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"It's alright," Skuld reassured him with a grin, the essence cube settled around her neck. "The wrapping is just there to hide what lies within...it needn't be fancy."

She unwrapped Gren's oddly-shaped gift, setting it aside with a 'thank you'...

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After much talking, plenty of thank yous, and a demonstration of Stella's gift to her, Skuld picked up her case with a smile. "Thank you so much, everyone...this means a lot to me."

"Eh, I'm sure ya'd do the same for any a us," Max answered, giving a quick hug to the young oracle.

"Don't be such a stranger," Sosol said with an affectionate hug of his own. "Come see your brother once in a while!"

"Don't forget the sister-in-law, either," Azana said with a nudge and a smirk.

"Of course!" She said with a bright smile before Stella beckoned. "I'll be back before you know it!" Waving back to the rest, she walked out the door toward home, Stella's portal becoming all-too-familiar to her...

Angeles sat in her room pondering her situation. Yesterday she had amazingly eaten only one slice of the delicious cake. She wondered if there were more cookies though. With a sigh she stood up to go into the shower, remembering that cleanliness was something humans needed often. She thought about going outside, but was afraid to while she was human.

She stood under the warm running water with her eyes closed, thoughts mixing with memories and wondering what she should do next before she heard the door open and a crash downstairs.

Angeles whipped on her coat and rushed downstairs to find Alex bleeding on the ground.

"Alex!" she exclaimed and ran over to the redhead before freezing at two all too familiar wounds on the woman's neck.

"Where did you go!?" Angeles demanded and Alex's eyes fluttered open, then closed, "Alex! Where did you go and describe to me who bit you!"

"Las Noches," murmured Alex quietly, keeping her eyes closed as she tried to push herself up, "brown hair, black eyes, a serpent as a cross."

"Aubrey," growled the hunter, she knew that vampire well, only the cross had given him away as he was an Atwater-Rhodes variant and could change his appearance at will. Angeles scooped Alex up with a grunt and helped her down the stairs. She recalled that there was no holy water and cursed under her breath when D came down.

"D!" she exclaimed as he gave her a once over then looked at Alex, "quick help her while I get dressed."

D moved over to Alex's bedside and opened the medicine cabinet as Angeles ran upstairs. She threw on her pants and corset, put the coat back on and grabbed the deathwhisper. Atwater-Rhodes vampires were powerful, relied on the mind for everything they did, had heightened senses, and were known to be merciless. It was a surprise Alex was alive, but she was lucky; Aubrey could not control her from his bite.

Angeles ran down the stairs, giving Remy a smile and small wave, and out the open door, not bothering to close it as she muttered familiar words and a swarm of bats surrounded her. They were all surprised at what had become of her, moving in to get a better look before she said, "to Durem."

Angeles vanished within the bats who then went down the mountain towards Durem. At least she could still summon.

Remy stared. "What?" He glared at Alex. "What'd you go in there for? You know it's a vampire joint!"

As they attended to her, his expression softened slightly at Max's arrival. Sinking into the couch, he huffed. "An art seller downtown saw my work and really loved it. Really loved it, wanted to do a show, he said over the phone. So I went. And guess what? As soon as he saw the fangs, he slithered out of there like a greased snake."

The angel appeared in a pale light and looked around before looking at Sosol, "downstairs," it said calmly to answer the telepath's question. It stepped away from Remy to not cause the vampire pain and instead walked towards the stairs leading to the medical room.

Remy huffily handed over a card, sulking. "Don't kill him or anything. We don't need a martyr." He glanced to the angel as it moved. "Thank you, that's very considerate."

Remy glanced back to MacPere at the successive groans. Had someone died?

Remy smiled, lightening up at the hug and kiss. "Why change? You look great already..." commented after her, watching her dart like a neon firefly.

Charlotte took in the events surrounding her with mild interest, apparently busy sorting out something invisible, wiggling her fingers in the air.

(*sigh* Time for class. Back in an hour.)

Julian slowly opens the door to the inn. With a slight limp, he manages to make it to one of the tables before snapping his arm back in place. Then he sighed as if it was no big deal. He had no expression on his face but you could tell he was exhausted.

"Don't mind me", he thought. "I live for that kind of stuff. I just hope this doesn't turn into one of those awkward moments...."