It had taken days of effort but it had already paid off. Val rolled the last of his mind spikes across his knuckles before driving it into the mortar between two bricks belonging to a building just outside the marketplace. Already they had proven useful, if not as effective as he wanted. She was remarkable in that she had found several of the spikes only a whole day after they were planted. He had to replace them of course as Sira had gone so far as to dig them out before the web could be complete yet still he had been impressed she'd sensed them just based on the fact he'd crafted them. What a smart little mouse.

Now to set the cheese.

He pressed his hand flush against the wall and leaned his weight in until he could feel the cold spike against his palm. He willed it in further so it would take more than a little effort of one magic-fearing doctor.

Once content that it was good and lodged he closed his eyes. He focused the energy he'd been harvesting, not just from Sira, though hers was certainly....potent....but from many humans within the city. For Nexus dwellers so many of them had no protection from an aberration like he. It was a risk to spend so much of his life force on a single task, but he hoped the reward would greatly outweigh.

With every passing tick he could feel his energy flow and jump from spike to spike until it'd created an elaborate spider web through this quadrant of the city. He would have liked to have spread it farther but he knew that was both too too ambitious and greedy. And not to notice visible. As it was the web would touch a well traveled path and that was risk enough.

He drew a thread with his hand as he pulled it from the wall letting it twist and twine through his fingers. He brought it near his mouth. "Quiet." He crooned to it. The hum it created lessened. It's razor edge dulled. Pleased with the result he let the thread go. It shrank and recoiled into the spike.

He turned to look deeper into the web and grinned. To his eyes it shined like silver. To most they would never notice it at all. Like that human woman there completing her daily errands who stepped through. She noticed nothing but a brief dizzy spell that passed after a few moments.

Where Val stood he felt a trickle of energy return. A bit of his color returned.

Yes. This should work out nicely.

He knew it would only be a matter of time for Sira to find the cheese. Er. Coin. It was a far cheaper trick than he would usually stoop to but he also was pleased that he didn't need to wait all too long for her to seek him out. He was also more than pleased to feel the subdued rage boiling within her. In fact he had felt it the moment she'd crossed into his web though that trap was not meant for her it was certainly helpful in locating her again. Something he couldn't identify had suppressed her essence enough that he had to be quite near to feel it. Something else entirely provided enough protection that she had as of yet resisted his attempts to pull her in.

He grinned at her and tipped his head to one side. "Of course he's not. He does send his best regards, though, and hopes you're doing well." He tried to force his grin away to try and appear solemn. It didn't work. "He said he's sad you haven't visited."

Her mind was blocked but he didn't need to touch it to feed off of her energy. It was difficult not to just breath it all in and shore up his strength but it wasn't time yet. That wasn't the plan. He spread his hands and grinned once more. "Sent after you?" He tsked quietly and shook his head. Her rage's edge had dulled and wasn't so chaotic. It still felt wonderful to him. The more anger she expelled the stronger he felt. "Don't be silly, Sira, no one sent me after you." He laughed and tucked his hands into the pockets of his pants. It would help him to look less threatening just like the hood over his head cast shadow that helped hide the healthy flush of his skin. A little more.

"He didn't even tell me about you." He shrugged his shoulders. "It wasn't until you interfered with that planetouched that I even knew you existed." His grin deepened. "Really unfortunate for the both of you. If you hadn't stepped in to help he wouldn't have died." He feigned a sad expression and lifted a hand to drag a finger down his cheek like he was tracing the path of a tear. "Not that you could have known that. You didn't even know what he was."

He shrugged his shoulders again. "Your dislike for magic and learning about it only hurts your ability to heal." Not yet. Something was wrong. He could feel something change in her energy. He narrowed his eyes and kept his grin in place. "More than that your ignorance hurts you." He needed to pluck her strings and key her back up. He needed her wild not contained. "Liam told me as much." Pluck. "He isn't involved with this at all. He wanted the other, not you." He tipped his head to the side. "In fact, he doesn't care what happens to you much at all, though I felt that he would be about as pleased with your death as you would be with his." He feigned a concerned frown. "Not an amicable divorce, was it' I gathered he wasn't very nice to you. He's not a very nice man."

He spun out a thought with his words to touch if not to penetrate. To agitate and draw at her rage. More. More. More. "I wouldn't be chasing you if you didn't keep running." Beat. "You make it too much fun."

His grin faltered. She'd been so irrational. He didn't like this newfound inner strength she was starting to develop. It just wasn't good for him. "What do I want?" He laughed softly. Time to bridge the gap. He began to stride forward not directly at her but at an angle. "What is it that every man wants, Sira?" Misdirection. Not that she wasn't a beautiful woman. He certainly liked her fire. He began to weave another web this time an illusion. It took far more of his energy than he wanted to expend on such a thing but he had a feeling it would be necessary. She was more unpredictable than he thought.

He stopped when he was only a few feet away from her. "I want you." He held out a hand towards her palm up. An invitation.

And another trap.

He had not expected a gun. Liam had told him Sira hated guns. He was expecting her to strike out it wasn't like he thought she would fall for that line. He thought she would take his hand so she could attack him like she had that assassin he saw her take down. Such a dispassionate response killing him when she could have simply shut him down. Just like he hadn't expected the gun he didn't realize she'd been able to see through his illusion. While it looked like he was standing there still he had shifted to the side ready to take control. It was only luck that she hadn't compensated enough to get a dead center shot. Who knew the good doctor was a crack shot, eh'

If he'd been a second slower she would have taken him out. Instead the shot ripped through his bicep clean in and out at that range. The surprise of the hit knocked him to the ground yelling in pain. He clutched to the bleeding hole in his arm. He writhed in pain and lashed out with as much energy that he had to spare in a whirlwind of razor sharp threads.

((the following conclusion is from a log with some edits for formatting))

He didn't know it was a deliberate miss and he cringed at the strike too close for comfort. He was hit by flecks of stone from the impact. He rolled away and up to up to one knee. "Impressive." His wound had bleed but sluggishly and had already stopped. The aberration wasn't human enough for that. "You're wild. I could teach you to control that."

Sira hissed and braced the gun with both hands. One handed was flashy, but guns are heavier than they look on tv. The recoil throws off a shot. "I'm not kidding, Val," her tone hadn't warmed. She wasn't going to leave until she was sure he wasn't going to follow her, or he was dead. That moment before she'd shot was the first time she'd had a glimpse into his thoughts...."What exaactly is it you wanted to turn me into, Val."

His eyed widened which she'd be able to clearly see as his hood had fallen back. He was hurt and he'd spent much of his energy on that last ditched attack but yet he was grinning. "Oh you heard that, did you? I didn't think I'd thought that so loud." With great effort he pushed himself up to his feet. "I told you Sira, I want you." He gently moved his hand so he could peak at the hole in his arm. "A being like me always needs another. And you?" He laughed. "Oh, you'd be a great asset."

She already knew he wasn't human, but the lack of bleeding still drew her eye for a split second. His pain was good sign that she could still kill him if she needed to. "You need to stop yanking me around," she said. "This vague, mysterious crap is really pissing me off, and not in a way that is good for you continued existence." Her finger slipped closer to the trigger.

No it didn't feel like anger at all to him. Not the kind of anger that would help him out of this situation if she wanted to shoot. His web was paying off in a wonderful way more people had passed through but it was only a trickle. Enough that he could mend. "Not a surprise you don't know what I am." He kept his eyes on her and his mind seeking exits. "I'm an Elan. A vampire of sorts. I am sustained by the psychic energy of others, humans mostly. We work best in pairs, but I am alone."

"I already knew that," she told him with a smug smirk, which slipped almost immediately. "I knew part of that," she admitted. She scowled at him. This needed to be sped along. The longer she spent in his presence the louder the buzz in the back of her mind. She didn't know what he was doing, but she couldn't let him attack again. "But it doesn't matter, I won't be like you."

His hand stilled covered his wound. It was mending slowly unseen. Thank you, Sira, for such a good and clean shot. He'd be hale again by the end of their conversation so long as shoppers were still milling through the market. "I knew you would be unwilling. I was." Was her grip on the gun faltering" Or at least the strength keeping it up for so long. He needed to slow things down. "No one wants this life. I doubt that you'd be tempted by the power it provides or by the thought of immortality. So naturally I had to do it by force."

Yes, there was a shake to her arms from the weight of the gun. One simply cannot hold something up for so long without succumbing to the bitch that is gravity. "Why me?" She asked. "Why did you want me?"

Just a little longer. He didn't succeed at his first attempt. With luck he'd be able to try again. "Because of what you are, my dear."

The gun dropped, but not as low as Val probably wanted it to. Sira feigned her arms giving out, and shot at his foot. "That wasn't an answer," she told him mildly.

Holy hell. That caught him completely by surprise and he hadn't so much as a blink of an eye to know to move. The shot caught him square in the foot and he went down again. Sira would be able to see that the hole in his arm was nearly closed and that the new wound bled significantly more. On all fours now he grinned up at her. "Yes, that ferocity is only part of it." His expression was tight. "I'm not going to tell you if you don't join me and you won't find out if you kill me."

"I don't need to kill you," she mused. "I just need to weaken you enough so you can't fight back, then simply pluck it from your mind.....And I have plenty of bullets left for that," she said as she aimed for that same spot on his arm she'd already hit. A second shot would do much more damage, even if it was healing.

He couldn't focus on two wounds at once with this little energy. He looked wan like a sick man. Grey and gaunt. "I don't think I can agree to that." It was slow but he managed to find his feet once more. "We'll have to talk about this again when you're less cranky." He pulled at her aura at all the energy he'd been tapping into. He'd needed to turn her and now he would use it to flee. She might feel like he'd pulled the stopper in a drain and her energy swirling out.

Sira felt like he'd punched her in the chest. She almost dropped the gun at the shock of the sudden drain, then at the last moment hauled the weapon back up to fire once more with a much more targetted, lethal aim.

This time he'd wrapped the shadows around him in an obsfucating cloak. She was too slow and took weak to see his shift aside. He wanted to throw out a parting jab at her miss but he valued his life too much to stop long enough to allow her another chance to strike. He took the time and the energy to flee back down the side alley he'd arrived from.

She let out a shaky breath. "God," her voice was barely a whisper. After the shot she'd nearly dropped the gun and she hadn't the strength to brace well enough, so it'd wrenched one shoulder back. The pain hadn't set in yet, but a few hours and it would be sore. He was gone. She stumbled backwards a couple of steps, then forward again, nearly toppling over when she bent down to retrieve the coin she'd dropped. She almost left the gun there, but it wasn't hers. Mercy might want it back. The muzzle would be hot from so many shots, she couldn't tuck it away again. She wobbled into the night towards where there would be people, awkwardly holding the gun away from her body.

-End-