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She seemed to be locked in a trance, her fingers brushing over the shard as if it was her most cherished possession. Which, in this case - it was. She had never felt such a pull. Her connection with her husband had always been the most desirable thing she'd felt in her life, it had been the only feeling warm enough to thaw her heart - until she held Mikale. It was almost as if her life was complete. In that moment that she was able to hold the shard, she was alive.

She was complete.

Tracing her tongue over her lower lip, she crawled deeper into her corner, her gloved fingers gripping the shard until she was sure that her fingers would break. No one would take him from her, no one would have him. Mikale was hers. That was all that mattered - any one that came close, well. They would die. She was surprised, though. She had seen the desire in the eyes of her faction members. Even her sire had tried to get her grimy, grubby, self-righteous hands on her Mikale. "Niet. I have you. I have you. It is okay Mikale. I love you. It is oka---" Suddenly, she was coughing - choking. Her nose was burning, her throat was clogged.

No.
It was Russia all over again. In a single instant, she was propelled back in time.

Bullets were spraying over her head, her brother was crawling towards her, hand outstretch, blood pouring down his face. Kirill was crouched behind a chair - and then she saw it. She saw the flamethrower. She saw the man as he ran towards them - towards Kirill. Her throat caught on his name, but it was too late. The flame ignited, and they were all burning.

MEOW!

It was the shrill screech of her black Persian, Kashka, that snapped her from the memory. Her skin was clammy, her hands trembled - and she opened her eyes. She could hear her clawing at the door, and rage burned brighter than her hut as she leaped to her feet. Shoving the shard into bra, she tucked it under her breast as she ran for the bedroom door. Throwing it open, she quickly snatched the kitten from the ground and curled her against her side.

"This is too far."

The world had gone black, her eyes almost glowing with her anger as she kicked open the burning door and aimed her gun. "You are foolish men," she called out, her eyes burning. She could feel them start to water as she aimed her gun and clicked off the safety. It was easy to see who had caused the destruction - her target was a stranger, one she didn't reconize - but one that would die for what he had done. Faction mate or not, he had been destroying their home, their very reason for being - and then he had tried to kill Kashka. Gritting her teeth, she fired off two rounds and watched in satisfaction as the bullets cut through his heart and skull like he was nothing more than paper. Slowly, she moved to train the weapon on Roderic, her hand steady.

"You can still walk away, Roderic. Leave me to Mikale. He is safe with me. He makes me better." Her voice trembled as the fire continued to rage around her. She didn't seem to be the least bit bothered, and instead, resembled something akin to a phoenix as she emerged from the flames. "But, I cannot risk it." Dropping the aim to his legs, she quickly fired two rounds into his kneecaps before grabbing her tome.

When the magic faded, she still had the shard - and she was no longer inhaling smoke. The scent clung to her as she pressed Kashka tighter to her chest, and after a moment - she realized she had been burned. Gritting her teeth against the severity of the pain, she staggered back to her feet and pushed onward, searching for any kind of escape that she could find. Micah. Velveteen. She could trust them, right? They would understa-- No. They wouldn't. They had Mikale first. They would want him back. She couldn't go to them. She couldn't go to anyone.

She was alone, once again.
I will keep you safe, Mikale...

Kneecaps - success
head and heart - success

Her leg dangled back and forth as her hazel eyes watched the repairmen leave from her perch in the tree branches above the second floor. Her mind raced with questions: where was the shard, were her childer alright, were the new shopkeeps going to be as tolerable as the last? Did they know what had happened? Every didn't care much to ask that morning when she had dropped down and startled the hell out of the man that she bought her blood from.

She felt relieved when it had stayed down and no questions had been asked. Although she'd been asleep during the elevator repairs, it was good to see that their home was being fixed. Restored. Every hadn't destroyed anything other than a few sets of traps and she was sure that they, too, were being fixed. Standing up, she walked quietly back and forth in a pacing motion as she tried to think.

"Who had the shard?"

The question plagued her as she walked, her dark brown hair falling over her shoulder in a loose ponytail. Adjusting her running shorts on her hips, Every gritted her teeth together. She could feel the pull of it, somewhere. It was bothering her, she wanted it. She wanted her shard back. And she wanted it back now.

Niklaus knew a good fire would flush the ***** out and that it did, and she was as mad as ever. Roderic would be looking at him like he was a madman but he yelled at him to keep his calm, “Trust me, I’ve set a lot of fires before. There’s no wind, it’s not going to spread!” Yep, that was it – asking his partner in crime to trust his pyromaniac skills. The form of the woman soon appeared out from the smoke and she fired first, at him too. Good, he must have been doing something right. The Killer returned fire and sprayed at Reanna, catching her with several bullets in the shoulder, chest and stomach.

But she did fire first and she did hit her target too; one of her bullets hitting him in the heart – well, piercing through his hoodie and burying into the ballistic vest he was wearing but it was still painful. She got luckier with her second shot, doing to him what she did to Roderic while they were on the ground floor, headshot. Feeling his vision darken for a moment as he dropped back, thick blood oozing into his eyes and masking his vision as he instinctively moved a hand to his chest to pluck the bullet out of his vest. Laughing maniacally as he thought he heard repairs being carried out downstairs while Roderic got shot as well before Reanna tomed herself away.

He sat up straight the next moment and started muttering to himself, “Does she really think she can kill you, Niklaus?” That was the voice talking to him, usually it was his voice of reason but this one was someone else, something else. A claw extending out of his index alone as he dug it into the bullet hole in his forehead, “Do any of these newbs (thanks Tomi!) know who you are?”, it kept going, feeling around for that bullet until that sharpened tip met with the small projectile. “Do they know how many peo--- vampires you’ve killed before, how many tried to kill you and what happened to them?” Clawing the bullet out of his head with a mixture of blood and brain matter as it dropped to the wooden floor. “Show them who the veteran is, Killer.” And with that, he stood up and turned his gaze to Roderic who had apparently been shot in the kneecaps, a combo of quickening and zombie constitution would keep him going efficiently for now, else he could pick to go feral and use that inner rage and madness to dish out retribution but that really wasn’t plan A, B, C or D. It was the last of his options. Berserker rage was hard to control, it was more raw animal instincts rather than calculated moves, he would have sacrificed his intelligence in order to deal more damage to his enemies. - that could go either very well or terribly wrong, he didn't like those odds for now. “Get up, Roderic. We aren’t done around here.” He was starting to get annoyed with how people were just toming themselves to run away.

spray bullets at Reanna - successful

She still had Mikale.

It was the first thought that entered her mind when she regained consciousness, the weight of the shard heavy inside of her bra. It wasn't the most logical place to hide something so precious, but what other options did she have? At least there, she could keep him safe - no one would get that close to her. With a groggy sigh, she ran her fingers through her hair before moving unsteadily to her feet. It was quiet - almost too quiet. Either everyone else was asleep, or they would hunting her down together. She would stake everything she owned on the latter. She could trust no one - and the truth hit hurt like a wrecking ball. She needed to move.

Fast.

Pressing her fingertips to her cheek, she frowned when she felt the skin give way beneath the gentle touch, and anger filled her once again. How the **** could someone be so careless with their property? She didn't give a **** about the people - but the Eyrie had nothing to do with it. This was their sanctuary, and some disrespecting ******** nearly tore it to the ground. It was clear, though, that sometime during the night - someone had opted to fix it. The scent of smoke barely lingered, and she could hear the bustling of the new shopkeepers. Irritation struck true as she watched one of them carelessly shove a blood pack into the fridge, as if they didn't have a care in the world about what was happening. I preferred the old ones. Shaking her head to clear it, she forced herself to focus. What the hell was wrong with her? She was never like this.

If everything was fixed - that meant that elevator was working again. Memories flooded her mind, and she began to sift through them for the one that she required. K-5, my love. It was K-5. Her husband's voice came again, and she swore she heard the venom in his tone. Narrowing her eyes, she wished more than anything she could speak to him. He might want to take Mikale from her - but she knew his tricks. She knew everything he had to offer. She could best him easily. Biting into her lower lip, she finally gave in. He was correct. Their operation in K-5 became clear in her mind. If she could just get in the shaft, she would be safe for a while. No one would think to look there, and by bringing the shadows to her and going untraceable [which she opted to do just then as a precaution] - she'd be good for a while longer. With her new thought in mind, she quickly ran for the elevator and slid in before the doors closed behind one of the new shop keepers without notice.

Once inside, she tipped her head back to study the top of the cart. It shouldn't be that hard. She had done it once before - and she hadn't been as strong or as small then. Pressing her boot to the side of the cart, she stretched up and curled her fingers against the hatch - and managed to wiggle it free without causing damage. Once it was open, the Russian grabbed the sides and hoisted herself up before closing it behind her. There wasn't a mark left behind, no sign that she had even gone into the elevator. Once on top, she studied the wires and the safety ladder, before tilting her head. There. Just a little bit up was a hole small enough for her to hide in. Leaping from the side of the cart, she grabbed one of the wires and began to climb her way up. Her body moved with a fluid grace that only their kind could possess, and after a few minutes of swinging back and forth, she managed to throw herself into the small crevice.

Tucking herself as far back as she could, she tipped her head to rest it against the wall and closed her eyes as she commanded the darkness to shroud her even more. No one should notice the slightly muted area, and it gave her time to collect her thoughts. The shard was hers - but how far was she willing to keep it? The thought of her faction mates bleeding at her feet entered her mind and she nodded her head. She would go as far as it takes.

Climb the elevator shaft to hide Succeeded

The fire did burn out without spreading as he had predicted in his wicked mind, “Told you. Not my first fire”, he launched at Roderic, wiping his sleeve across his face to wipe off some of the blood as he slid the empty magazine out of his gun and replaced it with a loaded one, cocking the latter and keeping the safety off. “I’m going down to see what the hell’s going on, I heard a lot of noises just a moment ago” he informed the other man, he had been shot in the head and could still function, busted kneecaps should be no hassle, right?

The first thing that caught his attention was the panel above the elevator; it was glowing and functional again, showing what floor the elevator was on. The elevator…?! He moved closer to inspect it, deciding to press on the button to call the elevator to F3 and it did work too. Ding! That damn noise again.. So someone fixed the elevator, okay then. But Niklaus knew a lot about Karma, he ruined that **** a couple of hours ago and he knew that somehow the world would balance things out and have the elevator **** him back up. Not happening, buddy. Something was pulling him inside, some kind of force – it was the shard but he didn’t know that. He flipped his middle finger at the doors when they opened and went to descend to the lower floor like he initially did, using the branches since he knew the sturdy ones could support his weight.

Letting himself drop onto the floor when he was within a reasonable distance from the latter, “Interesting…” he thought, the lights and cameras had all been changed too. Upon inspection he would find that both shops had reopened and even had new Bobs too. When did this happen?! He was impressed nevertheless. Still holding his gun as he approached the shopkeepers, “Hey, you guys new here? I need five blood packs and say, about twenty anima orbs.” He was served so they didn’t know who got rid of ex-Bobs, perfect. Glancing around for any of his contenders to the shard and finding no one. He didn’t like it, this place was too quiet, something was up but he had a plan. First – get black to maximum blood and anima level then get back to work, aka looking for his shard. Reanna couldn’t have been that far away, maybe Roderic could track her again or something.

climb down to F2 - succeeded

From her perch in the branches, Every had a wide view of the floor below her and a slim one of the upper walkways above her. It was one of her favorite places in The Eyrie to relax and to think because unless they were in shadows, no one could sneak up on her. She felt safe there, really, because it was her vantage point. She knew which branches that were thin could support her weight and which couldn’t. And as she felt the pull of the shard strengthen below her, hazel eyes searched quietly.

She watched Reanna go into the elevator, the desire to follow her childe almost automatic as the door slid shut behind her, but before Every could stand, she followed Niklaus’ movements silently and inclined her head. The way he was acting, she knew it was certainly Reanna that had it. Crinkling her nose, Every watched as the elevator stayed put. “Now where is my Catastrophe off to?” The shadow wondered and slipped into shadows before she made her way to the sturdier branches over the crafting bench.

Her sneakers were silent as she dropped easily, ignoring the soft clamor that came from a nearby hammer as it was disturbed before she hopped down. Making her way quietly towards the elevator, she glanced around quietly and lifted her chin, looking at the elevator itself before she pressed the button to go up. Folding her arms in front of her chest, Every was glad to be in shadows as her nerves were clearly visible. Her shoulders tense, her teeth clenched together. The elevator was the last place that she wanted to be in, but she could feel her shard calling to her. She wanted it.

She needed it.

As the doors slid open, Every slid inside and ignored the confused looks of the shopkeeps as it seemed like the doors opened for nothing before pressing the third floor button, and then as the doors slid shut, she waited until it began to go up as her fingers hovered over the emergency stop. Counting quietly to herself, she made an estimated guess before pressing down, stopping the elevator as a streak of panic ran through her body. “Trapped, I’m trapped.” The thought was smothered by the pull above her from the shard and as she adjusted to lay down, Every removed her knife and began to pry the elevator open, pleased to see that it was just narrow enough for her to get through. Putting her knife away, she hummed quietly to herself.

One of the shopkeeps muttered about haunted treehouses, making her snicker as she got back to her feet and stepped back, looking up. Was the shard on the roof of the elevator? She pondered this and rolled her head lightly on her shoulders before she found the hatch, muttering slightly under her breath about ridiculous escape routes and her height never mixing. Using the railing as a step, Every caught hold of the hatch and pushed it open, the door opening without a sound due to being brand new, and carefully, she eased herself up and out.

Now.

Where was Reanna?
She didn’t try to think on it as she began to climb, listening for any signs of any difference between she found a patch of shadows that didn’t look right. Her eyebrows furrowed, but she felt that it was near. Her shard. And with her shard, her childe. Tossing herself over to the area and grasping onto the ledge, Every let out a soft grunt as her body smacked into the metal shaft before she reached up as the woman came into view. Her hand found Reanna’s chest, pulling at the cloth that she knew was underneath in attempt to rip it. And failed as she popped out of view. But, before the awkwardness of her actions dawned on her, the shard was back in her hand.

Not waiting to hear from Reanna, Every dropped and landed with ease on top of the elevator, tucking the shard away into her pocket before she scrambled back into the elevator, the hatch slamming shut as her weight jostled it. Checking to see if the doors were still open, she climbed through the slim opening, wiggling her hips after she found it just a little bit too uncomfortable of a squeeze, she slid out into the second floor and looked around, thinking. Where could she go? Every didn’t wait long enough to consider where, she just knew that she needed to run, and with that, she sprinted towards the nearest low hanging branch and pulled herself up, sticking to light weight branches that she trusted.

cut bra – you failed in your endeavor
Steal the shard – you succeeded in your endeavor
Land on her feet – you succeeded in your endeavor

The killer had his fangs in a blood pack he was holding, gulping down hungrily when he heard the door of the elevator opening, squinting at the latter to see who was coming out of the later yet… nothing. He could have ruled it off as some kind of mechanical bug if the damn thing wasn’t new; it had just been replaced overnight! “They say there are ghosts around here”, said one of the Bobs to the other. That’s what he would forever refer to the shopkeepers, however they looked; Bob and Bob. The doors soon closed and the elevator started moving up! He knew it; someone was being sneaky and moving around while cloaked in shadows. He had to snoop too now, maybe it was Roderic but somehow he doubted that. The other male would’ve had at least some trouble walking around in his current state.

He gingerly approached the elevator after dropping the empty pack on the floor, cloaking himself in shadows as well. He didn’t like the idea of being seen while he couldn’t see others, leveling the playing field was the right way to go. Calling the elevator to back to his floor and waiting as he withdrew his sword, someone could still be in there. Ding! Stupid noise, again and the doors opened. Niklaus silently stepped inside and pressed the “F3” button, he knew the first floor was a bad idea. If someone repaired the elevator, they could have fixed the traps too and he wasn’t going to be bothering to disarm them again anytime soon. Too time consuming and too much effort as well. His eyes laid upon the panel inside the elevator, it indicated the maximum load that the elevator carry and the current total weight resting on the elevator floor. Right now it matched his own, pound for pound – good. It was time to see who was upstairs and who had had his ******* shard, game on.

The silence of the shaft was almost deafening in nature. She realized too late her mistake. On one hand, she had her shard and she had been safe for quite a few hours - on the other, it was dark. Every shadow, every twitch of the cable, scurry of feet caused her to jump. Sweat beaded her brow and panic filled her mind. What had she done? Clenching her teeth together, she clutched her arms around her stomach and tried to ease the anxiety that coursed through her veins. ****, what had she been thinking? Her mind was in shambles as she heard the creak of the elevator. It was was the faintest of noises, just the sound of shoes against metal - but it was very distinct. However, she thought nothing of it. In fact, she chalked it up to the monsters that lurked in the darkness around her. It wasn't until she smelled her sire's perfume that she knew her second mistake.

Maybe Mikale wasn't such a good thing.

It wasn't like the Russian to make mistakes or to miss a step in her logic. She was a soldier, a leader - not a damned recruit. She should have planned ten years ahead, and instead, she found herself stumbling over her own feet in her attempts to keep the shard. The second she began to think that she should give it up - she felt it pulse against her skin. It was like a newborn child, and she knew that it was her sire. Every was messing with her mind, making her doubt herself. She was doing everything right - everything. Before she had a chance to react, however, she felt the pressure on her shirt. It pulled her forward, the cloth tearing slightly - but enough for the shard to tumble out into her sire's waiting palm.

"*****!"

The insult tumbled from her tongue as she watched the woman drop to the elevator below. Without waiting for an invitation, she followed after. Hell, she practically scrambled from her little terrifying corner in order to reach the woman below. Much like her sire, she possessed the grace of a feline and was able to land easily on her feet, the elevator barely rocking beneath her weight. By the time she had reached it, however, the woman had moved on - the hatch shut. Bending down, she tried to open - but found it to get stuck half-way. Narrowing her eyes, she thought to push it further open, but decided against it. Whatever had caused it to stick would take too long to fix - and she was running out of time.

Instead, she opted to just squeeze through. Her legs, *** and stomach were simple enough. She barely weight a hundred pounds - it was her breasts that stopped her. For a moment, she managed to find herself stuck between the hatch, feet dangling in the open air of the elevator, leaving her vulnerable. After a moment of fighting - and pure panic - she managed to free herself. Her boots touched the floor, and she took a solid two minutes to collect her wits. She was terrified of what lurked in that shaft - and now she found a new fear for elevators. Quickly, she scurried out and narrowed her eyes. Where the **** was she?

It was the rustle of branches that caught her attention, and her emerald gaze snapped to her sire's ample *** as she leaped from one branch to the next. She had to admire her ability - she knew exactly what she was doing. Reanna herself didn't spend a lot of time in the branches, and so she doubted how well she would be able to keep up. Without thinking it through, the brunette leaped onto the nearest branch and began to climb. At first - it was going well. She was scaling them quickly, and she was nearing the woman who was climbing higher and higher - she almost had her - craaaack.

The branch her foot was resting on snapped and she found herself falling. She tried to grab a branch to straighten herself, and her hand grasped nothing but air. Before she knew what was happening, she crashed into the floor below, the pain radiating through her spine and into her skull. It is karma, my love. "Go **** yourself, Kirill." Her voice was harsh as she rubbed at the back of her head, her fingers red with blood when she pulled them away. She didn't allow it to deter her for long, and she uneasily moved back to her feet. "I will get you, sire," she called out, voice strained as she eyed the branches warily.

She no longer cared about the shard - no. Her attention was diverted strictly to those ******* branches. They were going to be her downfall. Leaping again, the woman grabbed a branch and tried to climb, only to lose her footing once again. This time, however, she managed to simply slide back down and land her feet. With a growl of frustration, she slammed her fist into the wall before hastily grabbing another branch. She had to get up there. What the **** was wrong with her? This wasn't her style. She rarely failed.

With a new found strength, she grabbed the branches and lifted herself once again - only to fall once again. ****, she couldn't see straight. The room was spinning - was that black spot always in her vision? Trying to shake it off, she stared up at her sire - or sires - for a minute. "This is not funny!" Her voice was weak, words slurred, and she closed her eyes. Her sire was bright in her mind, and she felt the world shift around her. One moment she was on the ground - the next, on a branch. She was safe, she had made i-- craaaack.

"Oh, ******* lamp!"

The curse made sense to her - but perhaps not to anyone else that listened as she found herself falling once again. This time, however, she had a plan. Kind of. Her hand reached out, fingers grasping her sire's shirt at first - only to slide straight over the skin of her stomach. Down, down, down she went - until she curled her fingers around her ankle. Holding on with all of her strength, she opened her eyes, blood staining the side of her face. Her eyes were clear - if only for a moment - and she reached up her other hand for the woman to grab. She was so ******* tired of this damned treehouse!

Shard - fail
Land on feet - succed x2
Climb - fail times a whole ******* bunch. Just wtf, Reanna?!
Grab Every's ankle - planned rp.

Where the **** is everyone? Dulce? Blake? Nishaa? Roderic? There were so many people at first then somehow everyone just vanished? Maybe it was all a dream he was having from getting shot in the head. That’d make sense; the new elevator, the new Bobs, all the new lights. He had to see for himself – his last crazy act had been setting a hut on fire. So it was the way where he needed to go, where he had left Roderic after he got shot in the kneecaps. Concentrating as he sent a telepathic message to his wraith. “I don’t know where the **** you’ve been but get to the Eyrie. Ground floor, see if there’s anyone down here and yeah, try not to get caught in any spirit cage.” Multitasking for the win. He knew of an upper floor too, the floor where no one dared to venture, Micah and Velveteen’s floor. Did they deserve to know what was happening? Probably, but they were probably boning or something so why bother them. It was all just about a glowing shard being fought over by…well, everyone. No big deal!

Niklaus started walking towards the huts he hadn’t visited, Roderic had led him to Reanna’s straight away earlier. If he could find an unoccupied hut, it might just be a good place to barricade himself once he got his shard back. He hadn’t thought of that yet, where would he go if he had the shard? The only logical place was ANYWHERE OUT of the Eyrie, because that was the smart thing to do; he had no hiding place in the Eyrie and staying inside would mean having to constantly run around and having a couple of individuals trying to steal what was his. But WHY didn’t he leave when he first had the shard in his possession? Something about the shard was keeping him and everyone else inside the Eyrie, that was the only possible explanation. Maybe it would lose its power if taken outside of the goddamn tree house. That made sense, perhaps.

“If only I had the creepy skills of Roderic..”, he thought. Roderic could pick a hair from the floor, sniff it and tell you who it belonged to. It might have been the creepiest thing ever but also one of the most useful skills someone could have. But he wasn’t a tracker, he was never interested in tracking. Maybe sometime soon but there were other areas he wanted to better himself first. Like metalworking and crafting better items and weapons. On the verge of inviting himself inside a randomly picked hut, he figured he would inevitably run into the burned down hut anyway in his quest for the ultimate hiding place; somewhere no one would expect him to go. SNAP! Wood. It was the tree. Branches snapping! Someone climbing up perhaps? He crouched and slowly moved towards the elevator, still hidden in shadow and expecting someone to jump up onto the third floor but…no one. Was it his mind messing with him? Maybe he was going crazy, he WAS crazy, or rather someone was actually down there, either climbing up or down and he was going to find out.