Lane listened to him, but it seemed the sheen of the day before had worn off a bit. He looked worn out, perhaps strung out. She did not feel any different than she had the night before, Lane still wanted to help him, but it was odd to see that the magic of the evening had faded with the cold light of morning. The way he spoke about what she "knew" gave her an uneasy feeling, as if she had not worked hard enough to uncover the skills she had. She kissed him, but her eyes were pensive as she did so, and when she pulled back, she decided she would speak up now, instead of letting it pass.<br/><br/>"Don't do that. Don't demean what skills I do have by attributing them to some fantasy novels and Wiccan books." It was a boundary for her and she was not sure it was a line he had even realized that he had crossed. Perhaps it was their age difference, that things that felt impactful and significant to her would just look like youthful whims to him. She let the moment pass at that, and Lane felt a little bit stronger because of it. For the first time, perhaps in her lifetime, she asked for something she wanted.<br/><br/>"And I've never actually seen Supernatural, I sort of got turned off by the fact that most of the female characters die and die horribly. I mean, a female character death for man pain? Lazy writing at its best."<br/><br/>She nodded, as he mentioned she should build her defenses. Lane knew if she was going to help him that much had to happen. Otherwise, she would probably end up where her ancestor had, swallowed up by the power of darkness. She looked at the tea he had made and thought about the friends she had watched "dabble" and where they had ended up because of it. Some had lost their minds, others had just lost themselves to the seductive power of darkness. The offer of the tea again caused her expression to be pensive. Lane had nearly convinced herself that she did not want to know more about the connection she shared with Adella. It could mean living in the past, feeling like an echo of a woman she had once been. The problem was, Lane was not great with curiosity, it nearly always broke her and caused her to seek more and to find out more. If she had a friend who started a story and then said "Oh, I should tell you this..." She would badger them until they finished the story and told her the forbidden knowledge that was meant to be kept from her.<br/><br/>Lane abandoned her coffee and went to the counter where the tea sat. She drew in a breath and let the cool scent of mint fill her nostrils, and it felt as if she could feel the magic in it as she sucked it in. Her fingers curled around the handle of the cup and she lifted it to her mouth and turned back to face James. "Bottoms up..."<br/><br/>She pressed the cup to her lips and allowed the liquid to slid down her throat, without bothering to taste it. At first, there was nothing, she set the cup back down and felt slightly relieved that it seemed as if her soul was just hers, not an echo of Adella's. But then she looked at James, and a flash of memories came into her mind. Nights spent reading by candlelight, followed by evenings in bed, not unlike the night that Lane had shared with James the night before. She saw images of Adella's husband and her baby, and her descent into dealing with dark forces. Adella seemed to have the same self-destructive tendencies that Lane herself possessed, but where the elder woman had fallen into an addiction to power and the search for immortality, Lane had just done it through a string of shitty boyfriends and a lack of self-worth. Though she now knew more about her ancestor, Lane didn't feel like she was just some echo, as she feared. Adella had enjoyed her time with James and their feelings for each other, but she had never truly fallen for the man. Lane could sense that in Adella's memories. The woman found him fascinating and his energy addicting, but she clung to just about anything that gave her that acute rush of adrenaline. She liked the thrill of the relationship. The challenge that he presented.<br/><br/>As her mind brought her back to the present, she realized she was breathing in shallow gasps, her chest rising and falling with the action. It actually ached a little, and she found her eyes searching for an anchor and finding James once again.<br/><br/>"--Not her. Her, but not her." She managed to stutter out. Her soul had remnants of Adella, that much was sure, but when Lane was born into this world it had become wholly hers. She sifted through the flashes of images and then tried to speak again, setting the memories aside for now.<br/><br/>"So I learn to summon, capture and kill this demon and then we seek out your old playmate and do the same with her? Is that the end game here?"