outfit

Amanda had worked really hard on not using magic since Jack had come to see her. It had worked out well until she'd called her mother and had a fight with her and she'd slipped up. She hadn't hurt anyone, but she'd gone into the forest and burned down a tree instead of letting herself lose it with the first person that annoyed her. It wasn't perfect, but it was progress, which was all she aimed for really. Today was the day though, the withdrawal from the past few weeks was gone, even if the guilt lingered. She might just have to live with the guilt for the rest of her life, but she was ready to live with that, after all she had no choice.

The worst was over now anyway and she could finally breathe again. The withdrawal symptoms had gone away before she'd slipped up and used magic again. She would be able to use magic again safely soon, she just needed to make sure she didn't get as power-hungry again. Maybe she should just tell Jack to slap her hard if he felt she was getting out of control again, that way she'd have another reason to try to keep away from the darker side of magic.

The redhead had spent her time staring into space inbetween customers, not really paying attention to what she was doing as she was trying to figure out how to approach Dahlia about it all. Finally she'd had enough and just went over to the store during her lunch break. It was better to just get it over with or be rejected rather than worry too much about what the witch was going to say.

Entering the store, Amanda fidgeted rather nervously with her bracelet, anxious to just get this over with and move on with her life. "Dahlia?" she called out before she proceeded to look around the store and admire the other witch's shop. "Jack said you might be able to help, do you have a moment?"

Dahlia had been hearing quiet a bit about a particular witch that was running amuck with magic. The pink haired Ashwood had had her hands full as of late though with her brother and his medical care. Currently though she was working with her assistants in her office, seeming to be running through some healing spells with them before Vincent would be off to the doctor again in the morning. At the sound of her shop door opening, she looked up from the book on her desk, already sensing who it was from the darker magic clinging to them. Her face went from strained with stress to indifferent as she dismissed the boys. They left quickly, looking at the redhead worried before exiting the shop.
"Come in Amanda."
Her voice was even indifferent now, having sat down at her desk and closed the book she had been reading through. She would hear the witch out of course, but she needed to calculate a treatment for sure, already starting to turn some ideas in her mind.


outfit

Amanda didn't really know what to expect. How much had Jack told the other witch and how much had she picked up on her own? Would she even be willing to help her out with this? And why were there two boys looking at her as if she would just snap over nothing before they exited the shop? Nervousness really didn't fit the redhead, but she was trying to go about things the polite way and that made her nervous.

When Dahlia asked her to come in, using her name nonetheless, Amanda knew Jack must've told the witch a lot. She certainly couldn't remember ever actually meeting the witch other than seeing her for a fleeting moment on the battlefield. Stepping into the office, she stood awkwardly a little away from the desk, still fidgeting with her bracelet. How had she landed herself in this situation again? Oh, right...

"I don't know how much Jack has told you, and I know you don't owe me anything at all, but I need some magical help and didn't know who else to ask. I could try to fix it all by myself, but I don't think I should be working any advanced magic at the moment." It wasn't hard to see that the witch was embarrassed that she had to come practically begging for help from a stranger like this to fix a problem she had created for herself.

Before Dahlia could say no out of spite, and more importantly before she let her nerves get the best of her, she needed to state what exactly she needed help with. "I need to find a safe way to give back my daughter's magic and bind it so she can't access it yet." There, she's said why she was there, even if the words just rushed out of her mouth. She was trying to change and wasn't that at least worth something?

Dahlia gestured for Amanda to sit down when the girl walked into her office. she kept her dark eyes on the witch at all times, listening to her plea and seeing if this woman really was changing from the horror stories and magic she'd felt. Even when there was a break in amanda's words she didn't speak, thinking it as a good choice when the girl started up again with the main reason she was here. Her expression remained indifferent as she spoke, her voice firm and oddly controlled from how mad she could be.
"I'm very much aware of what you've been doing with that extra magic Amanda, and though I wish to punish you gravely for it, I'll help you come up with a solution for your child."
She almost seemed angry still as she watched Amanda for a moment, not sure where even to start. she pulled a book from her shelf and turned a few pages as if looking for something.
"Now I know your emotions grow out of hand with that magic, you leave a bigger impact around you aside from whatever damage you did. I'm going to have to remove those more menacing emotions from you for the time being, until your daughter's power is properly locked away. That part i'll be helping you with personally."
As she spoke she was still turning through the pages of the book, looking for a spell in particular.

Jack had told her to be polite about it all, and when Dahlia gestured for her to sit down, she took her up on the offer. She wasn't done fidgeting though, Dahlia made her nervous. Well, actually, the whole situation made her nervous and what the other witch had to say about the matter didn't really help at all.

"I didn't mean for it to go that far, things just got a little out of control." She didn't mean to get all defensive about it all, she just didn't like feeling like an errant child. "Wait, you mean like Casey does?" She liked to think that giving up some of the magic she'd stolen from others made her less like a ticking bomb than she had been before, but maybe she was wrong about that as well. The way Dahlia spoke made it seem like she could really go of at anything. Maybe she hadn't changed as much as she'd thought if that was the case.

"On one hand, I've never had as much fun as I did during the whole fight. On the other hand, I have to live with the consequences, no matter how much of the magic I give back. Don't think I would've come here if there was any other way to get back into my daughter's life to be honest."

Oh, she definitely wouldn't have gone through the past few weeks of hell voluntarily if there was any other way get Jack to give her a second chance. He'd never trust her until she gave back what she'd taken for herself, until she hopefully was less of a threat to him and their girl. As if she'd ever actually do anything to put Kailah in danger. The whole thing with Mason was just a misunderstanding. Ok, so she was still pretty mad at him about the whole thing, even if he was only trying to help at this point. It hurt how he'd turned everyone against her without anyone even taking the time to hear her out, except Mason. Some times she wondered if he really was the only true friend she had.

Dahlia looked up from her book, the look reading as one of hush on the matter of defending herself. she as this as what is done is done and there was no real way to truly correct it aside from locking up the magic and emotions. she went back to turning and skimming pages until Amanda mentioned Casey.
"So you've ran into my dragon then, well that makes introductions easier. He will be escorting you everywhere outside of your home, including your work. We'll have a council with him shortly about this."
She had her nose in the book again as she listened to more of what Amanda said,trying not to let her lip twitch into a snarl of sorts. Dahlia could understand the enjoyment of battle, but hearing the girl somewhat understand her position with consequences eased her some. She seemed to find the spell she had been looking for, grabbing a strange crystal orb from the shelf.
"Once a week you will meet here in my office as we strip what magic is your daughter's from you and bind it to this crystal until she is of age. I'm afraid with how much you've used of it, taking it all away at once will harm you more than help everyone.We will go though this this until all that is the child's is sealed in here and you only hold what was originally yours. Now for the other part of the deal."
She snapped her fingers then, her expression still seeming rather serious as a heavy feel of magic filled the office. Casey appeared behind her leaning on the bookshelf looking upset in its own way. It even had the nerve to glare at the pink-haired witch, looking as if it had made a mad dash to dress itself again.
"I was in the middle of something."
"Your lover can wait, right now you have a task. You'll be making a contract with Amanda to keep her anger at bay until she returns to her original state of magic.This means escorting her and keeping her track of her at all times."
Said dragon just rolled its eyes before looking at Amanda in the chair, knowing who it was as the woman that hurt one of the guards of its graveyard. Casey walked over to the girl then, still looking upset he had been disturbed over someone with a temper.
"So be it, but just so I can have my own time i'll make a bracelet that will absorb her anger too just so i don't constantly have to be at her side."

Wait? She wasn't talking about doing what Casey did, she meant have that creepy thing escort her everywhere. She couldn't help but frown slightly at the thought, but if that was what needed to be done to get better, then so be it. After her past two weeks, she knew there would be plenty of anger once she started to give away the magic, especially since she'd be so frustrated with the whole situation of feeling helpless.

Amanda listened to what Dahlia had to say, but couldn't help but bite her lip and look down into her lap by the end. "Yeah, about that... Even when all of Kailah's magic is stored in that thing, I won't just have what was originally mine. I got in an argument with another witch and she's no longer in a position to get back what was hers." The magic of the witch she'd killed in an argument about a book had no other place to go. It hadn't been a powerful witch, so there wasn't a lot of magic so it probably wouldn't even make much of a difference, but she didn't want Dahlia to give that to her daughter as well. It was one thing for her to have it, another thing entirely to pass on that magic as well as the haunting images that came with it to her daughter.

It was obvious Casey didn't like to be summoned like this, but he was needed for this whole debacle to even work it seemed. Smirking slightly at how the dragon seemed to be so indifferent about the whole thing, she couldn't help herself. "I thought you rather enjoyed our little run in, certainly didn't hesitate to try to make me forget why I wanted that mutt dead to begin with." OK, so she had to admit she still had a long way to go before she would be fine being around Jack again without wanting to hurt him like he'd hurt her. She knew he'd only wanted what was best for their daughter, but that didn't make it any less painful and apparently she was the type of person who wanted to make others suffer along with her when she was hurt.

Dahlia watched how Amanda responded to this all. A smirk was finally able to show on her face but it was only for a split second until the girl brought up the other witch she now held the magic of.
"That's a guilt you and you alone will always bear. I can take that magic from you too if you want, but every magic has its price."
Casey seemed to be easing up around them now as it chuckled at Dahlia's words. It found its magic unlimited and enjoyed it greatly, at least on a means that was enjoyable for it. It had started to fabricate a bracelet that would give the dragon the ability to sense and drain darker emotions from Amanda even when they were far apart, smirking at the redhead's words.
"Oh I did, but you must understand I've had my hands full with my little vampire and I much more would rather spend time with him than you. though we will always meet up for lunch."
It gave a chuckle at this, dahlia not finding much amusement in this at all.

It had probably been a good thing she'd given back the magic of the other witches before coming to see Dahlia or this might have all turned out quite differently. To be honest, she hadn't expected the older witch to be so willing to help her out after all that she'd done the past few months. Sure, she'd started out wanting to do good things, but then her temper had gotten the best of her and all she could do was destroy things. "It's best if I just keep it, the guilt won't go away either way and that way no one else has to pay for it."

The road to recovery wouldn't be easy, but at least she was starting before her daughter got to miss her too much, right? She missed that little girl more than anything in the world and the little time she got to spend with her was the best days of her otherwise dull existence at the moment. Just because she'd gone dark didn't mean there was no way back, right? Unless that darkness never really left her and she'd always be tempted to use magic when she got upset, then she'd have to just find some way to get around it all.

"Your vampire? That's so adorable! I never thought vampires would make for good pets, but they certainly make for interesting lovers," she couldn't help but chuckle slightly. Oh how she missed the simplicity of working for vampires rather than running a shop of her own. No matter how much she loved her current job, working for vampires certainly had a way of making life more interesting. What she really missed was the whole biting thing though. Maybe she should look into getting a vampire friend so she'd have someone to turn to.

"As long as you don't start to scare people at my shop, I'm sure we'll do just fine. Kind of hard to explain you being around all day to my employee anyway."

Dahlia nodded at Amanda agreeing to keep the magic she stole, but she would still make sure Casey could keep her tame. she marked the page in her spell book for good measure and put things out onto her shelf for later use. she looked back at the two, though her stare was mostly at the dragon.
"I want both of you back here later today so as to take some of the infant's magic and bind it to the crystal until the girl is ready. Let's see how long you two can go without destroying half this town, now shoo, I have other business to attend to."
Her face was stern as she made to escort both Amanda and Casey outside, the dragon just laughing at this. It was fully aware Dahlia was dealing with an Ill brother, one that was overly depressed and upset among other things, but it could care less so long as it could rile the woman up still. Casey ignored this urge though when Amanda called Alec a pet. eyes narrowed as it tried to not show its teeth, hair and eyes turning a subtle red color.
"He isn't a pet. I'm not that desperate or disgusting."
Casey would be considered a pet to most in all aspects of how it was created, hence why it always made sure it was above such behavior no matter what it did that could be consider just as low.

Was that a challenge the other witch gave them? Did she really think they could destroy half the town? Well, she knew she could if she was given a reason and just got started, which meant Casey probably could too if he wanted to. It would be fascinating to see how far they'd get before someone stopped them. Amanda had to shake off any such thoughts before she actually considered making a reality out of them. Wasn't she trying to change after all? The old Amanda, before she got all her new powers never would have even entertained the notion of burning down the down for fun. Even when she'd first acquired her new powers all she wanted was to keep the town safe. Until she started learning too much too fast, and some kinds of spells just didn't work for good causes.

She let herself be ushered outside, just thankful that Dahlia would help her. She had yet to reach the stage where she was doing this all because it was what she wanted, but she figured she'd get there eventually. Right now she was just going through with this whole thing because that was what was expected of her if she wanted to see her daughter more regularly. Wasn't her daughter's safety what had started her learning in the first place? It all confused her at this point.

It was obvious calling the vampire in question a pet upset Casey to no end, and the fact that it could be riled up like that made her chuckle. "I just assumed from the way you were calling him yours. All protective like that, it was almost adorable." So she still hadn't gotten rid of her need to insult people, but she was gradually working on that as well. She figured with Dahlia and Casey's constant overview she'd be purring like a kitten in no time at all.

"Fascinating creatures though, vampires... I had the pleasure of working for some a while back, it did make everything a lot more precious that's for sure."

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Casey calmed back down but still had a bit of an unhappy expression even though its hair was now its neutral colors again. It ran a hand through its long white and blond hairs before starting to walk down the street, glad to be out of its tomb for a once. The dragon had ignored the fact that Amanda had called it cute, but listened carefully as she spoke of working with vampires.
"I'm not too fond of vampires, worked for one too many that were just annoying. My vampire is but a newborn, so knowing him when he was human is the only reason I ignore the fact some bitch ripped his mortal life from him."
Casey had gotten over it for the most part, it was just still uncomfortable that Marcus was letting that monster live along side its lover like that. It shook the thoughts away though as they were to keep walking, the dragon resisting feasting on anyone aside from Amanda if she lost her temper.

It was fascinating really how Casey justified sticking with his vampire. She must admit though, knowing someone from when they were human was different than knowing a vampire that was already past their first century. He probably lacked that inherent arrogance that seemed to come with centuries of life and thinking they were better than everyone else. Not that she minded really as she was sure she could match them when it came to the arrogance at least lately.

"Does he at least have someone to teach him how to get a handle on things?" She was intrigued. Newborns always seemed to fascinate her just as much as age old vampires simply because they still remembered how it was to be human and in a lot of cases had no problems feeding from them. It baffled her how they dealt with the guilt or lack there of.

"You don't eat guilt too, do you?" she said before she could stop herself. Biting her lip, she ruffled her hair to distract herself. "Forget I asked, how is this bracelet thing gonna work?"

Casey was keeping a lesiurely pace, looking around while still barely paying mind to Amanda until she asked if Alec had someone to teach him.
"Yes he does, an older vampire was kind enough to help him. Though its all on my grounds at this point. seems the monster knows how to speak and please who he needs for things to go smoothly. Still don't like him being around him, but I can't really do much about it."
He was getting annoyed with this before picking up on the question of whether he ate guilt or not.it looked over at her with a smirk before giving a small chuckle, turning to face her.
"Of course i do darling, I eat every negative emotion out there, from guilt to rage, even grief and lust. All of them are just meals for me."
On the qestion of the bracelet, it just smirked wider before holding the mentioned bracelet out to her. It was simple enough, made with chain and had a pretty clear stone on it for the time being.
"Since Mistress didn't state what kind of contract i had to make with you, I was thinking this would be the simplest and least painful way in doing so. You just slip this on, and that stone there will chance color according to what negative emotion you feel. This bracelet connects back to me and then I can drain the emotion from you without actually being there. It'll be easier for when I'm not actually there like when you're at home or I have other things to attend to."

It was obvious Casey didn't care for this older vampire at all, which made her all the more interested in finding out more about him. Not that she'd ask Casey, her curiosity could be taken as something else entirely and that wouldn't be good. She didn't want to come across as too nosy after all, not if they were going to be making some sort of contract. "Look at it this way, the newborn probably is like a child to him, if you had a kid would you want him running around unprotected? No matter how safe he is with you..." One thing was for sure, just because she had a thing for hanging out with vampires didn't mean she wanted Kailah to ever get involved in their politics or way of life.

So he'd picked up on her question despite her almost silent plea for him to ignore it. It wasn't her place to ask someone to do that, it was her guilt to carry. It tethered her to what was left of her humanity at this point as she was able to remember who she'd been before all the madness if she remembered the guilt. Remembered how guilt ridden she'd been the first time she'd taken a life and how far she'd come to the point where she'd enjoyed it.

"It also makes you not having to be around when I work much easier. Just because I promised my hunter employee that there would be no more secrets doesn't mean I'm ready to reveal just how much of a monster I'm capable of being if provoked." Deep down, she had a feeling it wouldn't matter how much magic she gave back, now that she'd been exposed to it, she'd always be capable of such monstrosities. The sad part was that it didn't scare her any more.

"Do I have to wear it all the time? I'm really not good at following rules," she chuckled slightly. It was true; no matter how hard she tried to be good and do what everyone expected of her, sooner or later she'd grow tired of being so responsible. Didn't matter if she had to grow up for her daughter's sake, the carefreeness was kind of what had made all the magic so addictive to begin with.