Chapter Text
The blood under Nadia had gone tacky by the time she regained consciousness. The air around her had stilled, filled with voices of the dead miles away, as her own breathing ceased. Time seemed to stretch on and on, and yet she didn't move. She couldn't. The cold floor of the venue bathroom held her in place, as she looked at the spraypainted letters surrounding the walls around her. Her work phone was ringing incessantly beside her, making the dimly lit bathroom light up every so often, and yet, she didn't move. Hours, seconds or minutes passed, she wasn't sure- when the door behind her slid open flooding the small room with light. There's a pause, and then the door slams closed.
“ Shit Nadia- you weren't answering, I thought-” arms are around Nadia, although she can’t quite focus on who they belong to. She is dropped on the toilet as the lights flicker on. She notices now that her shirt is halfway off her body, covered in blood. Her blood, she realised belatedly. It was a vintage Tori Amos t-shirt she got in a bidding war on Ebay over, and honestly she's more upset about ruining this shirt then-
“Are you… different now?” the pair of arms ask her, finally making her look up. It was Daniel, she realizes.
“I think I'm gonna be sick-” is all Nadia manages before she covers the rest of her tshirt in bile, and soaks Daniel as well. “What the fuck is happening, why didn’t you write this part in your book? I feel like shit.”
“I didn't think that readers would want to know that we all have to barf up everything in our body. Not exactly a nice read.”
Nadia doesn't respond, too busy throwing up everything she’s eaten in the last 48 hours, which admittedly was not a lot. Once the retching goes down, she wipes her mouth and looks at daniels face. He’s sad, or maybe contemplative? She never could read him.
“Do you know where Lestat is? He was. Well.” she asked in a quiet voice. Daniel sighs, and starts wetting paper towels.
“No kid sorry. I think you saw him last. Are you ok? Are you hungry?”
Fuck, she was hungry, more hungry then she’d ever been. “ Yes, god yes, but I don't- how do I-”
“Come here.” Daniel directs as he sets the towels down, and cuts his arm. The blood starts trickling down to his fingers, the red dripping to meet the half dried puddle on the floor. Her fangs descend upon seeing the rivulets of blood, her body carrying her without her permission.
“Use your fangs to puncture, then suck.” She nods, not really hearing him. When she doesn't move, Daniel puts the arm to her lips and lets biology do the rest. She is a quick learner, the constant thrum of hunger slowly retreating as she drank. Eventually, Daniel gently guides her off his arm, and closes the wound. The blood drips from her mouth, down her neck and on to her bare thighs.
“I think I'm… high? I feel sick and …like I'm aware of my body in an unpleasant way.” She mumbles. “... where are my pants?”
Danial chuckles, and says “Yeah kid that's normal, thought I did blow when I was turned. It’ll pass. And I have no clue, you weren't wearing any when I came in here.”
He stands, and starts searching the bathroom for something. What, Nadia will never know.
“So like Lestat sucks. I knew he sucked, but like it was always vicariously. Now he just sucks.” Nadia mumbles to no one in particular.
“I mean all things considered I think this is not the worst day ever, I mean we all have bosses we hate. Mine just happens to be actively going through the worst post-post break up the world has ever seen. Like yes he's an adult man who is naturally blonde but like he doesn't have to punish everyone around him because of it.”
Daniel laughs at that, and adds “Don’t you dye your hair blonde?”
“No that's different, I bleach it so then I can dye it colors. Also I'm not a man! It's completely different.”
“Ok sure. What color are you gonna do next?”
“I think I'm gonna do pink. Wait, am I gonna have bleached hair forever? It's so damaged right now!”
Daniel pauses, and looks at Nadia. “Is that what most concerns you right now? I'm literally scrubbing your blood off of this shitty tile.” Nadia looks and sees the old man scrubbing away at the tile with the wet, now red, paper towels in a pile.
“Thank you. I’m sorry that you have to deal with this.”
“Its not the first time I've cleaned blood off a bathroom floor. I have two daughters, you know.”
“I know you’re referencing periods right now, but it does sound like your daughters had copious amounts of blood just all over. Oh my god does this mean I won’t have a period?”
“… I actually don’t know. I don’t know any women vampires.”
“Lestat, enforcing DEI. Who would have thought?”
They lapse into comfortable silence, the only sounds are the toilet running, and the gentle scrub of the tile.
“Any luck on finding my pants or…”
“Let me handle one thing at a time please.”
“Right but you have pants on. I don’t.”
“I promise I’m not looking.”
“I know you’re not, your little boytoy would kill me if you did. And I’m fine being undressed in front of you, you’re like my dad. It’s just that I can’t exactly walk out of here with no pants on. The shirt I can explain, we all have blood on us. I just don't want Tedd from marketing to see me in my hello kitty days of the week under wear.”
Daniel sighs, but puts down his paper towels. “Armand is not my ‘boytoy’.”
“Yeah yeah, we all know you’re his old man.” Nadia yawns and rubs at her face, smearing the blood there. She finds her work phone on the floor and starts to look at all 12 of her missed calls. She curses, and opens her phone to see who’s wanted her time. As she scrolls she sees only one name.
“ I've got… a shit ton of missed calls from you.”
“Well nobody knew where you were. Craft wanted to know if you wanted the food in the dressing room so I called you but you didn't respond. Then my camera crew and I needed you to get us more film, then we didn't know where Lestat was, then make-up didn't know where Lestat was, and I didn’t know where you were so I went looking myself. And I found you.”
“Lestat goes missing all the time. I literally get paid extra to make sure I know where he went. And yes I wanted craft in the dressing room, the live animals scare the crew, and I already got you new film, I left it with Garry. The last time I saw Lestat he was telling me how good of a job I was doing as his tour manager, which yeah I kick ass. Then as a reward he killed me and made me a vampire, and then left me in a pool of my own blood. So I’m sorry I went missing for like an hour.”
“I know. But you don't go missing. You, unlike Lestat, are reliable. And it wasn't an hour. It was four.”
“I didn’t want to be a vampire.”
“I know, kid. I didn't either. I found your pants, by the way. Cheetah print, really?"
“Look who's talking, the same flannel every day." Daniel hands Nadia her pants, which are also covered in an absurd amount of blood.
“I saw her. Claudia. She was so much smaller than I imagined her.” The pants stick awkwardly to her legs as she puts the pants on, and quickly finds her personal phone she set to not disturb. She checks the time, 3:00 am, great. The bathroom around her looks honestly cleaner then she found it.
“ Well it’s 3, crew is out of here in an hour, lestat is god knows where, what are we gonna do? Can I still sleep in the tour bus?”
“Absolutly not, you’re coming with me we are gonna head to my place, we aren't far.”
“I didn’t know you lived in Florida!"
“Well, I don’t.”
“ Oh my fucking god. Your boytoy lives in Florida?!?”