Varia Vulpes's Story

Viktor moved swiftly as he grabbed hold of Varia and guided them away from the scene while Riaze was tangling with the officers.

The officers had faired well under the circumstances, but one's leg was trapped beneath his own vehicle as he tried in vain to push the car off himself. Numerous bystanders were wounded by the rolling vehicles though, and several had been killed outright by the impact.

The pinned officer was yelling to his fellows to go after the suspect and the sounds of sirens and ambulances were drawing closer. Backup would be here in moments, as well as emergency vehicles.

The three remaining officers pursued Riaze into the alley noting the blood trail from where one of them had struck him. That he had bled when their bullets hit him was promising. If he bled, he could be subdued or killed - in theory. The sounds of gunfire quickly filled the alley as two of the officers opened fire once more upon the fleeing form of Riaze. The other officer was on his radio directing backup to be ready to cut the suspect off. With the officers coordinating with each other, a net was swiftly being erected that would soon close in upon the fleeing lycan as he took to the alleys.

The sounds of shouting going on in Viktor's townhouse were so inflamed and heated that they could be heard from several houses away, and had been going on for a good twenty minutes.

"Why didn't you just kill him?!" Varia shout furiously.

She was livid that Viktor had brought her back here, livid that Riaze was still out there somewhere. He was wounded, on the run, they could have finished him.

"And what would you have me do, Varia?" Viktor asked. "Dismember him with my bare hands?"

"If that's what it takes. That dog and his bitch killed Kyle," she spat. "Or have you forgotten?"

Viktor's hand was around her throat as he dragged her about and slammed her against a display case at his back. There was an abrupt flash of anger in his normally steely gaze as the glass shattered and rained down on the white carpet at their feet.

"That dog killed Sanina too, or have you forgotten," he bit back through his anger.

Varia was too shocked at Viktor's outburst to throw up a retort and his anger began to leak away before he finally released her.

"Get out," he told her icily.

Varia had never seen Viktor so volatile before, and she beat a hasty retreat from the room, He heard the sound of the front door slamming open a few minutes later as Varia departed, leaving it wide open behind her.

He sighed then and knelt down atop the broken glass where a small silver cross upon a chain had fallen when the display stand had been broken.

He picked it up and rolled it between his fingers as he stood. The sheathed sword that had shared a shelf with the cross he left on the floor for now. He would clean it up later.

He closed his eyes briefly, remembering that sinking sensation that had filled him when he had burst through the manor door to see Riaze's sword plunged into Sanina's chest. He remembered the rising sense of resolve that it wasn't too late to save Varia. He remembered carrying her from the burning building where Sanina and Kyle had died that night.

He sighed once more and stood, placing the cross on a nearby shelf before he turned away to head for the front door. It wouldn't do to leave it standing wide open all night.

By the time Christian arrived an hour later, Viktor had succumbed to a restless sleep. He had fed, and the wound had been dressed as best was able, but the bleeding had yet to show any sign of healing. He was for lack of a better term, an animated corpse, and he lacked the natural means of healing that humans had. Whatever was interfering with his vampiric regeneration was making it difficult to properly stop the bleeding. The dressing had helped in slowing it though.

Christian didn't bother knocking as he, and Varia at his heels, filled into the room. Having been unable to know if the phone call had been a deception of some nature or another, he had opted for bringing the somewhat volatile woman along.

"Who the fuck are you people?" Varia growled at the pair of strangers in the room as the scent of blood filled her nostrils.

Christian meanwhile threw no more than suspicious glances at Talyria and Valentina before he moved to Viktor's side. He pulled the coat back enough to get a look at the blood soaked dressing before trying to rouse him.

"Viktor? Viktor can you hear me?" When no response came he looked instead to Talyria. "What happened to him?" he asked. "And how long ago did he feed?" It was perhaps youthful ignorance that he had turned to Talyria over the 'child' in the room. An ignorance that he should have known better about given his own past involvement with vampiric children whose ages were not reflected in the youth of their bodies.

When the female disappeared, she started to creep towards Viktor, but only got a few paces before she suddenly appeared again with a first aid kit. Squeaking and shoving herself back against the wall, Valentina hugged her legs right back up against her chest, rocking back and forth again. She whimpered softly, going back to the night her parents were slaughtered in front of her. This was how she spent the majority of the night before she decided to be turned and even after she had been, she was generally like this. In fact, it hadn’t even been too long ago before she was turned. In all respects, it had only been a little over a year since she lost her parents and was offered immortality by Lily. Now that she thought about it though, the child really wished she would have waited until she was older before being turned. Returning her attention towards the situation at hand, she watched as Viktor finally fell asleep.

Being left alone with a complete stranger, though in all actuality, Viktor was a stranger too, Valentina wasn’t sure what to say or do. So, she instead continued to rock in place, watching NomNom sitting silently beside her. Unsure how much time had passed, she snarled and glanced towards the door when it swung open and two figures stepped inside. Her lavender eyes narrowed towards the male and female before she slid back further, trying to find some shadows. Though, she growled at the woman and managed to overcome some of her fear for at least a moment.

“Who the fuck are you?! What makes you think you can just waltz in here!” She hissed before darting back into her crouched sitting position. When the male, who she began to wonder if he was Christian, asked the female that Viktor had fed from what happened and how long ago he fed, Valentina snarled softly.

“He got shot with a bolt by a mean man!”

Talrya sat in silence after Bandaging Viktor. She watched him and frowned at the lack of improvement other than a slight slow of blood. She glanced here and there to the young girl in silence. This poor child, surely she had seen a lot of things in her time however long she had been turned. But this still seemed to affect the child. Her human emotions hadn't waned any like they often did with time. She must be a young vampire then considering her behavior. She half wanted to scooped the girl in her arms and console the girl that everything would be alright, but she wasn't sure if one the girl would tolerate it and two if that was appropriate behavior between two strangers or not even in the current circumstances.

After about an hour the door slammed open. Her attention snapped to alert and looked to the figures coming in. The man she hoped, would be this Christian that Viktor seemed confident could help. The woman she immediately recognized as the hot tempered female that had argued with Viktor earlier when she had arrived at the town home. She was uneasy in the hot tempered woman's presence, but she didn't show it. She held her stance strong and confident despite how she felt. She wouldn't give the woman the means to feel she had any power or anything over her at all.

Upon hearing the questions thrown their way with aggressive tones, she knew they were aimed mainly toward her as most people would dismiss the child. Figuring, despite her race, that she would be unable to coherently help them and/or answer them. She stepped aside some to allow Christian in to examine Viktor. She followed Christian with a mix of caution and concern for if he could help Viktor.

She responded in a calm gentle voice to Christian first, feeling his questions were more pressing to the matter than the volatile woman's demand. "I am not certain what happened to be honest. I was here. Viktor came home in this condition with aid of the Child. I would assume..." She was cut off by the young girl's response and her gaze fell to the child. " I would assume possible hunters considering the condition the two came home in. I fed him while the child was on the phone informing Christian of Viktor's condition. So about an hour ago. I also dressed the wound in attempt to help. I couldn't think of anything else to do but be here for him and do what little I have. I know nothing of alchemy or medical affairs."

She then glanced up to Varia, "It is a long story I am sure to who we are. So let's just do simple introductions and then once Viktor is well we will get into to details on both our presences and being with Viktor." She answered softly to Varia. "My name is Lady Talrya Rei Katsumi. I am a recent acquaintance of Viktor's. I am not even sure of who the child is. I figured Viktor's condition was a more pressing matter than simple pleasantries and introductions." She looked into Varia's eyes with a raise of one brow to her in genuine interest. "You are?"

"Oh come off it Varia," Christian muttered.

"And who died and put you in charge?" Varia spat back.

"Viktor if you don't shut up and make yourself useful," Christian snapped back.

That seemed to calm her a bit, as the thought that Viktor might be any real danger hadn't particularly crossed her mind.

"What's wrong with him?" she asked.

"I don't know," Christian replied. "He's going to need to feed again soon. If this bleeding doesn't stop he's going to need to feed every hour or two, and I don't know where we're going to find that sort of blood supply on short notice."

He sat back on his heels as he mulled over the matter.

"Someone calm that kid down, so I can find out exactly what happened?" he asked.

Valentina scowled slightly, her arms wrapping tighter around her legs. Once again dropping her head down against her knees, she glared at the newer arrivals, before realizing that the other female finally introduced herself. So, she was a Lady, whatever that meant. Ignoring NomNom as he crawled onto her shoulder, she glanced towards the other two and sat up straight, mostly

“I am Valentina Rosetti and I met Viktor a while back and again tonight. My … I… I was looking for my Sire, but she is dead… I found her in an alley… her body was mutilated and her head was cut off and put on her body. I then ran into Viktor and we were coming back here when … hunters or whatever followed us. We went up a huge fire escape and that’s when he got shot with the bolt. Oh, and my white kitty's name is NomNom.” Frowning, she curled up again, rocking back and forth.

She kneeled down next to Valentina and wrapped a comforting arm around the girl to try to calm her. She offered soft warm smile to the girl to try to give her a sense that things were going to be alright despite her uncertainty in herself if that was indeed true. That is why the poor child is so shaken up. It was probably her first encounter with hunters. Viktor, please be alright. What were you doing out there anyway? Did I drain you too much and you had to feed? If so, then this is all my fault he is like he is. However, if he wasn’t there…what would happen to Valentina had he not been there for her? She thought to herself. She then looked to Christian and then to Varia with a look of calm on her face again, hiding her inner turmoil with ease.

She then turned back to Valentina, “I love kitties. They are such adorable, personality filled little critters. Can I pet NomNom? It is a pleasure to meet you both. “She spoke with a warm, almost motherly tone of voice as she addressed Valentina.

She would give Valentina a moment to consider her request, but for now she would address the issue of Viktor.
“I will feed him.” She answered calmly as if the idea of being fed on didn’t unnerve her.

In fact, it didn’t disconcert her considering she had fed him once already. She wasn’t sure how long she would be able to maintain her strength, but she wanted to do anything she could to help since this was most likely her fault in the matter of his current state. She wasn’t sure why she felt so driven to help him. She typically wouldn’t careless what happened to her meal. Something was different. She cursed her human emotions for still lingering. The Lady of Malevolent Chaos had fun tormenting her followers, especially her new creations.

"Unless you can spare a pint of blood every hour or two, we're going to need more," Christian told Talryia. "You'll be dead in hours. Varia I need you to-"

"Fuck no. I'm not playing errand girl while he bleeds out. We need to get out there and find the fucking pieces of shit that did this," Varia spat.

Christian grit his teeth in frustration. "He won't last the day if we don't get blood in him, Varia. A lot of it. The only place we're going to find that much blood is a blood bank, unless we want to start piling bodies up in the basement."

Varia's wolfish eyes were a swirl with anger, but whatever retort she had she bit off as she turned and left.

"She'll get it," Christian assured the other two. "We're going to need to set you up with an IV in the meanwhile, it'll be more efficient. And kid, is there anything you can tell me about the people you ran into? What they looked like? What they were dressed like? I don't suppose you have the bolt? I could run some tests on it if I did."

As if on cue, the front door banged open again, this time entering Varia. She was lugging a large cooler that though not heavy, was bulky and awkward to get through the door.

"This is all I could get on short notice," Varia muttered as she said as she kicked the door closed behind her. "Where the fuck's Christian?" she added as she realized he wasn't in the room.

"In here," Christian yelled from the kitchen.

Varia lugged the cooler through the room, following the sound of Christian's voice as she largely ignored Valentina. It seemed to be the popular thing to do at the moment.

She deposited it on the counter and popped it open. Inside was filled with bags of blood. It hadn't been cheap getting a hold of this much human blood, but short of knocking over a blood bank the undermarket had been their best bet.

She began picking up the packs of blood by the handful, transferring them to the fridge.

"I don't know how long this shit will keep," she said. "And where's the bitchy one?" she added.

"Out," Christian muttered over his microscope. He didn't know, nor much care where Talyra had gotten off to.

Valentina paused at Arien’s words and realized he was probably right. Frowning, she rubbed her forehead and tried to think of a better way to help out Viktor. Right in the midst of her pondering, the door suddenly opened and luckily for her, she hadn’t gotten over to it yet or she would have been smacked right in the face. Scowling, she watched Varia walking back in with a pretty nice sized cooler. Once again ignored, Val scowled angrily and just went back to her corner, sitting down angrily. If he hadn’t been for Viktor and her direct cause of him being hurt, she probably would have bailed. She really hated Christian and Varia.

“Are you going to stay or go, Arien? I’d like it if you stayed because if you did, then at least one person would acknowledge me…” Valentina frowned, trying to cope with being in a cruel world without anyone that gave two shits about her. She really hated it and wasn’t expecting Viktor to care, but at least he was someone she knew that wasn’t a complete jerkwad to her.

"I'll stick around," Arien said after a moment of thought, leaning against the wall. "Unless I'm needed elsewhere, or there's any more errands to send me on," he shot a glance towards Christian, "I don't have anywhere better to be during the day."

He sauntered through to the lounge, "Do you think Viktor has cable?" he asked the other two, "He seems like the kinda guy that would be able to afford the good channels."

Four days had passed since Viktor and Valentina's engagement with the hunters, and there had been no change in his condition. He had yet to regain consciousness, but it was difficult to say if it was an affect of the toxin, or if it was a conscious decision to retain his strength.

Fortunately the groups efforts in tracking down Jaeda had proved successful - if expensive.

If all went well, they would have the necessary means of treating the toxin tonight. Valentina had been left behind to monitor Viktor's condition, and to keep her out of immediate danger. Vampire or not, she still had the mentality and understanding of a child, and the hunter's HQ was no place for her.

Christian, Varia, Arien, and Talyria where all in the company of Jaeda though, prepared to infiltrate the HQ. If all went according to plan there would be minimal fighting, but they where prepared for things to go badly.

Arien walked near the back of the group, green eyes staring into the dark of the night perceptively. Swirls and flecks of crimson danced intermittently across his irises as he kept alert for unexpected life-sources wandering too close. A handgun was tucked into his jeans, and a ceremonial knife was strapped to his side within his jacket.

Conspicuous in its absence was the scar upon his face. He'd disappeared in the gap between the retrieval of the arrow and tonight, and when he'd returned, the burn was gone. He hadn't spoken of it, and had avoided questions should they have been asked.

Despite the teenage vampire's tendency towards taking very little seriously, he was focusing tonight. A few hunters he could shrug at - or at least thought enough of himself to say he could. But infiltrating their headquarters was enough to have him on edge.

Talyria's metallic midnight blue iris with Silver sunkist around the pupil stared into the darkness keenly with a look of half anticipation half determination. She had gone with studded leather armor consisting of a breastplate and fingerless gloves that cut off just before her elbow. Otherwise she wore a pure black microfiber t-shirt under the breastplate, black flare leg microfiber pants, and a pair of black leather combat style boots. This get up was old school, but it always suited her just fine considering battle possible situations. er armor was lightweight specially designed for agile movements. To avoid detection she pulled her hair into a ponytail then braided the ponytail and pulled on a pure black baseball cap. She visible held no weapons, but it didn't take her much, but a split second to summon a weapon and only a few seconds for it to manifest itself. She figured no weapons visible and on her, more chance of stealth. She looked about, surveying their surroundings then looked tot he company she was with. This was surely insane, but the stakes for not doing anything was worse than the stakes of them attempting this heist. She rolled her shoulders in a means to loosen up the partial tense muscles. She prayed this would go off with little to no problems. She nodded to the people that she was ready. She glanced to Jaeda, giving her a look that told clearly, that she didn't trust the once human hunter. It was ironic though that she didn't trust the woman since she herself was once human. Yet, her motivations behind it were solid as steel. She prayed they would make it back to Viktor in time.

Jaeda skimmed her eyes around the vampires she was to lead that night. She nodded to them each in turn. "I'm going to warn you about a few of our largest threats before we go in. I'm not as worried about the normal guards. I think I can trust you to deal with them. And if you can't do that much, I'd rather have you leave right now." The ex-huntress glanced over them again.

"Now, there's likely a hunter called Duke in there. Big blonde man. Shoots out holy swords of light. He's quick, ruthless. There's a banshee who can phase through walls. There's also a newer hunter I've never seen in action, but before I left, there were a lot of rumors he was fairly powerful. Has wings and horns. White and purple. It would be best for you not to engage these individuals in the unlikely event that we run into them. There's a few cameras on the east side of the building I'm going to disable, and we'll make it in through the garage door."

The plan was carried out very simply, very easily. As they began to come close to Hatyara HQ, Jaeda dissipated into a flurry of bats, which scattered around the area. It wasn't suspicious or easy to pinpoint that way.

Some perched along the cameras on the east side of the building, ripping at the wires that kept them running. When they were all disabled, Jaeda materialized behind a pair of guards and took one out, using his knife to swiftly down the other.

It was like a video game solution. They had key cards, which Jaeda used to open the gates for her group. She beckoned them inside after stealing one of the Hatyara guard uniforms from the guard. One would think it was hardly necessary. People could identify Jaeda by face easily enough. Even though she'd been there a while, however, the woman had certainly changed since her recent affliction.

She opened the door within the garage, which seemed empty. The same was said for the hallway she guided them down. "I chose the least busy time for Hatyara. Evening and morning hours aren't quite bustling," she assured them.

They would come to a large, domed room that had nothing but a large platform beneath their feet. Lights adorned the walls, but they were dim. There was a room to the side with controls, separated with a thick, bulletproof glass.

"This descends into the labs. They're underground."

As they slipped inside the building, Arien paused by the fallen guards. He knelt quickly by each of them and made a miniscule cut in one of their arteries. With a flick of his wrist, he drew out small threads of their blood into two small vials that he produced from inside his jacket, before slipping them back inside. Once he was done, the cuts sealed shut again.

"Just in case," he murmured if anyone thought to question him, before continuing on with the others. Taking samples of the guards' blood would give his blood magic a greater edge against them, should it come down to it.

As they moved through the facility, he kept his senses peeled for any guards. He could sense life within the building, faintly and vaguely enough for him to be reassured it wasn't nearby.

"Seriously?" Varia asked as Arien was pocketing the vials of blood. "Come on, you're wasting time," she muttered.

Her weapons where sheathed so as to keep her hands free, but she was armed to the teeth with a wide assortment of blades ranging from knifes of a few inches in length to the the two swords on her back that where closer to two and three feet in length. Varia was clearly of the mind that more was better when it came to weapon availability. Between the assortment of silvered blades totaling seven in total, it was a wonder she wasn't a danger to herself.

She made the mental note of the descriptions given on people to avoid and noting the likelihood that they might encounter them as Jaeda had said it was unlikely. She watched as Jaeda transformed into a bunch of bats and couldn’t help but smile at the tactics. It was a rather clever antic to avoid detection. Though she was curious how well they paid attention to their camera surveillance. She relaxed once Jaeda had returned and watching her easily take out the guard.

She watched as everyone made their way into the facility. She paused by Arien curious of his intentions were for the blood. She shrugged and continued on without second thought to his motivations. She just wanted to get this whole thing over with and Viktor alive, well so to speak, and take care of the debt she owed him for all his kindness.

The floor hummed beneath their feet. There was definitely a machine down there, and the thin grooves where the wall met the floor spoke even more of its nature. There was a distinct magical presence around them, even in the midst of cold metal and machines. An surge of it dancing around the entire room.

"We need to get in there using the control room," said Jaeda. "That can be a bitch to get into if you're not a trusted slayer. Luckily..." A slow grin came to the vampire woman's face.

The magical energy around them seemed to sink into the ground. There was a high beep, and with only that as a warning, the ground beneath them shifted. Whole sections of the floor liquefied completely and jutted upward to envelop the hands and feet of the company around the ex-huntress, sinking them into the floor.

In the window above at the control room, Sargas Lace smirked at Jaeda. "It's going to be difficult to separate them as such, so they're all going to cell A-57. Vampire Wing. We can put them in different cells later. All the same, good work, Jaeda Fleischer. Welcome back. I haven't seen such a great catch in an age."