NOCTE - The Night Wars (1x1)

[Blue Moon Queen]

Helena Rose waited in the foyer of the great Magnelian household place in inner New York City. This family of humans were only rich and famous because of the contributions of the Blood Rose Clan of vampires supporting them. She was here to use their vast library and public access to find out what she could about the disappearances that had been happening across the supernatural world. She was almost certain that someone had been following her and had attempted to kidnap her but for some reason they never got close enough. So she was here to find out.

[Tcab96]

Zaapiel yawned as he followed Helena to their next destination. Zaapiel had followed Helena throughout her entire life, from the very moment she came out the womb, when she turned ten, the first man she fed on, and when she woke up this night. And damn has it been a long life she has had. Angels don't require sleep or food, so he's had to watch her 24/7 when he wasn't looking after his last charge. But now that he's dead Zaapiel's focus is primarily Helena. Zaapiel has seen almost everything Helena has done. Has heard all of her thoughts as his own and felt everything she has felt. Most creatures would find it weird, disturbing, and/or boring as hell to watch someone go through their life all the time. Watching everything they do. Zaapiel got use to watching everything a person did, even down to the most embarrassing of things. Zaapiel won't lie, at least not to himself, over the years he grew to like Helena. Even going as far as to question himself if he had fallen in love with her, which is strictly forbidden and frowned upon by the higher angels. Zaapiel scoffed at this.


"You know," He began to say out loud while looking upwards to the sky, "If you don't want us falling in love why the hell did you give us feelings in the first place?" Zaapiel had grown accustomed to speaking his mind out loud over the hundreds of years to the Maker. It's not like he ever responded anyways. No one would hear him no matter how loud he yelled aside from other nearby angels. "Yeah, but Maker knows best, right?" Zaapiel said in an exaggerated high voice, imitating one of his superior angels.


Lately things have been getting very, very weird. He heard from his fellow angels that there have been cases of kidnappings going on. Zaapiel didn't care, much, much weirder things have happened, but eventually someone started following Helena.


Someone had followed Helena so closely that Zaapiel was forced to intervene and prevent them from going any further. He wasn't sure why they were after her, but there wasn't much Zaapiel could do as a guardian angel besides subtly slowing them down. He considered becoming one of the fallen. But Helena wasn't helpless, in fact, she was pretty damn strong. Taking her on directly would've been a very bad idea for any opponent. At one point they attempted to use a dart gun to put her to sleep, Zaapiel blocked them with his armor about five times that night. They attempted again another night, but eventually gave up with that plan.

[Blue Moon Queen]

As Helena stood waiting in the foyer, she looked out the large windows of the manor. A soft dusting of snow fell from the sky over the towers and steel of the huge city of New York. This winter had been meek. Yet tonight, when she stepped outside, she could feel the "winds of change" on the horizon. Just as her mind began to wander, a butler arrived.

"Please, come with me, madamoiselle Rose. The archives are ready for you." After Helena acknowledgement he turned and proceeded down a hidden staircase. The streets of the city held beneath them a cavern filled with the archives of the Rose family. Deep inside there, in an ancient case made of silver, lay the original Rose family piece of the Creed. She pulled out the ancient writings, carefully, turning the pages gently with a piece of cloth and a dull blade. The ancient texts were written in hundreds of different languages, some older than anyone remembered. Those pieces were the ones she was interested in.


Some of the text was even said to be written in the language of angels, speaking of the duty of Guardian Angels. The original, main piece of the creed, locked thousands of miles away, was said to contain huge paragraphs of lists, said to be the lists of every important person and their Guardian Angel through all of time. Yet no one could read the list, except the Angels themselves. That was true for most of the creed. The werewolves were the only beings who could read their original piece of the creed. Every race had a piece, excluding the humans. Though they did have a version of the creed. Many of the religious texts of humans were incorrect or partial translations of this mystical law.

"Thank you." She dismissed the butler. Then she sat down to decipher the histories that etched themselves upon paper.

[Tcab96]

Zaapiel looked up at the Snow that would've passed through his untouchable body, Zaapiel, when on earth, never felt cold. "Helena has commented on it before, but I've never really felt it for myself..." Zaapiel began to ponder what human food tasted like also, something he thought about often. He had been alive for almost a thousand years, but never once tasted food. "The first thing I'll do if I ever become a Fallen is eat French Fries. Those look delicious. Or lobster!" Zaapiel started to fantasize about the plethora of different foods he could partake in Chinese looked especially appetizing. Soon enough Helena's thoughts began to flood into Zaapiel's head and intercepted his own. Zaapiel could willingly block her thoughts out, preventing her thoughts from jumbling into his head, but he tended not to.


"The Creed, huh?" Zaapiel said to himself. Helena attempted to decipher it. "I can definitely read the angelic part." Zaapiel realized that Helena was really in need of his help right now, and will probably be even more so now. It'll be a lot more than just blocking a couple of tranquilizing darts, but whoever it was couldn't stand a chance against Helena. Zaapiel's mind went back to an old angel tale of the first to descend from grace. "Was it really worth it?"


Zaapiel looked down at Helena, then to his massive, majestic, white wings. The prize of all angels. An angel would rather have all their limbs cut off before they'd allow to have their wings so much as touched. Zaapiel didn't care for them so much himself, he wasn't like other angels. That was obvious to many angels who knew him, but to what extent only Zaapiel knew.

[Blue Moon Queen]

Helena sighed, laying her forehead on the desk, her hair spreading out like an ebony fan around her head. This part of the Creed wasn't telling her anything new but was instead just frustrating her. Finally, she stood and put the pieces back in their protective cases. The silver burned her hand when she brushed against it accidentally. Snatching her hand back, she blew on the burn mark and watched as it faded away.


"What to do now... what places would have the next pieces, the important pieces. I need history." She thought about the nearby clans, making notes on a piece of paper. "I've never seen the local werewolf pieces but I doubt they'd let me in to look at something like that... What's the risk of them trying to kill me?" she said outloud, chuckling softly at the thought. Immediately she shook her head, "Ridiculous idea, Helena. Plus, maybe I'm looking in the wrong spot. I just need to know if this has happened before."

[Tcab96]

Zaapiel waved his hand in alarm upon feeling Helena's burn. Usually if Zaapiel could react quickly enough before Helena received an injury he'd be able to mentally prevent the pain from reaching him. Of course Zaapiel never physically got injured from Helena's injuries, but he felt them all the same as her.


What to do now... what places would have the next pieces, the important pieces. I need history." She thought about the nearby clans, making notes on a piece of paper. "I've never seen the local werewolf pieces but I doubt they'd let me in to look at something like that... What's the risk of them trying to kill me?" she said outloud, chuckling softly at the thought. Immediately she shook her head, "Ridiculous idea, Helena. Plus, maybe I'm looking in the wrong spot. I just need to know if this has happened before."

Zaapiel sighed in relief at Helena's decision. "You tell the crappiest jokes that give me heart attacks. Yes, yes, look somewhere else! Preferably where there aren't any hairy monsters that can rip your throat out...with their teeth."

[Blue Moon Queen]

Rows and rows of book shelves were soon missing countless numbers of books. Those same books lay stacked on top of each other with pieces of notebook paper strewn about them.

"This is becoming ridiculous." Helena rested her chin in her hands, staring at the wall in front of her. Anyone looking at her would be able to tell the cogs of her mind were spinning frantically. Many vampires had an amazing ability to compartmentalize. Helena was one of the best. Although her consciousness was focusing on finding new sources of information, her subconscious worked at connecting pieces, running scenarios, and constructing probabilities.

"Our records don't have any mention of something like this happening. People disappear but none of it is connected in this manner nor are they focused like these. If only I had a bit more information on how these things were happening." Frustrated with her lack of progress, she cleaned up her papers and put books back without a second thought. The butler watched her wave absentmindedly as she left the archives behind. The snow shocked her out of her deep thoughts for an instant as she looked up at the sky.
Beautiful.​

[Tcab96]

"Yes, very beautiful." Zaapiel responded as he looked up into the night sky with Helena. He was snapped back into reality as he caught a glimpse of movement from the corner of his eye. He shifted towards the movement he just saw, watching intently to see something, anything again. That's when he caught a sight of the vampire hunter.

"Wrong vampire, Pal." Zaapiel would've felt bad for the guy if he hadn't been stalking Helena. He nonchalantly strolled towards the guy who "stealthily" peered out from the cover of the wall. Zaapiel observed the kid, he was young, maybe twenty-two or twenty-three, and obviously green to hunting but, he received some good advice. His body was coiled in silver chains, on his belt was a holstered gun and ammunition of silver and wooden bullets. Zaapiel raised an eyebrow at him as he cocked his head to the side, "Are you here alone?" He inquired the hunter. "No, of course not. There's someone else here, probably your mentor..." Zaapiel peered around the area, "Nowhere to be seen."

Zaapiel walked over next to the dumpster, materialized for a split second and kicked it, causing a loud, booming reverberation from the dumpster. Scaring the living shit out of the young hunter as he frantically whirled towards the dumpster. Zaapiel burst out laughing at the hunter's confused and horrified face as the object of his terror was a dumpster. However, now he had much larger problems, there was no doubt that Helena heard the dumpster with her keen sense of hearing. This kid just might be who she's looking for in order to find out why and how these disappearances are happening.

[Blue Moon Queen]

A strange tingling along her neck had already alerted Helena to the intruder. Just as she began to pinpoint the sensation, the dumpster in the nearby alleyway shuddered and boomed. The echo reverberated in her ears but she saw the kid jump and spin toward the dumpster. Normally she wouldn't have cared, except this kid was decked out in silver chains. An obvious sign of a vampire hunter.

The hunter turned just then to see if he had alerted her, but she was gone. He backed up rapidly, tripped, and looked up into the blood red eyes of the vampire he had been hunting.

"Thought you'd just catch a master vampire unawares?" she grinned wickedly, reaching down to lift his up by one of the silver chains. Unfortuneatly for him, silver only injured her when it contacted skin. And she was wearing gloves. "Your trainer must not be very smart to send you up against me with..." she looked down at his ammo, "silver bullets that wouldn't pierce my duster and wooden bullets that wouldn't affect me at all." Turning with a quick movement, she slammed him against the wall. Unbeknownst to him, she restrained herself with that hit. He hit the wall but only hard enough to stun him, not leave any lasting damage. "Why are you here?"

[Tcab96]

The obviously terrified youth wiggled and attempted to escape Helena's grip. Zaapiel looked around for any sign of the kid's supervisor, he was either abandoned, or never had one to begin with. Now That their cover was blown the mentor might've beat feet. The young hunter stopped squirming in Helena's grip quite stunned that a woman could move at such speeds and hold him so tightly and finally said, "T-This old blood said he'd turnt up cash if I was to do as he said."