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One second the Puma is growling at the encroaching humans, then second it was crouched by an elevator. The feline huffed and slunk off to a shadow where the puma facade fell away, and the vampire visage returned. Doc straightened and adjusted his clothes. He winced as he felt the pain of the broken ribs he received at the hands of the paladins. He had taken two completely out, and damaged a third quite brutally, so bruised and broken ribs was a small price to pay.

It was later, when he had collected the phone from Ric, that Doc discovered that Sparky had been hurt. Ric had healed her, and seemed quite proud of the fact she had taken out a paladin all by herself, but Doc wanted to know what had happened. His wraith should have spotted something and let him know. He would have to had a stern and unpleasant conversation with Bob.

Pouring over the information that the girls had collected by using his phone, Doc knew he owed Ariadne a thank you gift for her programming skills. The intel from the data was great. He had not even thought he would ever use it, but he had, and came up aces. Not only did he get the phone numbers, he got the cell towers that the phones were pinging when they were used. Granted it took him about an hour to figure out what he was looking at, when he remembered what she had told initially.

Pulling out a map of Harper Rock, he broke the city into a grid. A grid based on the cell tower names. It had been a guess where to start, until he saw the ping locator number on one of his own calls. He knew when he was at the lab making calls, and when he was at Winterbrook making calls. So he could track those paladin call locations. Pretty soon it became clear what he was looking at. He could tell when someone was traveling across the city as the ping location numbers changed. But most of all he could tell when someone was not moving. And he made more and more x’s on the map, it soon became clear that the paladins had more than one location where they hung out.

From the pings that Doc could definitely attribute to a cell tower, it was clear there was Paladin activity in Stag Heath and the northern part of the city. In Stag Heath the activity centered around an older church that had been rehabbed and revitalized to be used as a community center. Being familiar with the area, Doc knew about the community center, but he had never seen much activity there, now he understood why. If had been a true community center, there would have activity during the day, but it barely registered any activity until later in the afternoons; and that is because it was a meeting place for the paladins. They kept the same type of hours as vampires. The area northern part of the city was much harder to pin down a specific location. Though that could be put down to activity about the blockaded area, which raised the question, how did they gain access? That question would wait for the time being. Taking a photo of the map, he texted it to Ric along with a suggestion that perhaps Vel would be interested in it as well. Since this was Ric deal, it would be Ric’s call to forward it.

Although River’s words were sweet, it didn’t help Juliet feel any less guilty. Roderic had entrusted her to keep his childe safe and she had failed all because she had slipped up. She could have caught the sound of the Paladin had she been focusing, had she been tracking in caution. Once the girl was summoned, Juliet let her hands fall and she wiped some of the blood from her skin with the tank top she wore. She was torn between going to wait for the group directly and going to check on Doc to make sure he was safe - even if he was older, she didn’t want him wounded too.

Crouching to pick up her gun and the blade the Skylar had given her, Juliet straightened up and made her way out of the tent before looking around. In the distance, she could hear the sounds of the roaring puma and as she shouldered her rifle, she noticed a man no older than eighteen fleeing from the area, his face twisted in terror. In her pocket, her phone vibrated and she ignored it for the time being as she switched off the safety. As he ran, she lifted the gun and began to follow him. It didn’t take her long to get the boy in her sight as she stood still in the middle of clearing.

There weren’t any tattoos on his body aside from a Paladin design on his shoulder, his shorts hanging low on his hips leaving little to hide. She didn’t give any warning, any heads up as she pulled the trigger - with the suppressor in place, Juliet could barely hear the shot just as she watched the boy drop like a sack of flour. He cried out, the sounds of his pain causing a smirk to play across her lips before she shouldered her gun again and dug her phone out of her pocket. “That was for Riv.” She spoke and walked in the direction of the fallen boy, she hadn’t gone too far out of her way to head quickly back towards the meeting place.

Dead.

“I wouldn’t expect anything less.” She shot back telepathically, “Kill me after we’re sure she’s okay.” Juliet reached the boy, smelling his blood before she saw it and used the front of her boot to push him onto his back. Although he was alive, she didn’t think he’d survive long. The blood made her thirst spike, but her mind was on Roderic and River, on the mission as she knelt down and patted his pants pockets until she found his cellphone. His breathing was labored, soft and as she bit the inside of her cheek, holding her breath before she stood. To her left, she heard a low growl and a smirk played across her lips.

When her phone vibrated again, Juliet had already been walking towards the nearest station - ignoring the occasional looks that she’d been receiving due to the blood on her shirt and on her bare arms. “Telep- Oh.” She’d forgotten she could do that and looked around to make sure there was no one watching, slipping behind a tree before she focused on homebase, as Ric had put it. When she arrived, she didn’t hesitate in going to the elevator - the moment she jammed the button open, the doors slid to open and she hit the right floor with a closed fist, ignoring the mild crack and pain that shot up her arm from her haste.

River.

She didn’t know why she worried so much about the girl. She was family, but she was closer to Ric. Maybe it was because the girl was one of his things and she was, too, although a sister-thing. As Juliet reached the floor, she didn’t wait for the door to slide open entirely before she all but ran to the apartment. The first thing out of her mouth, which surprised her was, “How is she?”