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[huntercam]

He raises a brow at her - easily swayed was a way to put it, yes. But his view of the situation: "I was never a hunter in the ways that others were. I harbor no ill will towards people of the supernatural variety." Cameron's glass is brought to his lips with a tilt of his head.

"They simply gave me the means and opportunity to create macabre art without getting caught." He looks down at an ungloved hand, seeing how the ink has already slightly faded on his palm. Interesting. "I suppose now, as a vampire, it's much the same."

When he looks up again, there's a slight tilt to his head. "Elyse is interesting how?"

There's a pleased hum coming from her throat as she looks at him. Like his rush to respond was exactly what she expected, what she desired. She's never been one to hide her distaste for hunters, but him... he was interesting. "Bien sûr." The words flowing easily from her mouth as she smirks at him. "I must admit though... I had never met a hunter quite so... easily swayed into our life."

She follows his movements easy, catches the girl he was pointing at with interest. And she does remembers her, her art. Narcisse remembers every painting she's ever hung in the walls of her galleries. "Quite talented, your partner... another interesting choice of yours."

[huntercam]

Everything Elyse says is laced in flirtatious innuendo. Cameron used to simply take it in stride, but he can't deny the way it's makes his blood sing now in an almost unbearable way. He would give anything to not be here at this gala, away from prying eyes to gorge and descend into madness with his lover by his side.

Her fingertips make him involuntarily inhale, and he's once again left wondering if this is simply just going to take time to no longer do. In the wake of it, he closes his eyes briefly to steel himself against the way his mouth waters.

"Ha." Less of a laugh and more just a sound. "You'll tempt me into losing control before too long, if you keep this up." He reaches up to cradle her face, gently so as not to disturb their make up or hair. "There are a fair few things to explore here, though."

Elyse is his tonight -- she has been before now, but it goes deeper tonight. It's mind, body, and soul. His words, laced with vampiric compulsion, have burrowed under her skin and into the very essence of her being. She feels like one of those little art manikins, under his masterful guidance. But even despite his lack of pulse, she also feels the intensity of emotion radiating from him, the newfound strength in his fingertips.

The girl arches her back and curls into his touch, humming as they glide through the crowd. And when Cameron addresses her, Elyse fixes her wide, adoring, mesmerized eyes on him. An easy laugh escapes her, understanding the implication of his words.

"Well, living is learning in its own way. Let me do that for the both of us, bravura," she says, gingerly brushing her fingers against his chest. "But no, no, I don't want homework tonight... unless there's some other type of lesson you want to teach me..."

[huntercam]

What he feels usually is a mystery to even himself - he has no idea how to explain an emotion, much less rein it in. His whole life had been muted from birth to death, so this advice feels foreign to him.

He focuses, instead, on the lesson in front of him - ignores the feeling of inadequacy and how ridiculous all this is. When he moves, it's too quick - it's a blink, and Cameron feels himself rock forward, off balance but exactly where he wanted to be. It's easy, but will take some getting used to.

All he has to do is apply that to the fangs in his gum, and as they emerge, so does the blood pooling in his eyes. He turns the victim's head, focuses in on the vein, and bites down - delicately at first, but then the blood hits his tongue. All pretense of quick and efficient is gone, it's just hunger left in his wake as he drains them.

There's wariness laced into his movements, despite the speed at which he follows Cam's. Eyes dart swiftly to every small detail; snap to each and every gesture McCormick makes. "She's human. What you feel... usually? Just rein it in a bit." Whatever that's supposed to mean, because Reid knows what his volatility becomes when he's absent his sensibilities. He knows the monster he is.

Reid follows, allowing Cam to figure this out, in a way that's not as brutal, nor ruthless as his own discovery. Less chains, and screaming as his had been.

Quick and efficient, he says. Reid tries not to laugh, nor mock.

Halstead overtakes, approaches the writhing form like it's nothing; it has to be this way, because otherwise his remorse will stop him. He has to shutter away his morals to be something else. A thing Cam cannot be allowed to notice.

He crouches, traces a nail along the throat. Pulsing, rapid, scared. "Here." a beat, "Think about where you stand, then think about being here. You're fast now, McCormick." He feels stupid saying it, and he's not trying to condescend. He's trying to be what he needs, in a way Reid isn't meant to be. "You want to save them, then you listen to the heartbeat. And then you stop." What he doesn't say, is that it isn't that easy.

[huntercam]

"I've tried." He says, simply, and his hands go into his slack pockets, wondering if the habit of breathing ever goes away with time. Air fills his lungs, but it does not provide relief or clarity even after an exhale. "My sire -" He nearly laughs, but holds it together. "Provided. Reid Halstead - I went to hunt him and he gained the upper hand." He looks down and flicks a fleck of thread from his cuffs. "I can only imagine the rest of my ilk will see fit to end my life once word spreads."

Laure nods. Vampirism suits Cameron, and it's a thought she's held before. She might have offered had she not had her own complications with siring in recent years, though she hears that this also wasn't a request from the man. "Whichever you prefer. Both if you haven't tried that yet." She follows him further into the gallery. "What happened?"

[huntercam]

Cam's gaze flicks back up to Reid at the slight jab, but he stands all the same. It's odd - being after death. His legs don't feel like his own, and his chest has a sort of phantom ache in it that he can't quite explain. His fingers rub against the pain, and he hums. "A bit."

Of course he's thinking about Elyse. She's the reason he's here in the first place. He flexes his hands, and moves to where he hears the heartbeat. For a moment, he does study the ropes, looks back to Reid with an expression on his face that's more exasperation than anything.

"I know the logistics of it from hunting, but I'd like to be quick and efficient. How would I?"

He expected Cam to die too.

“We’re not the same, McCormick.” Not with this, at least. “I wouldn’t have done this to you intentionally.” His gaze darkens a few shades, warning Cam that he’s treading fragile lines of conversation.

Even in the guilt, he allows anger to fester in its pit.

Halstead can only watch Cam gain his bearings, stare, wonder and readjust to his new existence. He knows what’s in the other room — and he expects the other man to be smart enough to figure it out too. Then, he asks as much. “Yeah.” Both, maybe. There hasn’t been a time to ponder the existential questions. It’s hunger, if he has to decide. He makes a light barb, moving from where they sit to step back and allow McCormick to go into his other gallery hall. “You can go judge my ropework now.” He expects Cam knows where the jugular is, even if hunger blinds the knowledge. “— Are you thinking about your girl?” A beat, “Be careful, man. Everything heightens now. Don’t push your limits.” Maybe he calls that a safe word.

[huntercam]

"No longer." His answer is quick and sharp, but not caustic - simply a way to get the truth out there before it becomes warped against him. "But I suspect you knew that the moment I approached." His own glass is brought to his lips - a blend that he's not sure he's too fond of, when his mind is so set elsewhere.

"I do remember Nouveau, yes." The hands - but he'd had nothing to do with any of that. The Fellowship had been trying to get him to defect for quite some time. "I remember the art, most of all. My partner -" He turns to gesture to Elyse, "- Had pieces there."

She hums, taking in the man before her, a sly grin on her lips as she moves her glass up to her lips. "I've been told you were a hunter." She murmurs back, a studying look in her eyes. There's something inside her, that prompts her to reach out into his chest, pierce through skin and bones and rip out a heart that's no longer beating. It'd be too easy, but entirely too messy for the evening.

"But yes, I am." Art had been one of the only constants in her life in all the nine hundred years and so she's been living. "I've opened many galleries through the years... opened one here recently, actually, sure you heard of it." A smirk on her lips as she finally took a sip of her wine.

[huntercam]

Cam wiped carefully at his lips and chin with one of the napkins provided by one of the waiters working the event with a quiet word of gratitude. Being clean about this all was still a bit of a learning curve, but he was still new.

When Lucian approaches, Cameron's spine tightens to make him stand up just a bit straighter. He's still cleaning up the blood from his chin, the picture of polite nobility. "We both know you're thinking much darker things, Luc."

For: @huntercam Where: The gala

He hasn't seen the other in a while, busy as they both often were. Lucian had expected to encounter him here, right in the lion's den, in the middle of all the danger, with the creatures ready to bare their teeth if the situation so called for it. But what he saw had been nothing he accounted for, as the blood dripped down the hunter's chin, cleaned with the same precision he knew Cameron to do everything. Most disappointing, to lose a man such as himself and Lucian couldn't help himself. Couldn't stop himself from going to him, a smirk on his lips he often reserved to his preys rather than friends, but that's the change that's occurred here, is it not?. "I must say, my friend... that death becomes you." He teases, a jab. Throwing the truth between them like a promise of danger.

[huntercam]

A hand rests on her back, guiding her through the crowd. There's a goal in mind, and it has nothing to do with any of the others around them - he simply wants. Fingers trail down her back, and up again - a light touch that is excruciating for him to execute. Tongue dry, he doesn't look down at her, for fear that he might lose control.

Reid's warnings were still heavy on his mind, and being around people acting so freely was warping him quite a bit. He stops his breathing in an attempt to curb the newborn hunger that still ravages him, and turns down to his compelled plaything for the night.

He has to look, but that dry feeling at the back of his throat only worsens as he takes her in yet again. "We don't need the pretense of lesson tonight, do we, écorché?" He hopes not, because the idea of thinking right now has Cameron's mind turning in circles. Why worry about such banal things as lessons, when they can simply move to the main course? / @elysiumkerr

[huntercam]

Cameron is not the type to hide from confrontations, and he certainly has nothing to fear here with the hunters being observed like prey. It makes the hair on the back of his neck stand at attention, sending a slight chill down his back as he thinks of what this gala might have looked like if it were only a few months prior.

There hadn't been much engagement with Sofia, but there was enough. He tilts his head to regard her, and offers one of his odd, strained smiles. "I'd stay it's nice to see you again, but I do somehow doubt that." / @lovelykills

[huntercam]

Despite his best efforts, his brother is not a hard man to track down. Now with his heightened senses, he can hear his voice across the room if he simply listens for it - the scent is harder. There's a rot to it that he doesn't quite understand, something that feels deeper than resurrection, but something settled into his bones.

The closer he gets the worse it smells.

Cameron knows Declan is avoiding him for the simple fact that he tries to turn tail as he approaches. Except he's faster now, and in a blink, he's in front of his brother - staring down at him with a set jaw and frustration in his eyes.

"You owe me a few explanations, Declan." / @declanofruin

[huntercam]

It's a bit odd to shift allegiances from one extreme to another - if one could call Pretorius extreme, or if one could call his shift an allegiance. Much like his time in the Brotherhood, he's unsure if he'll start to feel an affection for whatever this clan holds for him. There's an eternity ahead of him to figure out what sort of thing he wants to be, though.

Part of figuring it out is being introduced to others within the clan who may have experiences to share, and now here with Narcisse, he finds that he's unsure if he wants to have these conversations. "I've been told you're an artist." He begins, feeling as though it might be better to start with common ground first. / @lcblanc

[huntercam]

CAMERON MCCORMICK @ The Conclave

It's perhaps, not unusual, that he's found himself outside of Elyse's apartment once more, filled with nerves once more. Vampiric emotions have left him reeling from the intensity far more than once and this is no different. When the door opens, he's left both breathless and speechless.

With @elysiumkerr by his side, Cam makes his debut as a member of CLAN PRETORIUS. Despite feeling odd about the new designation, he is curious what others may think of his turn and how vampire politics actually work. He is also looking for his next art project, and considering what he might do with his newfound compulsion.

[huntercam]

Cam takes the photos, flips through them - the confusion visible on his face. Hm. He looks up, and crosses his arms across his chest - photos set down on the desk. Being one? Was she not in a pack? Weren't all wolves in packs? Interesting. That would be something to note for later, then.

"That's an interesting way to do that, I suppose." He'd known werewolves weren't particularly in control during the full moon shift, but is the first time he's talked to one in a calm manner. A learning opportunity for them, both, then. The basement pictures give him pause, what is that meant to mean?

He looks back up at her, eyes narrowing at the line of questioning. "I've heard stories of werewolves being taught and trained like a dog, yes. I've not seen it firsthand myself." His head tilts as he regards her, curiosity flickering. She would have been a good subject, but Elyse's request has settled in his mind labeling this woman as off limits. "I can't imagine it would be particularly easy. Why these photos?"

"It's not... it's not really about, well.. I guess it is... about— being one."

She reaches - slowly - into the satchel at her side, and fishes out a set of photos she's had Aria take of the basement of the bookstore, clutching them in her hand, hesitant to jump right to that.

"When I was first... figuring it out, I used my girlfriend's perfume to sort of... control where I went? I don't... I don't control anything when I'm like that, or I do but... I don't know, it's all really weird and... my question is... do you think ... given time and the right... tools, I guess. Do you think it could be taught? Tamed? Have you ever heard of anything like that?"

[huntercam]

Once he hands the silver over to Elyse, he backs up as much as he can while still being in the vicinity -- close enough to help her if she needs it, but far enough away to not be directly in the line of fire - of teeth, jaw, venom. He reaches for Elyse out of instinct, to pull her back, as well - "Watch from afar. Please." The worry is so much more heavy now, much more present as he considers the situation.

As they turn, he takes photos - not on his camera like he might if this were a vampire, but on his phone. Quick. Easy. "Remember, wolfsbane kills, silver burns -- See the marks in their fur?" It's a learning opportunity, and he watches their shift fully take hold, a righteous fury in their eyes. He almost laughs. Almost feels giddy.

The end of the silver chains are attached to the hitch on the truck. It'll have more power to drag them back over the curse line. "This one is different than the others, like I mentioned. Their curse was reversed." A twinkle in his eye at it. At the memory of the Ryan hunt.

Then, to Arte with a grin. "We're going to take you back over the line so Elyse here can watch again. Until the vision in our minds is perfect."

@elysiumkerr

Since Cam was gracious enough to let Autumn go, she'd been thinking about what else they could learn from a werewolf subject. In what little they'd had with her friend, Elyse was fascinated by the properties of the silver and wolfsbane poisons. How something like a precious metal could bring a rampaging beast to its knees. She'd never suspected Autumn was a wolf. By her guess, it was a little harder to identify the wolves than the vampires -- at least, that's how it seemed until the full moon was in the sky, of course.

But this subject needs no full moon, from what little she understands. Cam is the one who has prepared the trap, but given his new... limitations feels like the wrong word for it, but his condition does have its drawbacks. Either way, Elyse has to take the risk because all things considered, she has more of a chance of not completely dying if this goes tits-up. And it already feels like he and the wolf have some history.

"Okay, okay," Elyse breathes, feeling the frantic nature of the situation. The wolf is immeasurably powerful -- she knows not to mistake the breaking and grinding of bones as weakness. But this is something else entirely. She hesitates to approach them, fearing even her footsteps on the ground might cause them to shatter faster. Still, she manages to bury the needle in some bit of flesh and tissue, even as it rapidly transforms, mutilated by the curse at hand. "There. They're pricked. Here, pass me the silver."

[huntercam]

Maybe it isn't the time for laughter, but it comes anyways. Of the people in the world that can actually make Cameron smile, much less laugh, Elyse has quickly wormed their way into one of the few spots available. It still comes out more a short, clipped bark than anything, like his body isn't used to humor nor expressing it.

Instead of lingering on that, he tilts his head down to capture her lips with his - a mistake, perhaps, considering the taste of her lingers in a way that it hadn't before. The smell is over powering to the point where he has to break the kiss and stop breathing entirely.

"Ah." Cam swallows, realizing that his grip at her back has tightened considerably. "As much as I'd love that.. we might have to wait until I can get a handle on this hunger."

[huntercam]

As soon as Reid says it, Cam can hear it. The dripping. The constant movement of the building. He squints and brings a hand to one of his ears, rubbing behind it as if that might stave off the offending sounds. With a bit of focusing down, it helps -- but he can hear sounds of another person. A heartbeat. A struggle.

His gaze flickers over to Reid, wondering if that was difficult for him, or if he simply doesn't care about it. He follows the advice, though, focuses on sight rather than hearing and that helps prevent the odd migraine like feeling in between his eyebrows.

His jaw clenches. "I expected to die." It's a simple statement, but he had no idea that Reid would regret it. "I suppose now you've continued the cycle that your sire started." It's not meant to be snark, but rather observation. Cam looks down at his hands, turning them over, feeling that dry, parched feeling at the back of his throat. "I believe I'm.. craving blood now. Is it hunger or thirst?"

"Yeah." He can't know the details, or the depth exactly as Cam does. He imagines they're all a bit different. But he knows the practice it took to dim down once sense at a time. "Take it slow, it'll drive you mad listening to the waterworks in the walls." Reid supposes it's supposed to be funny, despite the circumstances. Not funny.

Not at all, when Reid thinks about what comes next. He'd calculated it in his head. The possibility Cam would wake up, when his wounds started healing. Thought about how he was going to get McCormick to feed. Drag a person in. Find a bag. Send him into the city like a coyote on the prowl. What the hell does he do to convince a hunter to turn into a monster?

Cam's an artist. All that perfectionist bull that Reid never took seriously about him. And he's never been as good with tying knots as the other man, but he can hear the struggle of a person in the other room. He'll figure it out, when the hunger kicks in, sandpapering his mouth and Reid has his answer. "When you focus on one sense, it's easier to dull down the rest of them. I usually go for visibility, easier to see." a beat, to confess. "McCormick I — I hadn't wanted to do this to you." I wished you hadn't pushed.

[huntercam]

He looks up and towards Autumn, a question very clearly written in his eyes -- she doesn't know much about werewolves, despite being one? New, then. He hums, keeping his hands in his pockets. He'd retired the gloves a few days after being turned, not needing the subterfuge of hiding his tattooed hand any longer.

"What questions, then? I can't promise I'll know everything." He gestures for Autumn to continue, and then to follow him, so they're not out in the open in the gallery. He leads her to the office at the back, and sits at the edge of the desk, waiting for her to choose between the chairs provided or the couch he would sometimes sleep on.

Given the circumstances of their last meeting, Autumn feels strange being here. The entire concept of what Cameron does sticks like tar to the insides of her mind. But he'd offered help, and maybe it had just been because of her friendship with Elyse, but she needs that help now.

Her thoughts stammer; has Elyse told him? Should she tell hm? Should it just be left to lie? Like the question of why and how he's a vampire now, it dies an anxious death in the back of her throat.

He seems off-put, and his reassurances do little to dispel her apprehensions, but he's being direct, and so she returns the favor. "I actually. I have questions, about... werewolves - about some other things too, and I was wondering if I could pick your brain. Since you seemed to know a lot."