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Luthor manor has stood on the hill overlooking Midvale for centuries, the family lived there generation over generation, but most of the town, even the older citizens, struggled to remember a time when it wasn't heralded by Lilliam and Lionel Luthor. The couple was barely ever seen, the only proof they actually lived there being the employment of several of the town's inhabitants as servants. Some of them had worked there for as long as fifteen years and the information about the family was sparse; they were seen only from shadows and windows, and heard only behind doors, but they had always been there.
That's why when she first heard about their death she paid no mind to it. Over the years the rumors had killed the Luthor's countless times, and every time it was discredited within a week. So she rolls her eyes at the old man sipping cheap vodka and smelling of sweat in the stool next to her at Winn's bar, and chugs her beer exchanging a knowing grin with her friend behind the bar like it's a shared joke.
She used to work here, once upon a time, she rented a one bedroom apartment two street's over, paying for it with hard earned tips. Then she punched a man for looking at her ass and got fired (Winn did admit that she was right to throw the punch, but business was weak and he was hardly the only bar in town). She couldn't find another job, the town was too small, everyone knew her; the younger Danvers, the adopted one, the one who broke the Matthews' boy nose when they were fifteen, the one who was never scared to step between two larger men to separate a fight. They knew her past and present, all her fights and ruckuses, no one would hire her. She indulged the thought of going back to school, getting her english degree and replacing Miss Grant in the town's one high school.
She didn't. What she did was move back in with her sister and pretend to be thinking about it.
Finishing her third and last beer of the night, Kara fishes her wallet out of her pocket, trying her best to straighten the crumbled up bills, placing them under the glass bottle, and carelessly waving goodbye to Winn.
Outside It's a hot night, the air humid and stagnant, somewhen during the day Kara had lost her red flannel, wrapping it around her waist, but even then her white tank top kept sticking to her back.
Taking off her weathered baseball cap and turning backwards while fishing her cigars from her back pocket she started walking towards her truck parked in the curb. The truck was probably the only thing Kara actually owned, it had been her cousin's Clark first car, an forest green '87 Chevy truck he kept it in his parents garage until she was old enough to drive, he wasn't the best of cousins, but she was grateful, she loved her car.
The town's streets were quiet and empty. Winn's bar was located right at the entrance of town, no houses, only woods for at least a few miles, the only cars who'd drive by there at that time would be those coming from outside town, maybe returning from work in the big cities, maybe just passing by. The thought of it, the outside, weighed on Kara's shoulders, she felt useless, not knowing anything but Midvale, but at the same time the thought of ever leaving town, leaving everything she came to know since the Danvers took her in, made her stomach drop and her blood freeze.
Inside of the car's cabin, the amber of her cigar glowed, bright red and orange. it reminded her of her home, a tiny rock on fire in the sky, she could still remember sometimes, the feel of the earth shattering, the smell of uncontrollable fire, as her world crashed and burned.
She flicks the cigar out the window and starts the engine.
The wind sweps her hair back and she sighs contentetly with much needed relief from the heat, throwing her cap in the passenger seat, turning on the radio. She taps the old leather wheel to the rhythm of the heavy beat of a country song.
She stops momentarily at the stop sign, even with her truck being the only vehicle in sight an Sheriff J'onn nowhere to be seen, just so she could try and make out Luthor manor atop the forested hill, tall and impressive, lights on, like it had been every night she could remember, she chuckles ' sure Dan, they're dead alright.'
Alex and Kelly are already home when she arrives, both their cars parked side by side in the double driveway. Kara leaves hers underneath a three in the curb, right in front of their house, the front porch light is out but she can see shapes in the low light of the kitchen.
Whiistling to announce her presence she opens the front door, taking off her boots and leaving her keys in the bow next to the entrance, she makes her way into the kitchen.
They're talking, rushed, sitting by the wooden table, Alex's hair wet and she's wearing comfortable clothes while Kelly still wears her work clothes, frowning worryingly at whatever it is her wife is saying. Kara stops whistling.
"Everything okay?" she asks from the room's threshold, leaning against the wall.
Her sister turns to look at her, her expression similar to Kelly's, only more haunted; Hollow eyes and pale cheeks.
"The Luthors are dead. Murdered"
Here's what Alex knew: The maid had arrived in the morning, finding the front door unusually locked she went around the back. There were signs of a fight ("It looked like a fucking tornado had been there, Kara" her sister said between sips of beer). The back door was completely destroyed. She went inside. Lionel Luthor's body was fallen against the fridge, he was covered in blood, unrecognizable. The maid left, in tears and shaking straight to the precinct.
She told J'onn what happened and he and Lucy drove up the hill to find exactly what she had described, plus the body of one Liliam Luthor. Decapitated. (They had to show pictures of the bodies to the employees to confirm it was them; One of them, an older lady in charge of laundry, threw up on J'onn's foot)
According to Alex, John was convinced their son Alexander was to blame, but they had no clue as to where he might have gone. They had also contacted the Luthor's younger daughter, who had been in Europe as far as anyone could remember. and she would be arriving by the next evening to plan the funeral.
Alex's shaking after finishing the story and Kara can barely believe. Midvale was a smalltown, everyone knew everyone, things like that simply didn't happen. She tried to think back to the last major crime that had happened there but all her brain could conjure was the time Jim Anderson's mistress shot his dick off.
"Did you actually see the bodies?" There was no way that something like that had actually happened in their town and yet by the look on Alex's face, it had.
She nods.
"I–" Alex falters, looking out of focus, eyes glassy. "I did the autopsy, John didn't want to waste time sending them to the city. So he called me up there and we brought them to the clinic" She sees it behind Alex's eyes, something she can't place, similar to how she looks at Kara when she does or says something unusual. "I couldn't tell how long they'd been dead for, there was no decomposition but the rigor mortis and the liver temperature…"
She doesn't finish, just shakes her head trying to send the thoughts away. Kara shares a look with Kelly: it must've been bad.
Gore didn't scare Alex, she was the only doctor in town ever since Eliza retired to the coast, she had stitched back together toes and blowed up fingers, delivered babies, snapped bones back in place, all without so much as blinking; She liked her job.
"Maybe Kara should go to work with you tomorrow?" Kelly asks tentatively and Kara looks up at her frowning, she hates when they assume she ain't got nothing to do, and Kelly holds her stare, looking serious; It was interesting how they learned how to have entire non-verbal conversations since she and Alex got together, most of said conversations were about Alex herself really. And this one Kelly wins easily. "Just until the daughter and the funerary takes over?"
Alex looks over at her and Kara drops the annoyed expression; yeah technically she didn't have nothing to do. Besides it's Alex. who held her hand during Jeremiah's funeral, who didn't bat an eye when Kara broke shit around the house when she was angry or sad or frustrated. Who protected her even though Kara was pretty much indestructible. It was her sister and she looked scared.
"Yeah, I was gonna go fishing with the boys but it can wait." She waves her hand nonchalantly, and Alex smiles thankful. She doesn't like it. Seeing her sister so vulnerable at the face of death makes her think of the fragility of everybody around her, it makes her sick, heart heavy. "Oh I almost forgot," she doesn't even try to be subtle about changing the subject, she just wanted it changed.
She reaches into her back pocket, finding the last of her crumbled money, two twenties and one fifty. enough for the electric bill, placing them on the table. Alex looks at her one eyebrow rising, smirking in place. There it is, that's my sister.
"Let me guess: darts?"
"Pool, actually."
She couldn't sleep.
It wasn't anything new, she was never truly tired, sleeping was more of a habit than a necessity, as a kid she used to lay in bed, eyes open and unmoving, till dawn. She was always the first one up, but she could tell it put her parents off, so she just learned how to turn herself off.
But sometimes, when her thoughts took over, she couldn't sleep, she would float up to the roof and sky watch, looking for home. But not tonight. Tonight she floats to the roof, barefoot and hair still wet from the shower, cigar between her fingers, and watches Luthor manor. She wonders if the cops are there, if they are the reason the lights are on.
Once as a kid, Kara, along with Alex and a few other kids were playing ball in the clearing on the hill close to the Manor. It was Kara's time to shoot and as always she was too strong, the ball flew with a ringing sound up and above, splintering trees and disappearing. No one had been brave enough to try and get the ball. The next morning it sat on their front porch, slashed to shreds. They never talked about it.
It was weird, the amount of things they didn't talk about it in the whole town. They didn't talk about how J'onn always shows up when there's something going on without anyone having to call him; They don't talk about how every once in a while Winn won't open for the night, and in the morning people see him leaving the florest; They don't talk about how there is almost no animals in the woods around, like they're too scared to come around town, and yet there's always noises in the night; they don't talk about Kara, 15 years old at the time, saved James from being crushed by a falling three; and they didn't talk about the Luthors.
Kara is bored. She's been sitting in Alex's office since nine am, spinning in her chair like an hyperactive child, she had made enough paper balls to fill the trash can, and was now throwing her cap up and down like a baseball. Her sister had been shooting her annoyed looks the entire afternoon but hadn't actually said anything, which was somehow worse than if she complained; If she complained then Kara could have an excuse to leave, go do something, maybe see what James' up to. But she doesn't, because she knows Kara will leave and she doesn't want to be alone. It doesn't mean she's not annoyed.
The sun is setting when Alex drops her pen and sighs, finally fed up. Kara is still preoccupied with the game of catch with her cap.
"Please stop." Alex begs, rubbing her temples. "There's a vending machine in the waiting room, go raid it.'' She opens one of her desk drawers and drops a handful of coins on top of the dark wood, shooing Kara away.
She sighs, taking the coins and leaving, at least food will be a distraction.
Kara is in the middle of trying to fit a can of coke in her arms in between several packs of M&Ms and chips when the front door opens. It's almost dark outside but the sun outlines her perfectly.
The woman who walks in might actually be the prettiest being Kara has ever laid eyes upon. all sharp jaw and jet black hair, eyes covered in square sunglasses and a tasteful hat matching her skin tight black dress, which covers her neck and arms, ending above her knees. The parts of skin that aren't covered are of creamy white tone, almost like marble, it makes Kara daydream of touching, seeing if it is as soft as it looks.
She realizes she's probably been staring for a little longer than normal when the woman arches her perfectly plucked thick eyebrow at her, and another woman she hadn't noticed, shorter, dressed in white, walks in and immediately stares at Kara's feets with a small gasp.
Finally like a spell was broken she feels the soft cloth shoes she had chosen to wear wet, and looks down to realize she dropped her coke can and it fizzed all over the wooden floor.
"Gosh darn it!" she all but screams, jumping out of the sweet beverage pool, already feeling her feet sticky.
She hears a throat clear and looks back up to the two women. The shorter is frowning with a look of worry mixed with annoyance; The other one, with the perfectly sculpted face, still has one eyebrow raised at her, unnamused at her antics.
"I'm sorry, we're looking for Dr Danvers?" the shorter one says.
"Right! She-" before Kara can continue the door to the back office opens up and Alex steps out, probably coming to see what is taking her so long. She takes one look at the two women, at Kara and at the pool of liquid and rolls her eyes, connecting the dots.
"I'm Doctor Danvers, Can I help you?"
"Yes" again is the shorter one who speaks. "I'm Jessica Huang, this is Ms Lena Luthor, we're here for the bodies of Mr and Mrs Luthor?"
Kara takes the opportunity for a break when Alex takes the two women inside to the basement where the small coroner's office was.
Usually it was only used once or twice a year when someone died of old age or tragic accident, Kara had only been in there once, to get Alex her lunch. She didn't like it. it was cold and sterile, metal drawers and beds, it made the hairs in her nape stand; She remember she had only seen the feet of the body (Mrs Johnson she thinks it was, Kara went to school with her granddaughter), white, almost grey, somehow with the cold of the air she knew exactly what it would feel to touch it's skin.
She watches as a van stops next to the black car already there, the funerary logo stamped on its side, from inside two men in grey overalls step out. They open the back of it producing two piled up coffins, black with golden accents, Kara opens the door for them who gratefully nod at her, carrying the wooden boxes in.
She didn't like death, or thinking about it. it was something so detached from herself and still so ever present. She's gonna live for a long time, (even now, almost thirty, she could still easily pass for twenty or younger) but only her; Alex already has white hairs showing up, Elisa's eyes crinkle when she smiles in a way she never got to see her mom's do, Jeremiah is long gone.
Once when she was about sixteen she counted the number of people she knew, both on Krypton and on earth. That night she couldn't sleep, she smoked her first cigarette (lifted of her old history teacher's bag for one of the girl's Kara so desperately wanted to impress; She has two kids now), it didn't really have much of a effect on her organism but she wanted to see something burn, more importantly: She could name more dead people then she could alive; Death seemed to brush past her infinity times, without ever truly taking her. So why not try and change something from the inside out, shorten what would be a long life of watching everyone be done for.
(It doesn't work, she knows now. She has never so much as coughed, never had shortness of breath, even her teeth were still perfectly immaculate.)
She shakes her head, tapping the ash off her cigar. The memory of Mrs Johnson's feet turned into the image of her, Lena Luthor, they were almost the same color. But Luthor's had a liveliness to it, a brilliant softness to it.
She couldn't stop thinking about the details of her face. Her jaw, her lips, her arched, unimpressed eyebrow. She wonders about what color her eyes, hidden behind the dark shades, were; about how long did she spend pulling her hair into the perfectly tight ponytail; if she was not sweating under that black dress.
As if summoned by thought, the door next to Kara opens and the woman steps out, umbrella first even though the sun is barely present. She walks all the way to what Kara assumes is her car before noticing her standing against the wall, turning she adjusts her portable shadow to protect her, almost mechanically.
She doesn't look as put together now as she did when she arrived, her fingers fidget with the handler of the umbrella.
Kara wants to slap herself. She just saw her parents bodies stupid, of course she's not doing great. She never saw her parents actually die, she never got to bury them, but she remembers Jeremiah, remembers Eliza coming home, blank eyes and shoulders slumped, remembers Alex staring at nothing for hours at times. She herself was still numb, resigned, Jeremiah was gone one more for the count. Two months later she found the bicycle he had gotten her when she first arrived. she remembers crying so much her chest ached, her head pounded, she remembers crushing it with her own hand because she couldn't control herself, which just made her cry harder. Grief is always a peculiar thing.
"I'm sorry for your loss." She says before the woman can speak in what she hopes is an empathetic voice, if it was not for the fact that the woman in front if her was pretty much a stranger she would have reached out, even her being a stranger she still wanted to, pt her arms around her, tell her that she gets it, that it's okay.
But then, throwing Kara completely off balance she shrugs.
"Thank you, it's fine we weren't close" she swears she could see her rolling her eyes behind the shades, but maybe it was just her tone of voice, like people feeling bad for her it's a chore she has to endure. "I was adopted."
"So was I." Kara frowns, it doesn't mean it made the loss worse.
"Oh." The silence that stretches is awkward, and seems to go on for ages, kara shifts from one foot to another, considering lighting a smoke just to have something to do with her hands. "Actually," the woman, Luthor Kara corrects herself Ms Luthor "Your sister mentioned that you may be able to help me find some people in need of employment? We need some help up in the manor. Apparently the violent deaths of the house's owner is enough to scare servants away" Her tone is light and jokingly. She looks like she wants to smile, her brother, maybe, killed her parents and she's smiling.
Maybe she just griefs different, Kara tells herself, people process their emotions differently, maybe she's in denial.
"Sure," Kara nods "What do you need?"
"Just someone to take care of the outside, water the plants, clean the pool, that sort of thing. And someone to clean." She says and Kara can't stop watching her mouth, her lips, dark red lipstick contrasting against her skin; And her voice, the slight accent, it sounds like what honey looks like. "So?" Kara blinks, she had been staring again, Gosh darn it get it together "Can you put the word out?"
"Yeah," her voice is strained, she swallows "Actually i can take care off the more hands on stuff" her eyes widen at the accidental innuendo. "I mean like I can work the garden and stuff. I didn't mean you know, the other kind of hand on stuff. Not that I wouldn't, you know–you're a very beautiful woman, I mean not that I-I... I'm gonna stop talking now" she can feel her hands sweating, her face burning, Ms Luthor looks amused, eyebrow arched yet again, a small smirk on her lips.
Before either of them can say anything else the door of Alex's practice swings open, and the shorter woman walks out, followed by the two men who now carry a single coffin, looking heavier than before. Kara feels the hot temperature her face had been just a minute before drop, the hair in the back of her neck standing straight. She watches as they load the coffin in and head back inside.
Ms Luthor has also grown colder, the playful expression she had replaced by the stone cold aspect. The short woman, Jessica, Kara remembers, whispers something to Lena who only nods, she turns back to Kara just as the doors swing open again.
"Stop by the manor, If you're truly interested in the position and we shall discuss payment." even her voice sounds colder, her accent less pronounced and more formal. "Preferably after dark."
As the second coffin is loaded up and the van's engine starts Kara can only nod. Jessica and Lena enter the car in elegant motions and she watches as they drive away in the direction of the hill.
After checking in with Alex inside, Kara's finally free to go, but with the day almost over her options are few. She ends up at Winn's bar as always. It was mostly empty, not surprising so early in the evening and on a week day nonetheless, meaning her friend was free to ignore his obligations and sit with her.
Winn was her friend since high school, both being the odd peas in their class (There were stories about his father, none talked about it but it hanged over their heads) they ended up paring together more often than not, he was smart, too smart sometimes, and quiet, in a way he grounded her. He looked at her sometimes like he knew there was something different about her, like he could smell her unearthness, but he never commented about, just like she didn't comment on what she saw underneath his skin by accident when cleaning up her glasses.
"You actually met her?" he asks, elbows on the table staring at Kara like she just said she met a talking alligator. "And you gonna work for her?" he frowns worried.
"I need the money, you know." she shrugs, taking a sip of the beer ( on the house , Winn had insisted, he still felt guilty over firing her) to avoid talking more.
He nods but the crinkle between his eyes doesn't go away, he looks away, at something invisible behind the bar.
"I'll be right back."
He walks away and Kara watches as he disappears behind the counter, she hears the noise of empty bottles being knocked against each other before Winn emerges again holding a small wooden box. He picks something from the inside of it, and tucks it away back in its place, before walking back in her direction.
Winn sits down in front of her before sliding something across the table, she picks it up, a quizzical expression on her face. Hold in front of her is a neck chain, silver and heavy, with a crucifix medallion dangling from it.
"I ain't religious." She deadpans, amused. it wasn't a lie, not on earth (But she still knew every song of the Book of Rao by heart, sung it to herself at night).
"I know!" he shushes. "But it's silver, and--" he swallows and crosses his hands, looking away, like he does something when she asks just the right questions about how he knows so much about the town's history, or about any of the wildly agreed to be forbidden topics in town. "Just take the pendant off if you want, but don't go up there without it ok?"
She knows there's no point in arguing, people in Midvale had beliefs and habits ingrained in them since they were kids by their parents, every generation, they might not all remember why they do or not do somethings, but they never change it.
She remembers when she arrived, questioning all of it, why couldn't she play outside after dark, why she couldn't go swimming in the lake on full moon weeks, even during the day, why she shouldn't mess with anything she saw in the forest, not a pile of rocks, not a book, never pick it up, never kick it; There were an infinity number of other things. It was more bearable when Jeremiah was alive, he wasn't from around either, he and Elisa had met when she was away in college, so he would indulge her, trying to explain the logic of beliefs and superstitions, she stopped questioning it after he died, just accepting and rolling her eyes at most of the unreasonable things.
(And really, of all the places for her, an alien powered by the sun, to live, one that seemed to ignore and accept anything beyond their compressions wasn't bad at all.)
So she holds it in her hand, puts it around her neck and leaves it there.
Alex seems to like the idea of her spending any sort of time up in the hills even less, she doesn't voice it, Kara knows her sister tries to be more rational than the everyday country folk but even she is not immune to the cuture. She grips the fork tighter, and Kara can see her jaw clenching; Wordless she takes out the silver chain Winn gave from under her shirt, she sees her sister's eyes travel to it, she nods, shoulders relaxing.
The rest of the dinner is spent with Kelly interrogating them both about the last remaining Luthor. what did she look like, what was she like, did she mention the burial?
Both sisters did their best to answer, both refusing to address the feeling that there was something odd about the woman, something they couldn't put into words, a sort of unnatural stillness.
Alex seemed to dismiss it easily, putting it in the back of her mind along with all the unexplained things in towns, but Kara can't stop her mind drifting to it, conjuring the image of an anchor; Still among chaos.
She waited three days to finally drive up the hill, she figured it was enough time for Ms Luthor to recover from the service (she assumed there had been one, the town's only cemetery had remained undisturbed). She takes to the road just before the sunsets, she had never taken that road before, the closest she ever came to the manor was through the woods as a kid, and even then never close enough to actually see it. After fifteen minutes of a slow drive through gravel and sticks she comes to a stop in front of a closed old gate between two brick pillars, the words private property hanging on it, she can see fencing doing in the woods starting from it and going until miles around.
Kara kicks her boots out of the car, crushing small rocks underneath it, approaching the gate; it's not electrical she notices, actually there's not even a lock in it, just a heavy chain carelessly wrapped around it, no interphone or anyway to call ahead either. She looks around before lowering her glasses and taking a peek ahead, the road is clear, and at top the manor, standing silently. Kara can see someone moving inside, the single source of life around her other than the city behind.
She opens and then closes the gate behind her before driving the rest of the way, the silence of the florest embracing her.
It's different up close. the shadow it casts over the town it's nothing compared to the shadow it casts on its own side. It's enough to make Kara wonder how the carefully maintained bushes and grass could live with such little sunlight. She looks up at the upper floor windows as she steps out of her truck, all glass, but all blocked by dark curtains.
She doesn't get the time to look any closer, as soon as she slams her doors closed the house's creaks open, the woman who had previously introduced herself as Jessica Huang stands at its threshold, looking at her, head slightly tilted. Kara waves awkwardly and opens her mouth to speak, but before she can Ms Huang turns her eyes away from her and up into the still lit dusking sky.
"You're early," she says matter of factly, looking back down at Kara who stands with her mouth open before stumbling over her own words
"Yeah sorry, I know Ms Luthor said to come after sunset but i actually never drove up her, so i was just hoping…" she stops fishing her keys back from her pockets "You know what I can just come back later."
Her hand is already at the doorknob when a voice from the inside the house makes them both jump. "Who's at the door so early, Jess?"
Kara thanks the gods Ms Huang's own fright stops her from noticing hers, both jumping slightly at the sound.
She looks at the ground kicking the dirty pretending not to listen as her own presence is discussed not but fifteen feet from her.
"Is the youngest Ms Danvers, who I believe, you requested to come talk about the handyman position?" Jess responds turning her back almost completely, closing the door all but for a crack. "I can ask her to return later."
"Let her in."
The door opens back up and Jess steps back, her arm standing in invitation.
The inside of the house is cold as Kara follows behind Jess through badly lit rooms and corridors to what appears to be a study, the blinds also closed but the electric lights on. It looks old, like the whole house, full of polished wood furniture and thick tomes of books, the only semblance of modernity being an open laptop on one of the corner desks which Jess immediately sits in front of, seeming to return to whatever she was doing before Kara arrived.
Kara, in turn, stop at the door of the room as soon as she spots Miss Luthor also inside, her hair looking wild and wavy, wearing a almost transparent dark red robe tied loosely, showing off her collarbones, she is sitting in one of three arm chairs positioned around an out fireplace, head held up by one of her hands, barefoot and legs crossed; She just woke up, Kara realizes.
"Ms Luthor I apologise for arriving earlier, as I explained to–" Before she can finish A waving hand dismisses her worry. Looking at her, without anything covering her eyes for the first time, is a set of deep green orbs and beautifully trimmed eyebrows, Kara swallows.
"It's fine, don't worry," she props one elbow on the chair, head resting against her hand. "I take it you're here to officialize your position, Miss Danvers?" she says it slowly, almost sleepy, her accent thicker than it had been days ago. Kara nods, opening her mouth to respond but being interrupted again. "Very well," she gestures to one of the chairs in front of her.
They take about thirty minutes to discuss everything, although Kara could barely contribute to anything; there was something about Lena Luthor, something magnetic, it made it hard for her to focus on what was being said. In the end she guesses she's lucky Miss Luthor seemed to be a fair employer, so her daydreaming about the woman's eyes didn't screw her over.
The agreement ended up like this: Kara should come every other day, in the afternoon preferably, never in the morning, mostly to take leaves out of the pool really, Kara was free to make whatever she judged better with the garden and she'll get paid monthly, in cash, making way more than she expected, especially considering her lack of experience in the area.
As she gets in her car she can help but count herself lucky; Miss Luthor didn't even ask if she had any experience with plants. She looked bored mostly, still half asleep, treating the whole thing as an arduous shore, like she rathered just let the place be, let nature take over, she couldn't care less about the whole thing. except for the pool. She had been very clear, the pool should always be clean.
As she kicks the engine on, she observes the mansion in her rearview mirror; it's dark now, sun officially set. and she watches as one by one the curtains of the first floor are drawn open, lights now on, she sees a shadow moving from room to room, Jess by the height. she focuses her ears, searching inside, past Jess and her heartbeat, breathing and footsteps, looking for Lena, there's nothing. She frowns, focusing harder, tuning everything out, until she finds it : soft, faint footsteps, almost like she's walking on the tip of her toes, no breathing, there's the sound of a cabinet being open, of glass scraping on wood, and a fridge door, then, a single heartbeat, and silence again.
The sudden sound makes her jump slightly, stunned she hits the pedal a little too hard, frowning. She must have missed it that's all, maybe there was lead somewhere around her, blocking her hearing. But still she frowns, even with her brain already Midvale style, prepared to explain or ignore it, it was nothing, she just wasn't paying attention, stop thinking about, just drive down.
The florest is even quieter at night, if that's even possible, almost too quiet, so still, and dark. It remembers her of space, seemingly infinite, empty and silent , she could recall it perfectly, even just from the couple of minutes before her pod had put her in stasis. But the florest is missing something; with her free hand she fishes a beat up pack of cigars from the glove compartment, lightening it up, a single ember burning in the dark and silence. Home.
It gets harder to not think about it.
On monday she gets there by four, waters the front and backyard, mowns the law, and scoops up stuff out of the pool with a leaf skimmer, all things she found in an shed in the back, closer to the woods, the keys had been left on the front steps with a note with her name and the first month of payment. Kara tries to take her time but she ends up being done long before sunset. The house is completely silent. She leaves.
On Wednesday she does the same, except this time she can hear two someone's inside the house. She goes about it the same, picking tools and making her shores, but she can help but listen. It turns out to be Jess and a woman Kara recognize from highschool, who apparently is now serving as the house cleaner once a week. They both leave, with a nod and a wave, shortly before Kara finishes and she doesn't get the chance to ask about Miss Luthor.
Friday, after taking care of the plants she realizes the pool water is starting to mud up, so she starts the arduous task of draining it. It takes longer than she expects as she waits for it to be done watching the sunset, it gets dark and suddenly the porch and garden lights are on. It's truly a sight, the only source of light in the hill.
She's in the middle of scrapping the sides, whistling to fill the silence, when the backdoor creaks open, making her jump around. Miss Luthor stands in front of her, a glass filled with a dark liquid, wearing an black robe tied around her waist, she looks just as surprised as Kara.
"Miss Luthor!" she wants to slap herself, she can't be surprised when the woman who hired her to clean the pool suddenly shows up to swim (Even if her hearing had been fixed inside the house the whole time, not picking up a single sound).
"Miss Danvers," She nods, "I didn't expect you to still be here."
"Right, I'm sorry, I wanted to change the water," she points at the empty pool, "And it ended up taking longer than expected, I promise I'll be done cleaning in like five minutes tops, and it'll be filled in thirty minutes."
"That's quite alright Miss Danvers, take your time." she says and walks to one of the lounge chairs in the deck area and Kara eyes follows, traveling from her caffs to the swing of her hips, when she finally reaches her seat, turning back and catching Kara looking.
She quickly spins around, face burning, to finish her work.
She can help but feel inadequate, in her old jeans and stained white shirt; Miss Luthor's velvet robe alone is probably worth more than her entire wardrobe. That combined with the fact that she can actually feel the woman's gaze as she hurries to finish scrubbing the pool, makes her burning face a fixed trait.
(She flexes, more than necessary, just to see , if she's actually being stared at, and from the corner of her eye she can see the woman lick her lips, it's a nice boost of self esteem to balance her awkwardness)
"All done," she finally says, wiping her hands on her pants and picking up the stuff to lock it back on the old shed. "It should be filled up in about half an hour, but it turns off by itself so you don't have to worry" she points absently to the pump on the corner of the pool.
"Thank you Miss Danvers." Lena nods, depositing her empty stained glass on the decorative little side table.
"Just doing my job ma'am," Kara makes her way through the dark to the shed and back to find Miss Luthor unmoved, watching the pool fill up, suddenly, again, she's very aware of the silence, not just from inside the woman, but the void all around. She stands on the grass at the edge of the deck.
She can hear faint crickets and in the far distance, the sounds of town, it's a clear night, not a cloud in the sky, the moon a few days away from full, the wind picks up for a second, trees ruffling all around them; every hair in her body stands stiff.
"Miss Luthor, do you want me to wait until Miss Huang arrives?" the woman's head turns to look at her, frowning in confusion "I'm not sure how safe it is for you, up here alone."
"I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself Ms Danvers," she chuckles, picking the empty glass back up. She runs a finger on the inside of it, leftovers of the sticky liquid smearing it. "Besides, Jess isn't in the country." she pops the finger into her mouth.
Kara averts her gaze, suddenly finding the grass very interesting, her neck burning.
"Well at least save my number," she argues, eyes still glued to the grass, she can't hear the woman but she sure can feel her amused gase. "in case anything happens?"
Luthor seemed to find her worry funny, she had chuckled and waved dismissively, but upon realizing Kara wasn't leaving until she felt she would have a way to quickly reach her, she had gotten up to find some piece of paper to write on.
( "I don't have a cellphone," she had explained to Kara's surprise.)
Now sitting on a stool at Winn's, nursing a beer (Being served by James; Winn being away, having his monthly break) she couldn't help but feel for the woman up on the hill. To have to be alone in the house where her parents had recently passed, by the hands of her brother nonetheless, even with the coldness and nonchalant act she had had towards the event, it couldn't be a positive experience.
She can't help but worry really, she doesn't know Lena Luthor, but her heart recognizes something in her, besides the loss, deeper in her eyes, there's a familiarity.
The second week of work is different; Kara makes a point of arriving later, doing her work slowly, always watching the sunset up on the hill, Miss Luthor in turn, is out of the house as soon as is dark all three of Kara's work days that week, they don't talk, she just watches intently as Kara's skims the pool for leaves, barefooted and glass in hand, and thanks her for her services.
It's nice, there's a kinship in their mutual silence, Kara can appreciate the quiet, the peace, and Lena, at least Kara hopes, gets a few minutes of company.
She sometimes (most days) spends too much time watching the woman from the corner of her eyes, she does often enough she should've got caught a lot more. But most days Lenas has this look in her eyes as she looks at the florest, intently, like she's waiting for something. (on the occasion she does get caught it's not so bad, she blushes heavily but she can hear a small chuckle in response. It's worth it.) And It's not like Lena doesn't stare too, especially whenever Kara goes sleeveless, her eyes always tracing her muscle momentarily, before the forest steals her attention again.
This routine is broken at the one month mark, for one Kara doesn't arrive to complete and utter silence. The car in the driveway also indicates that Jess is back, and to confirm she can hear her voice, as well as Lena's, inside.
"They're worried that's all," Jess sounds worried but resigned, like she has had this conversation way too many times.
"There's no need for worry, he'll come back, we'll settle things, and this will all be over, we can all afford the wait" Kara misses the keyhole in the shed door, it's Lena, walking and talking, before sunset.
"Settle things? Lena he--"
"Just drop it Jess" she sighs, Kara feels bad for snooping, but she has a curious mind, always had. "Did Sam send the-?"
"Yes but, they're running short so not as much as usual."
Kara choses that exact moment to turn on the lawn mower, the noise muffling most of the voice.
"Kara's here," she hears Lena's voice and wonders if she's looking in her direction, tracking the noise. She called me Kara she marvels, not Ms Danvers, just Kara.
"The groundskeeper?"
She stops listening then, tuning it out and focuses on keeping the mower on track. The last thing she needs is to accidentally carve a hole in the grass.
She goes about her shores normally, waters the plants, cuts a few breaches that are starting to make a mess. And eventually as the sunsets Lena comes out of the backdoor, dressed as usual but with no glass in hand, Kara can't help but to smile at her, big and sincere, and Lena smiles back, is tentative and unsure, and she looks at the ground almost embarrassed after, but it was there, it happened.
They don't talk, as it's the norm, but Kara makes it a mental note; She's gotta see the smile again. She does her tasks gladly and only realizes already back home she didn't try to listen to the woman's heart once.
Lena's going stir crazy, she creeps around Luthor manor like a ghost at night, with nothing to do, she has read every single book in the house two centuries ago and apparently Liliam and Lionel didn't bother to update their collection since; during the day her sleep is restless, the memories she made in the house playing like haunts in her dreams. She hates the weather too, always too hot and humid, even in the dead of night. And to make matters worse she hasn't had a decent meal in ages.
She's also not afraid to admit she misses her kin. Jess is stretched thin between Europe, Metropolis and Midvale, making sure she has everything she needs and the council doesn't decide to come and take matters in their own hands. In all honesty Lena is going to have to turn her soon, Jess is the best familiar she ever had, but she proved herself a long time ago.
(She'll do it soon, after she deals with her brother.)
The news that her blood supply has been cut short only increases her irritability with the whole situation, it makes her hate Lex even more. Of all the moves he could've made, he had to go with the one who would bring her back to this wretched town.
Luthor manor had stood on that hill long before Midvale settled around it. Once upon a time the Luthor clan was big, the manor, 34 rooms, all occupied. (Or at least that was what Liliam liked to say, bitterly, looking at Lena, still half human, like she was to fault for the downfall.) and as the city grew around it, they learned to adapt with what they couldn't explain, superstitions becoming second nature habits, and with that more and more of the strange, the inexplicable came to town. She can smell them in the air, hear them during the full moon. But the only undead had always been the Luthors.
Outside the sun has set, and she hears Kara put the lawn mower away, and uncover the pool. Kara , what a strange woman, Lena could feel the waves of warmth emanating off her body even from several feet away, all golden hair and sun kissed muscles. She had a fascination with watching the woman work, her moves aways so precise and graceful, almost unnaturally so, and her smell, unlike any she's ever smelled, something citric and earthly, so different from the raw metallic smell of most humans.
(And her smile, god, Lena is thankful her blood doesn't flow enough for her to blush everytime Kara beams at her, seemingly so pleased just to see her, even for just ten minutes a day.)
As she opens the double doors that lead to the backyard and pool deck Kara turns to look at her, the smile she has grown quite fond of smaller than usual almost forced. She frowns to herself as the woman turns back around.
Lena settles in her chair as usual, looking from Kara, to the florest and to the clear dark skies. Any day now the silence in the florest will be broken, Lex will return, and she will be free, one way or the other, until then she shall sit there, in the uncomfortable heat, stomach just a bit too empty, and wait.
Kara, she notices with a frown, is working slower than usual, her usually precise movements now hesitant. snapping out of her own thoughts she can see clearly, the small hiccups of movement, the unnaturally rigid face, a vain attempt of concealing something going on in her mind.
"Something wrong Miss Danvers?" she can't help herself, the woman's mood is almost contagious. Kara had made a habit of talking more during their short time together, idle comments and ridiculous jokes, she misses it already.
"What?" Kara turns to look at her, almost like she forgot she was there, or what she was doing. she shakes her head, looking back at the pool. "No, nothing. Sorry Miss Luthor, I'll be done in a minute."
She seems genuinely apologetic as she goes back to her work, and in minutes she's done. But she just stands there, staring into the water and Lena can tell she's still not fully herself, there's a crinkle between her eyes that was never there before. Her back is tense. Lena can't help herself;
She gets up, walking behind the woman, her bare feet barely touching the stone ground. Karas is at least ten centimeters taller than her, and up close she can see the form of her muscles more clearly underneath her simple shit; it's an exercise on self restraint.
Lena puts a hand on her shoulder once she realizes Kara hasn't notice her standing behind her yet; Her skin is hot, it warms her hand, like daylight, but without any pain, without making her sick, she feels solid underneath her palm, like Lena could squeeze her shoulder freely, without fear of hurting her.
It's a very brief touch, almost as soon as Lena's hand's touch her shoulders Kara jumps, startled, turning around with eyes wide, like she already forgot Lena was there.
"Jesus!"
"I didn't mean to scare you, I apologise," Lena responds, amused, holding back a chuckle. "Sit with me, for a minute? You seem distracted, wouldn't want you driving back like this."
Kara seems embarrassed, unable to look at her face, eyes glued to the ground she scratches her neck, bringing Lena's own to it, she can see a blush creeping up on her skin, and her pulse, quick and strong; Her stomach growls.
"I'm alright Ms Luthor, you don't need to worry ma'am." stubborn Lena cant help but think, but something else too , something reserved, cautious. It makes her think of what must be said in town if she and her family, always there, unchanged. But then again Kara had never seemed put off in her presence even though Lena could smell the silver around her neck, she had never looked scared of her, it couldn't be it.
"Well then keep me company for a few minutes." she insists, touching the woman again, her forearms this time, the heat is there still, unchanged, her hand tingles at the temperature change.
Kara, in turn, seems to almost deflate at the touch, posture easing up, she nods, Lena can see her eyes watering and her half-dead heart aches at the sight.
The groundskeeper had seemed to chiper for the last weeks, always greeting Lena with a smile, sometimes even whistling simple tunes while finishing up her work. Lena had found her company much more bearable than of other mortals, there was a quiet understanding between them during those daily ten minutes, a comradeship forged in the lonesome dark of the hill. Something she couldn't quite put into words. But this, this was different.
They sit in silence at the edge of the pool, Lena dipping her toes in on the naturally warm water, and Kara following her movements after taking off her work boots and folding up her light blue jeans. She can see Kara looking up at the sky, staring deep into a specific point among the stars, moonlight shining on beautiful blue eyes, they shine, tears still held back.
Lena takes a deep breath and immediately regrets it; They're sitting way too close, her nose is instantly filled with that scent, the citric sweet smell of something so earthy and unusual, but so good . She has to use every ounce of self control in her body to keep her fangs in.
After a few minutes Kara speaks up, still not looking at her.
"You mentioned you were adopted right?"
Lena blinks, surprised at the question and cringes thinking back to their first interaction, how odd she must've seemed, unaffected by her own parents death.
"Yes, well…" of god, explaining her complicated family dynamic really wasn't on her to do list for today. "Sort off." Kara finally looks at her, frowning, and again she is thankful she doesn't blush. "It's complicated" she all but whispers, feeling embarrassed, she realizes, which only makes her more self-conscious. but Kara only nods.
"I am too. I've been a Danvers for twenty-five year today." She takes a deep breath, choking up on held back emotions.
"Oh…" it's all Lena can say, remembering her own life, her mother's passing, Lionel coming into the night, taking her alway without a word, changing her world.
"Yeah," she's crying now and Lena can't help it, she's right there, almost touching, so she reaches, cold arm looping around her warm body, carefully not to touch the silver around her neck pulling her into a hug. If Lilian could see her now, hugging the human she had hired to water her plants, comforting her with a hand in her blonde hair.
The thought of her mother twisting her nose at the scene makes her tighten the hug.
And Kara lets herself be comforted, melting into her embrace like sugar cubes into warm tea. They just stand there, at the border of the pool, tied together. Kara's sniff and chokes tears and Lena holds her and speaks.
"I can't really remember my mother. I know she had dark hair, and a beautiful voice. Sometimes when I look at myself I think I can see her looking back. And I know she loved me very much, no matter what." She can feel Kara's breath evening against her chest. "The Luthor's didn't, not really. It took me a while to get over it. People die; other people love us; And others don't." she sighs. "Either way life goes on, so we just have to focus on the good."
They let go of each other, Kara takes her glasses away to wipe it in her shirt but her red eyes stay glued to Lena, hanging to her every word.
"My mother died. I got a terrible family and a single friend who eventually would show me I didn't need them." She thinks of Andrea, a proud vampira, inviting her to run away with her within an hour of meeting each other. "Your parents died, and you're here, you have a sister who from my short interaction seems to be a brilliant woman. There is death in life, but there's love also. We just have to make sure not to forget."
They sit in silence for a second and Lena allows herself to watch, her eyes tracing every movement in Kara's face. The blonde woman takes a deep breath, nodding seemingly at herself she puts her glasses back on.
"I'm sorry Ms Luthor" Kara says, no longer crying but voice still hoarse. "I didn't mean to get all emotional on you. I'm usually much more professional than this, I promise."
"It's fine Ms Danvers" She chuckles, fondness drowning her. "And I think Lena will do just fine from now on, huh?" Kara blushes, face still marked with trails of the tears.
"If I'm calling you Lena…"
"Kara it is."
They look at each other, smiling, like they've known each other forever. any embarrassment washed away by honest and sudden closeness leaving just the two of them, in a comfortable melancholic silence. After a few minutes, Kara seems to have fully recomposed herself, taking notice of the time.
"Golly, I should really get going Mi-- I mean, Lena, I've already taken too of your time" Kara stands up, gingerly, her smile sheepish and face pink "Before my sister sends the cavalry after me and all." Lenas nods as the blonde picks up her boots and socks, she wants to tell her to stay. Even just her company, with no words, is comforting beyond explanation, but she doesn't. "I'll see you on Monday, and please don't hesitate to call me. I'm up all night most nights."
And with that she's gone, Lena watches as she walks away, wet footprints in the stone floor and in the grass. She hears the noisy engine of her truck come to life, and quickly her scent disappears with her.
Lena jumps into the pool. Submerging herself completely, sitting at the bottom, the lukewarm water surrounding almost felt cold when she had just had Kara Danvers in her arms.
Laters, at three in the morning she'll think about calling, I'm up all night most days . She doesn't have anything to say, just to hear her breathing. She doesn't. Instead she paces around the manor, from room to room, skimming books without fully reading, and waiting for her brother.
The thing about Lex is that he knows her, knows she's patient, knows she'd come back. He could have hid the bodies, set them on fire, buried in the florest, no one would ever know, he could keep the Manor, be the only Luthor in the states, he would reign on the hill, and over the american council, alone. But that was not enough. He wanted to be the only Luthor period. No more sharing of blood strength, no contests of authority, he wanted to prove he could take every single vampire with Luthor blood, establish himself as the strongest one.
And so he made a show of it, making humans find their parents bodies, making an actual doctor examine them; Risking exposure enough to make the council force her back, to deal with him, her brother, her charge.
Lena Luthor's heart beats every 16 minutes and forty six seconds. It's one of the things Kara takes notice after her embarrassing emotional breakdown. The other is that her skin, although cold, is as soft as it looks, her arms firm enough to ground Kara to the earth. And her voice, it trembles when she's trying to keep her emotions restrained, her accent bouncing more to irish than not.
(She also seems to have a grip on experiencing and processing loss Kara could only dream of.)
Sitting on the roof of her house late into the night, cellphone anxiously nested in her lap, she counts.
1004, 1005, 1006… thump-thump… 1, 2, 3…
it's calming, constant, and so deeply peculiar. It makes Kara's mind wander, through stories and myths, from back home: of being suspended between life and death, chosen by Rao to walk the night where he could not touch, protecting his children when he could not. and from here: of undead monsters, cursed to drink blood and avoid light, threatening society while living in it. One in the same, she wonders, but it ain't just the raoism still deep seated into her heart that keeps her mind on the woman, no. Her beauty, what she was, that were mere details, It was her voice, her honesty as she opened up, to make Kara feel better, the emotions shared by them, the harmony of their unsynchronized hearts.
Should she be scared? she couldn't help but think. Alex seemed to think so, always waiting on their porch for her to return (But she never asked how her day was), Kelly seemed to agree, in that she wouldn't say anything about Alex's behavior, so she must stand by it. And Winn always seemed to stare at her for a little longer when she stopped by after work, like he wanted to say something but couldn't bring himself to do it.
(But a glimpse of the chain around her neck seemed to put them all at ease).
But she wasn't, she had seen so much, feared so much, it was rarely ever justified, despite all the violence and darkness that seemed to surround the Luthors, there was no reason to fear Lena, and so she did not.
She looks up at the sky, although the height in which Luthor Manor stands allowed her a more clear view, Rao was still visible from town. A simple star, among all others, 27 light years away. She can picture Krypton, now nothing but a dead burnt rock, circling around it with no one to say prayers.
Kara stands up on the roof, fishing the beat up box of cigarettes off her pocket. She flings it towards the sky with enough strength to break the sound barrier, and sees it disappear into the darkness; Krypton stopped burning along time ago, but she lives, and she remembers it.
"All done," Kara says with a smile, pocketing the keys of the shed and dusting her hands on her jeans. She looks up to realize Lena is already in the pool, floating on her back, looking serene. her lips part at the vision of her body uncovered from her robe, wearing only a black swimsuit "Oh…"
"I couldn't wait any longer," Lena chuckles, like she needs to justify herself, "Waters centers me."
"Of course," Kara nods, diverting her gaze, "Well I should get--" she starts saying to be promptly interrupted.
"Stay a little?"
It's out of her mouth before she can stop herself, but it's not like it's any worth denying that she had been looking forward more and more to the woman's company, and only having her ten minutes a day was no longer enough. She had even considered coming out before sundown and use the shadows of the house to protect herself, but the reminder of the horrible sickness that had struck her the days after she had gone into town to pick her parents during the day was enough to make her abandon the idea.
She's about to take it back but Kara is already nodding and taking off her shoes, moving to the edge of the pool where she sat crying not a week ago.
They hadn't talked about it, both seeming to quietly agree to keep their respective emotional outburst to themselves, but Lena couldn't help but notice that the woman seemed different ever since. For one her smell, which had always been vaguely tainted with the scent of burned tobacco, had been becoming increasingly clearer, to the point where Lena had taken to avoid taking deep breaths around her.
Not to mention the woman herself seemed to be lighter, her steps softer, her posture more relaxed than it had been the first couple Lena had known her.
Lena turns herself in the pool, the tip of her toes barely touching the bottom, and takes a minute to take in the woman.
Her signature mark washed out jeans folded up to her calf, her legs swinging in the water; she sits back supported by her arms, making her black cotton beastie boys shirt, shorts sleeves filled up by her large biceps, stretch over her torso; her neck exposed, the edges of the silver chain barely visible; her head, covered in the same beat up old baseball cap she had been using when they met, turned backward, throwed back, looking at the sky.
Everything about Kara looked so different from everything that surrounded Lena, so comfortable and welcoming. And yet the cut of her jaw, the size of her arms, all edges and blunt force, should tell a different story.
But it was her eyes, lost in the stars, sad and older than their deceiving superficial optimism, but still kind, that tied it all together.
"What are you looking at?" she asks, swimming closer, her necessity to know what is going on inside Kara's head, getting the better of her.
Lena props herself up, sitting next to Kara at the edge.
Kara beams at her, looking away from the star, like the mere fact that Lena is talking makes her unbelievably happy.
"Right there" she looks up again, fingers pointing to a specific space in the night sky. "Those four faint stars? they are the main stars of the constellation corvus." Lena follows her finger and easily finds it. "There are many others, only eleven are visible to the eye" Kara's fingers trace over the stars, she seems lost, like in a trance, looking at them, still smiling. "One of the not visible ones, Gliese 3707," She stops, the name leaves her mouth in an awkward manner, like it isn't quite right. looking back to Lena, frowning before waving her head as if to say that's not quite right . " Rao " she sighs, her mouth melting around the name, the pure devotion put into just saying the word, like an invocation. The look in Kara's face, looking at Lena but thinking of a distant star. it's nothing but pure, undoubted, adoration. "I like to imagine what it looks like."
Being looked at like that, Lena thought, she didn't need to imagine what the star looked like, it felt like it was right in front of her: blue eyes and blonde hair. Lena wants to touch her, see if she burns, if, like any other star, she would consume her. And she would let it too, to be unmade by this beautiful sunlight.
She can feel her own blood freezing, temperature dropping even more, her fangs inching to pop out, to sink in and let magma pour down her throat, to have Kara against her, firm and---
Kara is still looking, Lena notices, unsuccessfully trying to shake her thoughts away, eyes traveling through her face, a slight attractive blush on her cheeks, before settling on her mouth. Reflexively Lena's tongue peaks out, wetting her lips, her own green eyes fixated on Kara's half open mouth.
Kara sucks in her breath, looking back at Lena's eyes, a silent question clear in her face. She nods, leans in, and lets herself be taken.
Kara's lips are soft, her mouth warm. Her hand grips Lena's bare hip, firmly pulling her closer. She arches closer, hand grasping her soft blonde hair tightly.
A twig snaps in the woods. A single crack in the vacuum of sound around them. Lenas breaks the kiss abruptly, head snapping at the direction of the noise, eyes squinting at the dark forest, trying to make up a shape, but she knew she wouldn't see anything, whoever it was, knew how to stay in the shadows.
She doesn't miss the way Kara also snaps towards the sound, like she heard it , back tensing up, frowning at the exact same spot, but she will have to think about what that means some other time. Right now she stands up at the edge, dripping water. and takes a deep breath. trying to scent anything, slowly walking around the pool.
It's useless. All she can sense is Kara- who is also standing now. making her way around to join her. Her scent clings to Lena's nose, masking the whole world.
The forest is quiet again. whoever had just announced themselves had done so by accident, which meant it wasn't Lex. Leaving only the option of the hundreds of enemies her family's name attracted. She can feel Kara's warmth a few feet away but she doesn't risk looking at her right now. Lena can feel her insides twisting beneath her skin, her face hard, and changed, her fangs pressing against her lower lips. The adrenaline of a possible threat wasn't something she could control.
"Well shit," comes a voice from the florest. "was hoping to catch you by surprise, Lee " Lena freezes, she knows that voice, and as the short woman steps out of the shadows of the woods she can't help. "Nice pet, by the way." she knows that voice.
Like a cornered animal Lena jumps, launching herself through the air. Her body collides with the one belonging to one Eve Teschmacher. both of them hitting the ground with enough strength and speed to make it sink. Lena immediately regrets it, the adrenaline leaving her body to make space for the weakness of her mostly empty stomach; her eyes fill with dark spots but she powers through it, anger overflowing.
"Where is him?!" she hisses, teeth out against the undine, but not daring to bite, she could smell Lex in her, her blood, no doubt mated to his undead soul, would taste vile to her. Lena remembers Kara's still there, she can hear the woman circling them from a distance, "Stand back, Kara!"
Eve laughs.
"Yes, stand back, Kara" she mimics Lena's accent, grinning. Eve grips Lena's arm and squeezes, her nails digging into the rigid skin, breaking it, the dark, almost black, liquid spills from the wound. making Lena whimper, her eyes filled with tears. "Let me go Lena, I'm not supposed to kill you and we both know that i could right now." she cocks her head, blonde hair shifting against the ground. "When was the last time you fed?" as if to prove her point, Eve's fingers press in deeper, nails touching her bone.
Lena lets her go, jumping off her and out of reach, landing right next to Kara.
Kara, who's probably scared out of her mind; who has probably noticed by now the changes in her face, the red eyes and fangs, the black veins popping out.
Not to mention the fact that she had jumped 15 feet across her backyard.
She risks a glance, taking her eye just for a moment of Eve, who stands up, carefully dusting her clothes, and is surprised not to find an ounce of fear in Kara's face. Instead she has her arms tensed by her side, on foot set in front of her, like she's ready to attack at any minute, her eyes focused solely on Eve, with such an intensity that Lena swears they're glimmering.
Kara looks back at her in that half second, eyes softening with a worry she doesn't feel deserving of. They barely acknowledge the changes in her face, instead Kara glances at her arm, slowly dripping putrid blood, eyes filled with worry, defencive stance firmer.
"Lady I think you should go." Kara says, taking a step to put herself between them and Lena wants to scream, pull her back, tell her to run for the hills, Eve may not be the strongest creature she knows, but she can still tear any human appart.
But she doesn't, not with the way Kara's feet are digged in the ground, like she could shatter the hill in half just by walking, with the way her arms threaten to rip the sleeves of her shirts. It's an intensity Lena's own instincts can feel, the danger in her.
Eve on the other hand seems unaware of it, Lenas guesses having her soul bonded to a vampire wasn't the same as being one. She wasn't a predator, she didn't recognize one. Instead of backing down she laughs, amused. Looking from Kara to Lena, and back to the blonde
"How cute. A shame I don't have time to play today." she takes a step forward and Kara's does the same. maybe is the blood loss and starvation but Lena swears the earth shakes beneath her bare feet. "Little Luthor, Lex has a message for you, he, as the kind older brother he is, would like to offer you a choice: Kill yourself. However you like, as quick as you like, make him the only Luthor blood alive." she takes another step coming face to face with Kara, she grins at her, like she's entrained by her attempt at strength. "Or… he will come, and it will be painful." She tries to take another step, to push Kara back as she would any other human, but instead Kara doesn't budge, doesn't flinch, it's like Eve tried shoving a concrete wall, she looks confused, hands against Kara's chest, she pushes again with no avail.
"You should go," Kara warns again, this time being the one to step forward, slowly and carefully, but yet as her body collides with Eve's the shorter woman is pushed back roughly, she loses her balance and ends up on her ass on the freshly cut grass.
Eve frowns and Lena is sure she does too, her sense of danger screams at her to get away from Kara, she's strong, a threat but she forces herself to stay. The shorter blonde gets up and Kara doesn't move, still shielding Lena, her shoulders set wide like a brick wall.
Eve looks between them both, and runs back into the forest, expression still set in confusion.
Kara can feel the unreleased power burning behind her eyes, her steps threatening to break the ground beneath her. She shakes with the tension as she watches the stranger run back into the forest, quicker than should be expected, Kara listens as her heartbeat blends into white noise miles away.
She turns to look at Lena immediately relaxing, shifting from protectiveness to worry. She takes notice of her face again just for a second–the black lines and altered features, the red eyes and the long teeths– before focusing on her arm; It is slowly dripping blood but the bone seems to be intact.
Kara takes a step in her direction with the intention of caring for the wound only to find Lena taking a step back with her, keeping their distance the same. She's scared, Kara realizes, looking at her face, underneath the predator mask, there's a defensiveness.
"Lena is still me. I would never hurt you. I promise." She takes another step and this time Lena stays in place. "You're bleeding. Let me help, please."
Lena only nods, trembling and Kara helps her inside.
She cleans Lena's arms with a wet towel she finds in one of the bathrooms. Lena hisses in pain but refuses to look at Kara, sitting with her knees to her chest on an armchair her face slowly morphing back into itself. Lena looks paler than usual, her hands shaking and the cuts are almost deep enough to come out on the other side.
"You're gonna need stitches." Kara says, softly, hand still softly touching Lena's cold skin. "Do you want to go into town with me? Alex can take a look at it." Lena immediately shakes her head, pulling her arm back. "You can't leave it like that."
"Its fine, Kara.'' Kara wants to argue it's not fine, she's clearly in pain. "It'll heal, I just need to fee--" She doesn't finish, her mouth snapping shut. She looks at Kara from the corner of her eyes before looking away again. "It's fine."
"What do you need?" Kara desperately wants to know, wants her to finish what she was gonna say. She wants to know. not assume, not imagine, but know. To acknowledge life as it is, not as they pretend to be. More than that, she wants to know Lena. who she is, what's happening in her life. Does she feel the same when they're around each other?
But Lena doesn't answer, she sinks further into her chair, hugging her knees with one arm, the wounded one stretched out by her side. Kara touches her again and doesn't miss the way her heart jumps, ahead of schedule, as she does.
"Please Lena, let me help you." her own heart aches with the way Lena shakes her head, eyes watering.
"I can't, you shouldn't even–if they know you saw me–I I.." she stutters, voice breaking. She's scared, still shaken by whoever the woman was, by her words. And here she is alone, and hurt, and still pulling back.
Kara hates herself.
Hates that she just stood there, too afraid to get in between them until she saw Lena was bleeding. Hates that she only intervened when the damage was already done. Hates to think of what could've happened had Lena been alone.
She thinks back to weeks ago, Lena opening up to make her feel better, holding her as she cried.
"I'm an alien." Kara says.
The words ringing in her ears don't feel real.
Kara is kneeling next to her chair, soft fingertips on her wounded arm. She can see her intense face staring at her, waiting for a response.
Her head hurts, her stomach turns and her arm pulses in pain. She easily recognizes the signs of trying to display power with a weak diet, but never before had they included hearing things.
"I know that we're all supposed to pretend that everything and everyone in Midvale is completely normal." Kara continues speaking before Lena can even process the aforementioned information. "But it's not–I'm not, and you can trust me." her touch moves to her hand, still limp in the arm chair, Kara takes her it into hers, lightly squeezing. "Please?"
Lena weighs her options; Jess should be arriving in a day or two with the blood supply. To sit with an open wound for that long would be an inconvenience, especially with the midday heat. Eve's message ( kill yourself . She could see the woman's lips moving in her mind, but it was Lex's voice she heard) probably meant Lex was close to making his move to become the only Luthor blood standing. She couldn't risk letting herself be vulnerable now.
It doesn't matter how she spins it in her head, the positives outweigh the negatives by miles. Even if by any chance Kara proved to not be trustful she could probably deal with it before it reached the council, especially considering they usually left Midvale to its own devices. and Kara being an–
"Wait, what did you say?" Lena snaps back to reality. the one where Kara is kneeling in front of her. telling her she's an–
"I landed here as teen, Twenty five years ago, after my planet exploded." She can see Kara swallowing, she fidgets with her glasses, looking away from Lena for the first time. "The Danvers took me in and raised me as one of them. I spent my entire life hiding this, I promise I know what it is like, I ain't gonna expose you."
Lena looks at Kara, even with all the anxiety, she seems honestly more worried about Lena, than with the fact she seems to be revealing some grand secret to a stranger.
"I understand if you don't trust me, and I hope you understand I aint leaving you here alone like this, not with crazy women telling you to kill yourself wandering the woods." Kara's face changes to what Lena thinks is supposed to be determination, her accent getting thicker; it's cute, but effective. She's not leaving, and from how she saw her manhandle eve, she doubts she can make her. "So I ask again: what do you need?"
Lena sighs.
"I'm a vampire." she says, voice low enough she's surprised to see Kara nodding along, like this is expected, no news here. "I haven't been feeding a lot. There's no animals around. I'm sure you noticed by now. And the townspeople are too smart. they know how to protect themselves, even if most aren't aware they're doing it."
"You need blood." Kara frowns, like she's trying to workout a solution for the problem, shoulders straight, hands in hips. if goal oriented was a person. Lena looks at her pointedly, eyebrow raised, amused at the apparent obviousness. Kara takes notice of the look, immediately deflating sheepishly "I can't give you mine, I mean I could but my skin–it's kind of hmm–invulnerable." she stutters, face turning red. "I mean like, as far as I know, I never liked managing to get hurt–Not that i tried to hurt myself. i mean I did-Not in like a self harm way! Just like tests as a kid."
Lena waves her hand, stopping Kara before she has a stroke, she's already out of breath.
"My teeth are a bit more enduring than normal," she says like this is a complete normal information to give and receive. ( Hey I'm a vampire who hasn't been eating properly. O h I'd give you my blood but my skin is impenetrable because I'm an alien.) But Kara's still frowning, not completely convinced. "We could at least try." Lena pushes.
Kara nods, her forehead still crinkled, face set in problem-solving mode.
"Okay how we do this? do you just bite my neck or…" Lena shakes her head.
"Your arm will be fine." she nods towards Kara's neck. "I'm guessing you've been using that silver chain since you started here? That leaves a trace on your skin and I'd like to avoid silver poisoning."
Kara's hand instinctually flew to touch the chain, like she forgot she still wore it, looking apologetic. Lena held back a chuckle, the amount on silver in this town alone was probably enough to fend off a small undead army, she was used to it, she avoided contact with anyone in town, and when it was necessary she simply didn't touch them, couldn't risk it, wedding bands and bracelets and earrings; the people of Midvale were nothing if not safe. Kara bearing it was hardly a surprise.
Lena watches Kara take a deep breath before moving to stand directly in front of her. offering her arm. It's an awkward position and it doesn't help tha Kara's tense and anxious enough to make Lena feel the same, like she never fed before.
She takes it, hand carefully touching the lightly tanned skin. relax she thinks to herself, closing her eyes and hoping that it will have the same effect on Kara. she lets the tension and fear she had been holding for the past half hour ease out of her. Her shoulders and neck relaxing. She lets herself be, feels her fangs slowly slithering out.
When she opens her eyes Kara's still looking at her, all nervousness gone. Instead she looks from Lena's mouth to her eyes, like she's the one hungry, her mouth slightly ajar, breathing heavy.
Maintaining eye contact Lena takes Kara's wrist into her mouth, tongue touching it first, before her teeth dig in. The skin breaks easily to both of their surprise and immediately her mouth is filled with thick hot blood, coating her tongue and throat. Lena's eyes turn at the pleasure of the taste, better than any blood she ever tasted, richer and stronger, the citric smell clouding every other sense she has, she swallows mouths full of it, gasping around Kara's skin.
In turn, Kara seems to be just as enthralled by the scene. Lena watches herself being watched. she sees the way kara winces and bites her own lips, eyes never leaving Lena, sees the way her legs seem to be shaking. the way her breath gets more and more ragged. She keeps her eyes on Lena unblinking, eyes fogged up, almost reverent even through pain.
It 's too much.
Lena releases Kara's arm with a gasp. mouth hanging open, unnecessarily trying to catch her breath. The taste lingers in her mouth tangent and sweet and she licks her own lips, cleaning any excess.
(She doesn't miss the way Kara eyes follow the motion, face flushed red and chest rising rapidly.)
She's about to say something, ask Kara if she's okay, if maybe she drank too much but Kara's eyes leave her face looking instead at her previously hurt arm.
"You wounds…" her voice sounds rough but the marvel in it is clear. "it healed." her eyes look back at Lena, reverence and admiration clear in them.
Lena nods, breaking eye contact to examine her injuries. Kara is right, her arm has closed up, any evidence of Eve's assault gone. she feels better too; Kara's blood heavy and warm in her stomach seems to clear her head, her vision gets clearer and her ears sharpe, her dizziness is gone, she feels like she did the first time she fed.
She looks back, actually blushing under Kara's gaze for the first time, and nods.
"Yours didn't" Kara's arm is not actively bleeding, but the two deep punctures are extremely pronounced. the girl looks down, admiration replaced with a no-worries smile.
"It'll be by morning, just needs a bit of sun."
Kara doesn't want to leave. She keeps pacing around, checking doors and windows even with Lena's insistence that it's fine, they won't be back today, and even if they did she could take care of herself now, with a full stomach (she doesn't tell her that's eventually she'll have to anyway), but it still takes her sister calling to see if she's ever coming home and Lena promising to stay close to the land line, just to be safe.
it's cute, Lena thinks, and a bit baffling really. She just told Kara she's a creature from horror books, who drinks blood and averts daylight. And Kara, who apparently is an invulnerable being from another planet, is worried about a home invasion.
After Kara has left Lena finds herself immediately missing her, the mere presence of the blonde keeps her head off wondering about the implications of everything that has just happened in less than an hour.
Lex, her brother, who had held her hand during the council meeting as a child, taught her how to feed without making a mess, was soon coming for her. It shouldn't be surprising, she had seen what he had done to their parents ( his parents, they're always more than hers), knew what his plan was. But now it was real, he had sent Eve, she had delivered his demands, what she thought could be a matter of years, is now a matter of months.
The Luthor bloodline was strong, it had once run through hundreds of vampires, until bit by bit it was extinguished, now all of that power, all of that knowledge, is muddied between both of them, and Lex wanted it all for himself.
It wasn't unheard of, bloodlines living on a single individual, most of the vampires on the council were beares of such strength, but her brother didn't want to be bound by their responsibilities and vows, he wanted to rule, to stand free and all mighty; a mad king.
And Kara, an alien, strong enough to fend an undine; blood luxurious enough that a few mouthfuls had left her with a strength she hadn't experienced since her rebirth. Kara, who had looked at her changed face with softness and worry, and who was now undoubtedly involved with her mess.
(Eve had seen her, had felt her strength, by now her brother was already aware of the blonde. She can only hope Kara is as strong as her blood made Lena feel.)
Not just feel; the moment Kara leaves Lena, moves inside, only to lose control of her own speed and end up on the other side of the house in less than second. She gets a book out of the office shelves only to accidentally crush it in her hand. She paces around the house, on the tip of her toes, too scared to touch anything, considers calling Kara but fears destroying the old phone.
But underneath all the uncertainty, there's a rush; she can feel the weight of herself, the strength, she wishes Lex could show up now. She knew in her slow beating heart, that with Kara's blood in her, she could face her brother.
She goes outside, crosses the pool deck and the garden, with a blurring speed, stoppin where her yard ends and the forest begins. the dark wood of the trees and the covered moon surround her and yet she can see, around it and through it .
Lena lays the palm of her hand against the trunk of a large tree, feeling every wood fiber in her hand. She takes a deep breath and pushes .
Like pushing a straw, the three give under her light shovel, cracking and hitting the ground with a rumble before she can even think timber.
She falls asleep at 8 am, rest finds her in her room, clutching a dagger with a silver blade.
She dreams of red skies with a sun that doesn't burn her skin. She's a little girl, in a city with needle point edifices, she walks beside a broad shouldered woman, her dark hair with a white streak, they speak in a strange language, and yet the words mean everything to her.
"I always knew you had a bright future ahead, my little one. There might be hope for us after all."
The dreams change, she sees the city from above; there are people in white all around her, they face a golden man with many faces. They throw their hands out to the sky, to an eclipse almost fully formed, closed eyes, delighting in sunlight, and sing.
It's a song and a prayer. A story about the son of the sun who lives in shadows with his chosen children. It 's beautiful.
The woman from before looks down at her, kind brown eyes, she feels loved; at home.
Lena awakes with a headache and the deafening noise of a car pulling on her driveway; everything around her feels like to much, she can hear the inner workings of the old pendulum clock in detail, as well as the ruffling of leaves outside and the clicking of heels against the wooden floors on the porch. as the metal key scratches the metal of the front door lock she tries unsuccessfully to muffle the noise with her own hands.
Nausea takes over her body and Lena barely manages to peek her head out of the bed and away from her pillow before her stomach turns, emptying Kara's blood on her bedside.
That's how Jess finds her, hugging her own knees, pillow pressed on top of her face, moaning in pain, all her senses overwhelmed.
"Lena!" the woman rushes to her side, making her groan at the louder noise. She pushes the pillow out of her face, running her hands through Lena's damp hair. "You're burning up, what happened?"
She tells her.
Kara knows Alex noticed the bruising on her arm when she arrived; it had been gone by the morning but it was too late.
In the morning they both sit silently at the table, sipping coffee and enjoying some scrambled eggs. In complete silence.
It's a game they've been playing since they were teens, when they were both still learning what it meant to have a sister, someone to count on. The person who had something to say should be the one to speak up, the other wouldn't ask, never, no way out of swallowing your own fears.
Once when they were 16 and 17 respectively, they didn't say a word to each other for two weeks after Kara freaked out at a night out with their friends, stormed out of Winn's basement and left Alex to walk home alone (She had seen James and Lucy kissing, as it turned out Kara had a crush on Lucy, it was an eye opening conversation for both of them).
The sound of Alex scraping her chair against the floor and getting up draws Kara's attention out of her eggs, she watches her sister put her empty plate and glass on the kitchen before turning back around. It's hard to look intimidating in a fadeout too-large shirt and sweatpants, but with arms crossed and an arched eyebrow, Alex manages.
Kara sighs.
"It ain't my thing to tell."
"Luthor?" Alex frowns and she nods. Her sister's face morphs into worry. "Are you safe up there?"
Kara stops at the question, she knows where her sister is coming from, she's thinking about Lena's parents, dismembered by their son–Lena's brother– and she understands. She remembers the sensation of Lena's teeth breaking her skin, her blood gushing out into her mouth. Remembers Lena leaping fifteen feet into the air, pinning the stranger to the ground, remembers her face, black veins and exalted features.
But she also remembers Lena holding her as she cried just two months ago, snorting at a shitty joke she had made, slipping on the pool's edge. Remembers Lenas lips on hers just before everything had gone to shit, her hand gripping at her hair.
"I promise." She nods.
It's one of her off days and all Kara wants to do is go see Lena. Everything that had happened (the kiss) was playing in her head. she's has so many questions about everything (the kiss) but above all she's full of worry. Her ears keep turning to the mansion every few minutes, just to check, every sixteen minutes. She doesn't pry, doesn't want to breach Lena's privacy, she hears enough to know Jess is back, and worried, but that's about it.
She visits Nia during her break at the school, helping her supervise kids and listening about her and Brainy's thing; eats lunch with Alex at her office; and finally spends the afternoon cleaning everyone's pocket at the pool in Winn's bar. It's not an unusual day for her, or a bad one, but her heart isn't in it, she's just waiting for the next day, to see Lena, hear her voice; there's just so much they could talk about.
The night falls and she continues to ignore the white noise of the patrons at the bar, instead she focuses on the small noises coming from the hill, Lena's feet dragging on the pool deck, Jess' own walking behind her. They both talk but Kara doesn't focus on the words, that's not why she listens to them, she just wants to make sure everything is okay.
Eventually she drives home, truck making her way through the mostly empty streets, the lights of the manor clearly visible from the top corner of her windshield.
She sleeps that night, is a fragile slumber, but she does, she dreams of soft cold skin and throaty laughters.
Tomorrow her mind whispers
Noon can't come soon enough, so much that she finds herself at the Luthor's yard before 5, and by the time sunsets and Lena appears she has been done with her tasks for forty minutes at the least. Kara is laying next to the pool, in a tank top and open flannel, hands gliding through the surface of the water.
"You got here early," Lena says, weak smile, instead of her usual robe and swimsuit she has got on a soft looking oversized sweater and leggings, "Woke me up,"
"Oh, I'm sorry I just–" wanted more time with you is what she wants to say but doesn't. "Are you okay?" she doesn't look like it, deep pockets underneath her eyes, hair greasy in a bun.
"Hm, yes?" Lena frowns, shaking her head "I think your blood maybe gave me radiation poisoning." it comes out as a whisper but clear as water to Kara's ears, she sits up.
"What? Lena I'm so sorry!" she scrambles up to her feet. "I should hav–Rao, and I insisted you drink it, I'm so sorry!" she feels like the worst person ever, she should leave, Lena probably only came out to fire her. Kara should quit first, out of respect. "I–"
"It's quite alright, Kara," Lena waves dismissively, walking to her lounging chair and motioning for her to join. "It was actually worth it for the whole experience." Kara blushes, the memory of Lena's mouth around her wrist, green eyes glued to hers, it was- "I mean i know you said you were invulnerable but i wasn't expecting the strength!" wait what?
Lena is looking at her in wonder and a full face smile.
"What?" her brain rushes to explain had Lena seen something? She had always been so careful–
"I suppose I didn't really explain how feeding worked did I?" Lena sighs, leaning back, and Kara feels more and more lost, not a single word that had left Lena's mouth today had been expected. "Well usually, with humans, we only get the base benefits of feeding, strength, better senses, and a bit of the general mental state of the person, feeding off other vampires is nutritionally useless but we do get their memories and superficial thoughts." Lena continues to talk, shifting on her chair and tucking her feet underneath her weight. "I've never fed on any sort of changelings but Lex did tell me that wolf blood makes us kind of unhinged . Animal blood is usable but ineffective, you'd have to drain an entire deer to get the value of a few cup of human's. And well, apparently alien blood makes you strong as a newborn for about 10 hours and then you feel like you bathed in sunlight while your body was inside out."
Lena smiles nervously at Kara; she knows what she must look like, eyes wide and mouth open, brain still rushing to catch up with all the exposition that had just been dumped on her; What is a changeling? she can read minds?
"Also," Lena says, now with incertity to her voice. there's more?! Kara's brain yells at her. "I think maybe I got some of your memories."
"Excuse me?"
"Not like, anything specific just–flashes,hm," Lena looks away, fidgeting with her sweater. "I think I saw your planet... Krypton, right?"
Kara freezes, her breathing stops, Krypton, the way Lena rolls the letters, with no earthian accent, it's the same way she used to say, before giving up and agreeing with everybody else's pronunciation, not even Kal says it right.
"Oh my god Kara, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to upset you." Lena jumps out of her seat and to Kara's side in a blur, hand reaching to her face to wipe out tears Kara hadn't realized were there.
"Oh ," Kara simply says, touching her own tears. "Sorry is just…" she shakes her head, smiling at Lena. "I don't get to talk about home a lot." Lena nods, a sad smile on her face and without her needing to say anything Kara knows she gets it. her cold hands leaves Kara's face, settling on her tight "What did you see?" She turns to Lena, eagerly, not realizing how close they are, she sucks in a breath, thankful that Lena turns away, staring at dawn's sky. It shines in her eyes, unnaturally green, perfect.
"Not much, I saw the skies, red and–I think it was some sort of holiday–there was singing and an eclipse." she frowns, eyes darting between nothingness. "I can't remember the words exactly something like– Wedhinzil." Lena looks back at Kara, catching her stare.
They both feel their cheeks heating, looking away from each other.
"That's appropriate I guess" Kara finally says, rubbing her neck. "He's kinda the creator of Krypton's idea of vampires." she had almost forgotten the stories until recently, until Le na
Lena eyes widen.
"Can you tell me–?" Kara nods excitedly before she can even finish; yes, yes, please let me tell you. It's been too long since she talked about it, any of it. Back when they were kids she used to tell Alex, but it's been years since, even thinking of the words feel unfamiliar to her.
"So there's Rao–"
"The sun!" Lena interrupts her, like a child excited to recognize something, it makes Kara laugh, her heart warm. "Sorry."
"Yes, the sun and our main god. He created Krypton and life and all that. and then there's Wedhinzil," Kara frowns, trying to translate to something easier on the human tongue. " Nightwing . He's Rao's son, tasked with finding his enemies in the shadows, where He couldn't touch. We called those chosen by Nightwing to help him with such tasks zil'unahs, the night's children. But because of their task they couldn't ever see Rao, so there comes the holiday you saw, zil'zeht , nightday, an eclipse when the children could finally walk in Rao's light and be rewarded for their duty," para pauses sheepishly. "We were told that they fed on our connection to Rao thought, the blood part was sort of just implied."
Lena chuckles and there's a moment of silence where they both think of the same; a faint memory, darkening red skies, singing, and a sense of belonging .
"You know I think I like that more than the idea we're soulsess devils." She sounds dry, but has an eyebrow arched at Kara, a smirk on her face and Kara can't even imagine anyone could make her believe the woman in front of her was a devil, or didn't have a soul.
They're standing so close Kara feels airheaded, as Lena talks about what the song sounded and what the sky looked like in her dream Kara can't help but glance at her mouth, she's not wearing any make up today, but the sight is still breathtaking.
Lena must have asked her a question because she suddenly stops talking, Kara almost has to shake her head to shrug off the fog. Glancing up she finds she has been caught, Lena is staring at her, looking uncharacteristically shy.
"I'm sorry, what did you say?" Kara swallows dry, watching as Lena opens her mouth, but no sound comes off it. The vampire then glances at her mouth for a split second, fast enough that Kara can almost convince herself she imagined.
Almost.
"Just huh–if you'd like to stay for dinner," Lena looks away, averting her gaze to the pool. "We could talk more. If you want of course–" Kara can sense she's about to start rambling, recognizing the signs she most often sees in herself.
"I'd love to." She reasures her before she can.
She's not entirely sure what dinner with a vampire will entail, but as long as she gets to talk to Lena, to ask her questions, maybe even tell her more about Krypton, she'll endure.
It turns out to just be burgers for her (and for Jess who excuses herself to eat in the office, with a look between the two that makes Kara's cheeks turn bright pink and Lena duck her head bashfully) and a mug of deep red liquid, blood Kara corrects herself, it's blood, Lena drinks blood, she drank hers just two nights ago, she's a vampire, vampires exist, and much more.
"Do you have any questions?" Lena is practically hiding behind her mug, both hands cupping it close to her face, eyes avoiding looking directly at Kara, who has demolished her burger in minutes.
She takes a minute to collect everything in her mind, all the questions and curiosities, the possibilities. But none of them truly matter, there has been a single thing on her mind, Lena talking about loss and remembrance, her voice had sounded distant, not wise but experienced.
"How old are you?"
Lena sinks back into the chair, nodding. She looks around for a minute; the dining room where they are is massive, the table set perfectly in the middle, twelve chairs around it, the walls are covered in painting, of different people in different times, all aligned side to side, her eyes land on one, just above Kara's left shoulder.
She turns her head to follow Lena's gaze and finds a familiar pair of rich green eyes immortalized on canvas: Lena, hair in an elaborate updo, sharp expression and sharper cheekbones, in a 18th century black dress, colar high and intimidating.
"I was born in 1603." she says, eyes leaving her own painting in search of another, she lands in one behind her, shifting on her chair at the head of the table to look at it. "My father was a vampire, Lionel Luthor, and my mother a human.'' The painting is one Kara assumes is Lionel Luthor's full figure, in front of a stone castle. "When I was 28 his blood, carrying the vampire curse prevailed, I died, was buried, and 24 hours later arose immortal."
1603 , is all Kara can think as Lena looks back at her, four hundred and seventeen years . She focuses her eyes on Lena's skin, looking for signs she had grown used to seeing shown on everybody but herself, any wrinkling, grey hairs, anything. But there's nothing Lena looks, 28, has looked 28 for centuries now.
Kara smiles. despite herself, she can't help it. It's either smile or cry and she doesn't feel like crying, has cried for this exact reason too many times. She should probably say something, Lena is staring at her waiting, but her smile only grows bigger. She wants to hear Lena talk about every single year of her life she can remember, people she met, events she witnessed, but more importantly how . How does one deal with the fact that the world moves too fast while you stay behind, planted on the ground, unchanged. She'll get there, eventually, but right now just smiling feels right.
Lena watches Kara eat another burger beaming at her with a blinding smile. It's like by revealing her age she opened a door to something inside her Kara has been looking for. She looks at Lena, fascination clear in her eyes, a curious contentment. She doesn't look at her like she's a mystery, something to be decipher, no, Kara's eyes look at Lena like she herself is an answer.
it's unfathomable to her why. she has never quite been looked at with such an honest joy, it doesn't feel right, like she doesn't deserve it.
And yet she can't look away, Kara who comes from another planet, who smells of citrine and earth, whose blood tastes like sunlight, and who's religion sees her kind as chosen ones.
(She momentarily wonders what her friends would think of it. Andrea would probably roll her eyes at it, mumble something about cheesy bullshit but Sam would probably like it.)
When finally Kara's burgers are done and Lena's cup is drained, Kara finally talks again, leaning forwards to put her elbows on the table, resting her face on her hand, strands of her pulled back hair fall forward, framing it gold as her gaze focuses solely on Lena.
"Were you during the Salem witch trials?" Her voice is the one of a kid about to unravel the secrets of the universe.
Lena tells her, everything. Tells her tales of human history, the ones she witnessed herself, the ones she only saw the outcome from afar. It feels nice, being heard, being known . Kara drinks in her stories, nodding and asking questions.
Mostly, Lena notices, she wants to know about the people, men and women Lena met momentarily during those times, what happened to them, does she miss them?
It takes her a moment to notice that sad shadow behind Kara's eyes, ever present, a type of fear; She's asking for herself, beyond the curiosity there's a sympathetic edge to her need to know. Lena remembers the dream, the look in Kara's face when she mentioned it: she's an alien on earth. She's alone. She had said she had arrived here 25 years ago as teen, and by her face she couldn't be much older than that, but she had spoken of going to highschool with her sister who looked to be nearing her forties.
"I–" she takes a deep breath, Kara js hanging to every single movement she makes, ready to drink every word "I've met more people in all my years than I can count." so many faces, so many hearts . "It always hurts to lose someone, but it's part of life" Lena's hand moved to hold Kara's, at the top of the dining table, green eyes looking into the blues. "We love the people we know for as long as we can, and then we let them go, carry their history on our hearts and honour their memories in our lives."
"I'm scared," it comes a broken whisper, Kara's lips trembling. "I've lost so much and everybody-" she starts sobbing, tears streaming down her face, Kara lets go of Lena's hand, burying her crying face into her own arms. "I don't understand why they won't stay still, just for a second."
In a swift movement Lena leaves her chair at the head of the table, circling to Kara's, arms wrapping around her shaking shoulders. Every sob breaks her heart, how can the sun be so sad? She keeps holding her as her body trembles, face buried on top of her head. Kara's hand grips the arm of her sweater, anchoring her.
She wishes she could take Kara's pain in, she could handle it better probably, she has handled it. Lena remembers her first years, making friends out of fragile humans, watching them grow old and die, remembers spending a century angry at everything and everyone for her losses. Remembers her family, telling her how there wasn't a point in getting attached to beings with such a short expiration date.
"Take it a day at a time," she whispers against Kara's blonde hair, nose drowned in her natural smell and soft shampoo. "Hug your friends, be thankful for them. Live with them. And when it's their time, let them go. Don't be angry or sad, it's not fair on them."
Lex's sneer crosses her mind, she remembers coming home, ages ago, she had ventured down into the town during the day, for their old maid's funeral, Lena was almost a century old then, Lex much older, the woman had only worked with them for twenty years. a blink, nothing for him. But she had been kind to Lena, always. And so kindness Lena had offered back, for as long as she would have it.
"All we have is people, for as long as they last."
Kara nods in her arms, wiping away tears. Lena lets go of her but stays close.
"I'm sorry Lena," she sniffs, face red. "I feel all I do is cry around you."
"Don't worry, i find vulnerability quite attractive." It's only half a joke, but still does the job; Kara smiles at her, teeth showing and eyes wrinkling.
"If we're given out compliments, your emotional wisdom is really charming as well." She blushes, turning her face away to hide it.
She waves her hand, deflecting, "Yes well, years of practice." She turns around to get back to her chair, but a hand grabs her arm, gently stopping her. She turns to find Kara standing up, smiling at her. the blonde's eyes settle in her lips for a second, before grinning again.
"I'd like to kiss you again, if that's okay." It's said with such a nonchalant calm that makes Lena tremble slightly, moving closer to her; Kara wants her, with everything that she has told her, Kara still wants her.
Lena nods.
"Do you have people?" Kara asks later, they settle in one of the manors many lounge rooms, Lena's head nested comfortably on top of Kara's chest, both of them laying down on a sofa facing a glass window, the forest and Midvale clear below. "I mean other than Jess, your brother is a killer and your parents are dead and yet–"
She trails off but Lena knows where she's going with it.
"Yes," she kisses Kara's jaw, before continuing. "It took me awhile to find them. Others like me that I could trust. It was lonely for a while: Liliam and Lionel were never family, and. Lex well, he was my brother for a few centuries, then I realized I was only being groomed for his slaughterhouse, he kept me close so when the day came I wouldn't fight him." It was clear to everyone except their parents Lex was bound to kill them all one day, with his knowledge of blood power and the Luthor lineage little by little dying out, it was a matter of time before he wanted to be the only one. "One day, a clan close to ours visited and I met Andrea. we stuck together immediately and she asked me to come with her when she left for Europe." Lena remembers being terrified of telling her parents, and yet they didn't seem to mind she wanted to be away from them. "And there I met people Who taught me to love, to feel. I lost people." Jack "I learnt to deal with it, and lived my life around some immortals and other mortals. It was good." She sighs, "And now I've returned. Against all of my friends' wishes, I'm here because my brother wants me here. Guess I'm as foolish as he used to take me for."
She wants to tell Kara that it feels like she's a kid again, in this house on a hill, alone. Afraid her brother is going to come in the middle of the day and end her. Wants to tell her that recently, when she thinks of the small group of people she might miss in death, her face is among them.
"Your brother–"
"Wants to kill me. Yes"
"And you?"
Lena stops. She has killed before, in mercy, in self defense, on accident. it never felt good, the rot on the bottom of her stomach growing heavier each time. But Lex, it was inevitable.
"I don't like death," she takes a deep breath. "Lex is my brother, in a twisted way, family; I have this memory of him, looking the same as he does now, getting me on his arm as a little girl, telling me about our family, about how strong we were," there was a glint in his eyes back then, a hint of things to come. She shakes her head "But I don't want to die. So I'm gonna defend myself, and whatever happens happens." there's a peaceful resignation set deep in her chest.
Kara is looking at her in a mix of awe and overprotectiveness. frowning.
"Can I help?" she asks.
Kara gets home just before eleven, stops her truck on the sidewalk and watches the windows of her house for a second. The lights are off and the curtains drawn, but the tv is on, casting shapeless shadows against.
She thinks back to when Alex left for college. Just hours away, but it had been the worst years of her life; the plan was for her to follow, in the next year, move in with her sister and get her journalism degree. She didn't, the simple thought of living in another city, with a different set of streets and people, it felt too much like a loss, so she said she was going to take some online classes and stay with Eliza ( Don't want ma' being out here alone she had told Alex, who only nodded looking at Kara with pride.). That was years ago, Alex had gotten her M.D, moved back, taken over the local clinic, met Kelly. Eliza had retired, left them the house, moved to the coast, and Kara, well, she had stayed, jumped from small job to small job, turned her and Alex childhood bedroom into only hers, and prayed with all her heart she could stop anything from changing.
She rolls up the windows of her truck, and jumps out.
Alex and Kelly are sitting on the couch, the movie plays on low volume at the tv. Kara can't bring herself to remember the name at the moment, but It's a movie she's seen before, she knows because the old woman's words are ringing in her ears ahead of the tv's speaker.
"Oh, now, don't you be afraid, sweetheart. Death is just a part of life. It's something we're all destined to do."
"Hey," Kara says standing behind the couch and both of them look at her.
Kara has a smile on her face, it looks weird, she knows because Alex is looking at her with a confused expression, but it doesn't diminish it.
"We left you a plate in the fridge," Kelly says, looking between her wife and sister-in-law.
Kara nods, smiles wider.
"Can you two help me with my college applications?" Alex eyebrows shoot to her forehead, a smile almost as big as Kara cracking on her face, her eyes crinkle a little at the edges and she laughs.
It's going to be fine.
Kara spends the next day in happy fog, a careless lightness to her walk. After lunch she sits at her usual stool at Winn's, a dopey smile on her face pretending to watch football reruns on the old tv mounted at the corner. She sees the way Winn keeps frowning at her and even catches one of the old men who practically live at the bar murmuring something under his breath that sounds like "what's wrong with her face?" she ignores it all.
She only notices time passing when Nia sits by her side on a stool, dropping her purse on the counter and hailing Winn. Kara looks at her watch, four-thirty, Lena should be up soon.
"Well don't you seem chipper?" Nia says wiggling her eyebrows with a suggestive smile. "Did Winn wet his pants with gin again?"
"That was one time!" The man in question protests, placing Nia's usual order in front of her.
Kara chuckles, "No, I'm just- I don't know, fine, I guess," Nia nods, urging her to go on. "I think I might get back to college."
Her friend chokes momentarily on her cocktail, a wide smile spreading through her face as she places the drink down in order to throw her arms around Kara excited.
"Oh my god Kara! that's great!" she's practically vibrating with excitement. "You know what school you're focused on yet? because your options are pretty much limitless. And I know you're partial to NCU because of your family, but I'll have you know Georgetown kicks ass," Nia goes on a tirade about the pros and cons of her alma mater as Kara only smiles and nods at her friend.
She gets home right after sunset, she's barely in the door when her phone rings. It's an unknown landline number and in her heart she knows what voice she's going to hear even before she answers it.
"Hey,"
"Hey," Lena's voice says, low and rough with remnants of sleep. "You're not coming over today?" Kara's heart jumps, excited.
"I can if you want me to," she rushes to say, face blushing at her own eagerness.
Lena chuckles, "It's your call darling, I don't want to take you away from your family."
"I want to!" Kara's nodding even though Lena can't see it.
There's a silence on the line and Kara can hear Lena shifting on her seat, the fabric of her robe rustling, like she's nervous about something. She waits, patiently.
Finally, it comes, "Would you like to spend the night?"
Kara's mouth goes dry thinking of the night before, the kisses in between their conversations, Lenas head in her chest, her soft skin against her own.
She breaths "I'd love to,"
Kara texts Alex not to wait up for her, assures her sister everything is okay, and drives up, the local radio station on, filling the silence, catchy pop songs playing with James talking in between them, she whistles and smiles the whole way up.
Lena greets her by the porch light, wearing the flannel kara hadn't noticed she had forgotten and a small smile. The vision makes Kara's heart fill up until she feels like floating.
Instead she speeds to her, picking Lena up and spinning her around. Lena throws her arms around Kara's neck and her head back, laughing, she sounds like Kara what feels.
Later, Kara lays in the biggest bed she has ever seen, naked, sleepy for the first time in weeks, as Lena's cold finger draws circles on her back. content.
"I thought–" Lena says, hesitantly, hand coming to halt flat on her back. "About what you said about helping me."
The previous night Lena had been adamantly against the idea of Kara getting anywhere near her brother, even as she insisted she could take care of herself, she had been strong enough to scare the woman, Eve, away. But Lena was clear, Lex was the strongest vampire she had met, it wouldn't be so easy. Eventually she had agreed to at least think about it.
"And?"
"And," Lena sighs, "I still don't want you near him, if by any chance he survives, he will find a way to expose you and I– I won't have that."
"Lena–"
"Let me finish, please." Kara nods. "Your blood, I think with it I might get an advantage on Lex. I have a little vial–"
"I thought it hurt you," Kara interrupts, forehead knitting together in worry. "It made you sick, like the sun does."
"It did, but only after several hours and this time it will only be a few drops of blood, just enough so I can be on his level."
Kara nods, but the worried frown doesn't go away. She doesn't like the implications of this, Lena wanting her blood so Kara can be away when her brother shows up. She should stay, help her. But at the same time, Kara doesn't think she would be able to do what Lena plans to do, she has lived her entire life learning how to be careful, scared of hurting anyone on accident, her stomach turns at the thought of doing so on purpose.
As Lena rummages through her wooden nightstand Kara watches her. She knows Lena has made peace with what she might have to do to her brother, but she has heard it: the slight tremble in her voice, the edge of sadness on her eyes.
Lena turns back, catching Kara's stare, like so many times before, blue in green, except none of them break away this time. Lena must read something in Kara's face because her eyes immediately shine, tears sprouting like rosebuds.
"Hey, it's okay" Kara pulls Lena into her arms,quick to comfort the woman. seeing Lena so hurt, vulnerable, feels like the closest thing to physical illness Kara has experienced. She hugs her tight, tighter than she would dare with other people, Lena hugs her back just as tight, her skin cold and tears even colder on Kara's chest. She feels helpless "It will be okay."
"I don't want to be the last one." Lena sniffs tears streaming down her face.
Oh.
The last one.
Lena, the last Luthor.
Kara, the last daughter of Krypton.
"You don't have to be." Kara says, chest swelling. "You told me yourself, right? keep them alive inside you."
Lena shakes her head, like Kara's not getting it.
"No, that's–That was about memory. This is different. it's a legacy. one that I don't want, Lex does." her voice shakes, she doesn't meet Kara's eyes, her hands shake against holding onto karas arms. "If I kill him, all of the knowledge of the Luthor bloodline, every sin, every evil it will be in me" she shakes her hand, overwhelming desperation filling her face, her breath ragged. "I don't want it."
"Hey no," Kara pulls her shaking body against her, fingers running through her hair. she cant help but think of her aunt, warning everyone on Krypton about their impending doom, the elite turning a blind eye to everything, the pride that ruined her world. "Their sins are not yours. You are Lena, the Luthor's are not you."
As Lena lets herself be held by Kara, hears her words of comfort, she cant help but wonder if she will actually be able to do it, kill him. Does she fear death more than what comes with holding a bloodline? the truth is she doesn't know.
After a few minutes letting herself be comforted she pulls away, wiping her face on her arms, embarrassed. Kara is still looking at her, eyes tender in a way that makes Lena feel more naked than her actual nudity.
She retrieves the small vial hold aloof by a gold chain she had found in one of the drawers, from where it had been lost in the sheets, dangling it in front of Kara who nods.
Lena takes the palm of her hand, pressing a kiss to it's back: Kara smiles, taking a deep breath.
Lena runs the tip of Kara's index finger against her canine, slicing it open. the blood drips on her mouth, just as warm as it had been before, citric and foreign. She removes the finger from her mouth before she can fully enjoy, making sure she won't have a stomach burn the next morning, and presses the bleeding edge into the small opening of the vial: it drips sloppily into it.
It takes a couple of minutes to fill.
Afterwards she takes Kara's finger back into her mouth, pressing a kiss into it before licking it clean; Lena barely manages to place the vial atop the nightstand before Kara is pressing her back into the silk sheets.
Kara leaves in the morning, Lena, already falling asleep, mumbles for her to stay, but Kara assures her she'll be back in the afternoon, she still has a job to do after all.
Lena falls asleep still feeling Kara's warm kisses on her back and dreams.
In her dreams Lex's body lays at her feet, lifeless. He is dressed in black, his eyes stare at her. She looks up to see she's standing in the backyard, the sun high in the middle of the sky, the woods around them.
She looks down again to see that Lex's clothes are moving like liquid, covering more and more of his body until there's no more Lex, only a growing black hole.
Lena falls.
She thrashes and screams, trying to hang on to something in the nothingness, above her she can see the sky getting smaller and smaller.
A shadow moves against the sky, Lena's mouth dries with fear. it gets bigger and closer and suddenly is around her, a warm shadow holding her, stopping her fall.
She cannot see it. But her nose doesn't lie, it's a familiar scent: Kara.
The thing about Kara is that she is so much of what Lena is. She's one of a kind (Alien, Luthor) she's immortal (at least partially from what she had told Lena), she's afraid of being alone.
Lena remembers loneliness like a synonym of being an outcast, the rejection of her family, standing in the shadows. she remembers the break of said loneliness coming at the brink of change, of letting go, of accepting pain.
It's ironic in a way: to stop being lonely, let people in, she had to accept sometimes she would be.
As she watches Kara's back at work she feels for her; there's pain in letting go she still hasn't experienced, but she will. She does not envy the alien.
For a few weeks Lena manages to pretend everything is fine. She wears the necklace with Kara's blood around her neck, spends the night with her more often than not, and when they don't, she calls her, they talk for hours, about nothing and everything, Kara tells her stories about her friends, her childhood, her planet. Some nights she simply paces around the house with a goblet of blood, content with letting the time fly by.
It's not ideal, but it's far from terrible. And for several weeks, that's just how it is.
The signs of a storm coming appear to her slowly, like premonitions.
Jess gets held back in Europe, she loses her flight and all others get cancelled on a sudden weather warning, she might not be back for several days; It's fine, not the end of the world, she can survive without her familiar for a couple of days, had for centuries before meeting Jess.
Then Kara asks her for a week off work, she's gonna be visiting National City with her sister and a friend, arranging preparations for her future university path; That is less than ideal, but Lena had been aware of Kara's plans for awhile, she had nodded, kissed her cheeks then her lips, and wished her a good road trip.
Lena wakes alone, the night already covering the sky. She walks the halls of Luthor manor absently, fingers running through the walls, thinking of times where she was barely tall enough to reach the paintings.
There's something different about the air tonight, a stagnant feeling. outside the trees in the flores rest still, no wind brushing against its branches. She sniffs the air, trying to find the scent of something foreign, but finds nothing new in it, only a lack of something , a sterile scent.
She calls Kara.
"Hey," as soon as her voice comes through, roughed with a little static and background noises Lena knows what something was missing from the air. "Everything okay?"
"Yes," Lena chokes up with relief for a second before gathering herself. "Sorry, just wanted to hear your voice. Are you–"
"Driving yeah," Kara chuckles, "You're on speaker so be careful with what you say."
Kara barely gets her words out before two voices cut her.
"Oh gross, Kara, God!"
"Hello Miss Luthor!"
Kara's defensiveness is clear in her voice "I didn't mean it like that, Alex!"
She recognizes the grumpy and annoyed voice as that of Doctor Danvers, and the other one must be one of Kara's friends, Nia, if she remembers correctly who Kara said was going to be going with her.
For a couple minutes Lena is more than happy to hear them bicker, thinking back to her own friends, and what a normal relationship with her brother could have been.
Eventually they settle down, and Kara addresses Lena again, her voice soft and reassuring.
"Sorry, they were raised by wolves" there's a low mumble in response but Kara quickly shushes them. "How is your night going?"
"It's fine," Lena waves her hand even though Kara can't see her. "And pretty tame, Jess was held back so I have the house all to myself."
the line goes quiet for a minute other than the sounds of the far off road.
"Are you safe?" is barely a whisper, just loud enough to come through. She has remembered herself there are other people listening, people who as far as Lena knows are nothing but humans in the dark. She twirls Kara's blood around her fingers, the weight of it grounding her.
"All doors locked, I promise." Your blood around my neck and a dagger in reach.
Kara's singh is interrupted by a whisper on her end, low enough the phone doesn't actually catch it. She hears kara going through a conversation with only bits of context.
When finally someone talks to her, it is the eldest Danvers.
"Miss Luthor? I'm gonna give you the Sheriff J'onn number okay? just to be safe."
Lena quite likes Alex Danvers, in the quick interaction they had. She had been too put off by the sight of her Parents bodies to really pay attention to the Doctor, but she remembers enough how she was professional and direct, talking about autopsy reports with a business tone. But her eyes avoided the bodies, in a fear only expected of those who don't thrive on death.
So even though a small town sheriff is never going to be able to do anything to protect her from her brother, she writes the number down.
Later, Lena sits on her porch, the hairs on the nape of her neck standing stiff, her senses waiting for danger, wanting to change into her monster, keeping her on edge, and a silver bladed knife clutched on her hand. and watches, the way the leaves in the trees stay still, the cloudless sky, the ghost of the moon reflecting on the uncovered pool.
Lena wakes up unsure what disturbed her slumber. She can tell from the shadow on the heavy curtains that it is still the middle of her day. She stirs, her body aching under the covers, yawns and freezes .
The air is heavy with a dreadful stench. Lena jerks, sitting up in bed and sees him. Lex. Her brother.
Finally part of her thinks
"Hello sister. I take it you refused my offer?" he is sitting by the foot of her bed, eyes not on her but on something in his hands, her dagger.
"Helo Lex," she says, carefully, and he finally looks at her, grinning wide like a dog, his sharp teeth in full view, his face contorted into something barely humanoid, his eyes pitch black.
"You know Lena, being this close to you I can almost smell it," he closes his eyes, taking a deep breath. "the power, the force, my birthright ," he opens his eyes, now fully blood red, looking at her in a mix of euphoria and wildness.
And Lena can smell it too, what she previously thought was a stench she now recognizes perfectly, Lex's own scent buried underneath an metallic sour smell, like every single drop of strength and history of the most sinful vampire family in history condensed in a single place, almost to the point that she could see the shadows of memories in her head just from a sniff.
The vial weights on her neck.
Careful not to give away her intentions she starts moving her hand across the top of the bedsheets, little by little.
"One may argue it's my birthright as well," she states, hoping the jab distracts him. In a leap of faith she crosses her arms. so close
"Oh please, you never wanted it," he huffs, face a little more like the Lex she remembered, "Barely wanted to be one of us; you resisted the virus for what? thirty years?" he almost spits, disgusted, "Lived like a human around us until you couldn't anymore."
"What so bad about humans?" There , now he's angry, face turning even more grotesque, almost diabolical with red eyes and black veins popping, his teeth grinding on each other almost cutting himself.
"What so bad abou–"
She makes a move to the necklace, ready to shove it down her throat, glass and all, but Lex has two centuries on her.
He catches her hand mid movement, stopping in the middle of his angry spit-speech. He grins.
"Now, now, now," he reaches around her neck, "What do we have here?" he yanks the chain, breaking it as well bruising Lena's neck. He dangles the vial between the two of them. Lena doesn't answer, doesn't even dare to move a muscle, Lex hand still grips her arm, tight enough to hurt.
"Blood? interesting, I'm guessing not human, no point in keeping this little human blood. I'm guessing it belongs to the blonde that scared Eve away?" For a panicked second Lena has a vision of Lex drinking the blood, his hand snapping her arm, bone chattering, she sees Lex floating like Kara has said she can do, reigning in the sun.
Lucky for her, Lex's cockiness is still his most driving feature. In a taunting gesture he throws the vial, far and away from her reach, it makes a dull sound against the wooden wall and settles in a forgotten corner of her room, thankfully not broken.
He looks back at her, grinning.
"Now Lena, i gave you a way out remember, you could recognize your part in this and kill yourself. Like mother, she saw me coming, she knew, she closed her eyes and let me rip her head off her body quickly."
Lena is shaking, the arm Lex holds spasming in pain, the other grasps her sheets. Her teeth have come out, she can feel her face changing underneath the skin, she's scared.
"Father however, was stubborn, he never wanted power, he wanted the pride of a big clan. I tied in down, Eve helped me, silver, opened him up still alive. Did you know we have a layer of muscle around our heart? it's pretty thick, but I got there."
Lex finally lets go of her arm, purple bruising all around it, his fingers tattooed into it. He picks up her dagger.
"Now that was messy I don't wanna do that again–" There's a noise in the woods nearby, they both hear it. The cracking of a tree falling.
It's enough of a distraction to have Lena roll out of bed, her knees colliding against the wooden floor, she scrambles to the corner where he had tossed the blood.
He is on her quickly though, fast like lighting Lex grasps her by the hair pulling her up.
In a split second Lena sinks her elbow back into his torso, hard enough for him to let go.
The noise comes again, this time much closer and louder, not a tree no, a wall, then another, louder and louder and before either of them can really comprehend what's happening the wall of Lena's room explode into a cloud of splinters and dust, A form, quicker than any of them can see flies through it and tackles Lex, without losing any momentum they both collide against the opposite wall, it cracks and they fall.
In less than a split Lena's room becomes bathed with sunlight, she hears the splash when both bodies fall into the pool below.
She cowers from the light, kneeling and looking for the vial and chain. She finds it into the corner where it had landed, pops the small cork off and drinks it.
It had been a fun trip so far, she and Nia more than happy to annoy Alex singing pop tunes, they had packed with enough snacks to feed a small army and they took turns driving.
Kara driving through the night had been a no brainer: no need in paying to sleep in a shitty roadside motel when she barely even slept normally. Alex had protested slightly about Kara being too much of a vehicular menace to be left unsupervised, but eventually sleep had gotten the better of her.
The clock marks four am, the road is empty and the sky bright, nothing but clean planes ahead of them, is nice, kaea thinks, comfortably.
At exactly 4:15 AM Nia jolts awake in the back seats, her knees colliding with Alex seats waking her as well. The younger woman looks around confused, scared.
"Nia, what the fuck?"
"Hey, are you okay?"
She doesn't answer either of the Danvers, still frowning, her breath ragged.
"Kara," she says finally, fave deep with concern. "Can you describe Miss Luthor for me?"
Kara and Alex exchange a quick look, one more of the unspoken things: Nia. The way she knew things, would show up unannounced when they needed anything.
"Hmm, white, black hair, green eyes, really sharp jawline, about 5'6–" Nia nods, like Kara just confirmed something she already knew. "What is it?"
"You need to turn around."
"Why?" Kara asks, looking into Nia's eyes in the rearview mirror, concerned growing heavy on her chest. What did you see? she wants to ask.
Nia meets her eyes, a small nod, eyebrow still knitted together.
"Just trust me, please?"
With a quick turn of the steering wheel Kara launched the car into an 180 curve, leaving tire marks in the asphalt and making the two other passengers in the car grip their rof handlers like their lives depended on it.
Kara drove like a maniac and the empty road allowed so, the speed pedal glued to the car floor and with just a bit more force Kara could put her foot through it. And yet, as they unmade the progress they had made during their trip, it was clear they were not going fast enough.
"What time is it?" Nia shouted from the back seat, her tone still in the same serious worry it had been when she woke up.
"Five twelve," Alex was the one to answer, Kara too focused into making sure the car didn't tumble off the road. the sun was starting to rise.
Nia shakes her head
"Stop the car,"
"What?!" Kara almost yelled, eyes darting to Nia's in the rearview mirror again.
"We're not gonna make it in time, you have to go Kara" she paused, looking between the two sisters, " You."
Kara glances at Alex, who looks ready to protest, to jump into her defence, her well rehearsed speech of 'What are you talking about there's nothing special about my sister' but Kara shakes her head. No, there will be time for pretending and excuses when Lena isn't in danger.
She drives the car out of the pavement, coming to a halting stop and jumps out, the unbuckled seat belt snapping against her chest. No one bats an eye at it.
Both Nia and Alex follow her, feet cracking the roadside dirt.
"What did you see?" Kara asks urgently.
"The sun rising, a bald man, he had tied Miss Luthor to a chair looking out of a window, he was–" Nia stops, choking like the words are too terrible to be uttered. "I think he was going to skin her."
Kara doesn't need to hear anymore, all she can think of is Lena, scared, alone in that old manor, of Lex, the man in so many of the paintings around the house, the thought of him touching so much as a strand of hair in Lena's head made the pressure behind her eyes build, burning like fire.
Without looking back Kara leaps into the air, the ground beneath her cracking from force, she cuts through the skies faster then she ever thought possible.
When she finally gets to Midvale the sun is already up in the sky, the people walking its streets, she makes her way straight to the hill.
She can hear them.
She tears down tree after tree in her way, doesn't even feel, as she sees the house she can hear more clearly: Lena, in pain. She goes straight to the first wall, not caring, another and another, and then like in slow motion she sees them, him.
She tackles him, holding him firmly enough she hears bones cracking, and together they destroy the last wall.
They fall into the pool, foundation cracking at the impact and Kara tries to hold him down, drown him, she was certain she had read somewhere water killed vampires.
But she had seen Lena swimming, and as Lex struggles to free himself of her grip it becomes clear it's not working, and instead, Kara's lungs are the ones that start filling with water.
Lex is strong, stronger than Kara had anticipated, and with the disadvantage of needing to breath she finds herself being momentarily outmatched; He manages to escape her grip, headbutts her, and swims up.
It takes her a few seconds to recover before following him to the surface, she flies straight out of the water and lands on the deck, coughing up water. She can see him on all fours a few feet from her, trying to squirm away into the shadows, for his misfortune, the morning sun illuminates the backyard clearly.
Kara half expects him to maybe start burning up, spontaneously combusting, but instead he only looks sick from the exposure.
A heavy thud draws both of their attention as Lena lands on the deck, having jumped out of the hole Kara has opened on the wall, seemingly unaffected by the direct sunlight, her attention is immediately on Kara, as she rushes to her side.
"Kara," she kneels besides her, hands going all over her checking for wounds as she finishes coughing water, "Are you ok? how did you-"
Kara catches her hand, stopping it from roaming, her blue eyes look straight into Lena's deep red ones,
"I'm fine, just a bit of water, guess I'm not as invulnerable on the inside like I thought." her eyes move away from Lena's face, examining her entire figure. "Are you–? Did he–?"
Lena shakes her head.
"He caught me by surprise I... I'm pretty sure you saved me." Her voice, barely a confessional whisper, was a contrast to her face, the fangs, the red eyes, the dark cracks beneath her skin.
Kara has to resist the urge to kiss her, there will be time, instead she nods towards Lex as he finally reaches a patch of shadow, seeming to catch his breath, his skin raw red.
Lena follows her gaze, expression hardening.
"I'll deal with him–"
"Let me–"
"No," she shakes her head, clasping Kara's hand. "You already saved me, that's your role in this, saving. Let me do the bad part." She kisses Kara's knuckles before getting up.
In a speed matched only by Kara's, Lena is at Lex's side. Catching him by his shirts she throws him back into the sunlight.
Lex lands on the grass, looking up at Lena as she calmly strolls towards him, sunlight touching her skin, like she's grown a second head.
"What the fu–" Lena holsters him up by the head with a single hand, squeezing his jaw. His eyes widen at her strength and as blisters start showing in his reddened skin, there's fear clear as the sky in face. "Lena don't you da–"
Kara looks away at the snap, and the sound of something being dropped. As she looks back Lena is on her knees, hair falling on her face, as Lex, her brother, lays dead.
She rushes to her in inhuman speed, the grass bending as she kneeled besides Lena.
She's not breeding, her shoulders ruched down, her eyes closed, hair falling on her face. In the sunlight Kara can see how pale her skin actually was, the sun's reflecting off it like if it was stone in a ghostly sight.
"Lena?" she's hesitant to touch her, fingertips lingering on her shoulder. "Are you okay?"
There's a second before Lena's eyes open, a second in which Kara is terrified she's not going to, like she has fallen in some sort of trance, but she does, and as her eyes, completely black, no white or red in sight, look at Kara there is a momentary look of hollowness, like there's nothing behind them.
"...Kara?" she blinks and the blackness in her eyes retract back into her pupils. she still looks confused, likes she's not quite sure where she is. "I've just killed Lex." She speaks but Kara can tell she's not talking to her, more like trying to place herself. "I'm at the manor. I've just killed Lex, you're gonna ask me what I need."
Kara blinks, surprised, she had not thought of the words exactly but that had been her mindset, whatever Lena needed . Before she can even open her mouth to answer Lena's whole body goes limp, collapsing in the grass.
A lot happens fast, Kara takes Lena inside, as she talks deliriously to people who are not there, she lays her on the couch worriedly. She drags an armchair towards her and sits down, unsure of what to do.
She eventually remembers to call Alex, who assures her they're driving back and there's no need for her to fly back, no need risking more attention to herself. Her sister also suggests calling J'onn, but Kara can't deal with that right now, Lex's body lays in the garden but there's no rush, no one will see him, no one will miss him.
Maybe that blonde Kara's brain remembered, but from what Lena told her, Lex's death would mean she was weak for a while.
So Kara waits and watches over Lena.
She's not feverish, her temperature the usual unnatural cold, but still she seems plagued by visions, dreams, she talks with other voices, in many languages, sometimes she opens her eyes, looks at Kara and calls her the wrong name.
Some of the names all sound familiar to her and it takes a minute to put two and two together, they are all names on the paintings all around the house, Luthors from the beginning of times; Lena has them all in her head now.
She's not sure how much time goes by as she sits and waits. By the shadows underneath the closed curtains she guesses the sun has set and risen at least once, Lena seems the same, and eventually the sound of a car pulling over at the front of the house snaps Kara out of her watchful duty.
She hesitates only for a moment, deciding if Lena hadn't moved in the last twelve hours, she won't in the next few minutes.
Kara's quick feet take her to the front door in a blink. She opens it and finds Jess, standing just out of the front porch in the grass, looking up at the hole Kara had made in her entrance, there was wood littered all around them.
"Jess," Kara almost sighs relieved to not only see a familiar face, but one more suited to deal with this. "Thank Rao you're here!"
After she guides Jess to where Lena lays, Kara explains what happened to her, leaving out only the part about Nia's dream, and Lena's familiar nods, her eyes never leaving her master.
"And then she passed out, and I brought her inside but–" she cuts off, swallowing against a lump in her throat. "I didn't know what to do."
"She's processing," Jess sighs, moving to sit at Lena's feet. "They're not made to be alone, as far as I know the whole point of the virus or curse, whatever you wanna call it, it's to spread."
"Has anyone ever–"
Jess nods.
"It's not unheard of, the Council are all sole souls, but there are only four of them for a reason. Not everyone is strong enough to take the toll, and those who do are left… different, distant. Some of them can even predict the future just based on all the lives in their head."
Kara tries to imagine what it must be like, to have so much experience, so much knowledge that everything becomes predictable.
"Has she been having moments of consciousness?"
kara shakes her head.
"Less and less, and they only last for a few seconds"
Jess doesn't need to say anything for Kara to know that it isn't good, it's written all over her face, a sort of anticipated grief.
"Is there anything we can do?"
Jess takes a second before speaking, all of her weight behind her words.
"She needs to turn someone."
Kara's mouth hangs open in shock but before she can even say anything the other woman corrects herself.
"Me. She needs to turn to me. The only reason she hadn't yet is because she knew about Lex's genocidal agenda."
"Jess–"
"Do you care for her?" Jess snaps and Kara can only nod. More than I care about myself she wants to say, thinking of unlit cigars, college applications and late night confessions. "Good. Get me a knife, I need to drink her blood."
It is not a pretty task, Kara watches feeling helpless as Jess explains the process; she will die after a few minutes, Kara has to bury her, it may take a while but she will return, Lena should probably wake right before it.
"If you need to sleep do so after you bury me. She should be back by night time" Kara nods, not feeling like she has any strength to say anything, to question anything.
Her hands feel clammy, her stomach seems to be training for the Olympics inside her, she hopes Jess can't tell how awful she feels.
"I know this can't be easy," Jess says, uncharacteristically softly for someone holding a knife against her friend's forearm. "But I'm glad she found you in this mess."
She sinks the knife in, it goes in like butter and Kara realizes the blade is made of silver.
Lena doesn't give any indication she felt it, still laying stiff, lips murmuring unceasingly, but kara still rushes to her side all the same, clutching her other hand.
as soons as the black thick liquid pours out of the wounds Jess closes her mouth around, first gagging at the taste then swallowing mouth full of it, her eyes closed and full of tears.
Kara feels an urge to pray.
It is not a holy sight that unfolds in front of her, nothing of it, Jess coming back for air, face and teeth smudged with black; the woman she cares about, maybe even love, delirious and sick. But still, without letting go of Lena's hand, Kara kneals.
Rao is so far away, too far to touch her, but still.
"Give me more time with her," She whispers in kryptonian as she kisses Lena's hand. " Rao, please. Come to me. Heal her, Your child's child."
Lena comes to herself all at once, like being born again, she gasps for air her lungs can't absorb like she's drowning, sitting up straight. Her head is heavy with the shadows of dreams, memories, she feels scattered across time, consciousness spread thin, then suddenly she is whole again.
There's a weight holding down her left hand, and her right arm burns, as she opens her eyes she sees the cause for both.
First Kara, kneeling on the floor, head rested on top of her own hand which in turn holds Lena's. Her eyes closed and her breath even, she's fast asleep.
Secondly, there is a two inches long deep cut on her forearm, as well as marks of blunt teeth, human teeth.
Her memories come back to her like a punch: Waking up to Lex, Kara's ex-machina moment, drinking her blood, the feeling of snapping Lex's neck. The rest is blurred, gone, all that's left is a feeling, loss, overwhelmingness, a plague of senseless dreams she could only ever watch and never truly be a part of. but it's enough for her to understand; she was weak, Jess started the turning process to save.
There is a voice in the back of her head, one that does not belong to her but to a memory she can no longer access, screaming about tradition, about a familiar's place, but Lena only has her own voice inside her now, so she sighs thankful, moving her free hand to run along Kara's free flowing hair.
She had never seen the blonde fully sleep, her eyes were always alert, bright and lively, shoulders straight and an easy smile on her lips, now, asleep in a definitely uncomfortable position she looked otherworldly; face relaxed, skin clear, her sharp jaw hanging just a bit slack, her hair, bright beautifully soft blonde, obscuring half her complexion. Had it not been for the smear of dirt on her face Lena would believe she was simply a new delirium, a divine image laying next to her.
But no, the dirt is there, as well as a trail of mud behind her, the prints of Kara's heavy work boots clear on the floor. She nods to herself, Jess had kept some traditions after all.
Lena's fingers, treading gently in her head is enough to wake her. Her eyes hang heavy but open, staring at Lena, she sighs relieved, her face morphing into the kind of expression you get when a weight is lifted off you, when something terrible has come and gone, a small content smile on her lips.
"You're safe…" Kara whispers unbelievably.
Lena nods, and then lifts her arm from Kara's head to show her the wound.
"Jess–?" Kara nods letting go of Lena's left hand, sitting up straight. Lena uses the now free hand to wipe the dirt from Kara's cheak, leaving it resting cupping her chin. "Did you–?" Kara nods again, turning her face to kiss Lena's palm.
"I didn't know what to do, I just obeyed her, I wanted to save you, like you said, but i didn't know how–"
Lena cuts her, leaning forward.
"You did fine," She pats the couch, "Get off the ground."
Kara obeys, back and knees cracking miserably. She sits at the edge of the couch, one arm resting on the backrest.
"How long?"
"You a day and a half, Jess–" she shifts fishing her phone from her pocket, battery almost dead. "five hours"
Lena nods, Jess won't be back for at least another five. She was glad Kara had taken the time to bury her, even in such a town with so little sound pollution, waking up turned where your senses were completely empowered was a dreadful experience.
Kara looks down at her, eyes tracing her face. Lena took notice of her clothes, nicer than the ones she usually wore, nice jeans and a grey sweater atop a collared shirt, sleeveless rolled up.
On the soft fabric of the sweater there were a few flocks of dried up mud, Lena's hand shifts to pick at it.
"Thank you," she says in perfectly kryptonian, hand resting flat in Kara's chest. "I'm sorry for cutting your trip short."
"There will be other trips," Kara simply answers eyes full of something indescribable, like the kind of love that brings tears to your eyes, and bends down to kiss her.
Jess comes back eventually, covered in dirty and shanking from head to toe. her eyes so red they were almost black. Lena had wrapped her in sheets and sent Kara out for the blood Jess had left to go fetch, in the trunk of her car.
Both Lena and Jess ate. Kara hanging around, looking for a broom or something, to clean the dirt off the floor, makes herself useful.
Jess falls asleep almost as soon as she finishes her pack of blood, she has smeared it all over her face, drinking it all wordless, much like a child.
"Can you carry her?" Lena asks softly, running her fingers through the girl's hair as she lay on her lap. It's an unusually heartwarming view.
Kara nods, Lena's arm wound had closed, but she still didn't quite look like herself.
In her arms, Jess doesn't seem to weigh more than a cob of corn, a startling discectomy with the girl who had probably saved Lenas life when Kara had felt so helpless. it makes her few protective, she draws her closer to her body, and follows Lena upstairs.
"Will she be okay?" Kara asks later, stirring a few eggs on a pan in the Manors unnecessarily big kitchen. Thank god Jess had not predicted her own turning and had stopped to buy human supplies, Kara had not eaten anything since the shared bag of Doritos on Alex's car.
"Yes," Lena says carefully, hip resting against the counter a few feet away. she had showered and changed and was starting to look a bit more like herself. "It's not an easy process. Much like getting over a sickness I suppose. She'll mostly sleep and feed, and then she will be healthy as a horse."
Kara nods, turning the stove off. Without her asking for Lena hands her a plate, ceramic and fancy, and she pilles up her dozen scrambled eggs with sausages, breakfast at midnight.
"And then?" she asks around spoons of eggs, standing next to Lena who turns to look at her without understanding the question. "After she's okay. I mean, you didn't come here because you wanted to. Will you–?
"I suppose I'll return home." she sighs. "I miss my friends." Kara nods, continuing chewing. "And you'll have National City, college and then–?"
"Miss Grant has been pestering me about taking her place as english teacher for years. I suppose I'll take her on it. maybe rent the Olsen's home over on Drew's street now that James and Winn moved in together."
"Back to Midvale then?"
Kara nods.
"And after?"
She doesn't need to specify after what, Kara knows. After this life, after her loved ones go and kara still looks mid thirties. What then?
"I don't know." She answers but she is smiling at Lena. "The world is my oyster, I suppose. I hear Europe is really nice."
Lena laughs, nodding.
"I suppose it is." a pause, she looks at the floor, one foot swiping around. "You know," she starts. "National City is quite sunny, but i think i can manage to visit." Kara stops chewing, dropping her fork on her plate. "and I guess I could finally get a phone."
Kara doesn't answer, making Lena nervous, maybe she had overshot, maybe this was it for them, just a short spark in their respective histories.
Instead Kara places her half finished eggs on the counter and moves to stand in front of Lena, smiling.
"Lena Luthor," she places both of her hands on Lena's hips, easily lifting her and placing her on the counter. "Are you saying you wanna try and skype-date me?" Lena nods, smiling, and Kara laughs, kissing her until both of their smiles turn into a different kind of hunger.
Many, many years later.
In physical form Kara has not changed, maybe some new few crows feet and laugh lines, but even then, nothing that most people would make note of.
But Lena did, as she and Kara danced in the moonlight to the rhythm of the ocean waves crashing against the rock beneath them, she noted.
They didn't quite know how long they had stayed that way, wrapped around each other, swaying, minutes? Hours? Centuries? to them it felt like none of the above. Not long enough, that was the answer.
Eventually, as the sun's golden rays started appearing far where the ocean met the sky, a young boy appeared to fetch them.
"Mothers," Zachary Luthor said with reverence, he was one of the many children of the new Luthor clan, a young boy, less than a century old, with a passion for healing. "The wolves have arrived."
"We will be there shortly, Zack." Lena says arms still hanging around Kara's neck.
Her hands move to her face, finger's tracing the new aging marks on the blonde's face, a sad and worried look settling on her face.
Kara took her hand, placing a kiss into her open palm.
"Stop worrying," she says, softly. "We have time, the world is our oyster, remember?" Lena's smile despites herself. She nods, "Let's go enjoy it."