The Crazies (OPEN)

Aurelia was sitting behind the desk at one of the labs, it seemed the other people working on the cure were presently taking a break and she was glad of that, she had been going over her old notes for making her forumla in the morning and she was ready to compare her solutions molecular structure to the structure of the cells in the disease, she hoped that she would find some correlation there but she wouldn't hold out hope that it was going to be that simple, even if they her one cell the same, it would be a miracle.

Sighing a little bit, she had seen the young girl who had the disease in the ward next door, she was almost gone, nothing but skin and bones and she couldn't help but think how unfair this was, here was she, having had a full long shot at life, fucked up at almost every hurdle, and this young girl who had hardly lived her life was going to die any moment now in the room next to her, she had some hope a few days ago to survive but now...now the virus was too far gone.

Gritting her teeth Aurelia placed some of the virus sample on a microscope slide, making sure that the gloves and bio suit she was wearing were all secure, she placed her eye against the lens and looked closely at the virus, sighing lightly, she began the hard work ahead of her, hoping to redeem herself, and save more lives with a cure than she had killed with her own mistakes in the past.

Shekel flitted into the lab where he had been told the human hunter was now working. He was not angry at the woman for hunting his kind and the other creatures. Truth be told, he cared less about other vampires than he did for humans. Sehkmet being the one exception of course.

But what he wanted to talk to her about was the new research that she was going to bring to the table. There were hushed rumours about how this whole thing was based on something she had invented years ago as a means of attacking the magic of a witch or wizards. Gliding into the room, he smiled ever so slightly as he drew close,

"Hello there Miss Vance." he greeted her in his soft, silky, voice, "Fancy meeting you here."

Aurelia tilted her head to one side when she heard something approaching her, she had hunted vampires but this seemed to be a tricky one, she didn't hear him until he was almost upon her, however, he didn't seem in the mood for munchies right now and so she didn't act on the feelings of protection she would have normally.

Turning she saw that it was in fact the vampire that she had been told worked on the case as well as the many human healers that they had here in the hospital, maybe he was proving more useful than most of the humans put together, he had lived longer than them all after all.

"You can call me Aurelia if you like, or Shadow, whichever you prefer, Miss makes me seem to old, or too official." she smirked leaning back from her work for a moment "You must be Shekel Umec, nice to meet you in person at last."

Shekel walked over to a nearby culture that he'd been growing and peered through the microscope for a few seconds before turning his attention back to her,

"Sorry about that." he told her, "The colour of the culture had changed and I thought it might have been benefitial. Unfortunately it wasn't and it seems I was rude for nothing. Please forgive me."

When she told him to be more informal with her he chuckled a little bit. It was refreshing to not be told to have to use a title for a human, seeing as many humans believed that they were naturally superior to vampires. He played along mostly because it had become a chore to find and kill the people who would hunt him for disrespect,

"I believe I shall call you Aurelia, I know a very charming woman called Umbra and she is Shadow to me. Besides, Aurelia is a beautiful name, you should be proud of it." he told her casually before holding hand out for her to shake, "Likewise. My other half has told me quite a bit about you."

Aurelia merely blinked a little bit and returned to her own research when Shekel moved to check his own, she didn't really think it was rude behaviour, she had been around the Irvine brothers after all, there was no ruder person than Jack with a hangover if you try and wake him up for an early morning mission.

"Don't worry about it, it's not like you'd punched me in the face or anything." she smirked "You'll find I'm probably more easy going than you would have expected, the things you'll have heard about me."

It was true, Aurelia wasn't a crazy mass killer, she was someone who believed in an idea and pushed it in the entirely wrong way, she was here to change herself and help save people as opposed to harming them like she used to.

When he held out his hand, Aurelia smiled very gently and shook it with her own, before letting her palm drop to her side, he wasn't so bad, for a vampire that was.

"I bet we both haven't heard the most flattering of things." she smirked "I suggest we leave them at the door, and focus on finding a cure for this thing, tell me where you stand already in terms of research and I'll see what I can do."

Shekel was glad that she did not seem to mind his rudeness. Of course that mattered only slightly more than the fact that he disliked his own rudeness. After so many years of being alive there was no excuse for rudeness even now,

"Yes well I might have done that in the past... I get a little punch-drunk if hunters attack." he admitted slightly sheepishly, "The things I've heard about you suggest that you're as likely to kill me as you are to speak to me. Since you've not tried to kill me I'd say my information is wrong."

Shekel smiled approvingly when she shook his hand despite him being a vampire. Perhaps there was a chance for this woman to turn her life around and perhaps even work on a cure,

"In terms of research?" he gestured to two large files to her right, "Those two files are my research. The other researchers disapprove of my gathering techniques however. They say it's wrong to take blood samples at hourly intervels before an infected person's death on their last day. The research says that it's worth it to know the rate at which the disease grows and spreads."