The World of Darth [ON HOLD]

[HeadlessKoko]

Kageko got back up after retying her boots and nodded at the orders. She memorized where the traps were to be set along with the ideal formation they would force onto the attackers. "Am I allowed access to any materials in this estate needed for making traps? If so, to what extent?" was the girl's only question, and it was directed to Angeles rather than Louis. She wanted to be clear on what she was allowed to handle and what she wasn't allowed to handle. The last thing she wanted was a vampire many times stronger than her after her because she had used something that she wasn't supposed to for a trap.

Even as she asked for permission to just use the materials, the girl had started formulating on the way the traps were to be set. As she waited for an answer, she figured, and so on and so forth.  

[Angeles Valentine]

Leon merely nodded to his orders, but said nothing. Angeles shook her head, but added, "I have some of the more trustworthy Valentines taking up arms. They'll be at your command soon," she then turned to the child as she posed a question to the vampiress. She looked up, as if the answers were there, then closed her eyes, "honestly, I don't expect this place to be standing once all of this is over, use what you will, if it looks like it belongs to someone, ask them permission, if they harass you, tell them I told you you could."

She nodded, finalizing her answer. Leon turned to the child, since it seemed he would be following her around to set the traps and whatnot, and then going with her on her reconnaissance mission.  

[Zulma san]

Louis looked as Kageko and Leon left.
Then he turned to Angeles with hesitation or shyness in his voice, he spoke to her.
"My proposal still holds." his piercing blue eyes were not blinking as he looked at the vampiress.
He knew she would not like him to remind her of this opportunity but still he had to.

----
In the cave, Emilia came back to her senses. She was cold, icy cold...
Water... she thought at first. Then she slowly looked up to see many Fangs all in human forms staring at her. They had woken her with cold water and she was not shivering like a weakling, yet her stare was strong as she looked in the crowd, trying to find her father amongst them.  

[Angeles Valentine]

Angeles looked over at Louis, eyes hard as he reminded her again of what he had said. Her shame was that she was considering it. She wanted to stab herself in the stomach with the thought, but the thing was, with the upcoming horror they were going to face, not just with the oncoming Blessed, but with the apocalypse of the world as they knew it, she would need the strength he promised her.

With a sigh she looked away from him and thought more on it before asking, "how does it work? What else does it do?"  

[Zulma san]

If Louis was surprised that she would consider the thing, he did not show anything.
"You drink my blood." he answered.
He knew she had many questions and some of them he did not have an answer.
"It is not a science. The effects can be different." he added. "But we will be bound to one another. You might be able to read my mind or feel what I feel ..."
His eyes were steady on her profile.
"And there is the promise..." he said softly. He knew she would not like that.  

[Angeles Valentine]

Angeles watched Louis carefully as if he would attack her. She listened carefully, and the corner of her mouth twitched down at his lack of knowledge, but then he said something that felt dark in her chest, "what promise?" she almost growled through her teeth. So far she was not liking the sound of it at all. Perhaps it wasn't so bad not being a pureblood and having all of this convelutedness attached to oneself.  

[Zulma san]

Louis only smiled. He had been right. After all he had known her for how many years? Even if she had always kept him at a distance, away from her...

"Once you drink my blood, I will ask something from you. Something which you will have to fulfill to be ... 'freed' from me."

He made a slow step towards her.
"If I were to drink your blood, you would have the same right." he said in his calm voice. She was so cold, so closed to others, so closed to him.  

[Angeles Valentine]

Angeles reflexively took a step back, too used to fighting with her own kind to let one get within striking distance, especially talking to her the way Louis was, "and what would you promise?" she asked, turning her head. She was looking for an escape route while keeping Louis in her peripheral vision. But this was all out of practice rather than actually feeling threatened by the leader of the unit, though in every right she should be.

Looking back at him she waited on his answer, but even as it was given she wasn't sure she could trust his words. What was to say that he would change his promise ofter she had already taken the blood?  

[Zulma san]

The male vampire took another step forward as she moved away. For each step away, there was a step towards.
"I am offering my blood to you and you still don't trust me." he sounded almost hurt.
"What would I win by hurting you?" he asked very seriously.
She was at last looking at him. He could only read pride, coldness and distance in her eyes.  

[Angeles Valentine]

"Me," she said darkly, "the perfect warrior against vampire kind, and a force to be reckoned with as far as others are concerned. A weapon. Me, you would have what no one else had ever had before. You say this promise I must keep, it is little more than making me your slave is it not? Until the requirements are fulfilled? I enjoy my freedom Louis," she said, something stirring in her chest as she said his name, "if I did not, I would have joined the unit to be the Triumvirate's b***h. Simple as that. I know what it's like to have your freedom taken from you once, what it's like to be a pawn in someone else's game," she tossed the gold ring to the ground where it spun before becoming still; cold metal, "never again."

She inhaled now to calm herself down and compose herself once more before asking stiffly, "now, what would you make me promise?"  

[Zulma san]

Louis smiled but there was sadness in his heart. His eyes were caressing her pale skin. She would always reject him and he would always tried, so was their relationship, if it could even be called one.

He shook his slowly. "I know." he simply said. He knew her freedom, her independence was everything to her. But he would not lie to her, if she was taking his blood, promise or not, they would be bound. The promise was just a seal over the act. Nothing more. Yet something without which the exchange would not be total.

His eyes shifted from her face to the ring spinning at his feet. He had hated this ring for years, wishing to see it thrown in flames, away from her. And here it was on the ground and he did not get any satisfaction out of it.

"You are set on refusing. You do not trust me. Yet you want to know..." His blue eyes seemed almost silver, taking the tone of a cold winter morning. He had a small sigh then he turned away from her, showing his back, still wounded under his shirt.
He would not beg her to accept his blood. He had gone as far as his honor would allow him. He was a vampire. He was proud. If she was judging his life of service to the Triumvirate as the choice of a weak and a coward then maybe he was wrong in offering his blood to her. I have spent too long amongst the humans, I am almost reacting like a creature of blood and life... he noted with a hint of disgust.

The male vampire walked to the edge of the roof, looking at the sun. If only it could set down faster...  

[HeadlessKoko]

After being given her answer, Kageko had left. The girl could sense Leon's energy close behind her but she made no movement to recognize it as she walked down to the first floor.

Upon reaching the first floor, Kageko continued to remain silent as she backtracked her steps the night before and reached the dining room. She opened a door here and there until she found what she was looking for, The kitchen was large, but empty, the expected state of a vampire's kitchen. Without anyone to stop her, the girl began rummaging through the various cupboards, shelves, and such. Several times, she would close a door at a slightly quicker rate than before, those were the doors leading to bottles of blood. There weren't many, but the bottles of blood were there and even though they were bottled, they sent an involuntary chill up the girl's body.

However, the kitchen did contain several things that Kageko obviously deemed as useful considering that she pulled them out and set them in clear sight. String, cloth, flour, spices, even lemons were pulled out. By the time the girl pulled out a large bag of spicy peppers with one hand and a set of knives with the other, it should have been obvious that she was branching out from the dust explosion and hay traps (although, she did put the set of knives back after considering them for a bit). If it could be seen, though, there was some sort of order to the mix of items she was gathering. They were all either flammable dusts, able to be used to store objects, or very irritating to the senses (whether raw or after being burnt).  

[Angeles Valentine]

Leon bent and lifted the items Kageko pulled out into his arms, gathering it all up in an amazing feat of dexterity. The times he witnessed her close a cabinet quickly he would open again to see what was inside. Each and every time it was bottled blood. He shut the cabinets again and continued with his work, understanding now when she put the knives away. He was not dim, he could tell the items she was gathering were all extremely useful against the senses of humans, as well as they could be used against the extremely delicate senses of the werewolves. Once the Blessed were taken care of, he would possibly use what was left on the ones who took Emilia.

Once it seemed the girl was done, he stood and waited for a discussion of her plans, remaining cold to her the entire while.

***

With Louis' back to her, he could not see the sudden expression of exhasperation cross the vampiress' face and she ran a hand through her hair, pulling it slightly out of frustration. Why was it so difficult of a question? Was it really that hard to answer? Was it really wrong to ask what in addition to her privacy she would be giving up to gain the strength she needed for the upcoming fight? She gnashed her teeth and released her hair. The two of them were too proud. Only when that pride was overcome would anything come from knowing each other.

She walked briskly over but stopped and bent to retrieve the ring from the ground and slip it back on her finger. All the promises attached to the ring had been broken, it served now only as a reminder. Turning her back on Louis, resisting the urge to give a hard strike to where he was wounded, she descended the stairs to see how the other Valentines were doing preparing for battle, leaving the leader of the unit on the roof alone.  

[Zulma san]

When Angeles left, Louis sighed. He had been right. He was the one begging and bowing. Not once had she lowered her guard in front of him. And now, she was leaving without a word, without trying. He was tired of stepping in her direction while she made no attempt to cross the distance between them.

His icy gaze looked at the estate once more. Then he slowly headed down himself. He was going to reinforce some of the weak spot he had noticed with wood and nails. That would not be much, but it might gain some precious seconds.

The vampire was trying to refocus on the fight which was imminent instead of a certain white hair vampiress with red eyes and a beautiful face.

-----

"He isn't here." the male voice who spoke was smirking. "Your daddy left you in our hands." His smirk was all but reassuring.

"So be it." Emilia answered staring straight into his eyes. "Be a pet of the human kind." she hissed.

That froze everyone and some of them frowned. What the hell was she talking about?!  

[HeadlessKoko]

Cold was alright to Kageko. She just needed to complete her job. However, it seemed that to complete her job, she would need to talk. There wasn't enough time for her to set up the traps all by herself. Besides, Leon had just picked up all of her materials and she couldn't just take them back from him without a word. With no other option, Kageko began explaining, "The dust explosions will be set both before and after the hay is lit. The first explosion will use the dust that naturally rises from the hay when the attackers march over it; it'll coincide with when the hay is lit. The later explosions will use some of the materials we gathered just now. We'll compress the flammable powders into small 'bombs' with the cloth and string. The powder in the bombs will then be released and scattered either by slicing the cloth with your wind magic if you are capable of doing so or breaking the cloth with the pressure caused by an arrow launched from a bow."

As the girl explained, she had picked off some cloth, string, and flour from the stack of items Leon held and then began forming the bomb that she had visualized. First the girl readied the items, tearing off a size-able piece of cloth, cutting enough string to make a good knot, and opening the bag of flour. Then, spreading the cloth open in one hand, the girl packed flour on top of it little by little, compressing the flour as much as possible, her hand cupped so that the flour could be mounded up without fear of it spilling out. After there was a sizeable mound on top of the cloth, the girl closed her cupped hand and squeezed to make sure that the flour was tightly compressed. After leaving as little space as possible between the cloth and the flour, the girl used the string the tie the cloth tightly closed. By the time her verbal explanation was done, Kageko had finished the bomb and held up a hand to show it to Leon. It looked harmless enough, just a small ball of cloth tightly wrapped around something malleable inside, but if used under the right circumstances, it could be very painful.

The girl hadn't explained what some of the bulkier materials, like the lemons and spicy peppers, were for, but that was only because she wasn't completely certain what to use them for yet. All she knew was that she would burn the peppers eventually, perhaps in the building itself as a sort of last line of defense, and that it'd be really helpful if she could somehow get lemon juice into the eyes of the attackers.