[center] Clara had been anticipating the usual skirting around her anger when she had snapped at Jaden; she hadn’t quite been ready for his response. The way he dismissed her; the way he had been so very cold and cast her aside and out of his way.  Part of her was aggravated, wanting to get her anger out as she shouted her disbelief at him, but he had not taken the bait. No, he had done quite the opposite as he answered her with such a tone that made her have to believe, and she had been so very caught off guard the moment he had pushed past her - just rough enough to make her move. Her mind was reeling as she tried to grasp the reality of the situation at hand, flashes of the night before still running through her mind as she tried to put together each part carefully. She had been so terribly angry with Jaden for leaving her, especially when he had been the one to ask her to go with him in the first place that she was determined to find a distraction for her anger - her usual attempt at numbing something that she did not quite want to feel. The alcohol hadn’t done the trick but [i]he[/i] did… He had not only made her forget about Jaden, but he had made her forget about nearly everything that could have hurt her; anything that could have made her feel the way she had for all of those centuries in favor for both pain and pleasure that she craved altogether. 

To think that he and Jaden were one in the same left her stomach turning; thoughts and emotions running through her that she couldn’t quite grasp or explain. 

She was in denial even then, surprised by how hardened Jaden had suddenly become, but any denial had easily melted away as she watched him move further away from her in an attempt to rid the building of the massacre that had been created. She had seen the darkness flowing from him, seen those wisps that now she couldn’t very well forget. She’d remembered now, how they curled about her body, eliciting even more stimulation, more pleasure to where she almost couldn’t bare it. 

Clara had slowly sunk to sit at the end of the booth as she watched him, the bodies and the mess disappearing before her very eyes; the clothes that had been long forgotten and cast aside now covering her as if the night before hadn’t exactly happened. The ache and exhaustion that she felt in her very core had not, however, and the urge to get back home and in the shower and far away from Jaden had suddenly become very strong. Who exactly was the man before her-- Clara wasn’t so sure. She had been used to the quiet Jaden who occasionally bickered with her; who dealt with her deep-rooted anger and depression regardless of how she had lashed out at him. This Jaden, the one who had now turned his attention back to her had seemed very different. Was it betrayal that she had felt? She didn’t know -- He’d kept a secret this large from her so long and for her to find out the way she had - for her to be ravaged in such a way by that very secret, she wasn’t sure how she had felt in that moment. 

She had stared at him as he spoke to her, that commanding tone lingering on his lips in a way that made her hesitate. She’d wanted to lash out; fight and argue every bit of it, but no longer had she held that energy and something within her had simply submitted to his orders. There was no arguing that he was one in the same, not after the display that he had so openly shared before her, but how she was going to [i]deal[/i] with the fact that she very well remembered what had happened the night before, despite the massacre, despite the bodies that have been left behind, was beyond her. Clara had made a mistake the previous night - had given herself over in favor of spite, much like she had before with her sire. It was all too familiar and it shook her in a way she couldn’t explain. 

So as Clara watched him and he practically ordered her to listen to him and stay quiet, she had nodded in that same submission despite herself ; despite the disconnect in her gaze as she came to a stand. She would do what he wanted, but she couldn’t very well make the same promises when they’d gotten back to the estate. [/center]