Ember woke up, to find that he was still slightly, drunk. Ayria was asleep. He glanced at his desk, and the piles of notes, and paper. He hated how he still tried to hang onto humanity. He wasn't like other vampires. They didn't use cellphones. He didn't have to drive, he liked to. So he did. 

Humanity wasn't so terrible, at least not to him. 

He yanked the blanket off, careful of his child, and yawned. He looked out the heavily curtained windows, and opened the balcony doors to let in a breeze, and then wondered if anyone was home. He put Ayria in the playpen, assuming Charlotte had done it. He was very confused how to care for his child. Maybe he should ask Mia..But he figured she would be no help. 

Ayria started babbling away and playing with toys, and he mumbled something about being back in a minute, and went down the stairs to see what was going on. 

He rubbed his temples, he had certainly been up a long time. He checked the clock. He had to get Ayria something to eat, he had like no time for this, but honestly, he was very stressed, and apprehensive, and was tired of being home. He looked in the fridge, and grabbed something for himself, and then started looking for Charlotte. He felt the verge of a nervous breakdown, coming, on fast. 

He chugged his vampiric drink, grabbed the keys, and got in the car and left. Then he picked up the phone, and called Charlotte. "Hey, I have to leave. Now. Please take care of my daughter. I don't know when I'll be back," He said, listening for her response, then clicked off and slung the phone in the passenger seat. 

Thoughts zoomed through his head as he took the long roads through the mountains, the air conditioner was making a mist on the vents, and the radio was on, but he wasn't paying much attention. It was so goddamn hard not to think about smoking. Something suddenly pissed him off, and his foot slammed on the petal, the car whirred around the corner, his green eyes looking at the surroundings. He liked to be alone. Obviously. Not any other motherfuckers out here. He kept some foodstuffs in the car, and grabbed a bottle of water. Not needing to eat, or drink, but he did anyway. He seemed to have had an odd dream the night before. He wasn't sure what the hell was going on, but decided it would be best to slow down a bit, and he pulled to the side of the road. An expanse of trees was there, and he got out, locked the car, and went trekking down further into the woods. 

This .. happened ... sometimes.

Yes, it was all fun and games, for everyone else.
It was so, bothersome, to be mindful of this and that, for others sake.
Darkness crept into his mind.
"Let them fall," he thought. He slung himself under a tree, and reclined with his back against it. He was fucking pissed. Maybe it was that drink the night before. He didn't really drink too much anymore. Suspicious thoughts about Charlotte haunted his mind.

'I promise I'm not trying to hurt you,'

He heard, and he sneered and growled angrily. Then considered: what did it matter, things were messed up as it were. Oh me, the awful terrible guy. No, something was very wrong. Very fucked up about this scenario. The things people said about him. Mia had given him the clippings of the kills he had made. She had known. They were deeply hidden in the house. A place no one knew. A place no one would ever know. Maybe. What did it matter. Why did it matter, anyway. 

"Yes, let them destroy themselves," He thought. He thought lovingly of Ayria, but, this was not ideal and it was not making him happy. "

"Fuck, I need another drink..."

Like static, he moved to his car, slammed the door, and went for the city. Again. He was bored. And he wanted to get out of that damn house. For a little while, at least several hours. Brief views of Charlotte holding Ayria were in his mind. Once more, he heard the female voice. He knew who it was, and it made him fucking mad. He stomped the pedal again, not realizing he was grinding his fucking teeth.

"I promise I'm not trying to hurt you... I'm not going to hurt you..."

Ozzy blasted on the radio, 'You preyed on me, then you prayed for me." Some asshole attempted to cut him off, and he smashed the horn furiously, and got damn near close enough to wreck their fucking shit, and zoomed further up the road. Casting a wicked glance over his shoulder. He went to the not so lit up side of town, and got out, sort of hiding his car. The static streams and apparitions of him appeared nearer and nearer, until he was rather near the people. He observed them, disinterested. 

'Fuck,' He said, just to himself. He didn't know what the hell he was doing, or anything. He climbed up an old apartment buildings outdoor stairwell, onto the roof, very quickly, quietly. Killers are quiet. He sat up there, and watched the pathetic little people, bustling around, reading their minds, concerned about their clothes, their appearance, the opposite or whatever sex, their opinions of themselves, and considered their levels of intoxication. Wondering if there was anything worth chasing. He sighed softly to himself. He had grabbed his phone, and fooled with it rather covertly, underneath the folds of his long jacket, and wondered what the fucking hell he was doing. This really sucked. Everyone seemed like empty sacks of nothing, and empty little heads being controlled. He wasn't saying they didn't have value. The fuck? He had just been considering working in the health field. But why? What was he aiming to heal anyway? But it was useful. Time was a thing. Whether goddamned Einstein was saying it wasn't. He believed Time was indeed real. He had the answers to Einstein's questions. Some of them. Not that he often looked at shit at that, there was always some motherfucking bullshit, demanding his attention.

"Let them fall. Clip their wings."

It droned into his head. He tapped a heavy boot on the apartment rooftop. He was always cloaking himself, and he had no interest in talking to someone. Something was watching, and he took his pistol and aimed and fired, leaving it dead and bleeding. He raked his knife, against it's flesh, and shined a light at it. It moaned, and died. Ugh, disgusting things in this world. He set it's body into ashes. And it was gone. Devouring it. He looked at the substance on the blade, and whiped the end of it with a piece of cloth in his pocket. Fucking disgusting creature, how dare it look at him. How dare it invade his space. 

Ember was at his desk, looking over some herbal cures. He had to keep money pumping into the house, his daughter's future was at stake, and, honestly, the man, although at times cruel, sadistic, and prones to fits of rage, loved to host parties. There would always need to be great food available, and attendants, and bar workers to keep the guests happy, and entertainment. 

It didn't bother him much he had a daughter.

He feared how he would treat a son.

There would be none of this, gushing, princess crap. But she would know her worth. As a human being. 

"Ember..."

Charlotte's voice called, and he pressed his fingers to his eyes, squeezing as his brows furrowed.

"Yes?" He said softly, more calm than usual, and started to file his papers away.

"Are you ever actually going to do anything with that?" She asked, looking at all of the books around him. She had watched him before the night the bonfire happened. No one thought he would amount to shit. They thought he was nothing but a burn out drug addict, sleeping with anything that walked, and violent, a monster. These books were massive, and there were tons of notes he had taken.

"I would like to," He said softly. He looked at her invitingly, but she could see the sadness in his eyes. He always hid how stressed he was. The crow's feet around his eyes crinkled up even more so, or though it appeared. 

"I have to take care of Ayria, and the property... She will have a good life."

Flashbacks of how badly he had desired a child came to his mind. Fits of why. Why not.
The one that died... So long ago. His red hair hung around his face, and he started jotting away on the oaoer, just doodles, occupying himself as per usual as Charlotte seemed to study him. 

"How do you think I could actually go somewhere with this? Going to business would be foolish, taking a business course is stupid. I just need a building," Which, I could take by force, he thought. His eyes looked around the room. Charlotte wondered how long he had been sitting up. For quite some time.

"I don't..I don't know.. I know you've been trying this for many years..."

He sighed. "Yes, things are always getting in the way. Interrupting. Some kind of shit happening."

Charlotte smirked. "You can experiment on people," She said, in a rather suggestive, sultry voice, and his whole train of thought just stopped and he looked at her, a fair colored brow arching at her words, the piercing jerking suddenly. "Yes?" He said, and scoffed. "Are you serious?"

"The sinister urge..." She reached her hand towards his, her nails were filed into sharp tips and sank into his pale ones. He laughed suddenly. "Mmm, so you do know about the secret room." He rolled his eyes, and slammed the books shut with place keepers of various colors to keep track of things.

"Yes but I don't know how I should run this. I need to take a building to work out of. No one should come here. At all. So I have to obtain one of those.." His eyes darted from side to side. Her hand still rested on his. "And I don't know if I should bother getting certified. At all. I'm a fucking ... I'm not human, I can't attend human classes.... I don't know what to do. I want to be a Dr, I do, I need the money for my family," Which included Charlotte, Ayria, and Harlen, and even the slaves. The animals. The animals indoors and outdoors. "Yes, I have to get this done some sort of way, I don't think practicing without certification is good."

She sighed. "I don't know what to tell you, either. I don't think it matters if you have some piece of paper as you call it saying you can give out medicine."

"Charlotte, this is people's BODIES, I can't just guess 'this is good for this' and then they are allergic and die..."

"Doesn't seem to matter to humans," She commented, and he blinked, and once more squeezed his upper nose between his fingers. 

"Well, I'm NOT human, and I want to be more responsible than that."

She got up from her seat and she went and poured him a glass of wine, a regular wine, not his 'special' kind, and one for herself. She was dressed in her old fashioned type clothes, and he wore a sort of modern Gothic style. The thoughts troubled him in the night, how he held onto his humanity. Robbing people was getting difficult, but he was getting stronger day by day, and soon, he would be very powerful. He drank from the glass, and scooted back in the wooden chair across the wood floor, and looked very tired.

"I am stressed the fuck out," He commented, then looked at her. "What did you mean you would reward me if I stopped smoking, Charlotte? I saw what a disgusting, terrible habit it was. I am so glad I don't have to deal with those things anymore. I don't want such things in my house any longer. They are not welcome here, or at least, it has to be done very far away."

She allowed him to become even more drunk, then she gave him a kiss, and he fell asleep on the antique couch in the upstairs study. One arm draped touching the floor. She tossed a cover over him, and watched him. She felt she had bit off more than she could chew. She had no idea what all was going to happen to him. She regretted never talking to him, never interacting with him, letting him go mad and insane by himself, letting him meet strange people. He had changed so much. She knew the evil still lingered in him, and that was what she wanted to awaken. She brushed his hand softly that lay touching the floor. He had no idea what was coming. She looked at his desk, and looked at his notes, he seemed to be collecting a lot of data from many sources and trying to make some sort of omnist formula. She couldn't believe how intelligent he was. She left everything as he had put it, but she thought she had saw his open green eyes watching her. Was he fake sleeping? She panicked, and drank from her glass, and acted as though she were just watching him sleep. 

She checked the time. 3:03. The glowing red digital numbers. That's not right, she thought, seeing the sun appearing, then looked back at him. She grasped the glasses and took them down to the kitchen. She put them away in the washer, and she carried Ayria up to her father, putting Ayria between her father's back and the couch. She wiggled and seemed to heave a great sigh as she touched her dad and rested her head against him. He mumbled something, reached, though asleep, seemed surprised by a blanket and kissed Ayria and covered them both. 

Harlen had taken temporary residence in Ember's room. Charlotte had her own 'come and go' guest room. Charlotte opened a play pen in the middle of the study, figuring Ember would be up working on the medicinal stuff again. She wasn't sure why he bothered, most immortals could heal themselves. Why did he even care. She couldn't take her eyes off him. She felt so much guilt, for how she had changed him, and left him alone.... She wanted to answer his questions..... Very badly. She would judge what he did today, she thought, but feared impending pain upon her if she didn't tell him the straight truth. She went to touch him and he was sleeping, but jerked his head away from her. She sighed, she was nothing better than most of the women who had interacted with him, she had basically drugged him to lay down, but... he was driving himself mad...and no one knew. They only knew to ask him for help, for money, for somewhere to stay, for safety, for whatever. They didn't see what she saw, and to be honest, it wasn't even because she wanted to be a girlfriend of his, they did not deserve to see.