[Hollows Fic] Let Sleeping Vamps Lie - Part Seven

[jaina47]

Title: Let Sleeping Vamps Lie
Author(s): Jaina
Fandom: The Hollows aka Rachel Morgan aka that series by Kim Harrison
Time frame: Post-Outlaw Demon Wails
Characters: Rachel Morgan, Ivy Tamwood, Jenks, Skimmer, etc.
Genre: Romance, action, drama
Summary: Rachel is forced to confront things that she'd prefer left undisturbed.
Beta: Many thanks to my both of my betas: infinitlight and racethewind10 .  They both contribute a lot to this story and I'm grateful for their help and their patience.
Disclaimer: All characters, and the universe that they go with belong to Kim Harrison. I'm just playing in the sandbox. No infringement is intended.
Prompt: #6 Dread
Notes: Some of the formatting on here is a bit wonky. I worked with it for a while and couldn't get it to do anything different so my apologies for the weirdness.

Part One || Part Two II Part Three || Part Four || Part Five || Part Six






Part Seven


"Are you in a hurry to get back?"

Ivy's question caught me by surprise. I didn't realize that she'd had anything else planned for the day after we'd left Mom's.

"No, I don't have anything definite." I frowned. "I need to talk to Jenks. I think something's wrong with Jhi and her husband, but it can wait until later, I think."

Ivy's immediate smile warmed me like nothing else could have.

"Good. There's somewhere I want to take you."

"Oh?"

"Mmm." Ivy's murmured agreement was distinctly lacking in details as far as I was concerned, and from the slightly mischievous smile on her face, she knew exactly what she was doing to me. She was also loving every minute of it.  I just couldn't let her get away with that.

"I bet I can get you to tell me," I challenged her.

The gleam in her eyes said I was outclassed playing this game with her.

"You think so?" she purred. "Always so impatient, Rachel. You can't wait just a little bit longer. You have to push - to know right now."

"Well..." She had a point...damnit. "Yes!" I cleared my throat. "So are you going to tell me?"

Her smile contained a predatory knowledge of victory.  She leaned down to breathe her answer into my ear.

"No."

I was so startled, so lost in the sensation of her breath burning against my skin, that her words registered a moment late.  Ivy laughed at my disgruntled expression.

"Put your helmet on and get on the bike.  Then I'll do better than tell you: I'll show you."

I took the helmet, then stuck my tongue out before jamming the helmet down on my head. Juvenile, but it made Ivy snort. Whether in amusement or despair, I wasn't sure. Either way...so worth it.

The minute we were on, Ivy gunned the bike. I squeaked, and clinched my arms tighter around her waist. I felt, more than heard her laughter, from where I was pressed against her back. The bike was definitely growing on me, I decided, pressing closer to her.

This was a chance to be this close to Ivy, the scenery rushing by us, feeling the speed and sheer power of the bike underneath me. As scary as Ivy's driving could be, as nerve-wracking and heartstopping, there was no doubt that I trusted Ivy with my life. I wouldn't have been here with her, much less on her bike, if I didn't trusted her implicitly.

Maybe if I just closed my eyes...nope. It was worse when I couldn't see what vehicle we were currently passing at breakneck speeds. I really needed to look into some more of those inertia dampening charms. Then again...there was no way that Ivy would let me put them on her precious bike. No way at all. At least I had Silver Cross health insurance.

**** **** ****

The deafening whine of the bike faded to a low rumble that vibrated in my bones as we began to slow. Apparently we were here, wherever here was. There were no houses or buildings visible for as far as the eye could see, and I'd long since lost track of where we were. I'd never even known this part of the Hollows was here.

Small cramped neighborhoods had given way to larger fenced-in yards and then sprawling estates, not unlike the one where Ivy had grown up. Eventually even those estates had fallen away, leaving only rolling hills and thick vegetation.

Ivy carefully guided the bike up into the shade of a giant oak tree. It had to be at least a hundred years old. The sunlight filtered down through its leaves throwing dapples of light across the ground.

"What is this place?" It was amazing and it felt so completely right. I hadn't felt anything like it since I'd first walked out into the backyard of the church.

"So you like it then?" The slight smile on Ivy's face couldn't hide the nervousness in her eyes.

"I do. I didn't think places like this still existed this close to Cincy. Not unless they're public places like Eden Park."

And there was no doubt in my mind that this place wasn't open to the public. It was too untouched, and wild; not regulated and controlled; landscaped and formed into someone's idea of what nature should be. This was untamed beauty at its best.

"No, this place isn't open to the public. It's been in my family for the past hundred years."

"Wow." Sometimes I forgot just how rich Ivy's family was. "Show me around?" There were so many things to see, I wasn't sure where to look first.

"Okay." Ivy agreed and held a hand out to me. "I'll show you my favorite spot."

I took her hand with a smile and let her lead me out of the clearing and deeper into the woods. There was no obvious path, but Ivy seemed to know exactly where she was going.

"How big is this place?" I asked, five minutes later. We were still walking and there seemed to be no end in sight.

"Oh, not very big." Ivy's voice drifted back to me, as she waited for me to slip under a low-hanging branch. "Just about twenty-five acres."

I stopped walking and stared at her. "Ivy, this place is huge. How did I never know about this before?"

The look she gave me wasn't quite reproachful. "There are a lot of things you don't know about me, Rachel."

It hurt, but it was true. And also one of the first thing's that Rynn Cormel's book had ever taught me. If you asked a vampire about their family, it meant you were interested in them; seducing them. There had been a lot of things that I'd wanted to ask Ivy, but never been able to. Looked like now was my chance.

"So tell me something then."

"Okay." Ivy paused and looked around. "My parents gave me this place for my nineteenth birthday. I had just come back from out west and I needed a place where I could go to think, to be away from Piscary's influence."

"Do you still come here a lot?"

She shrugged. "Just when I need to get away." Something in her voice told me she wasn't quite being honest, but I was enjoying this day too much to push her. "Come here," Ivy added, changing the subject as she often did when she didn't want to discuss something anymore.

Stepping closer to her, my breath caught in my throat at the view that unfolded in front of us. The mossy rocks that we were standing on dropped away sharply a few feet in front of us, falling almost straight down to a small pool of water. The soft murmur of running water came from my left, and it was easy to see the small waterfall once I knew where to look.

It was obvious what Ivy had seen in this place.  The beauty it exerted was at once powerful and serene.  I could see why Ivy had kept it as a haven for so many years, and it meant even more that she would share it with me now.  Together the two feelings were almost heady and overwhelming.

"Thank you for bringing me here, Ivy. It's beautiful."

"Mmm."  Her soft murmur of agreement pulled my attention back to her.

She was watching me from under half-lidded eyes. The look on her face was full of a familiar hunger, that today was just a little bit different.

"Rachel." Her voice made my name into a caress. I could almost feel it sliding over my skin. Her hand cupped my face, and her thumb brushed across my cheek reverently. "You have no idea what you do to me."

I leaned into her touch. "I could say the same thing."

Ivy kissed me then, before I could say anything else. Dropping her hands to my waist, she pushed me back until I could feel bark digging into my shoulder blades. I didn't protest, and kept kissing her. Tentatively Ivy's hand slipped under my shirt. An embarrassingly loud moan slipped through my lips and Ivy froze.

My eyes jerked open at the sudden change. The rich brown of her irises had been lost against the expanding darkness of her pupils, and Ivy was holding herself painfully stiff.

"Ivy?" I heard the quaver in my voice and hated it. "What's wrong?"

She blinked, then broke eye contact with me and took a shuddering breath. I squeezed her shoulders, wanting her to look back up at me. When she did, her pupils had begun to shrink.

"I thought this was too much." A hint of pink stained her cheeks. "I thought you wanted me to stop, Rachel." She said it so softly I could barely make out what she was saying.

"Ivy....No. Trust me, if I want you to stop, I'll let you know." I looked away. There was no way I could meet her eyes and say what I was about to. This was still too new between us. "I want you, Ivy. So badly. Nothing you could do can drive me away."

The low, dark chuckle that she let out was filled with self-loathing. "You have no idea what I'm capable of, Rachel."

"I'm not going to break, Ivy," I exclaimed in exasperation.

"No, but you might break my heart."

It felt like someone had driven a fist into my gut.  For a moment, I couldn't breathe, shocked at the depth of her emotions and the pain in her words.  Ivy was just as scared of screwing this up as I was.  

Without a word, I wrapped my arms around her and held her to me tightly. I wanted to promise that I wouldn't hurt her, but I couldn't make a promise that I might not be able to keep. If I'd learned anything, it was that the future always held surprises.

"I'm not going anywhere," I murmured lightly, pressing a kiss to the side of her neck right above her throbbing pulse point. "I haven't yet, have I? And we've been through a lot of stuff."

Ivy relaxed minutely in my arms. Her face was tucked into the side of my neck, and I felt more than heard her breathe in my scent. She shivered.

"I showed you this place because I thought you might need it too. If you ever needed to get away and think."

My heart skipped a beat. Ivy was giving me her sanctuary, just as she'd invited me into the church. She was right. It would be so easy for me to break her heart; I'd done it so many times before.

"Do you remember, when Piscary put Kist in the hospital and I had to buy a trip through the lines from Newt?" I didn't wait for Ivy to respond. There was no way she could have forgotten that incident. "Newt told me that I needed to think of home, so I thought about the church. How much I loved it and missed and wanted to be back there: to be home safe so badly." I swallowed nervously. "Newt said it wasn't enough. She told me to think of you."

I brushed a strand of dark hair back from Ivy's face, letting my hand slip through her hair. "You were what brought me home."

The sadness in her eyes melted away. "Thank you for telling me that."

I could only nod, lost for words in the face of her relief.

**** **** ****

The long, slow drive back into the city seemed to take forever, and at the same time, rush by all too quickly.  When we were at Mom's I'd given Ford a call and scheduled a time to go see him.  Thoughts of Kisten's killer had been lingering in the back of my mind all day.  Brunch with Mom and spending time with Ivy had been the perfect distraction to keep me from going crazy until then.  Now I finally had a chance to go in and identify Kisten's killer once and for all.

"Are you sure you don't want me to come in with you?" Ivy's desire to linger was obvious, as she sat in the parking lot, still straddling her bike.

It was getting on my nerves. Probably didn't help that I was already anxious about going to see Ford. The way he could read everything I felt was beyond unnerving and it didn't make it any easier that everything depended on this. For all the work that Ivy had done, all we'd been able to do was narrow Kisten's killer to male undead vampires. There were at least a hundred in this county alone. If I could recapture the details of his face long enough for Ford to get them down clearly for us, we would finally be able to finish this.

"No, it'll be fine. I'll see you back at the church when I'm done."

"Okay." Ivy tried a small smile, but it didn't quite make it to her eyes. "We'll get him, Rachel. I promise."

I ducked my head, hoping she couldn't see the tear that had slipped down my cheek. "Yeah, I know." Clearing my throat, I straightened. "I'd better go. I don't want to keep Ford waiting."

Ivy nodded stiffly, but relaxed a little when I wrapped my arms around her for a parting hug. Strength seemed to flow through her to me before I pulled away and walked inside.

The session with Ford went much more quickly that I'd expected. He was able to draw details out of my mind that I hadn't even known I remembered. There was no doubt: Ford was scary good. If I hadn't known better, I would have suspected some telepathy on his part.

His drawing skills were equal to his people skills. The image that was slowly being formed on the page in front of me was jarring in its accuracy. Just seeing the face taking shape was enough to make me uncomfortable and before I'd been there half an hour I was wishing wholeheartedly that I'd let Ivy come in with me. I missed her supportive presence and the silent comfort and promise of safety that she brought with her.

"What about the chin, Rachel?"

Ford's voice yanked my attention back to the features that he was trying to refine.

"I think it was a little bit more square," I said quietly. Closing my eyes, the killer's face was instantly in front of me once again. I didn't have to try hard to summon it. My fears did that for me easily enough. Cold sweat was already prickling against my skin. "Yeah, a little bit more square, and his eyes...they're blue."

A really familiar shade of blue. Who did those eyes belong to?

"Okay, got that." Ford was smiling calmly when I opened my eyes. "I think we have a good enough image to run this now, Rachel. I'm sure Detective Glenn will let you know if we get any hits on the photo." He sighed, folding his arms as he sank back into the chair. "I'm sure I don't have to tell you though, that one of the difficulties of tracking down some of the very old vampires is that they were grandfathered into society, so they don't necessarily have a photo I.D. of any kind in the system."

My heart sank in my chest. Ford shouldn't have had to remind me. I'd worked with the I.S. long enough to know that; I'd told enough grieving widows and furious victims that in my time. But I'd been distracted, by Ford and how he made me nervous, and also by Ivy.

No matter how hard I tried to focus, she kept slipping into my thoughts.

A hint of redness seeped into Ford's cheeks, and I choked. Turn it, I did not need this today.

"Can I get a copy of that picture?" I asked, pretending that we both didn't know what I'd just been thinking.

"Sure," he said quickly, standing up so fast that his chair scooted back sharply. "I'll just go make you a copy."

"Great. Thank you." I fiddled with the pens on his desk, and wondered if Glenn really would contact me, if they even did get a hit off the photo.

Ford was back before I'd had much of a chance to brood on the nagging ache that was the need to identity Kisten's killer. I wanted him dead so badly. Not just for killing Kisten, but because he scared me all the way to the tips of my witchy little toes. He had almost bound me and I had done nothing to stop him. Only luck had stood between me and a lifetime of enslavement.

I wanted to make sure he never had a chance to do that again.

"Here you go, Rachel." Ford was back and handing me what I'd asked for.

There was still something about those eyes....

**** **** ****

The thin strains of music reached my ears as I opened the front door to the church. I stopped just inside when I realized that it was Ivy, playing her piano. Ivy rarely played, and it was rarer still for her to allow anyone to listen in.

I'd savored the few chances I'd had to hear her play, and it was worth lingering very quietly for a few more minutes. The music was complex and fast moving, but not lacking in depth or emotion. I'd always thought that the very private Ivy didn't want anyone to hear her music because she put so much of her own emotion and soul into it.

My feet started to ache from standing in one place for too long, and the loose roll of paper in my bag demanded my attention. I finally had something concrete I could give to Ivy and the FIB that would help us bring Kisten's killer to justice.

Pulling the paper out of it, I dropped my bag on the table, and headed for the living room. I paused in the doorway, more than a little bit surprised as Ivy played on. There was no way she hadn't heard me come in. Even a human could have heard me, much less a living vamp.

Her eyes were closed and emotions slipped across her face, not controlled and sublimated as they usually were. I wanted to kiss her so badly. As the final notes faded into silence, her eyes remained closed.

"That was beautiful, Ivy." My voice was quiet, hushed and reverent. I didn't want to break the spell she'd cast over the room.

"It was his favorite." Her eyes opened, and she met my gaze directly. "Kisten's. He always asked me to play it for him when he was feeling sad. It cheered him up."

I choked back tears. Ivy mentioned him directly so rarely.  Now any time she did, it brought back emotions that I thought I'd already dealt with. Walking around the piano, I ran my fingers along the glistening ebony edge, unsurprised when not a hint of dust came away with them. This was Ivy's pride and joy. I hesitated for a minute, unsure of whether or not I should sit down beside Ivy now that I was here.

She solved my problem by gently patting the seat beside her. I sank down next to her quickly.

"You know, I take requests."

"What?" Focus was not my strong suit today.

Ivy shrugged, as if what she was about to say wasn't of importance. The set of her shoulders and the look in her eyes indicated otherwise. "I'll play something for you, if you want me to. Any time. Just ask."

"Ivy...." I bit my lip. What she offered me, what she continued to offer, even after all the times I'd rejected her, was amazing. My left hand clenched around the piece of paper I still held, while I reached up with my other hand to push a strand of golden-tipped hair off her forehead and back behind her ear. Her skin felt like silk under my touch.

I couldn't resist any longer; I leaned in and kissed her. She sank into the kiss, her body leaning into mine. Her hand slipped up my side and around my waist, pulling me closer. Ivy moaned as my tongue brushed across her lips and slipped into the damp heat of her mouth.

It was Ivy who broke the kiss this time, drawing back to rest her forehead against mine. My heart beat wildly in my chest; I could hear her struggling to catch her breath.

"I'd love to hear you play some time," I whispered. "It doesn't matter what. I just love listening to you."

Ivy sighed softly and pecked lightly at my lips, her kisses too fleeting to recapture what we'd ignited a moment before.

"I'd like that too." Her eyes were changing as we spoke. Not all at once, but slowly the black of her pupil was expanding, shrinking the brown until it was only a thin sliver of color.

"Ivy?" I held very still, unsure what was causing this change. My heart raced, and I took a deep breath and held it in an attempt to slow everything back down again.

"Do you have it?" Ivy breathed the words so softly that I almost couldn't hear them.

She didn't have to clarify what it was. There was nothing else it could be. I held out the photocopied image and waited, studying Ivy, not the image.

"I know who this is," Ivy stated tonelessly. "This man is Kisten's father."

Comments

[ic1pher.livejournal.com]

Hey! This is supposed to be just fan fiction, not a fully realized, gripping, touching and brilliant love story! ;)

Seriously, oh wow. Reading these kind of fics just makes me incredulously happy.

Only thing I'm a bit hesitant though is when there's non-canon in the fics, like who killed Kisten.

What I really liked was Ivy's confession of the depth of her feelings and her vulnerability of it and how it all changed the situation a bit.

[jaina47.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you liked it on the whole. Who doesn't like to hear glowing reviews? :D

As for the non-canon aspects like who killed Kisten...I don't claim to have any special insight into who Kisten's killer will be. I think when we find out it will make perfect sense and also be someone we never thought of, or at least I never did.

I'm just trying to tell a story that I'd want to read. That's the whole reason I write. So, I hope you enjoy it, but in the end, I hope mostly that I'm happy with it.

[widget007.livejournal.com]

OMG! This storu just gets better and better! *bounce* I just love the way you write these two. *happy sigh*

The way you show Ivy's vulnerability and just how much Rachel could hurt her is amazing.

I swear, this is so one of my favourite WIPs...

[jaina47.livejournal.com]

I'm really glad you're enjoying this and the relationship between Ivy and Rachel. I'm not sure this (or anything like it) is what would happen if Ms. Harrison did let them get together, but I'm definitely having a lot of fun exploring the possibilities, and I'm glad other people are enjoying it too.

The more I write these two the more I realize they both have so many issues. It's amazing that they work so well together at all. :D

[widget007.livejournal.com]

So very true! But I think their issues are kinda what keeps them together too, y'know? Who else would undestand completely?

*grin* I wonder what the chances of these two actually getting together in the books ...

[erinya.livejournal.com]

I love how you have woven the plots of finding Kisten's killer and Ivy/Rachel together. And I can't get over how real the relationship reads between the two women...it's one of the best f/f fics I think I've ever read in that regard (if not overall).

[jaina47.livejournal.com]

Thank you! That means a lot. Getting their relationship to seem real is one of the things that I struggle with the most so that really means a lot.

I'm so glad you're enjoying this! :D

[sukiluv76.livejournal.com]

once again AWESOME! i love the fact that this is here for me to read while i await another book from Ms. Harrison. Altho i will say, that i find myself going so quickly over the books looking for more of what i see here. cuz ultimately, this is what i want, and you write it beautifully. so i thank you for that :-)

off to read part 8....