to Riley when she said her good bye. "Good bye Ms. Riley." He said as he turned back to where the shadowy figure who was staring at them was but was no longer there. Tiberius squinted his eyes in that direction of the now empty area. He walked behind her for about five steps then turned away from her path, he heard a whisper in his head and it sounded desperate. He looked around and watched Riley turn the corner and heard footsteps coming from down the alley way he was looking down.

Tiberius took his memory back to the stranger who was watching them, he had black skin and messy long hair. Clothes were worn and torn as if they had been worn way too many times. He looked a little lower, trying to remember, he had very worn out boots on, shoe laces were untied. Trying to remember his face, he had not seen him before but his eyes, what did they look like. Brown? No. Trying to pin the thought in his head his eyes widened for a second...Crimson! He turned quickly down the alley and ran in until he was out of sight and his eyes both went pitch black like a moonless night. A golden trail set forth in his vision, everything went black, a golden trail lead to Riley and highlighted her in a golden light, she wasn't far.

Then a trail of red sparkles trailed to the vampire stranger and high lighted him in a red glowing light. The trails were similar to glowing trails of glittering dust but of certain colors depending on who the person he is tracking down is. The red figure was in an alley near the golden figure, Riley was walking down his path. Tiberius would have to follow Riley to make sure she got wherever she was going safely and he had to take care of the vampire who was after her.

"Jason"

The prey fluttered all around, he stood in a crowd as they all passed him, picking and choosing who he would feast on, all smelt delicious but he was a picky eater. Then he stopped breathing all together when he caught the scent of something rare, something mouth watering. He turned the corner and looked across the street, he saw a young man and a young woman, the girl was sitting on a bench with a walking cane, she was blind, he could tell because she never really looked at the man she was with. The scent wasn't coming from the man but from the girl, he wondered if the man would be a problem but he saw the girl leaving him just when the man looked at him. The man turned away and he quickly went down the street and into an alley to lay in wait for the girl, he was sure she would come down this road.

He went a few blocks down the road, near the movie theater and waited at the entrance of a dark alley watching the road to where she would come. Jason smiled as he saw her coming down the street, he looked around and no one was around. This was too perfect, he was going to lure her down the alley but now he could just grab her and take her into the alley and feed off her. She came, closer and closer, the anticipation growing stronger and stronger, the thirst getting more and more annoying. When she was in range, he began to speak. "Hey you, what are you doing out at this time all alone?" He said, American tone young voice, he was twenty four and a vampire for four of those years so he appeared only twenty.

He didn't even wait for her response he, with his superior strength and speed, grabbed her and tossed her down the alley towards a dumpster surrounded by filled trash bags all around it. He ran up to where he had thrown her and stopped only a few feet from her. "You are probably wondering, "who are you" or "why are you doing this". I don't like to answer questions, I just want to feed." He said all the while moving closer and closer to her, savoring the meal to come. He smiled a wicked grin and he was enjoying what he was making the girl feel, the fear, the pain and the grief for the fear of her about to die.

[Desdemona Riley]

Pleasant night turned into a nightmare as Riley walked away from Tiberius. What upset her the most was that she hadn't heard it coming.

The walk to the theater wasn't the long, and Riley had pre-memorized the route (this was actually the second time she'd gone to this theater, so she had some experience under her belt. Her uncle hated the way she chose to go; she had to pass several alleys. But it was the fastest way, and if some sick psychopath looking for a victim was lurking, Riley was confident she would hear them breathing before she reached the gap between the buildings. The voice coming out of alley #2 had startled her, but she hadn't paid attention to the fact that she hadn't heard him. At that moment, she thought of how much his voice was like Tiberius's (though his was much more pleasing to her ears. There was no comparison on that note) and how similar what the two men had said were. If he grabbed her, she'd break her cane on his head, most likely knocking him out, run away and yell for help from the store-owners and/or call the police on her cell phone. Unlike her plan, she hadn't had time to move or scream when he grabbed her. He was inhumanly fast, and that did not escape her notice one bit.

Riley couldn't help crying out a bit when she collided with the dumpster. The clang was a terrible sound to her ears, but she knew she was only bruised, not bleeding. Actually, fear of this man, fear of what was going to happen to her, and, well, just plain fear of the unknown because she had lost her bearings when she had been thrown made her mind go into overdrive. She hadn't heard him move before he spoke again, but he had definitely changed positions. He said he wanted to "feed" from her; the people that normally preyed on teenagers were murderers or rapists, and that didn't sound like slang for either. Also, oddly, her being thrown against the dumpster made her think of how she was blinded: head trauma from a car accident. Her mother had been thrown around inside the cab of her car while still pregnant with Riley, and she had been permanently blinded from it. Intuition told her, unlike the crash, she wouldn't survive this brush with death. Some sort of animal instinct, she guessed. Something was really wrong with this guy. And, now that she thought about it, she had gotten the same feeling from Tiberius before she decided he was a decent fellow, then she had ignored it. Maybe that was going to be the biggest mistake of her life.

Riley was proud. She refused to be the helpless, depressed girl that was the stereotype for the blind. She held her own in fights at school and she was not going to just sit here and be killed. If she was going to die tonight, she would go out fighting. Her head was ringing a bit from being thrown, so she had to lean against the dumpster when she started to stand up, but her legs were holding steady, and it was obvious she was not going to back down in her face. "You want to "feed" on me? Well, listen here you bastard, I am not on the menu! If you thought you were going to get some easy pickings just because I can't see you, well, you're dead wrong! Her hand closed around empty air when she tried to pick up her cane. With a sinking feeling that she didn't let show, she figured out that her cane had flown away from her when this, this, whatever he was had thrown her. She wasn't as good at hand-to-hand combat as staff fighting, and this guy was obviously much stronger and faster than her, but she wasn't going to back down. Riley was going to die, and she knew it, but she wasn't gonna go out quietly.

[Tiberius Maximus Aurelias]

"Jason"

He could not help but laugh like a mad man about to execute a brilliant master plan. He gave an unnecessary sigh as he continued to close the gap between them. "Got a little fight in you, I like that." He said as he ran at her again picking her up by the throat and holding her up in the air, his bare hand surely being as cold as ice on her skin. He grinned wickedly and threw her against the alley wall. Hopefully she would stay down, though he was sure she wouldn't it didn't matter, he would kill her in the next five minutes either way.

"Poor girl, you have no idea what I am." He said as he walked over towards where she laid beside the wall he threw her against. He knelt beside her placing his hand over her face and moving the hair out of her face. "No one is going to save you girl. I want to hear you beg for your life, beg me to spare you and give me a good reason to. I'm going to kill you any way, but it would be amusing to see you try."He said standing up and stepping back a few feet to hear what she had to say in return, hopefully do as he wanted and beg for her life.

[Desdemona Riley]

More pain stabbed through Riley after the iciness of the man's hand constricting around her throat. It felt as if a marble statue that had been hanging out in the North Pole had decided to strangle her all of a sudden. Breathing had been no easy task at that moment, but she would have preferred the tightness in her lungs over the pain lancing through were the bricks grazed her. No blood yet, not even any sweat. Riley was surprised that she wasn't reacting to the fear that coiled inside her. Maybe the knowledge of that this was the end stopped it. What was the point of a spike in adrenaline past what had already occurred when it was obvious that she was going to die? Riley hadn't thought that biology worked that way, but the world was full of surprises right now.

Riley didn't bother getting up this time: he was already standing over her by the time she had gathered her wits that had been scattered by the shock of being thrown again. She didn't like the way he was speaking to her. He knew what she did about her life, but he was almost acting like this was normal for him. Like he killed clueless victims all the time. Maybe he did, she would never know. Riley bared her teeth at him as he touched her face. This guy had already touched her twice, and twice was more than enough. "I'll die first before I beg you for my life. Go. To. Hell." She had felt him retreat, and she braced herself to be punched, or slapped, or something of that nature. All the venom she had placed in those thirteen words would undoubtedly not sit well with him. He apparently wanted her to roll over and beg for her life. Riley would never do that. She'd spent her whole life never bowing to anyone she didn't want to, she wasn't going to surrender now even though the end was in sight, even to her blind eyes.

[Tiberius Maximus Aurelias]

"Jason"

Her words were like fire to his ears. His expression grew angry, he was done playing games, he was going to kill her and get it over with, she wasn't going to give in, she would remain resistant so he figured, better to kill her now and get it over with. "You should have chosen your words more carefully. Now...you are going to die little girl!" He said as he went back beside her, wrapping his hand around her throat once again. A low and wickedly evil grow crawling up his throat as he eyed her throat, ready to bite into her neck.

Tiberius

He could see what the vampire was doing to her, he was running through the back alleys to avoid being exposed by the humans, he turned a corner and just ahead of him was the vampire with his hand around her throat about to kill her, his eyes went back to their crimson red color and in mere seconds, he tackled the vampire off her, forcing the vampire to let her go. Tiberius pinned him down on the floor of the alley way not too far from Riley as he punched Jason in the face and then in the throat. Jason tried to fight back but Tiberius, being the far stronger and far more experienced in life overpowered him.

Tiberius stood up and picked Jason up by the throat and continued to rip his head off and he kicked the body against the alley wall and tossed the head inside a dumpster. He took his phone out from his pocket and called Alexander. "Local movie theater alley way, got some fire wood." Alexander understood that Tiberius was asking for him to come and kill the vampire as he had to tend to Riley. He hung the phone up and moved over slowly to Riley. "Ms. Riley it's Tiberius, are you hurt?" He asked her, getting on his knees so he was down on her level.. His tone was one of worry and sorrow. He felt it was his fault he did not get here soon enough to make sure she didn't get hurt.

[Desdemona Riley]

Riley didn't regret her words one bit, she thought as he wrapped his icy hand around the back of her neck. What the heck was he doing? He wasn't trying to break her neck- he was holding her neck wrong for that- so what was he going to do? Bite her? Riley blinked when she finally found the answer to this guy's strange behavior. He hadn't been breathing. He moved so fast, and his strength was in no way human. He had said he wanted to "feed" from her. He was a vampire, and he was out for her blood. Odd, she thought, that she was going to go out the same way her father did. At least she now knew that it had been a real vampire that had murdered her father, not just some psycho that believed he was a vampire.

The hand was gone and a crash sounded nearby: somebody had tackled the man and they had landed hard on the ground. Sounds like someone was smashing rocks together: her savior was hitting him with a rock? Wait, if he was a vampire, and vampires were like marble statues, maybe another vampire was hitting him. And maybe that other vampire was Tiberius? She had gotten the same vibe from him when she just met him. Two more sounds knocked Riley out of her thoughts. It sounded like "Tiberius" (she was almost positive it was him, but she couldn't be sure) had shoved the man against the wall by kicking him or something, then thrown something into the dumpster that she had been slammed into only moments ago. It sounded like a head. Or maybe a book-bag, but, weirdly, a head seemed more likely in this situation.

Why the heck did Tiberius need firewood? His voice gave his identity away, but his words were puzzling. Was he going to burn the body? Who had he called? More worrying questions: was she going to be his victim now, and was he really a vampire as well, thus making being near him dangerous? But, if he had wanted to kill her, he had his chance. Nobody had been around to see what was happening between the two of them. And he had been nice to Riley, something she didn't get from strangers often in a form that wasn't condescending or pitying. So, when he walked over and crouched down, she wasn't afraid of him. Cause, hey, everybody was going to die eventually, and Tiberius had given her no reason to fear him. In fact, he had given her reason to like him.

"Bruises aren't lethal, last time I checked, so I'm gonna say no." She grinned at him to reassure him that she was fine as she got up, her abused muscles and nerves screaming their protest once more. She put her left leg down, and it went out from under her, rolling on a thin cylinder. So that's where her cane had landed! When Riley lost her balance, she threw her hands out, one hit the wall and stabilized her again just before the other landed on Tiberius's face. Riley wasn't embarrassed by it at all, she hadn't been aiming. Embarrassment would actually be sticking a finger inside his mouth or something like that. She had gotten one half of his face: her pinky and ring finger went to either side of his eye, her thumb to the back of his jaw, and her bottom joint for her pinky hit the corner of his mouth. And it was like touching a statue made out of a hybrid of ice and stone.

[Tiberius Maximus Aurelias]

His eyes gave him away, they betrayed him. Luckily for him, she could not tell that he was looking at her with the worried look in his eye, the apologetic look that a man would have for the love off his life after she got hurt and he hadn't gotten there in time to protect her. He could not help but grin at her remark and then when she fell over, putting one hand on his face, he sighed heavily and unnecessarily. He put his arms under her and lifted her into his ars and carried her. "Oh dear, Ms. Riley, I maybe out of line here, being a stranger but please allow me to take you to a local hospital to get you checked out. He said with her in his arms.

If only he had followed her and made sure she had gotten to safety. He felt like such a fool and that he was to blame for her almost dying. He wanted to apologize to her but he thought she would take it as an insult or him laying pity on her, which he was not. He knew she would have hundreds of questions about what happened and about himself. He would have to be shady, but he would answer all her questions once he got her to a hospital.

[Desdemona Riley]

Riley had the strange urge to fidget under Tiberius's stare. The intensity of it was transferred, though it could be anything. Was he glad she was ok, or mad at her for making an understatement of the severity of her bruises? Or, anger spiked in her at this thought, was he pitying her? If it was the last one... well, if she hadn't been 97% sure he was a vampire, she'd be thinking about hitting him. Actually, thinking about hitting Tiberius was nearing to feeling the same as thinking about hitting her uncle. Ozymandias was her best friend, somebody she could always rely on. She would punch his shoulder in greeting sometimes, but it was never rough. She wasn't afraid to smart-mouth anyone, but Tiberius was about to earn the honor of being the second person ever that Riley had second thoughts about doing something mean to, whether it be overdosing sarcasm or actually going into physical violence. She wondered if that was because she was friends with him, or was it because she knew that she wouldn't be able to hurt him physically if she tried.

Every muscle in Riley's shoulder blades went rigid when she was picked up, some making her want to wince as they tightened reluctantly. That reflex that makes you throw your arms out when you've lost your balance made Riley put her arms around Tiberius's neck before she recognized what she was doing. What was with her touching Tiberius so much all of a sudden? Riley hoped he recognized that it was just reflex, not that she was some creepy blind girl that didn't know how to keep her hands to herself. "No! I said I'm fine Tiberius!" Riley shut up when she noticed the hint of panic in her voice and tried again, calmer this time. "I mean, I can walk on my own. You don't have to carry me." Riley tried to throw her legs back down without throwing Tiberius off balance. She really hoped he let her: she didn't want to fight him just to be able to stand. And if he didn't, she would argue, because Riley did not want to go to the hospital. Spiders, heights, death, none of these scared Riley. Hospitals did. It was either impossible to tell what was happening around you, and when it was silent, the perfect time to paint a mental picture, you knew it probably wasn't good that it became so quiet all of a sudden. The fact that her father had died in one didn't make her like them any better either. The second he let her down, she'd snatch up her cane and make a run for it. She'd rather live with the pain until it faded in a few days than deal with the stress going to a hospital created. Riley liked Tiberius, and even though he confused her half the time, like with what he just did to that man and that he just picked her up like it was nothing, she wanted to see him again after all this blew over. Maybe he'd answer a couple of her questions if she found him again, who knew.

[Tiberius Maximus Aurelias]

She had wrapped her arms around his neck, instinctively he was sure since he had picked her up. Then she got a little upset and told him she would walk on her own. Tiberius paused, he didn't think she could honestly. She was thrown twice and hit hard objects, her feet and legs must have been overly strained. She tried to get to the ground but he didn't let her. He looked at her, he could tell she did not want to go to the hospital. He would either have to make her promise to let him take her or carry her there himself against her will if necessary. "Ms. Riley, I will let you walk by yourself if you promise to let me take you to the hospital, I promise nothing bad will happen, if you want I will be there with you for as long as you want. I won't leave your side." He said with sincerity in his voice.

Tiberius felt an instant protectiveness of this human girl he held in his arms like a baby. He looked her in the eyes, hoping hers would by some fate turn and meet his. He was caught off guard and mesmerized the first time she looked him in the eyes. Something about her being blinded made Tiberius feel something, it wasn't pity, that never came to his mind at all, it was like as if time had stopped. Being blind, it meant she could see the inner beaut and not judge from the outside like most humans. That made her a real person, someone who wasn't cruel or judgmental like the rest of her race. A girl like that was hard to come by and special none the less.

Tiberius was curious about what Riley would say to get out of going to the hospital. Maybe she would try to fight him? Perhaps yell "RAPE!" when they got around other people? Oh the thoughts made him chuckle quietly to himself. He wouldn't put it past her though, she did seem the strong silent type, he was sure there was another side she had yet to show him and he was interested in seeing.

[Desdemona Riley]

One thing Riley would never do was make a promise, and then not keep it. She wouldn't want somebody telling her they'd do something, and then that person ended up not doing it, so why would she do it to them?

When Riley had put her hand on Tiberius's face, she had learned how far his eyes were from his mouth. Listening to him talk had given her a pretty good idea of where his mouth is, thus were his eyes are. Luckily, when she looked where she thought his eyes were, she got eye contact, though she was unaware of it. Riley frowned in thought. "I can't make that promise." He sounded so sincere... it made Riley almost feel bad, telling him no. Heck, it did make Riley feel bad. Why deny it? But nothing would rid her of her reluctance to go to the hospital. Tiberius couldn't convince her to change her mind, and the pain of being thrown would not make her back down on this.

Riley tried to swing her legs out once more. She was almost positive she'd be able to walk like the bruising was next to nothing. She'd just have to grab her cane, and Riley would walk away from this terrible situation alive, perhaps with a very annoyed Tiberius following her. She would smile at Tiberius and tell him she hoped they'd meet up again, which was the truth. Riley had never been a girly-girl who got a crush every other week. "Crush" in that sense wasn't even in her vocabulary. Already Tiberius was her friend, in her opinion at least, but if she ever had a crush on anybody, she'd think it'd be him. He was able to talk to her, which most of her teachers couldn't do very well when she first met them.

A thought that never occurred to Riley was that Tiberius may be as stubborn as her about this. However, it did occur to her that, if she couldn't get to her cane for whatever reason, or it had broken when she had been thrown the first time, she'd be out of luck. No cane meant no way to navigate. No navigation meant she wasn't going anywhere.