Satis House

[Azure Halfbreed]

Felix rushed out of the attic. He had been trying to stare the vampire down. But Antha, then the vampire left so suddenly. Felix jumped down the stairs, and hit the floor rolling, to soften the impact. The vampire's back was turned on him. Felix jumped forward and took the vampire down to the ground. He already had a blade in each hand. One was positioned at the vampires throat and the other over his spine. While the vampire could heal from these wounds, it would take a while. Leaving an opening for a more serious wound. "We don't have to kill you to defeat you."  

[Vikteren]

Antha's voice.

Before he could turn, before he could seek out the source of the scream, he was moving.

His body instinctively knew where she was.

He didn't remember taking the stairs to the second floor. He didn't remember moving. He remembered, for a fleeting instant, seeing Antha, on the floor, rising on bruised arms.

But something in him put that aside. Said, not important, knew that should he focus too long on her that the cold rage within him would subside. The predator within him did not want that to subside.

It was useful, after all.

It was the predator that said, Mine. The predator that snarled, a terrifying, inhuman sound, the predator that closed the distance between Sleet and himself too fast for human eyes to comprehend, that lunged for Sleet regardless of the man with the gun, regardless of the human on the stairs that moved--and the small part of Vikteren right now, the part of him that watched impassively, wanted to say, 'Are you mad? 'Sneaking up' on a vampire? By the time he hears you hit the ground, he could turn around, skewer you, and turn back before you had time to sit up.'--through the air, to a vampire's eyes, in practically slow-motion.

It was the predator that wanted this intruder's heart in his hand; his blood on the floor.

 

[.David Talbot.]

Sleet didn't like to lose. He didn't likenot having the advantage. That was why he pried the human off of him in a flash that left his neck sliced open and pouring blood down his shirt. The vampire was much harder to evade but he managed in a series of dodges and swipes while he dashed back to Antha.
His hands gripped her where they had before, squeezing to try and get a scream out of her, jerking her off of the floor and slamming her back up against the wall. The vampire wasn't stupid enough to attack while Sleet was so close to his lover pressing himself against her to make that fact obvious. The human wasn't fast enough to stop him when he snarled and stared her in the eyes with that cold anger that said very plainly what he was planning a second before he drove fangs into her neck.
It was a sloppy job and he didn't care. The punctures weren't neat and the blood sloshed around his mouth while he drank it. He lapped it up in true animal nature until he felt the long cut on his neck start fixing itself with the fresh new blood.
He pulled back to stare at her. "You said you'd kill yourself if I ever touched you again," he reminded her. "Is this so sickening or should I make it a thorough job?" His fingers gripped the collar of the shirt and ran down to tear out the first button. The three around him wouldn't let him carry out the threat but it was a good threat all the same and he knew it.

 

[XCandy and LunacyX]

The sight of Vikteren brought a new fear to Antha's panic-stricken eyes. Felix wasn't really hers yet, and she had no ties to Kain. She really didn't want to see them harmed, true, but it was only Vikteren that she feared for. Vikteren was hers, after all, and it would be worth killing Sleet to see him unharmed.
She didn't scream when Sleet returned or when he grabbed her up so violently that her bones threatened to start breaking, but the moment she was against the wall, when she saw that look in his eyes, she screamed bloody murder. His fangs made a pain far sharper than any other torture that he could have inflicted upon her, made all the worse by his carelessness. It brought black spots to her vision, as if he were truly eating up her sight rather than her blood. She was losing the feeling of her nails biting into the wall, of the blood spattering in dark spots on the collar of her shirt, of the cold winter air hitting her fevered skin. Just the pain was left, the strings and nets of bruises and her fractured bone, the dull throbbing of her head and the incisions his teeth had made in her neck. Antha had been born weak, fragile, and the first nine years of her life had made her permanently more so. That was why, a few moments after she couldn't seem to get enough air, when Sleet was threatening things that she didn't even want to think about and she was clawing uselessly at his hand with her newly freed one, Antha went entirely limp, passing out with only Sleet to keep her from crashing back down to the floor.

 

[Azure Halfbreed]

((I'm either a little confused, or I miss read David's post. Who's throat was cut?))  

[Vikteren]

The predator wasn't done with so easily. The predator wanted the damn trespasser out of his territory, and anything short of blood wasn't going to sate it.
The smell of Antha's, spilling across her pale skin, did not serve to calm the vampire. Because however dimly, the predator recognized Antha as part of his territory, too.
There were stories of vampires who conceived the bloodlust within them--who went into a frenzy, tearing apart anything they could get their hands on, foe, ally--and finally, when there was nothing else to savage, themselves.
The predator wasn't at that stage, yet.
But there was something in the aggressive stance, the way he bared his fangs, that signaled that he was getting close.
The words fought their way up through his mind, catching onto Sleet's like a hook, like the hand of a desperate man on a cliff's edge.
For an instant, with the message, there came a glimpse into Vikteren's mind at the moment--and it was nearly wrong to call it that. It was neither Vikteren's, nor a coherent mind--a snarled miasma of instinct and blood and memories that perhaps were not memories, but what the predator planned to do to Sleet, the core of it all a seething knot of anger, anger that became power in his hands.
The message was Get out.
The message was the destruction of his coven, his followers, his place of rest, all the trappings of power. The message was the thick gobbets of blood on his hands, reaching through another of Sleet's guards' chests, ripping their heart from their body.
Sleet should know that he could do it.

 

[.David Talbot.]

Sleet looked over at the other vampire with slitted eyes through a veil of Antha's hair. His thoughts and threats made him laugh to himself for a minute. But finally he released Antha so that she fell again to the floor. He hadn't planned on her fainting so soon. Maybe he had taken more blood than he meant to.
He threw up his hands in mock surrender while he laughed. "You havene't even seen the last of me this night. None of you." Then he fled up the stairs where no one could stand in his way and retraced his steps out the window and into the forest where his trail vanished. But he wasn't going far.

((I meant Sleet's throat was cut))  

[XCandy and LunacyX]

When consciousness began returning to Antha, however dimly, she was already on the floor like a broken doll, discarded, neglected, and Sleet was just vanishing into the attic. Her vision was vague, giving her outlines of things but no real details. But she knew Vikteren when she saw him and it calmed her down seeing Sleet gone and him still moving.
It seemed strange to Antha when she began to remember that her original purpose for keeping him around was because she knew Sleet would come after her, because he would be more reluctant with Vikteren around and he could help protect her. Just those few days ago, the actual person had been irrelevant, and now she would rather have Sleet dead than Vikteren. She didn't care if every Mayfair dropped dead, just so long as he was safe.
Her dim, unfocused eyes closed quickly, straining against the light, and she let herself lay there drifting on the edge of consciousness, trying to ignore the aches and pains all along her body. And somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew what needed to be done when she had the strength to move. She needed vampire blood. Perhaps it was that small part of her mind that was calling out before she really realized it, trying to draw forth the one vampire she knew would give her all the immortal blood she needed to repair the damage.

 

[Azure Halfbreed]

Felix followed the fleeing vampire to the best of his abilities. He stopped when he got to the window of the attic and peered out. This was the furthest he would give chase. Sleet wasn't on their property. Well Antha's. Felix still didn't believe this to be his home just yet. It was just as he told Antha. He'd have to see it to believe it.

Even though the vampire flee the grounds, Felix stayed looking out the window. Part of him retreated to his astral form and searched for Sleet. He didn't want to travel to far from his material body. Just far enough to see around. Most beings have an astral presence, even if they're oblivious to that fact. And the astral form will know a that being's movements before that indivisual. That's what Felix was looking for. Any sudden change.  

[.David Talbot.]

He came in time to see Sleet vanishing into the trees. He wanted to hunt him down and make him pay for what he had done. He wanted to kill him. But Antha was on the top of his priorities list. She had called and here he was. Best not to leave her waiting, especially when he could smell her spilled blood.
He burst in through the front door and sped down the hallway. He took the stairs two or three at a time up to the landing of the second floor until he could the blotch of red hair on the floor that was unmistakeable.
In the one moment that he stood still the sight of Antha was enough to completely enough to enrage Nicolae Mayfair. But he went to her gently to lift her in his arms and run his fingers a millimeter over her skin where it was bruised and where it was torn and bloody on her neck.
Nicolae and Antha had never kept each other out of their minds. Even unconscious he found everything he needed to explain what had happened and who the strange men in her house were. He knew Vikteren already but those last lingering thoughts on her mind gave himt he urge to kick him out.
Nicolae had never had a real challenger for Antha's affections. She had always loved him more than anyone else. The idea of that changing was unacceptable.
"Felix," he called to his new cousin in the attic. "I need your help down here." His eyes turned to the other stranger and Vikteren but they were both out of it. He took it upon himself to take Antha down the hall to her room and lay her oh so carefully on her own bed.
"Antha," he said softly while he stroked her hair to try and wake her up. "Antha, I'm here. You have to wake up."

 

[Azure Halfbreed]

Felix heard someone calling him and asking him to come down. The voice was new. He knew Antha's voice, Sleet's, and the guy with the mask. However there was that other vampire. It could be him. And Felix knew he wasn't an enemy. Felix continued to stare out the window checking one more time for any movements. Once there still wasn't any, he made his way back down to the second floor. He did begin to worry about where she was though.

He could, slightly, feel a familar presence close by. Faint, but there. It must be Antha. It's the only person he knew here. He followed it into a bedroom. Antha was laying on her bed while another vampire was by her side. If it was the first vampire Felix wouldn't have acted. But it was one he didn't know. And he just happened to show up after Sleet's attack.

Felix sheathed both blades quickly and pulled another one that had little holy magic fused within it. Not enough to actually kill a vampire outright but enough to make one worry. Felix rushed to the vampire and wrapped one arm around his neck and with the blade in his other hand, positioned it at his throat. Felix was used to killing on sight. The middle grounds like this, trying to determine if one is ally or enemy was new to him. That's why he left his grip somewhat lax. Not too threating of a message but still there. If this vampire was an ally, Felix hoped he would understand his actions.  

[Goblin In A Suit]

Kain had only stood there because he wasn't sure what to do. He had wanted the vampire to attack first so he could judge his abilitly's. But the others had other plans. Then he also didn't want to hurt Antha and if what she said was true then she would die if Sleet did. He relized his heart was picking up speed. He used an old skill of his and breathed very quickly while claming his heart. His eyes went back to normal as he did this. He sheathed his sword then picked up his gun. *Too many complications in one room.* he thought to himself. Kain came near his hand resting on his sword. "Anything I can to to help?" he asked calmly looking at Antha. He was used to seeing lots more blood than this but it was still a little unnerving.  

[Vikteren]

The trespasser was gone, and the little red-haired magic-user disappeared down the hall with her vampire, the one whose blood had the same tang as hers.

Kin, the predator thought.

The vampire followed the trespasser's trail upstairs, to the attic--dimly familiar, but unimportant. The room was drowning in the trespasser's--Sleet's, a quiet voice supplied--scent.
It had to be gotten rid of.
The broken glass dug deep into his palms as he leaned hard on the windowsill, dark, old blood spilling out of the cut--coloring the glass rich crimson.
With it came the madness, the predator, seething over the old boards of the house, whispering protections, words that had been too long forgotten for the human tongue to recognize. In his blood came the ward, and the reminder. Get out.
The ward was too volatile to last more than a few nights at most; like all wards, it would wear as people passed into and out of Satis House.
But it might keep Sleet away for the night. It might keep the girl--Antha, Vikteren wearily supplied--safe.
Why it was important that she remain unharmed, the predator did not know. But the working had drained much of the rage from him--enough that Vikteren could remember himself now, enough that the knot of rage in his mind was allowed to simmer away, and enough that the predator was allowed to withdraw into some dark corner of his mind.

Vikteren drew his hands back from the bloody glass, clasping them together behind his back, where the blood made his palms slick. His gait a little more stilted than usual, he descended the stairs, sought out Antha's trail over the scent of his own blood. And--Nicolai? Ah. She'd called on her brother.

He found her in her room, with the other vampire at her side like the most attentive of nurses. Protocol dictated that he remain at the threshold until invited within.
Vikteren wasn't up to following protocol right now.

He entered, went to the foot of Antha's bed, spoke quietly to Nicolae, voice hoarsened and low. "Is she...?" The words didn't come. Stable? Alright?
He wanted to be at her side, to slip his hand into hers, to brush the curls back from her face, but he couldn't. Nicolae was family, Antha his best-beloved; he did not want to come between them now.

Vikteren understood the bonds between brother and sister.

 

[XCandy and LunacyX]

Antha's eyes began fluttering open before she was even conscious again, her eyes struggling to make out shapes and colors. But that was secondary. She saw Vikteren near her, and Nicolae at her side, and that was all that really mattered.
Her pale, bruised fingers reached out towards Vikteren while she struggled to sit up before she seemed to regain her senses, to think the better of it and collapse back against the pillows. Her eyes turned to Nicolae's vague figure and there was something in her eyes that she imagined he couldn't mistake for anything but what it was. Heal me, she told him, mouthing the words, "It hurts---I can't move. Big brother, please."

 

[.David Talbot.]

Nicolae rolled his eyes at Felix and touched his fingers to the blade like he would push it away. Blood ran down those fingers unnoticed. "Would you get that damn blade out of my face? You can't get your family to accept you when you're pulling weapons out on your cousins." He shook his head and rolled his eyes back up to look at Felix. "Nicolae Mayfair by the way. Antha's brother."
When that was taken care of he took those bleeding fingers and touched them to Antha's lips. They were healing already but that was alright because Antha only needed a little blood. He was trying to heal her not turn her. Not yet.
"Hurry up and drink before you pass out on me again, Evie."