Secrets

[MeloraBelikov]

"While I would love to play with you Azura..." Melora started seductively, staring up at him from her position next to him int the narrow doorway of the room, still holding his hand in hers, "Unfortunately the reason I dragged you in here is that the woman in the hallway is a Blackraven, and therefor we need to kill some time until she passes through." Melora said this last bit matter-of-factly, dropping his hand and opting to run her own hand through her hair. He had almost taken her mind off of the vampire in the hallway with all of his charm, until of course realizing that he was a vampire himself, and that she owed him blood. Yikes. Still, despite the fact that they were alone, she had hoped Anshel would be enough for him, at least for a little while. Melora's morbid curiosities about having blood taken from her, but she quashed them all while focusing on waiting for the offending vampire to pass through or get caught.

[Rima Elaine Donavon]

Rima hesitated, cocking her head to one side as the footsteps died off down the hall. She could sense what felt like another mind, most definitely vampire nearby. But hadn’t glimpsed him or her, only heard rapid footsteps as soon as the elevator door had opened which abruptly stopped and faded away again. Pausing, she delved a bit deeper into her psyche, and met a dull red glow.
An aura.
This one reminded her of a Gallu. Immediately she recoiled backwards, realizing it must have been that Prince she had seen earlier. Continuing down the hall, she was unwilling to disturb them further.
Why it was nobody was speaking with her? No Hunters were speaking of any new news, although she’d caught broken pieces of conversation.
Any other vampires here were glaring her down.
What had she missed on her trip to Paris and back? Her footsteps echoed down the hall as she went forth to leave them where they were.

But now, curiosity was getting the best of her, and she turned around to start after the pair.
"Excuse me?" She asked, Italian accent becoming more apparent in her voice as she neared the door. She could smell them behind it, having caught their scents in the hall the night previous.

[AzuraGallu]

Azura immediately tensed, sensing the vampire behind the door. A growl tore from his throat, remembering what Melora had said about the woman being Blackraven.
Why was she coming after him?
Being a Gallu, and a little hot headed, and not having the distinct self preservation ability of common sense while in emotional states of distress, he shook Melora free of him before tearing open the door, narrowing his eyes dangerously on her.
"What the hell do you want?"
Claws lengthened, biting bloody crescents into his palms, fangs tearing at the bottom flesh of his lip. He wanted blood, his shaking muscles serving to convey that fact. he was ready to strike out at her if she even breathed on him the wrong way.

[MeloraBelikov]

In a risky and admittedly stupid move, Melora pulled her pistol from her belt, placing herself between the King and the Blackraven offender. Her pistol shone from being well taken care of and consistently cleaned, she wouldn't want her enemies looking down the barrel of a dirty weapon. Rima was now looking down the barrel of the cleanest gun she had perhaps ever seen. Melora's eyes narrowed, there was no time to appreciate her handy work at the time.

"You have about 15 seconds to tell me exactly who authorized your entrance to this place, what your business is here, and why you felt the need to approach me a second time, Miss Rima." Melora's other hand reached to a device clipped to her belt, elegant finger hovering over a red button on the side of it. Each hunter had been equipped with such a device, should they require emergency backup on the court grounds. Her voice lowered, monotone and threatening, letting the vampire know that she was nothing to fuck with. "You surely are familiar with me, which begs the question as to why you have followed us. You'll need to answer that within your 15 seconds too. In 15 seconds I'll be pressing this button and people will drag you away and you'll be imprisoned for daring to step foot on these grounds." Her voiced dropped even more, just barely above a whisper now. "Given the choice I would take you out myself, but I've already been assigned to a task."

[Rima Elaine Donavon]

Her blue-grey eyes flashed surprise, the silver of the gun in the shadows in the poorly lit area seemed to gravitate toward her.
“I wish to only understand why you two,” She said, inclining her head stiffly to Melora and Azura, “are being so evasive. I only just returned from business, and lately everybody has been acting oddly.”
Rima could plainly see the King's trembling, and she knew who he was. His actions sent a shiver up her spine, reminding her that he would be better at hand-to-hand combat than she. The power he possessed also made her uneasy, but as a person, didn’t all that bad, though she hardly knew him.
He was young, only a sixth of her own age at best. Her eyes locked with Melora's, and she was half tempted to use mind control, but she doubted she could stop her from pressing that damn button before Azura ripped her limb from limb.
“I was authorized by one of your Hunters Miss Melora," She quipped in obvious mockery of the Hunter's little name for her.
"I believe he goes by the name of Daniel Stark, and my business here is indeed business. I was dropping off one of his purchases.” Hunters were so troublesome sometimes, but the reality of the situation sunk in and she seemed to have paled, mind having travelled briefly back to the night of Thomas's murder...

[MeloraBelikov]

"Hmm. Perhaps I should enlighten you then." Melora stalked her way around Rima, taking herself from between the two vampires. Rima should be scared by now if she wasn't already, Melora had been the only thing standing between her and certain death, and no doubt a painful one. A vengeful vampire is nothing to fuck with.

"I'm impressed, vampire. You seem well versed when it comes to defending yourself. Though, perhaps you should keep yourself more up to date on current events." Gun still drawn to her head, Melora continued, drawing herself closer to Rima, speaking in her ear now. "You see that man over there, am I not correct? The one with the homicidal rage in his eyes? His father, the King of the Gallu was just killed by the Blackraven clan." She practically spat acid over the word Blackraven. "And, incidentally, I noticed," She continued, sliding the tip of her gun down from the woman's head to her neck, pressing the cool tip of it directly to her skin, "That you," she paused once more, using the gun to slide her hair from behind her neck to the side, revealing the tell-tale tattoo on her neck, "Fit the description of such, Miss Donovan. Now tell me again why a Blackraven would follow the King down a corridor when we so obviously didn't want to be followed?"

With that, Melora's finger that had been hovering over the button so gently, plunged into it, alarming the hunters specifically given the position of security in the court. In any second they would be here, the only thing Melora had to do now would be keeping Azura from expressing his frustrations all over the body of her new found prisoner. She made her way between the two of them again, gun still drawn to the vampire's head, dangerous flare wild in her green eyes.

[AzuraGallu]

Azura's nostrils flared, his obvious rage not abating in the slightest, though he appreciated Melora's threatening stance.
He wanted to lay into that self-righteous bitch with every inch of fang and claw he had. He was practically seeing red, fingers flexing as if he was already rending flesh from bone.
Growl deepening when he saw Melora press the button on her hip, he pulled the gun from her hand, tossing it carelessly to the floor, not sparing it a second thought as it landed behind him. After his violation of her, he tugged her backward, pinning her with a single arm against the wall.
"Her kind don't deserve ceremony or kind deaths, Little Hunter." he ground out between clenched teeth.
It was all he could to to keep from smattering the vampiress's blood all over the nicely polished floor.

[Rima Elaine Donavon]

‘This little human…’ Rima’s thoughts wandered, keeping her calm even as the gun caressed her flesh.

Her eyes had now alit full silver, a warning. Her staff was definitely nothing against a gun. Wait. ‘The King is dead?!’ She thought, the look in her eyes faded, and her eyebrows knitted together.

“I had no knowledge of this.” She said, tone confirming genuine shock. “And in any case, curiosity out-weighed sense.” Part of Rima also thought of a remark, but she thought better if she didn’t say it, although speaking the words: More like dragged… Were pretty damn tempting.

She was drawn from her thoughts as metal hit floor, then as Melora was pinned to the wall. If Azura was going to kill her, let it be. At this very moment, she could take this opportunity to escape, bur that would most certainly come back and bite Rima’s ass later.

Her kind don't deserve ceremony or kind deaths, Little Hunter. Her eyes flood silver again, and the shadows became to sway ever so slightly. Those words had brought two pangs: the first being that Azura was, reguardless of Clan lineage, also a vampire. And the second being Thomas. He had deserved better then to be shot down with those Hunter firearms while saving her.

No part of her moved, and she had stopped breathing several minutes ago, finding no need.

[MeloraBelikov]

Melora flinched, pain rippling through her body as she hit the wall, back first. Apparently the tattoo was all the proof he had needed to fly into a murderous rage, though he had already been close to that before she said anything. She guessed that he probably hadn't meant to hurt her, but vampires were stronger than they knew. Also, he had probably scratched her gun, which only served to add insult to the injury he had likely just given her. She could hardly think of that while pinned against the wall, feet dangling just inches above the floor while he held her against the cold gray wall by the shoulder. "Azura..." she coaxed, accent mingling with pain, "Let me down. Please."

Down the hall there were the footsteps of multiple people, hurrying towards the scene to capture the vampire who had infiltrated their walls. Better late than never! She huffed in her mind. Had it been her called to deal with the issue, Rima would be in a jail cell by now.

[AzuraGallu]

Hearing Melora's desperate gasps for breath snapped him out of his rage. He turned to look at her, quickly removing his arm from across her chest, settling her gently on the floor with a single hand on her upper arm.
His eyes held an apology, but once again he did not speak it. It just wasn't in his nature to apologize for anything that he did.
Hearing the footsteps approaching, he bared his fangs and snarled at the Blackraven, warning her against trying to make any further contact with either of them even though it was his desperate wish that she try to take a swipe at him so he could kill her.
The feeling of warm flesh sliding between his fingers nearly sent a shiver of delight up his spine.
As of now, he was craving death. Her death.
Standing near Melora, they were shoulder to shoulder, awkward for him because he was used to standing in front of women if he was protecting them, which was kind of what he was doing now. It was kind of humorous, actually, his blatant display of protection over a Hunter.

[Rima Elaine Donavon]

Rima’s hands rested in plain sight and she made no movements. This entire incident was testing her patience, and to be honest, more than that. How had the Old Gallian King been killed exactly? She could scarcely comprehend that.

The silver coloring left her eyes, replaced with a headache and need for some blood. She hadn't fed in days, and the stress was getting to her.
Her gaze was back to normal, but there was a cloudy look to her eyes. Her fangs were also painfully long, shredding the inside of her mouth. Any pallid tone had left her skin with the past few minutes.

As the Hunters neared, her eyes flicked up to meet Azura’s gaze. Rima's eyes narrowed, and she shook her head ever so slightly. Despite what he may have thought, she hadn't been the one to kill the King.

Evidence was incriminating, especially if somebody were to be able to get into her private files. Of course this would prove nearly impossible since her laptop was in Florence. It also had a pass code that if entered incorrectly, would erase all data within in its entirety.

She could think now that being caught by the French or British authorities would’ve been better than this. Being now caught up by her Brother’s killers.

[MeloraBelikov]

The oncoming hunters seized her by the arms and lifted her, now carrying her from the pair and towards a holding cell where she would likely await trial. There, she would be given all the information about the King's death, and a chance to defend herself, though she wouldn't need it, she was acting far too suspicious to be released on any grounds without a thorough investigation that Melora would not have to worry about, investigations were not within her area, kicking ass and taking names was.

Turning her back on the scene, she went and picked up her pistol from the floor, bending over proved painful, a jolt of pain shot across her chest where he had been holding her to the wall, and she did nothing to hide this fact, though she continued to reach down. Pistol in hand she straightened out, inspecting it before deciding it hadn't been damaged, and placed it in her belt where it had previously been sitting.

[AzuraGallu]

Azura watched after the Blackraven woman as she was dragged down the hall, feeling his anger lessen to a manageable degree.
He turned at Melora's movement, then felt incredibly guilty at her stride, which was obviously inhibited by some kind of injury. It was one she could only have acquired from him.
He felt bad, honestly not having intended to hurt her. Once again, his father was correct about his lack of bodily control.
"I-" he began, unable to express himself. He'd never said it before, and the syllables seemed foreign on his tongue. "I'm-" He tried again, turning away with an indignant snort. "Forget it."

[Rima Elaine Donavon]

Rima kept her face a blank mask, much in the fashion Michelangelo had when he was upset or angry. Ninety percent of her traits had been learned from others around her. If only for adapting through time, the most basic things for her had to be learned. Ways languages were spoken being a small piece of that process, and a rather important one too.
Her stoic appearance now was borne of necessity, as she didn't want to appear even more suspicious by fighting the group of Hunters.

The rough handling the Hunters were giving her wasn’t what was bothering Rima. It was the fact that she was being accused of murder, though no one had said it outright.
That fact disgusted her.
Yes, she had killed before. But to kill a Clan Monarch…? That was low even for her.

And where was that damn Daniel Stark? Or had he taken his leave to deposit his new piece on his mantle?
‘Damn him to hell then.’ She thought bitterly.

If only she had passed over this business trip. She could’ve been back in Florence enjoying her art in the solitude of her home with a glass of red wine lovingly tainted with blood. Yes, looking back now, Rima scolded herself vigorously. Never would she make business deals with these Hunters again.

[MeloraBelikov]

She turned to him,a smile spreading across her face. Melora was obviously satisfied with his brush with the word sorry, and decided she got the message clearly. "I understand. It is okay, just try not to slam me against anymore walls unless you've decided to take advantage of me." She laughed, then her face became a little more serious, smile still remaining, but a bit faded. "Also, please try not to disarm me by throwing my weapon. I promise I won't turn it against you, so I assure you it doesn't need to be across the room." This wasn't a promise she made lightly, and even if things went to shit and he for some reason turned on her, Melora intended to still keep this promise, though she couldn't promise the same of her other weaponry. In any case, her beloved silver pistol hadn't suffered any scratches, and her bruises from the man handling treatment she'd just received would heal after awhile. She was willing to bet they had already turned various shades of blue and purple across her chest, so she may want to stay away from tank tops for awhile, lest anyone in the media ask her if she were perhaps being abused.