Someone was outside. Immediately outside; he heard the engine cut off, the snick of closing doors. Footsteps over the paving stones in the central courtyard, the jangle of keys and the soft swear beneath Claudia's breath when she realized the door was already open.
Another sound joined that of the movement downstairs, a steady, distant drumbeat in Ezio's ears. The want for something liquid, to cool his fever and quench his thirst sharpened, the twist of a knife in his belly. Gesù Cristo, that made his teeth ache..
"Ezio?" Claudia called cautiously, hope woven through her voice. The dust in the foyer was disturbed, footsteps clear in the sunlight from the open door.
Biting back the urge to be sick at the clutching pain, Ezio pushed himself up, pressed the heels of his palms into his knees and didn't bother hiding the extent of how he felt when he hoarsely called back, "Claudia?"
Her footfalls were loud after that, hurried, yet didn't for a second smother that ceaseless pulsing. If anything it was faster now, growing in volume as she raced upstairs. He could smell her before he saw her, the familiar floral notes of her favorite perfume, the soap beneath that. Something deeper, something heady and grotesquely alluring, something he wanted, needed with an impure, wanton intensity that had him recoiling in disgust, just as his sister came upon him.
She recoiled too at the sight of her brother, dusty, pale, glassy-eyed, with dried blood crusting his chin and throat. Ezio's gaze dropped a fraction, to the thunderclap roar of her beating heart, and felt something die inside him.
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Date: 2015-04-23 03:10 am (UTC)Another sound joined that of the movement downstairs, a steady, distant drumbeat in Ezio's ears. The want for something liquid, to cool his fever and quench his thirst sharpened, the twist of a knife in his belly. Gesù Cristo, that made his teeth ache..
"Ezio?" Claudia called cautiously, hope woven through her voice. The dust in the foyer was disturbed, footsteps clear in the sunlight from the open door.
Biting back the urge to be sick at the clutching pain, Ezio pushed himself up, pressed the heels of his palms into his knees and didn't bother hiding the extent of how he felt when he hoarsely called back, "Claudia?"
Her footfalls were loud after that, hurried, yet didn't for a second smother that ceaseless pulsing. If anything it was faster now, growing in volume as she raced upstairs. He could smell her before he saw her, the familiar floral notes of her favorite perfume, the soap beneath that. Something deeper, something heady and grotesquely alluring, something he wanted, needed with an impure, wanton intensity that had him recoiling in disgust, just as his sister came upon him.
She recoiled too at the sight of her brother, dusty, pale, glassy-eyed, with dried blood crusting his chin and throat. Ezio's gaze dropped a fraction, to the thunderclap roar of her beating heart, and felt something die inside him.