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Post by Doctor on Jul 27, 2010 22:51:39 GMT -8
"Bitch, you are so lucky this thing has a GPS," Anshel spat, the acrimony bleeding from his voice onto his face. He disconnected the call with a conclusive snap of the screen, hurrying to flip the gadget on its side and pinpoint her location. The orange beacon that represented that Russian nuisance shone brightly from his screen and he held the image up to Azura.
"Are you seriously giggling right now?" He whined, at a loss, while presenting the screen. There was barely any actual bite to it. Anshel could calm down now. Some of the anxiety dissipated now that there was a clear task for them to accomplish, no matter how distasteful.
"So who's this other bitch tailing her?" He asked, feeling himself for the blades strapped to his thighs.
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Post by Christopher Saunders on Jul 27, 2010 23:07:47 GMT -8
Oh the gut busting laughter, how it tempted him to join in so. The thought didn’t fully reach his face, only curling his lips into the ghost of a smile, and drawing a chuckle from between slightly parted lips, but became quickly sealed away as a cold facet of him took over.
“I refuse to be blown apart again.” His voice carried with it a sinister promise, like the sounds just before a volcano erupted. Grappling internally, forcing down a frenzy, he found himself wishing for a bit of light at the moment. He could draw energy from plants if it came down to it, but that primordial need for blood would be what would ultimately bring salvation to any vampire.
“If Tullio weren’t already dead, I’d kill him.” He murmured, letting thoughts tumble out of his lips. Chris ran a hand over his jaw absentmindedly, adjusting the collar of the shirt he wore: a button up long sleeve, a dark purple, with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. Consideration of changes in climate were definately not the first thing somebody thought of when they had been trying to escape repeatedly.
“Whoever followed, they were bold enough to directly approach me, which is obviously not good, makes me wonder if it’s a suicidal assassin. I thought I’d escaped them in Wales…” He growled the last word, frustration bubbling back up once more. Serena wasn’t here to subdue it either. “But the fucker,” Weird word to come from his mouth. “Has some sort of network, I’d bet, or maybe some outer force to guide them.”
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Post by AzuraGallu on Jul 27, 2010 23:19:58 GMT -8
Smile still plastered to his face, Azura glanced over at the screen on the phone. All of it was a gross topey-brown color save that one small dot, zooming in and out like it was someone jumping up and down. He processed the information for a moment, running over a map he'd memorized of a few USGS byways he'd looked over.
He turned the wheel to the left, running parallel to one of them, at least he thought so, before looking in the rear-view at Chris.
"Calm down," he said in the most gentle voice he could muster. The vampire was the sensitive sort, if one got to know him well enough, but still struggled with kindness towards others on a purely personal level. Chris was a good kid, but still just a kid and needed to be treated a bit differently than if it were any other diplomat sitting in the rickety back seat of the shoddily-made vehicle. "We'll ask the Akoto once we meet him."
His expression had changed somewhat, smiled subdued as he took one last look at the Moroi before snorting at Anshel. "Yeah, giggling. Rule against it? Well fuck you, I'm driving- And would you stop doing that! Jesus, it's like you want me to jump you." He swatted Anshel's closest thigh before continuing. "She's with an Akoto. His name is Ito, and I think I've heard of him before, but I'm not certain. The fact that he's even with Melora means that he's using her. I don't know what for, but I'm betting the Akoto have caught wind of the situation among the Gallu by now. This isn't a good thing," he said quietly. "And Chris was being followed. We're safe for now, but we should check him for wires once we stop. I don't want him leading whoever it is into a situation where we could be easily outnumbered."
With that he turned on Christopher with a cheesy, fanged smile, somehow managing to keep them going in a relatively straight line. "Strip tease!"
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Post by Naoto Ito on Jul 27, 2010 23:25:43 GMT -8
"Baby," Naoto hissed from between his teeth. It wasn't directed at her, but at the thing he sensed moving around ahead. This was dangerous, and for the first time he didn't feel that he held the upper hand in close range combat. There was something off here, and he was usurped buy the notion that he thought he knew how Blackravens operated.
He walked slowly back to her before nudging her forward with the hilt of his sword digging into the small of her back.
"Forward, or I'll chop that pretty hand off."
He'd heard the phone call and was none too pleased. He didn't need the Gallu here to discover he body. That was a fact he was almost certain of. He'd have to ditch the woman. In other words, sacrifice her to get his opening to kill his target. Easy enough, though he would have preferred it differently, but his preferences didn't matter. Completing his task did.
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Post by MeloraBelikov on Jul 27, 2010 23:35:35 GMT -8
"Hey, Ito...?" Her voice was soft and thoughtful, and she took a moment to consider her next action. Swiftly she turned, gun drawn, now to his face. She backed away from him, making sure she didn't end up with her back against any walls. "Don't," she said, flatly, "Don't you fucking touch me again. You know what's interesting?" Her aim remained steady at his face as she waited for any indication that he might attack so she could blow his face off and be done with it. "You seem to be in a bit of a hurry. Especially after my phone call. Not a social person? I can see why, with an attitude like that. I have an idea. How about we wait for Azura because I have a gun that will kill you in one good shot?" This was her version of negotiation. Do what she said, don't get shot. And that was the way Melora liked it.
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Post by Doctor on Jul 27, 2010 23:51:09 GMT -8
"Oh sweet Beliath," Anshel buried his embarrassed face in his hands. "Will you please just look where you're going?"
He took Azura's face between his hands and turned it to face the road after giving him a stern look of warning: eyes in front. Unbuckling his seat belt, he turned around and negotiated the path from the cluttered front of the vehicle to the backseat where Christopher sat. Anshel took the boys hand in his own and sincerely apologized for what was about to happen.
"I don't want to do this, but we can't risk you being bugged."
With scared, tentative hands he began to pat the Boy Lord down his arms and front... but then retracted his arms with such a force that he ended up back against the opposite passenger window.
"Eughhh, this is weird!" Anshel whined andshook his hands out in front of him to rid them of the lingering feeling, incredibly disturbed by the task at hand. A short moment later, he shook the distress from his face and began to speak encouraging words to himself. "You can do this," he mumbled. "This is not a big deal. This is not weird; it's necessary. It's not weird." With a whimper and shaky but there determination, Anshel resumed the search of the boy.
He was already back beside Azura when they arrived at the expanse of desert Melora was presumably at, or had been. With Christopher deemed clean, he hastily made his way back to the front and away from him, wishing to take every measure to bleach the last twenty minutes from his brain. The engine was shut off and there on his tiny phone screen was that orange Melora-dot that he'd been eying with disdain, ready to tell it off should it too decide to mouth off to him with lame excuses.
The wind howled. Anshel pulled a flashlight from his satchel and switched it on.
"If I end up murdering her, you tell no one." He ordered his two companions, mostly joking.
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Post by Naoto Ito on Jul 27, 2010 23:59:51 GMT -8
He almost laughed. That is, he would have had she not just aimed a fucking gun at his face. The bird on his shoulder ruffled its feathers, seeming to 'get' that this was a tense situation. Or it would have been if at the last second he hadn't noticed how shittily she was holding the revolver. She was in a hurry to threaten him. So much so that she didn't have time to negotiate the quick change of hand and gather her gun together correctly.
Deadly mistake.
He drew his blade faster than her eyes could probably follow, beating down on her wrist with the back-side of his sword, effectively causing her to lose her grip on her weapon and instill some numbness. She wouldn't be using that hand for a few days yet, but he was confident he at least hadn't broken anything.
Not that it mattered much, he reminded himself gently as he re-sheathed his blade, using the butt end to prod her forward again. She was going to die by the time the sun rose, he was sure of it. If the others were just now coming to get her, they were in for a surprise. The sun rose early in this desert.
"Move!" he ordered her, eyes hardening with resolve and an eager annoyance that was constantly nipping at his heels when he was in her presence.
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Post by Christopher Saunders on Jul 28, 2010 0:04:31 GMT -8
Calm down? Calm down? Serena herself was ‘lucky’ to get him to calm down when these bouts of anger or aggression began to form, and knew only one thing if they successfully boiled over: get the hell away as fast as possible.
Had he just heard those words!? Strip tease!?
Christopher coughed, having to process the full extent of exactly what a ‘strip tease’ meant, before his green orbs widened. His face flushed a dark red similar to a child having walked in on their parents during an intimate moment. “St- Strip tease!?” His voice came out shrill, almost feminine with the sudden news. Dear god! Could they…? Would they…? Frazzled thoughts had just gotten worse.
And apparently: they did. Or rather Anshel. Chris managed to convince himself that it had been better then Azura… Yet if Anshel wished to erase the last twenty minutes, he wished to forget about the entire day in itself. Would he ever be able to look at the Judge the same way again? Probably, of course nothing had happened, but incredibly awkward couldn’t describe how the situation felt.
Managing a façade of absolute confidence, (the tension in his shoulders gave it away), he folded his arms in front of his chest, finishing up as he walked around the vehicle. ‘I should kill that Gallian for even suggesting…’ He shivered.
He cleared his throat. “So. This is where your… Russian is hiding?” He nudged a pebble with his foot, sending out a quiet clatter against the dry earth. “Weird place, though who’d think to look in the middle of nowhere?”
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Post by MeloraBelikov on Jul 28, 2010 0:10:53 GMT -8
"Fuck you!" She spat. Quickly she assessed the damage, nothing broken, but unable to move her fingers. Fuck, it was happening all over again, and this time there wasn't any negotiating with demons. Her only other option would be to submit to her father and become a vampire, but she would rather die, she'd already decided. Again his sword's hilt was prodding harshly against her spine, urging her forward. But no, this wasn't going to happen. She stood firm, barely moving with each nudge. "I will not move from this spot. And what the fuck can you do about it? You're stuck. If you kill me here and now, my father will kill you. His goal isn't to have me dead. If he doesn't kill you, Azura will. And if Azura doesn't do you in, the Banglaire will. Further more, I thought I told you to Stop. Fucking. Touching. Me." Her hand slid down her thigh, gripping her dagger with her good hand. She wasn't practiced with it, but it would certainly serve her better than nothing. She'd learned a new trick since the last time she'd almost died. A silver poison ran along the bloodline of her blade. If she was going down she'd be taking him with her for sure.
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Post by AzuraGallu on Jul 28, 2010 0:13:21 GMT -8
"Lots of people. That's why Mel's here. Trust me, she isn't as smart as she looks." he quipped, scoffing at Anshel's use of a flashlight.
The entrance to the mine was obvious enough to be cliche, wooden beams supporting the mouth of it while eroded tracks led from it, passed them, and then ended in a high sheet of earth just behind them where the car was parked.
Why the fuck did this remind him of a Scooby Doo episode?
He started forward, smiling at Anshel's comment. "You get first dibs. I'll pick up the pieces," he said, waggling his eyebrows in the dim lighting before they were completely consumed in darkness. The flashlight was bright, enough to throw off his naturally night-adjusted eyes. The intensity of it almost hurt, but he squinted past it, focusing on the darkness ahead.
A small muffled choke of sound reached his ears, which he recognized as a voice. But it sure wasn't feminine; not at that octave.
He bolted forward, leaving Anshel's light behind him as he smelled for Melora through the earthen tunnels, straining to hear her as well, though now his surroundings became oddly silent.
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Post by Christopher Saunders on Jul 28, 2010 0:41:13 GMT -8
A mine? Really? As they entered, Chris locked his mouth shut, beating back a distressed sound. He hated mines, and tiny, enclosed spaces in general. The walls were already closing in… Was that a support beam cracking that made that sound?
There were actual reasons he refrained from using elevators, and making his drivers take routes with no tunnels, and staying away from caves, and mines. Reasons. Few knew he actually had it, and three of those few were dead, leaving a few members of personal Guard, but three Maids, and he couldn’t quite remember if Anshel had been told or not, Christopher just couldn’t think. Claustrophobia was not something to be fucked with.
He knew his breaths were coming far to fast already, and tried to slow them: to no avail. ‘Nothing bad is going to happen. It won’t collapse. It won’t kill me…’ That made it worse, and once those thoughts had started, little could be done to cease them.
“I won’t suffocate and die...” He mewled in a pathetically small voice, mistakenly speaking aloud, steps heavy on Anshel’s heels. Another noise made him jump, gripping Anshel’s forearm like a small, panicked child.
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Post by Doctor on Jul 28, 2010 1:01:48 GMT -8
Anshel maneuvered with little effort through the beginning of the mine shaft as light filled the crevices of the small space to reveal harmless dust and wood. He felt a tug on his arm and found Christopher, as if his bicep was a life preserver and they were lost at sea instead of this barren as fuck desert. A quick assessment of his trembling and mumbling and general internal turmoil left Anshel with his jaw to floor in absolute affront.
"Oh, you are fucking kidding me," he accused the boy. "Tell me. Tell me you are just fucking with me and you are not actually scared of closed spaces!" He demanded, but Christopher would not acquiesce. "Motherfucking, Satan damned, good for nothing..." he mumbled on and on before composing himself and placing both hands and the boy's shoulders, the flashlight under one palm illuminating the entrance behind them.
"Look at me," the order was stern and flat. "You're a fucking vampire, right? Right." He smacked Chris lightly across the cheek with his empty hand before pointing at his face. "You. Are. A vampire. This mine isn't going to collapse. And even if it did - which it won't! - you're not gonna die from it, boy. You got that?" Anshel nodded his head, urging Christopher to mimic it. "Good. Now stop acting like a fucking mortal and get your ass into this cave." He pointed a thumb behind him, voice still flat and even. Don't get mad. Don't freak him out. Just give directions.
The Hunter flipped the flashlight back to shine into the belly of mine and dragged the boy roughly by his arm into the dusty tunnels.
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Post by Naoto Ito on Jul 28, 2010 20:06:32 GMT -8
Naoto had to stifle a pissed growl. "And you can't run away from me. If your boyfriend come along and tries to kill me, I'll just disappear. He has more important things to worry about than me anyway, so don't press your luck, bitch."
His thumb eased his blade partially out of its sheath, fangs tearing up his lower lip to shreds to keep himself from actually killing her. But it was so god damn hard with her even breathing in the same room. Even that offended him. How did the Gallu stand it?
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Post by MeloraBelikov on Jul 28, 2010 20:22:53 GMT -8
Vetis finally spoke up. Melora, run. Just fucking run. Now.
Melora gritted her teeth at the pounding in her head that accompanied Vetis' demands. Shut up, I can't think. Just shut up.
Bitch, I will take this body over in about 30 seconds if you don't fucking figure it out. Vetis warned. But Melora ignored her, though it was entirely possible, she was too strong willed to let the demon take her over.
"My Father will still kill you," Melora said, unwavering in her resistance to Naoto's rather forceful reasoning. "If you just wait then everyone will be here, Konstantin will eventually be taken care of, you get to go back to whatever fucking clan you come from." But by now Melora had already decided where it was Naoto had come from. He was an Akoto, and a dangerous one obviously. The Akoto were neutral with her own clan, but not anywhere near friendly. "You're about to do one of two things: use me as bait or kill me. You'd do much better to keep me around. What purpose would killing me do?"
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Post by Naoto Ito on Jul 28, 2010 20:37:50 GMT -8
"It'll shut you up," he said evenly before pulling back and fully drawing his blade before plunging it into her shoulder. "Still want to fucking argue with me? or will you do what I say, human?"
He jerked his sword free of her, spitting at her feet out of disgust. The Banglaire were receiving a bad grade from this vampire when he got home, that was for certain.
"Up," he said with narrowed eyes as he ran a finger along the bloodied edge of his blade, picking it up to stick it on his tongue for a moment.
He was startled at the taste for a moment, eyes going wide with surprise. Ah, so this was why. The Gallu, in his youth, could keep away from her because of her blood. It all made sense to him now, and fortunately, gave him even more excuses to off her if she resisted further.
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