Little Boy Blue [Open]

[Valentine (DELETED 5837)]

A chilled autumn wind blew through the city of Harper Rock; a whispered promise of the winter that was hiding just behind the corner. A night club was blasting out alternative music, and each time the door opened the sound seemed to fill the streets, and the young vampire’s ears.
He let his eyes fall shut as he leaned back on the bench; arms leisurely placed behind his head, hands intertwined in his starlit white hair. An off note flitted through his slightly parted lips, followed by an amused chuckle as he abandoned the attempt to memorize the tune.

The thirst was growing in him; an animalistic desire that would not go unheeded. He was learning, growing, feeding; each day bringing with it a new lesson. One of the first he had taught himself was that a drunken victim… was an easy one.

To the untrained eye it would seem the young man wasn’t paying attention to his surroundings. They’d be wrong.
He was listening, picking up as much sound as he could; trying to categorize them as important and not worth a flying ****. The second was easier than the first; he wasn’t skilled enough to actually hear what was important yet. So with a resigned sigh he sat straight again, his head lolling forward as his weight shifted. His body followed the motion, a certain hard to hide grace as he moved his limbs to an upright position. Slowly he cracked one sinister blue eye and scanned the crowd; drawing in a deep breath in his lungs. He could smell the sweet blood in the humans passing by; he could barely suppress the urge to just latch out and grab one.

His hands shook with the excitement and eagerness that filled every part of his cold, undead body. He wiped his hands on his black jeans, a nervous habit that had stuck with him from a young age. Whenever he was about to strike and do something he knew would technically be bad, he’d repeat that same motion. Before it was to wipe the sweat from his hands; now it was a compulsive behavior he just couldn’t kick.

There.
Both eyes opened, his neck snapping to the side as he caught a wiff of her. A young girl with red hair, wearing a black low-cut top that showed off a noticeable amount of cleavage; her teeth white and sparkling as she stumbled out of the bar with a laugh on her lips. As soon as he saw her he just knew… she was the one.

“Bye Clara, see you tomorrow!”

One of her friends had joined her outside, and for a moment Valentine though for sure it was over. One girl he could probably charm, but two? He did not feel confident about it. So when the two women went their separate ways, he couldn’t help but grin with glee. He let her take a few steps down the street before he began following. He easily fell into her pace, his breathing picking up as he wiped his hands on his pants again; he thought for sure his head was going to explode if he had to wait much longer.

Suddenly, she started slowing down. Had he paid more attention to her rather than to what he wanted to do to her then he probably would have noticed. Now, instead, it took her voice to make him react.

“Excuse me?”

Her words were careful, cautious, reminding him of a small animal. Like a mouse. He glanced around, looking down the street in both directions, seeing no one. Perfect.
Without a word he continued forward, approaching her with a predatory gleam in his eyes, each step bringing him closer to his target. He needed her. He wanted her. Not her. Her blood. Her-

“****!”

He screamed the word, an agony beyond words making him claw at his eyes. He felt like his face was on fire, a pain sharp and hot like molten lava. Pepper spray. The words grated inside his head, filling him with anger, with pure agonizing rage. He lashed out at her, blinded still, but his claws met nothing but air. He forced his mind to calm down so he could locate her, the sound of her running became the pure focus of every fiber in his body. He closed his eyes and ran, stumbling twice, and with a last powerful jump he was on her.

“You ******* *****!”

She struggled beneath him, his fingers finding flesh, claws digging into her soft, warm skin. He heard her screams, letting them fill his mind as he found his mark, her eyes. His thumbs upon her eyelids, he pushed down.
He didn’t know if she was dead or if she had passed out from the pain, but as soon as her screams stopped he stumbled back, leaning against the wall behind him. He knew he had no need for air yet he panted anyway, feeling his chest rising and sinking as he tried to calm down. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been this angry.

“I done fucked up now.”

He felt his lips tug as the laugh slipped through his lips. Quiet at first, barely a whisper, but soon he was leaning over, clutching his stomach as his crazed laugh echoed down the streets, tears cleaning his eyes from the painful substance.

[Dhara]

Snuggled deep in to her winter coat, she wandered the streets as she usually did. Well almost. Her precious instruments were tucked safely away in her apartment. The cold wasn't good for them. Every so often a tiny hand would snake out to tangle in the blue and purple curls and shove them behind her ear once more. She was amusing herself by trying to catch snowflakes on the tip of her nose, as well as by blowing little puffs of air to send the drifting white back in to the sky. For her, it was a relatively quiet night, until the screams tore through the air.

She tensed, coming to a halt where she stood. She knew she should scamper home right now. It's what every one said. All those people who tried to protect her. But at the same time, some one was hurt. What kind of human being would she be if she just left them to their misery? With a gusty sigh that fogged the air, she made her way to the noise. The screams. Her steps were quick and silent, cheeks and nose pink from the cold. She wound her way through alleys and down sidewalks, dodging ice and piles of things she didn't even want to name.

She was so close, the screams were louder, ringing in her ears now. Her hands balled in to fists, tucked inside her coat. She had no idea what she would do when she got there. She wracked her brain trying to think when her fingers brushed her phone. The cops! She could totally call for help. That was her thought, at least, until the screams cut off. With a huff, she began to run, quite literally skidding to a halt as she came upon a scene out of nightmares.

Her breath puffed in the air, her heart rate skyrocketed as a surge of adrenaline shot through her tiny frame. Her amber eyes took it all in and she knew there was no way to unsee what she was seeing now. The woman lay on the ground and from where she stood, she couldn't tell if she were alive or dead. But the maniacal laughter coming from the man... vampire? who was crouched over her ramped up her fear even more. She knew it! She knew she should have just gone home. If he was a vampire, he'd kill her. If he was a human, he'd probably kill her. She nibbled on her lower lip for a moment, then spoke, trying to keep her voice from shaking.

"You should be more careful you know. You don't want to get caught."

[Azraeth]

The invitation had arrived by way of text some ten or so minute before.

‘Necropolis 20 minutes’

Azraeth didn’t bother to send a response, because the man on the other end of the ‘conversation’ would expect his presence, and Az wasn’t the type to keep his sire waiting. It was a topic he had recently broached with Kynan, one of his two new childer. The Dragon Hound (as the young Welsh man liked to be called), was beginning to display attributes that were common amongst members of the Shadow Path, a trait he shared with Nikolae. Az had told him to seek the First Dragon out so that he could learn control. But it was more than that. The Dragomir were a culture unto themselves. He had explained it simply. Many made the mistake of thinking that the dragons were without emotion, without heart and soul. But they loved, they loved their own without reservation, or hesitation, with so much fire that to not be one of them made it impossible to understand.

Az’s hope was that Kynan would get close to Nikolae.

He arrived at the station a few minutes later after a boring trip on the public transit. He looked out of place, because most of the people riding at that time of night were scantily clad children from the local university. They were experiencing freedom for the first time and were making terrible choices with it. Then there were the drunks and the people who looked like they hadn’t bathed in recent history. He was not only very clean, but meticulously put together in a suit that was black on black. He had a tie in a colour of orange that made one immediately think of Halloween, and it was horizontally striped with slate grey as its offset tone. The colours had the effect of bringing out the natural hue of his eyes, though the serpentine pupils were hidden behind sunglasses so as not to alarm anyone.

He stepped out and headed towards the south, angling to make his way past a few pedestrians and litter, only to hear a scream.

Not his business right? Right.

Except that nagging at the back of his mind told him that he should at least check in on it on the off chance it was one of his progeny. Kynan seemed to have this issue with keeping his temper in place when he scented blood. He went into a frenzy of madness that usually only served to leave him coated in coagulating fluid. The chances were slim, but that was the nature of the observant sire. He found himself sandwiching a human between himself and another vampire. The other undead was still dealing with a victim, and Azraeth couldn’t help letting his lips set in this wry, disapproving line. As if to say ‘messy eater’. Az was not adverse to taking extreme measures when it came to dealing with prey. In fact, it was not uncommon for him to drain several people at once, lie naked with limbs and blood scattered around him on a tarp – when he needed to replenish his magical reserves. Power came at a price.

But secrecy was important if one didn’t want to become chow for the vampire hunters or the Masq upholders. He avoided ‘tksing’, and instead cleared his throat. He lifted a hand to draw the glasses from his eyes, revealing snake-like slits for pupils. Two dark slashes to bisect pools of deep ocean blue. They were immediately recognizable as being inhuman. If someone could see them in the dark. They let him see things that normal eyes could not. The woman between himself and the vampire did indeed appear to be of the living variety. He would deal with her as necessary, depending on how events played out.

“No, no you don’t. “ His words were directed towards the man, and then his attention shifted a little bit. “Something tells me though, that you really don’t want to be here.” The burden of his gaze settled on the woman who had just spoken. Piercing, inquisitive, and immediately critical, those eyes possessed a raw, prying intelligence that could be unnerving to the weak minded.

“I think perhaps now would be the opportune time for us to dispose of the body.” More of a test than anything else. To gauge the situation, because the truth was that Az had gotten involved. He could teleport away, but he wanted to at least help before more attention was drawn to the situation. He summoned shadows to cover the area in a blanket of darkness. The first step in the right direction.

[Nikolae]

Nikolae Dragomir couldn't quite remember the last time he'd stepped foot into the Necropolis. Years, most likely. As he'd entered the place, the familiar music hit his ears and the equally familiar and repugnant vision of humans eyeing him like drug-addicts looking for their next fix. He couldn't quite keep the disgust from crossing his features. Blood-dolls, the former queen of this particular club had called them. He'd never understood the fascination for either party; what did humans really get out of it, and why did his fellow vampire find the well-used veins so alluring? He took a seat nearest the door, but facing it. He never left his back unguarded, and even now it was against the wall and giving him a good view of the entire place.

When the time passed his jaw clenched in irritation. His errant childe hadn't shown, and that was simply unacceptable. He could fish his phone out and text the man again. He could even use Mind Speak to verbally assault his childe right into the mans brain. The idea had merit, especially if he could shout loud enough to make the Raeth's ears ring and his head hurt. Nikolae did not like to be kept waiting. It was for that reason that he decided against both those options and simply used his abilities to locate his first borne. Once done, he stood fluidly from his chair and closed his eyes to Teleport. The ability was something he'd used infrequently but since his return to the city's main streets he found himself leaning more and more on his abilities - giving them a real test he hadn't bothered with before initially learning them.

In the blink of an eye he was standing on the street not too far from the club. That only served to irritate him further - what possible excuse could the young Dragon have for missing their appointment? He took a step forward and paused, head tilting as his serpentine golden eyes narrowed speculatively. The smell of blood had him him like a freight train. Old blood now though, coagulating on the streets where it had fallen. Lucky that, because fresher blood might've made his fangs drop. He'd lost what few social skills he'd had when he'd stepped from the public eye to become the silent Spectre of Shadows.

It seemed Nikolae had come in on some sort of discussion his childe was having with a mortal and a ravening beast of a vampire. The elder Dragon scowled as he took in the scene entirely before brushing a hand in greeting against his childes shoulder. Azraeth would never pass up the opportunity to help a fellow vampire - though, naturally, the same couldn't be said of his feelings toward humans, a fact which made Nikolae even more wary of the females presence in this bloodbath.

"I think he's cackling, Raeth." He murmured, keeping one serpentine-eye on the bent over creature covered in blood. "You don't suppose he's the sort of danger Velveteen would want to chop into little pieces do you?" He sighed and shook his head in weariness. "Someone should really start a cleaning business in this town. Don't they do that in movies? I could've sworn I saw it once..."

He watched the unknown man for another beat and silently lamented his evening haulted for what he could only assume was a newborne left on his own by a severely lacking sire. At least the human didn't seem entirely spooked. Too bad nobody knew how to wipe their minds, like another of the television shows he may or may not have been watching during his two-year hiatus from the city's politics. "You there! Are you alright? Do you know where you are?" He shoved a hand down to pat at the hilt of his favorite new long dagger, just in case. "Or who you are?" He added with an amused shake of his head.

He was probably being rude to the woman, but one problem at a time. He and Raeth could probably kill them both and dust their hands off with a job well done if it was necessary. But he really hoped it wouldn't be. There were enough stuffy jackasses in this town, a loon or two would be refreshing. Besides - it made him seem that much saner. "Hello, there. I'm Nikolae Dragomir." He said to the woman abruptly. That sounded normal, he was fairly certain. He hadn't flashed fangs - but then, his odd eyes usually were the star of any conversation anyways. He winked.

[Valentine (DELETED 5837)]

He stood there doubled over, the laughter bubbling in his stomach, moving up into his throat, escaping past his pale lips. Valentine knew he was grinning like a madman, and somewhere in the depths of his mind he couldn’t help but think; “Aren’t I though?”. He wasn’t sure why he was laughing; he had failed after all. But somewhere inside him, in the depths of his psyche, he felt more alive than ever. Despite being dead, having no heartbeat, his need to breathe being far gone and his only need to survive was the blood from others… he felt more alive than he had in all his years of actually living.
Because taking a life was the only rush he needed.

The laughter wouldn’t subside, the bubbling continuing to fill his entire being; and each time he thought for sure he’d manage to stop… he’d start again even harder. He was just about to give in to the urge to sit down, when he suddenly heard a voice.

"You should be more careful you know. You don't want to get caught."

Valentine fell silent at once, standing straight and looking at the person speaking. His eyebrow cocked up in a curious fashion at the sight of the young woman, dressed in a thick coat to keep the winter chills at bay. Her voice was smooth and sweet, but he could hear the fear in the pitch, in the soft way her breath shuddered at the end of the sentence, and most noticeably in her hummingbird heartbeat.

Had she not spoken, he probably would have missed her appearing altogether; but now that she had drawn his attention he found himself not immediately thinking easy food. In truth, he was curious about her, and about what inside her mind had made her get involved when he was pretty certain even she should have been able to note that he wasn’t quite sane.
“Well, I…” He began, just to silence again as he noticed someone else. In fact, he suddenly noticed two others. “What now?” He thought, tapping his chin lightly with a blood covered finger; reveling in the slightly sticky sensation it brought.

Valentine stood in silence for several moments, weighing the situation at hand and trying to figure out the reason for it to have arisen. A brief glance at the dead girl was all he needed to realize he might actually be in trouble. “Well…” His voice was soft when he spoke, his gaze shifting from the woman, to the two others. He figured them for vampires as well, but without the ability to gauge their actual strength he decided to tread lightly.

“Valentine.” He finally responded. “Valentine St Claire. At yer service.”
He made a quite inelegant bow, tipping an imaginary hat in their direction. He kept his gaze on them at all times, assessing them as much as he could. They looked rich, at least in his eyes. They were clearly familiar with each other, and he was not sure if that was good or bad for him. He was after all alone and without backup. “Polite.” He reminded himself as he stood straight again, showing his hands into the pockets of his large black jeans. It wasn’t that he was polite or kind by nature, in fact he was quite the opposite, but survival instincts had always taught him that making enemies with those who most likely could overpower you… well, that was just downright stupid.

“Well…” It hit him that this was the third time he begun a sentence with that particular word. For some reason, it annoyed him. “…aint my fault.” He shrugged and tossed a rather sour look at the girl on the ground. He was pretty sure she was dead now. “I was only gonna have a taste ya know? And then she went and maced me and, fuckin’ hell, that s*** hurts.”
His vision was still slightly hazy, but at least they didn’t pain him as much at this point. A few more tears left his eyes and streaked down his cheeks, just to be wiped away by his crimson covered fingers. “Bloody mace…” He murmured under his breath, a slight shake of his head before he returned his full attention to the human girl and the other two.

He briefly considered keeping her as a pet,

[Dhara]

She watched every thing with curious amber eyes. Valentine had gotten to his feet, just as another vampire appeared. She swivled her head to look up at the man, pushing back her sky blue and purple hair with a thin, pale hand. She could feel the weight of the newcomer's stare, piercing in to her as if he could touch her soul. She blinked slightly, taking a half step back. For some reason she wanted to be elsewhere suddenly. Her nose crinkled slightly, as if she were thinking about something, when the darkness seemed to intensify. As if cold water had been splashed in her face, she blinked and stopped moving. Her slender fingers curled around the tiny flashlight in her pocket, if it got any darker, she was going to need it.

She had just about opened her mouth to speak when another man appeared. She focused in on his eyes, her own widening slightly. She blinked again and raked a lock of purple from her face. Surely, but no, she wasn't seeing things. The mans pupil's were slit. Like a cat or a lizard. Her lips drew together as she weighed her options. Should she flee from a mad man and two (one for certain) other vampires? Could she really make it? She nibbled on her lower lip and gave a soft sigh. All three of them were probably vampires. Which meant she'd gotten herself in to a serious mess. It would be best to play nice. And play nice she would. When the newest vampire addressed her directly, she went slightly paler than her normal near translucent hue. Freckles appeared across her nose and cheeks, but she managed a smile, small as it may be. She even took a half step forward and offered one skeletal hand in greeting.

"Dhara Sabria." She said quietly, knowing they all could hear. Her blended German and Australian accent was distinctive on it's own. Then you added her tiny stature and too-thin frame along with her unusual amber eyes and she was a hard one to miss. She knew, even if they all went their own separate ways at the end of this living nightmare, they would be able to spot her in a crowd. She smiled again, a little more, her eyes on Nikolae and the man he was with, occasionally sneaking glances at the one who called himself Valentine. "It is nice to meet you, Mr. Dragomir. And you, Mr. St. Claire." Another brief pause as her eyes drifted to the third, as yet unidentified man. "And you, um... Sir." She said to Azreath, mentally willing her heart to stop trying to beat it's way out of her chest. "It is a shame it is under such circumstances."

"This is totally normal. Just day. I can get through this. I can." The litany ran silently through her mind. She was harmless, all things considered, she just needed them to believe that. She was determined to walk away with her heart still beating.

[Azraeth]

He heard Nikolae speak, and something inside of him immediately relaxed. The shadow had that effect on him. Azraeth’s nature was to fuss over people, make sure that they were alright. His primary experience of the world tended to be focused outward, in taking care of those he loved. He was a doting man, but that came with a certain level of vigilance that could be tiresome. If he had put some thought into it, the true nature of his relief probably came from the way that he trusted Nikolae. Totally. Without hesitation. If the man had asked him to cut off his own hand, he would have done so without question. Because that was the nature of his love for his sire. It was that same affection that made him who he was and had granted him a reputation as healer and voice of reason.

He would have pressed into Nikolae’s side, but that seemed vaguely inappropriate at the moment.

“It would seem so. “ He did not wear his emotions on his sleeve. Another thing that was true of Azraeth – while he was a deeply empathic person, he was also gifted with a calm demeanour that did very little to reveal what he was feeling or thinking.

Greetings were exchanged, and Az kept his mouth shut, mostly because Niko had already used a fragment of his name. He felt no need to offer up the rest until he knew the other two a little bit better. "A pleasure to meet both of you.” He shook hands when they were offered.

It seemed that the tall vampire, the one that had attacked the woman, didn’t quite have much in the way of control over his actions. That didn’t bode well, because Nikolae was right. Those who were caught violating the masquerade faced the dangers of being attacked or even killed by the masquerade enforcers. Az’s own feelings on the matter were a lot more tame, though he generally agreed that vampires should remain secret. The reason for that was simple – the undead were bound to Harper Rock. The tear in the Veil that allowed them to return to life after being sent to the shadow realm was under the quarantine zone. It did not exist anywhere else in the world. Which meant that if they died anywhere else…

They were gone for good. Dead. The end.

So being revealed to the whole human populace of the world was dangerous. It just took one religious sanction, one set of zealots to scream about demons and they would end up bombed. Or their food source could be evacuated. Or governments might try and turn them into experiments. No thanks. He didn’t trust the nature of humanity well enough to put his own life in their hands.

But for specific humans? Well, people were rational, thinking individuals. He had been one of those open to the idea of working with the blood thieves back when the Broussard conflict had occurred. Had they not attacked a Dragomir, he probably would have remained totally neutral in that affair. But they had, and he had been there when the big show down had taken place. He had watched as they had been slaughtered. Blood debt paid by blood. Dragons had long memories.

“You’re going to have to work on that a bit, Valentine.” He reached into his jacket and pulled out a kerchief so that he could hand it over to the man. “Use this if you like.”

“Mr. Dragomir.” He said, correcting Dhara in relation to his name. “Nikolae and I are related.” A brief explanation granted a second later.

“You are right though, the circumstances are unfortunate. You seem to be handling the whole situation rather well. Why is that?” He asked, even as he took a step towards the corpse on the ground. His lips pulled into a thin line. He crouched to pick her up, what had once been a young woman so that he could clutch her to his chest. “I will be back in just a second.” He did not normally use powers in front of humans, not unless he could dismiss them as little more than parlour tricks or if the ones in question were small children or the insane. If someone wasn’t a good witness to it, he didn’t tend to fuss. Dhara seemed in full possession of her faculties.

He teleported to the quarantine zone.

Dropped the body on the ground in the graveyard. It would become a zombie later.

Then he teleported back. His black clothing was spotted in blood, but thankfully it was impossible to make that out. The whole thing literally only took about the blink of an eye. It looked, for all the world, like he had been standing there one moment with a dead girl, and the next just dusting off his hands.

There was still trace evidence of a crime though. He suspected the falling snow and other elements would take care of that.

Which just left Dhara.

[Nikolae]

Nikolae watched the fledgling curiously, silent as the man fumbled his replies. The Dragon couldn't quite decipher whether the young vampire was nervous, hiding something, or simply half-crazed. He supposed he and Raeth did present something of a force to be reckoned with. They weren't ancients - not by a long shot - but in a town where only a handful of ancients had come through the portal years ago, and then of those only one or two still walked the streets alive and well.... Nikolae and Raeth were damned near the closest thing to 'elder' that was left in Harper Rock. Still, there was something endearing about the strangers demeanor. Nikolae had once been as rash as the young vampire before him. His first borne standing so close to him was proof of that. He'd fell on Azraeth only hours after Chad's blood had dragged him from the edge of eternal death. Then chased Raeth across the city, hunting him like a ravenous beast until the last of the mans blood had filled his system. To this day he couldn't pinpoint what it was that had driven him to give his blood in return. What about Azraeth had driven back that familiar insanity that took so many of their kind, and made Nikolae think straight again. Whatever it was, he'd made Raeth his own and never looked back or regretted the moment since. Even if both of them were so little like their former human selves - but then Niko had a hunch that the immortal blood eradicated as much of a humans mind as it did their once fully-functioning organs. Getting rid of the old to make room for the new and all that.

"Valentine. St. Claire... that's not a name I'm familiar with," The Dragomir replied slowly, tilting his head as though if he squinted hard enough he might be able to place exactly what blood flowed in the fledglings veins. Of course there were easier ways. More rudimentary ways, too. But Raeth, no doubt, wouldn't approve of those. As it was Nikolae had relinquished his hold on his dagger - at least for now. Azraeth had departed with the body, so at least there'd be no human police to contend with. And no other human eyes to gauge out. "What path do you walk, Valentine?" He queried further, insistent as he passed his gaze over the blood-splattered ground. Even Shadows had a way to keep their kills from getting quite so public - a skill Raeth had handily used just a few moments earlier.

Even as he spoke, Nikolae was angling himself slightly, taking a half-step nonchalantly and as non-aggressively as possible. He'd positioned himself slightly nearer the human woman - half to protect her should the untrained vampire decide he was still smarting from his wound, and half to protect him should the mortal have a weapon hidden on her person after all.

"I'm sure you wouldn't want to frighten Dhara, here, anymore." He added with a small smile as Azraeth returned and dusted himself off.

"Thank you, Raeth. There, nothing to worry about now, Valentine." He was speaking quietly, much like one would to a frightened animal that might either bolt at any second or bite the hand attempting to feed it. Neither would be allowed. If nothing else, the Dragomir looked out for the strays of the city. Even if those strays didn't know well enough to ask for their serpentine gaze. "Are you alright, as well, Dhara?" He flitted a sideways glance to the woman and offered a warm smile. He really did hope they wouldn't be forced to kill her.

[Valentine (DELETED 5837)]

Blue eyes watched the three strangers in front of him, his vision soon clearing completely. He observed the scene in front of him, how they interacted; their ways to talk and act. Despite the fact that he knew his focus should be on the two men, the two vampires, he couldn’t stop looking at the girl. She was older than him, her body-language told him that, but she looked younger. Actually, she looked like a bird. A small, frail, sweet little thing, like a… a mockingbird or something along those lines. He shook his head in an attempt to focus. “Maybe I could keep her as a pet? Put her in a cage and feed her and brush her hair and…” Focus. He had to focus.

He shook his head again, forcing his mind to concentrate and stay in the moment at hand. Everyone had introduced themselves, except for the vampire saying he was related to the one named Nikolai. But even he had a name attached to his face; Valentine had snapped up on him being called Raeth. What an odd name.
Focus.
“Oh, well, I…” He scratched the back of his neck, feeling like a scolded child. “It wasn’t like I intended to kill her.” His British accent was buried deep beneath the American one he had forced himself to use, trying to wipe away any evidence of where he had come from. “I mean, who gets sprayed like that and doesn’t get angry?” He asked himself mostly, accepting the offered handkerchief with a muttered thanks.

He watched as the one called Raeth walked over to the dead girl and picked her up. The movement was too quick, he couldn’t keep up, but one moment the girl was there and the next she wasn’t. Like magic. “Whoa.” He stared in awe, unable to fully comprehend what had just happened. He’d never seen anything like it, and for several moments he just stood there, lips parted and eyes wide. “That… was amazing!”

Focus!
It was harder this time, dragging his mind out of the ocean of thoughts that filled it, but he forced himself to register the words the man named Nikolai spoke. “Huh, oh, uh… I’m new.” He cleared his throat, stealing a couple of glances at Raeth again before pouring all his attention into answering the question asked. Path? He wasn’t sure what the man talked about, his brain trying to scour all information he had in search of the answer. “I… am afraid I don’t know what you mean.”

He noticed that Nikolai had stepped closer to the girl. His stance seemed careful, but not threatening, and Valentine felt calm about the situation at hand. He turned his gaze to the girl, cocking his head just the slightest to the side as he regarded her. She truly did remind him of a bird, and he found the urge to just take her and play with her rising again. “Dhara was it? I like yer hair. And your coat. That’s a nifty coat, looking warm and all that.” He put his hands into the pockets of his black hoodie, the zipper pulled down since he couldn’t feel the cold anyways, the black tank-top being mostly for the sake of modesty (not his but the general populations) and was therefore not really looking warm in the least.

[Dhara]

So many things happened all at once, she almost couldn't follow them. Nikolae, Mr. Dragomir, and Valentine St. Clair. She filed the names away, her eyes roving from one to the next to the next and back around. She watched rather dispassionately as Raeth teleported away and then returned. Only the slight widening of her amber eyes revealed that even still the magic of vampires still impressed her. But she kept her silence. She'd been teleported once before and while she was insanely curious about the process, now was not the time to ask the questions that wanted to come pouring out. She clenched her jaw slightly and returned her focus to the conversation around her.

When Nikolae moved closer, she tugged her tiny hands from her pockets, revealing they were empty save for a single slender band of silver around the middle finger of her right hand. She knew she could be playing a dangerous game, standing here with them. Her gaze swiveled from Nikolae to Valentine when he began to speak. The look in his eyes made her nervous and she moved closer to Nikolae as he had moved closer to her, almost as if she was seeking safety in the taller mans shadow. Valentine's surprise at Raeth's abilities made her nervous all over again and she willed her racing heart to slow down, though it didn't listen.

She tugged nervously on her sky blue hair, tangling her fingers in the purple streaked locks. It seemed she, a mere human, knew more about vampires and their paths and abilities than he did. It was an odd turn of events really. And his non answer only confirmed that Valentine was not only potentially unstable, but clueless as well. She kept focused on is answers and Nikolae's questions, startled when they both addressed her, one after the other. One asking if she was okay, the other complimenting her on her hair colors and her coat. She looked momentarily confused as she tried to decide who to speak to first. She was half hidden by Nikolae, but spoke to Valentine first.

"Dhara, yes." She confirmed, her blended accent giving no hint as to her origins, only confirming that she was not Canadian or American. "Thank you. And yes, it is a warm coat. It comes in handy on these chilly winter nights." Her pale cheeks had a flush of pink, the rise of blood to the surface of her skin, brought on by both the cold and her racing heart. She turned her gaze up to Nikolae to speak to him. "I am well, thank you, Nikolae." She said politely, looking around the gathering. There was nothing left but a few splatters of blood, and even those were hard to see in the faint light. "Perhaps there really was nothing to see after all. Nothing that might have happened but four people becoming strangely introduced." She spoke blandly, the truth of the situation was in her eyes, but her words implied that she was incredibly good at keeping secrets of a supernatural nature.

Staying calm seemed to be the key to getting out of this situation, and she knew she would take the nights events to her grave. She just hoped that they would believe that. She thought that, perhaps, Nikolae and Mr. Dragomir were the calmer, more rational of the three vampires. Perhaps their stable calmness would convince Valentine that she was as harmless as she appeared. Harmless as a little bird who should have flown south for the winter.