The fact that he had to wait for the sun to set below the horizon had not deterred him in the slightest and his anger had not abated any during the hours that he had wasted. His steps carried him sharply toward his destination and for a moment he caught himself using more speed than necessary before he managed to slow his steps with a huff of unnecessary breath. Hands shoved deep into the pockets of a midnight blue duster, a lighter shade of a blue silk long sleeve button up beneath that. He realized that his eyes were already opaque and for the life of him he could not turn them back to their human color. He did not truly wish to even try to at the moment. The anger from the other night surged through his veins, vessels long dead, and he quickened his pace again.

Within moments he was where he wished to be, his steps silent in the halls as he passed a few students that shied away from him. He would not harm any of the mortal children and yet his vehemence was such that he could not find what was necessary to take a more human appearance in the halls of Drake's secondary home. His resolve from the other night to speak with the Dreamwalker had also not lessened and he could only hope that Drake's dislike for his kind would skirt around Marcus himself. Marcus had no fear of the Dreamwalker, although it was more because he had never threatened Marcus in anyway. Any fool with half a brain would know to fear that which Drake was capable of. Down the main halls and Marcus stopped once to inquire of the Master's whereabouts. The student pointed, far to caught up staring in mild fascination at his double set of fangs to vocalize a response.

Marcus turned and moved past the staring child before emerging into a room through which the last of a few students were trickling out. One girl gasped and hurried on and Marcus hung his head just slightly before he drew nearer to the blonde Dreamwalker, his onyx eyes snapping up to lock with those of the man he had come to speak to about the source of his current ire. Marcus took a few deep breaths, elegant fingers still hidden in the blazer before he turned quickly on his heel, agitation preventing him from being able to stand completely still at the moment.

"I need to speak to you, Drake. On the matter of. . .bloody hell. It's about Cael. You are the only other being I know that despises him as much as I do. . .and I want to kill him."

Another long night with Melisande tucked away safely in his castle outside of Nebula, Drake had nearly started to breathe a sigh of relief...Nearly. The whispers through the air told him that all was not calm and squared away as far as Dorian Cael was concerned.

Closing his eyes, Drake rubbed his fingertips in small circles over his temples, wondering why mortals bothered with such a ridiculous tactic. It did no good. Rising to his feet, Drake could all but feel the apprehension of his students within the walls of Castle Reve...And another presence as well.

His back to the door as Marcus entered, Drake turned slowly and leaned against the windowsill, blond hair falling into his eyes as he crossed his arms over his chest. Damned Dorian Cael...He had nearly convinced Melisande to never speak his name or stand in his presence again, but it seemed that to ruin one powerful being was not enough for his repetoire...Idiot.


Giving a slow nod to the outraged vampire that had passed through the door, Drake made a casual motion for Marcus to enter, to shut the door behind him. The blackened orbs told Drake all that he needed to know, and while they had never been the best of friends, he did admire the vampire. Trellan understood purpose and loyalty...above all else, even those things that haunted his dreams.

Cael...Taking a seat at the ornate mahagony desk, Drake clasped his hands together and rested them on top of the table. In spite of his anger that Cael could not find the sense in his undead skull to leave well enough alone, the entirety of the situation provided some amusement for the Dreamwalker, a fascination for the most extreme of emotions dancing in his liquid blue eyes.

"Come, now, Marcus...Kill him? And what has Monsieur Cael done this time around?" he asked languidly, though not mockingly, knowing all too well of Trellan's stance on the damnable vampire.

Marcus finally pulled a hand from the pocket of his blazer and swiped it across the lower half of his face as the Dreamwalker turned to regard him. While he knew that he was fully capable of bringing Cael to the fate he deserved all on his own, Marcus felt that it would not hurt to find an ally in this. He was not even sure what this was but his promise to Danae from the night before had not been a hollow threat. Cael would pay, one way or another. He might not have laid claim to Danae as she so accused him of but that did not mean that he would stand by and let Cael poison her mind, the innocence that he could still find in her eyes.

"He touched the wrong woman, that's what. Danae has it in her head that Cael is a distraction. . .dancing with the devil, that's what she's doing. Safe to say she accuses my lack of open arms towards her as the reason behind such foolishness. Either way. . .Cael will not lay a hand to her in any way. I suppose I traipsed all the way up here for your opinion and counsel, Drake."

Marcus finally managed to make his fangs recede back into his gumline and his blackened orbs melted back to their original, more human coloring before he sank down into the chair across from Drake's desk. Crossing one leg over the other, Marcus found that one elegant finger tapped a rhythm against the leg of his pants before he stilled his hands and reminded himself sharply of who he was, what he was. Impatience was for those that had lived through far less centuries than he had endured.

An amusing display...Outraged vampire, doing his best to convince himself and others that it was only Dorian's intentions that bothered him so. Drake raised a brow and gave a slow, short nod, tapping his fingertips together as he leaned back further in his chair, kicking booted feet up to rest on the mahogany desk.

"Touched the wrong woman..." he echoed, glancing upward in quiet contemplation, then looked back to Marcus again. "He seems to be quite experienced in repeating that action, Marcus...And yet, she says that it was your fault then?"

Drake tapped a slender finger against his bottom lip, looking away from his companion again for a moment. Danae Walker...The Head Resourcer of MSI and daughter of Antony Piers, whether she knew it or not. What would the Mendecant Superior say if he knew the company that his daughter had sought to keep? Ah, but then, what more would he say if he learned that her heart had been captured by none other than his top agent, Marcus Trellan? What a web they had woven between themselves.

"I do not disagree that he needs to be punished, to pay for the audacity of his treachery, but on what grounds? He touched something sacred to you?" Drake asked, hitting the heart of it and having no problems whatsoever with it. Mortals and Immortals could not be together; Raelin had proved that to him when she cast him from her life, and yet, he would take nothing for the moments he spent with her, and if so inclined, if she asked for him again, he would go...most willingly.

And then there was Melisande...Another boundary that Dorian Cael had dared to step over, and that, in itself, was reason enough for Drake to fight the vampire of ancient lore...

"Come now, Marcus. You're of tactical mind...What would you do to him, to make him tremble in your wake? Have no doubt that he already trembles in mine...And will yet again."

Drake was determined to help Marcus, if only because the cause was pure. Perhaps the means was somewhat questionable, and yet, it made no difference to the Dreamwalker. Cael would pay...Innocence and mortality were things of light and good. Drake would not let sinister darkness invade such purity that could be found in the eyes of Walker.

[font=geneva]Marcus found that sitting still had become an impossible venture and he was on his feet again in a moment, pale fingers pushing back into the pockets of his blazer as he paced away from Drake's desk then back towards the Dreamwalker again. Amber eyes narrowed as he considered what Drake had asked him and he almost laughed. Of course Danae blamed him. . .in all that mattered about the subject, Marcus knew that she was right. It infuriated him that she would run to Cael of all people. . .he wished her all the happiness in the world and surely things would be easier if she had found a mortal to love and cherish sooner. . .but Cael was not the man to give her what she deserved. Cael was not a man at all. He snarled slightly.

"She blames me, yes. The woman is not entirely wrong, however, I am a vampire. She deserves. . .far more than I can give her. My refusal to allow her the desires she thinks she wants has, I guess, ultimately ended in this. Cael is not deserving of her. . ." Marcus trailed off and sank back down into the chair, amber eyes caught halfway between vampiric and not. "He must pay. On the grounds that he dares to interfere yet again, to touch that which deserves to maintain pride and innocence. His very presence is poison, Drake. You know this as well as I do. What next, then? Who will he think he has the charms to affect next?"

Marcus sighed and dropped his feet to the ground, leaning forward and clasping his hands together, elbows on his knees. A part of him was glad he had come, knowing that the troubles he had held within the confines of his own mind were not to be taken lightly. He thought that if anyone would understand the situtation he found himself in with Danae, it would be Drake. Drake's last comment made Marcus's eyes bleed all the way to black as he barked a short, bitter laugh. What would he do? Oh, the things. . .

"Had a lot of time to think about that, actually. . .I'm sure you don't need diagrams and a slideshow. I thought you read minds?" Marcus said, offering a smirk.

Drake rested his chin in his hand, a strange position for such a man, and yet, he felt he could take no other stance. It was clear, the turmoil within the flashing eyes of the the vampire before him, the one vampire that Drake could and would tolerate...In fact, one might say that he respected Marcus for all that he had done. He was Raelin's partner, after all, and there had been a time when the vampire had stood by and let her release him, as the Dreamwalker, a creature that all had sought to bring down and to blame. But that had been before the alliance, before the understanding that severed the ties that might have strengthened between himself and Raelin...The alliance that said his love would be worthless forevermore because he was not her kind...

And yet, he still loved her. Always would, and if it were not for the circumstances, he would steal her away from this man that had claimed her and make her his own again...

Shaking his head slightly, dark blonde hair falling into his eyes as he stood once more, pushing back the lavender tinted glasses perched on his nose to take away from the intensity of his eyes, Drake stood and walked around to the other side of the desk, leaning back against his. With his arms crossed her regarded Marcus for some time, even through his display of rage, eyes flashing obsidian black. Drake's own eyes had blazed an electric blue at the mention of Cael, and yet, it seemed to him that Marcus had all the right in the world.

"The world spins at a cosntant, did you know that? And it is the creatures like us that make it so...The world shall forever spin and we shall forever observe...Someday, it might all fall to ruin, and do you know that we'll remain, even then?" Settling in further against the desk, Drake looked up to the ceiling above them, stars sparkling in the skylight, and sighed. "And for all the world's mysteries, there are few things more misunderstood than love, than life itself. I know where your heart lies, Marcus...Mine has rested there far more times than I care to count and the reason has always been your raven-haired partner. Even now, there is nothing I wouldn't do for her, no extreme I would not partake in, if it meant I could be back by her side..."

Pushing away from the desk, Drake stood before Marcus, placing himself down on one knee to watch the other man, eye to eye. "Cael will be dealt with...Make no mistake of it. When Raelin catches word of what corruption he's tried to cause in her near-sister, you know she will not rest. I will see to it that you have your justice on Dorian...but hate me not when I say that this battle is not between you and that bastard, but between you and yourself, Marcus..."

It had never been within him to deny what he saw, to pain the prettiest of pictures and agree to what one would say or dream. In his world, in the dreams of others, he would do most anything because it was his duty, but when it came to those he considered friends...he could not lie, could not steer them wrong and wait for the catastrophy to strike.

Marcus wanted Dorian to pay for his boldness with all of his unbeating heart. The very thought of that being laying hands on Danae in any way spurred his anger to new heights, made his jaw clench so tightly that his teeth were at risk of shattering. He worked hard not to think of it but it was right there at the forefront of his mind, tormenting him, just as Danae most likely had hoped it would be. She had wanted the reaction, the rise out of him, she had wanted him to know. . .he swallowed hard and hung his head, pressing the heels of his palms to his eyes and squeezing them shut tightly.

Drake's words filtered into his mind and Marcus knew that he was right. When the world stopped spinning they would remain and . . . .that was the point. Danae was mortal and he was far from it. His anger shifted, turned inward and outward. He was not entirely sure who he was angry with entirely. Part of him was angry that she loved him in the first place, angry that she could not let go when it was the best thing to do. The largest part of himself was the angriest at himself. That anger tainted and twisted, digging deeper with every passing day for many different reasons and none of them were the same.

Marcus looked up, his hands falling away from his eyes and found that Drake had moved and was now kneeling in front of him on one knee. Amber eyes met melted polar cap blue and Marcus's face did not change at the accusation that held the full weight of truth behind it. It was not about Cael, not entirely. Marcus reached up and passed a hand over the lower half of his face, a heavy sigh peeling past his lips as his canines receded back into his gumline, the dark shadows in his eyes swirling away to a degree.

"You're right. Dammit, I love her but it cannot be. She is mortal and I. . .well, obviously I'm not. She deserves the sun, Drake. Not the shadows that I walk around in every night. It can't happen and she. . doesn't understand that. My resolve crumbles when I'm near her. I don't know how much longer I can fight it. . .how much longer I can hold true to what I know is best."

Tormented...The vampire who had clung with every fiber of his being to the soul that so many discarded when they gave themselves over to the night. But this one had fought. He had saved the poor, the downtrodden...and he had chosen a life of justice in the end. And still, the knight's heart, he sought to do what he thought was right...Ah, but in matters of the heart, there was no right or wrong.

Only 'meant to be'.

If only he could convince Raelin of such a thing...If only he could find it within himself to win her again, to love her and to know that she still cared for him...Ah, but she did.

With a slow nod, Drake finally pulled himself from the thoughts that Marcus' plight brought forward and sighed. Placing a hand on Marcus' knee as he leaned forward to stare into the vampire's eyes, he let a slight smile dance across his face before it disappeared just as quickly.

"Just because it seems right does not mean that it is right, Marcus...Your laws of the world have no meaning in the realm you've stepped into. Love knows no laws, no bounds..." he said slowly, each and every word uttered with astute precision as he stood to his feet. "The matter does not lie in what is best, but in what should be. Tell me, Marcus...Is it best that she cries for you? Is it best that her eyes have darkened? Is it best that she seeks the company of another because you've pushed her away far too many times? Is it best that she..." he began, but trailed off, shaking his head.

No...It was not his place to say, to voice the thoughts that he had heard coming from the wisened brunette on those dark nights when she let him hear. A strange bond they held, Danae could call upon Drake and Drake would answer...

"You've said it yourself...You do not know how much longer you can take the torture of stepping away...If you must fight so hard against something, then perhaps you're fighting for the wrong reasons, friend."

Marcus looked up at the being that stood before him, his eyes narrowing slightly with every word that the blonde locked man spoke. Was it best? Perhaps. Marcus was not possessed with the power to see through the curtains of the future but he knew what he thought was right. He was not sure what was best only because it was never his place to say such a thing. . .and yet he had. He had done just that in pushing her away, deciding for both of them what was best. In matters of the heart the right answer was never clear and the more that Drake went on asking about what was best, the more Marcus felt like a knife was being shoved through his unbeating heart. He was almost tempted to shout "Okay! I got the point!" but Drake stopped before he could get pushed that far and changed tactics.

It took a moment for the anger within him to simmer down again and he realized that Drake's halfway to accusations had angered him, even if they had been truth. He knew that the Dreamwalker was speaking from the cold hand of experience but it did not change the fact that such words had made Marcus feel cornered in his own foolishness, a feeling he did not take particularly kindly to. He took a few unneeded deep breaths and closed his eyes as the last of Drake's words hit him. Those were not so accusatory and Marcus handled them far better. He did not like to think that he had been wrong and, really, there was no way to say that he had. Perhaps he had done the right thing in pushing it off for so long or perhaps he had not. Nobody could say what would have been right or wrong or what would be, in the end. All Marcus knew was what he felt and what he felt right then was nothing but confusion.

"Perhaps. . .it is not natural, Drake. I am undead. My heart does not beat, my breath does not exhale. I walk in shadows and what I see in her that she is so willing to cast away. . .is light. It infuriates me that she wants to throw away what makes her beautiful so willingly. Giving in to Dorian? She allows his blackness to poison the innocence that I can still find in her eyes. . .I'm going to carve his unbeating heart out and reduce it to cinders. . .What, then, would you suggest be done?"

He could see the anger rising within the amber eyes of Marcus Trellan, and it was only then that he took a step back, that he relinquished the verbal torture he had set upon the immortals shoulders...Drake had gotten his desired reaction, just as he always did, and now, he only had to wait for the ticking timebomb with the vampire's head to explode...One more phrase, one more move in the right direction. For years, he had watched the Resourcer and the Investigator dance around each other...And quite frankly, enough was enough.

A slight smile curved his lips as Drake walked to the window once more, leaning against the frame and crossing his arms over his chest, his back to Marcus. The anger he felt for Dorian Cael was most certainly deserved, and so, Morpheus said nothing to deter the vampire, still a young man in the Dreamwalker's eyes.

"Do with him what you will," Drake told him with practice nonchalance. He no more liked the idea of Dorian being within breathing distance of Danae than he liked the idea of the corrupt immortal laying a hand to Melisande Pryor, and yet, there was only so much he could do. "And whatever you do not do, trust that I will finish," added Drake, his voice low, purposeful as he glanced back at Marcus over his shoulder, icy blue eyes shining in the glow of the moon that filtered into the dimly lit study.

Marcus did not know what he had been expecting to hear when he had so brashly entered Drake's space and place of learning but what he knew that he would be leaving with was certainly the last thing he had expected. It seemed the Dreamwalker had taken a personal interest in his affairs of the unbeating heart for the moment and Marcus could not get the echo of his words from his mind for the life of him. Try as he might they spun ceaselessly around in candence and rhythm, becoming a sort of mantra that his own brain created for him. For a moment Marcus did not know how to react to that particular realization other than to curse the fact that he had decided to come here. Damn him. . .Drake was right. He would have to face his own inner demons and decide with finality what was truly best for the both of them. . .he would have to find Danae, face her. . .but Lord that seemed so daunting.

Marcus finally stood as the Dreamwalker walked away from him and in the set of his shoulders Marcus knew that Dorian had touched something in his own life. The quiet tremors of venom in his smooth baritone voice, the rigidity that coursed through his upper back and neck to Marcus's eyes but likely no other. . .Marcus had to wonder what line Cael had crossed in the sand with the most potent figure standing before him and his need to take his leave evaporated like an all too quickly passing summer breeze. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his blazer and rocked back on his heels, head tilting to the side in curiousity. They had passed the point of subtlety and had been nothing but candid. . .a fact that Marcus did not care to tread back upon. He wanted to now what Cael had done to quietly anger the great Immortal so much. . .to know that his own anger was not out of bounds or out of place. He had come here hoping that Drake would support his newly found crusade against Cael but it seemed that something personal lie between the Dreamwalker and the amoral vampire.

"Tell me, Drake. . .since we might as well be sharing smores around the campfire and playing Truth or Dare with all this honesty and candor. . .what is it that Cael has done to set your spine so rigid? You know where the source of my anger comes from. . .you ever have hardly been one to throw yourself into the affairs of those around you. With a few notable exceptions, of course. . .yet I sense this is personal for you as well. . ."

Cael...The very name darkened the icy blue orbs of the Dreamwalker as he turned a steely gaze toward Marcus, the look in his eyes hardly meant for the vampire before him, but for another creature of the night. If it were possible to bring the sun's rays upon Dorian with only one's eyes, then Drake would have been the man to do it...But Drake was no God, only an Immortal...

Turning his back to the window as a shadow seemed to fall all around him, Drake tilted his head to the side, a slight smirk of his darkest nature curving the Dreamwalker's lips. "What hasn't he done?" he asked in retort, purposefully vague, those his words dripped with honeyed venom, with a hidden poison. "For every decade, he has done something...anything...to bring down the ways of the Light, and now...Now, he seeks to corrupt the things left in this darkened world that are still pure..."

But of course, that wasn't all. There was a far more personal stake in the matter...Something greater. Someone greater...Someone undeserving of the darkness that oozed from Cael, that contaminated all that stepped within his path. "But since you bring a valid point and you've bared your soul...I'll tell you that Cael's reach has gone beyond mere mortals and corrupted those of great stature, of divinely gifted immortality. Melisande, the Fire Elemental...She had fallen to his clutches, but has since been set free..."

Drake thought over the damage done and the wounds that had since healed, and while it should have seemed that the right course had been taken, he could still feel the need for justice burning inside of him. "And though she is free...I will see to it that he is forever imprisoned in this cage of his own design..." There were no angry threats, no heated decrees. In Drake's words, there was only a promise...Dorian Cael would pay. His day of reckoning had come.

Marcus was not sure what kind of confession or declaration he expected to fall from Drake's lips but what the Dreamwalker said was the last thing he would have predicted. The Fire Avatar? Marcus did not know the red-headed Immortal well at all. In passing he had seen her and spared a few words on select occasions but for the most part he had not spoken to her and knew her by reputation alone. To think that an Avatar could fall to the clutches that Dorian was capable of, the webs that he so expertly spun. . .Marcus's jaw tightened as he thought again of Danae. She was smart, more intelligent than most. And yet there was something within Cael. . .an allure that Marcus did not understand.

Still, what surprised him the most was the flash of anger that stormed through Drake's eyes and his confusion was etched plainly on alabaster features. As far as Marcus knew there was nothing between the Dreamwalker and the Fire Elemental. . .Marcus had not thought that Drake's love for Raelin had dissipated in the slightest and he had not thought, either, that Drake or Melisande knew each other well at all. Surely. . .He shook his head slightly. Perhaps he was reading too much into it and it was the principle of the thing that bothered Drake. To claim control over one so powerful. . .But if it were that he cared more about the red-head then he verbally spoke then would it be such a horrid thing? Raelin and Drake could not be. . .Fate had decreed it to be so. He can read minds, you twit. . . His inner voice warned quietly and Marcus made his mind go blank with practiced ease. His thoughts had been bared up until that point but that was alright. . .it was nothing his words would not say if he could have found the proper way to address the subject.

"Well, then. Perhaps someone ought to send Cael a message. Give him a chance to run for the hills. . .So you "cured" Melisande of her need for the damnable Cael? And how, exactly, did you manage this? I ask you to be frank only because I need to pull Danae from his clutches and honestly I haven't the faintest clue how to do that. Aside from kill him."