[IC] Spells in the Dark (18+ For dark and suggestive themes)

[agentmanatee]

Emiliano Sebastiano Parisi

Emiliano was surprised at how quickly the bastard pinned his arm, he hadn't been expecting a fight for sure. He certainly did not want to get in a fight. So, he raised his free hand, "Alright alright fine! Trying to lighten the mood and-*agh* calm everyone down! I won't bother you christ!", as he was released Emiliano rubbed his arm sighing angrily at his own cowardice and bruised pride. As the other hunters shuffled out for the hunt.

He scowled and drowned the rest of his ale, cursing himself before the barkeep, Bobby apparently, spoke to him, asking if he was a Parisi.

"Yes, I am Emiliano Sebastiano Parisi, one of the two Parisi brothers one famous one foolish... guess which one I am.", he scowled and sighed before continuing, "Now some other hunter I've never heard of has incapacitated and intimidated me and... I guess the cosmos is just telling me to find a new profession eh Bobby?", Emiliano chuckled at his self deprocating humour... what a great realization.

[Ellion]

Taran Fisherson

It was all very overwhelming.

Taran's home was a tiny fishing village that wasn't even on any maps. The people who lived there either called it 'Port' or 'No Name'. The population was less than forty people and most of them were the sort who aimed to keep to themselves. Sal was the only one who ever left the town to trade the fish that they caught with another tiny village call 'Farm' or 'No Name'. Nobody ever came either, finding him in the woods made him the first person to have not been born there since the founding of the town. And they liked to keep it that way. "What the lords and witches don't know about," his father would say "Only helps us," It always felt a lot like hiding from everyone to be honest, besides his mother would always shush his father before saying something along the lines of "Do not speak of it dear husband for it only gives them power, better to forget and let them fade into nothing,"

Growing up in such a small town, he'd never been formally introduced to a stranger before, in his travels he never initiated conversations and when approached, kept his answers to one syllable. Far too nervous about giving too much away to dare say more.

Now, here he was, having dirt thrown on and dusted off him. These women... they saw what he could do and they didn't mind. In fact, one of them even said she was the same as him. That had never happened. Granted, Taran didn't ever think that he had to worry about someone killing him just for existing. That...sounded fake, but the woman hadn't given him any reason to not trust her and a lot of what he said sounding like a god sent. Except about finding the place where he belong, which was with his family. He just needed the control she offered. He opened his mouth to respond, but before he knew it, he was hoisted to his feet and drug off further into the woods.

They had already run a mile or so, and his breath was coming in deeper breathes before he was able to form his thought into words. "Wait, there are /were/wolves chasing us?" he gasped. Straining his ears to try and catch a howl or something that would indicate that a monster was not so far off. "How do you know?" Werewolves, while slightly less...not talked about than lords and witches, were not discussed either, so he didn't know if there was some sign that he missed. After another moment. "And where are we going? A castle? There aren't /lords/ in it are there?" He was going to say witches or lords, but in present company it was better to just ask about one of the two greatest evils in the world.

Emiliah Hazelbrush

/Perhap I over estimated the amount I can learn from him/ she thought to herself. Blessed weapons, holy water and rain were /basic/ hunting techniques, things her father had show her during the early years of her training. Or perhaps it was simply the fact that he didn't know her background and was starting from the beginning. She was distracted by the door slamming open and the white wolf appeared. Emiliah gave a sideways glance to Fenros and the wolf who seemed to having a silent, mental conversation. It was hard to miss that Fenros was already reaching for his weapon before the man came in to explain to the rest of them that the forest held a pack of werewolves.

That in itself was strange. The folly existed because it was close to magical creatures and their homes. That being said, the folly and the roads around it were usually highly avoided because of the shear amount of hunters that patrolled them. Instead of making itself a target, it really made the area the safest place from anything that chose to pollute the world with their foul magic.

Emiliah's first thought was for her parents, but their home, while in the forest, was on the far side of town, away from the road. So she let that thought flit away and allowed herself to refocus on the task at hand. Ideally, she would have liked to run home to were she kept her stash of silver, it seemed unpractical to keep it all on hand when she lived so close anyway. But not close enough to warrant a trip there now, not with humans in danger. She reached into the lavender stuffed bag and pulled out her 'just in case' kit, which held a little bit of every creatures weakness. She yanked out anything that was silver: lined gloves, the silver spear head a bag of silver dust. And her net, that, while not entirely made of silver, had a few strands woven in. Not as effective as a a full silver net, but a heck of a lot stronger and lighter. It took less than two minutes to ready herself as ready as she could be to fight the werewolves. Like Fenros, Emiliah handed the rest of her lavender stuffed bag to Bobby. "Don't let me forget to come and get this," she called out in a light voice before following Fenros out into the night.

She crashed into someone standing right outside the door. Instead of nocking her off her feet, however, the force merely caused her to take a few quick steps back. Emiliah glanced up and down at the man. Clearly, he was a hunter, judging by the cross blade strapped to his back. There was something slightly off about him, however, that Emiliah couldn't quite put her finger on in this fraction of a second meeting. Instead of apologising for crashing into him, Emiliah reached out and placed her hand on his shoulder. "You make a better wall than door or window, my friend" she said before running after Fenros in the mad dash to slay the werewolves.

"So, I can assume your wanting to take lead on this?" she said, to Fenros, her voice slightly testing. "I don't think anyone is going to fight you for it, but I am curious to hear what your plan is. You have a bunch of varied level hunters who either haven't worked with each other before or typically do not work with anyone at all, "

Clay Hale

"How can you in one breath tell my I don't fuck anything up and then in the second say that they only way you won't go into the forest now is if I basically fuck something up. That something being you," He was half tempted to leave her there and look for her passed out by some tree in the morning, it was a lot less troublesome, but then he'd have to deal with her bitching and moaning that typically comes with passing out by a tree. Suddenly, the wolf he saw with the smart man came bolting pass.

Clay was briefly distracted by a wolf and then a man scrambling past in a frenzy. The wolf he recognized from the tavern, although why Bobby let in a wolf was beyond him. And the man was... clearly scared out of his wits. Probably because of some rabbit rustling in the woods. Shaking his head he took a few step closer to Senna and closer to the woods. Like a farmer trying to corral his chicken without spooking it enough to make it bolt. They were almost to the forest now and she kept moving. "Come on Senna, can't you just pass out already?" he muttered under his breath, not that she was /that/ drunk, just drunk enough to be a bigger pain than usual.

The moment they entered the woods, he could feeling something was off. Something that made him feel more like prey than hunter. "Senna," he whispered, harshly more as a threat, reaching forward and snagging her wrist. Stopping her in her tracks for the moment. It was then that he saw the glowing eyes not more than ten feet off in the woods. Werewolf. It took him a moment to fully process what he was seeing, but luckily for him his natural instincts kicked in. In the time it took for his mind to catch up, he had already tossed Senna behind him, locked and loaded his first arrow and shot. The arrow bounced off of the trees with a snapping sound and he watched the wolf skimper a few more steps. Not quite fast enough to give the illusion that it was being chased. No, this wolf didn't fear him, in fact, it was almost like it was trying to draw them deeper into the wood. Get them to come closer. "Senna, no" She didn't even need to say anything to make it very clear what she intended to do. The last thing he needed was to chase her and the werewolf. "You are not fucking going after that thing right now," he growled, attempting to use his body to block hers, backing slowly out of the woods. "There are more than two dozen hunters ready to take on this right now, and you are not one of them. I don't care how blood thirsty you think you are right now. If it'll make you happy and get you out of these wood, I'll fucking blow your mind tonight" He said the last bit in a very bored voice, most of his attention was on scooping out his next shot, he fired off a few more, each nearly hitting the wolf. He needed to get closer if he wanted to do proper damage, but he wasn't about to let Senna out of his sight for a second. If she died, he might have to do some of the hard work on their hunts.
@Rune_Alchemist @SillyGoy@Aerandir@tex (and everyone I forgot to tag)

[tex]

Damien Valefor

In quite the rush, aren't they? Damien's gaze shifted betwixt the hunters curiously after a curious canine dashed into the tavern. What was all the commotion about, now? Before he could inquire further, a man pushed his way past and began shouting all manners of panicked nonsense. Damien bit his tongue at the mention of werewolves and huffed audibly. 'Filthy mutts', he rasped. The Larger man immediately reacted and signaled to his fellow hunters to follow. Damien knew his face, or at least, he thought he did. Fenros the... Terrible bitch? Treacherous Lich? Something to do with witches? Whatever it was, the thought left his mind when the towering beast of a man stomped his way out of the tavern. Simply dazzling! What a heroic gesture! It made Damien gag.

"Hmmph!" Damien gasped for a moment as somebody collided with his back as he watched Fenros head off, almost knocking him forwards. He turned around and frowned, but before any apologies or threats could be uttered, she'd placed a hand on his shoulder and fancied him a structure, rather than a man. He couldn't help cracking a smile as she proceeded to chase after Fenros. His sense of humor was tickled by the thought of remaining still for an eternity. Would he prevent theft? Perhaps his owners would hang pretty paintings on his chest? Oh what fun! His foolish thoughts were cut short by a painful twinge in his neck. He jerked his head to the side and spun around, glaring at Emiliah and Fenros as they sped off into the woods. "Coincidence? Destiny? I smell the agonizing aroma of adventure! Albeit somewhat obscurred by a pungent odor. _{I hate the smell of wet dog.}" Without any further distractions pulling his attention way from the matter at hand, Damien followed after Fenros, rubbing his neck irritably with a devilish smile sprawled across his face.

What fun!

[Rune_Alchemist]

~Senna~

Senna turned to face Clay, giving him a very harsh glare. She had stumbled a bit when he had tossed her behind him, making it quite clear she was feeling the effects of the alcohol even if she wouldn't like to admit it. Still, like she needed his protection. Or anyone's for that matter. It was obvious she wasn't having any of his protests at the moment. If he had made an offer like that before they had gotten out into the forest, she would have said yes. Now though? She was going after that werewolf, and there was nothing he could say to stop her at the moment.

"Out of the way, Clay." She snarled, roughly shoving past him. "I'm going hunting. I don't care what you say, I'm not going to die. I'm not going to wait on the slowpokes who sit around on their asses." Despite her words, she did seem to hesitate for a moment, turning to face Clay once again, though she didn't say anything and merely looked like she was debating it.

That is, until a scream from deeper in the woods caught her ears.

This had bad news written all over it. She could smell a trap here, and her instincts were telling her to be careful, but damn it...whoever screamed was going to probably get eaten by a werewolf. And she wasn't going to sit around and wait for that to happen.

"A hunter hunts, Clay, whether they're alone or have some teammates with 'em. That's what we do." She calmly, almost somberly replied as she grabbed her axe from it's sheathe. "I even made an oath that I'd hunt to protect others...I'm not gonna sit around and wait for werewolves to attack someone." She turned around, towards the direction of the scream.

"I'm going to hunt them, before they can." Without another word, Senna sprinted off in the direct of where the scream came from, not bothering to hear any protests from Clay or anyone else that might be trying to stop her.

It didn't take her long to find the area where the scream came from, but it took her some time to find its owner in the darkness. Damn it, now she wished she had a torch or something. Could be fun to burn the beasts if she could. At least the werewolves hadn't attacked her on her way here. That was odd itself, but she didn't pay it much attention. It was a bad idea to be sure, but she wasn't going to just turn back now.

After a bit of searching, she found the owner of the scream - two small girls huddled together near a tree. Both looked absolutely terrified, and they had every reason to be. As soon as the black clad hunter approached, she could feel something breathing down her neck. Such an action would probably cause fear in someone else, but Senna? she didn't feel such a thing. It was using the girls to lure them out, then? Well. Unfortunately for whatever werewolf was smart enough to lay such a trap, she wasn't going to be such an easy target.

The werewolf behind her lashed out with one of it's claws, she matched his blow with one of her own from her axe, the blade of it slamming right into his claw as hard as she could. Unfortunately, aside from the silver inside of the blade burning the beasts skin, it did absolutely nothing. In fact...the beast was laughing. A cruel, guttural laugh as he reached out with his other claw, wrapping it around her before she could react, and tossed the hunter carelessly a few feet away.

She landed on her stomach, axe still firmly in hand as she looked up at the beast.

And it was goddamn massive.

Easily at least nine feet tall.

A small grin formed on her lips beneath her mask. This, was going to be quite the hunt tonight, wasn't it?

@Ellion@Aerandir (dunno who's all there, but eh xP)

[Ellion]

Clay Hale

Senna

Mr. Imortal Wolf

It took Clay a few seconds to realize that Senna had taken off. After a moments hesitation his 'conscious' ordered him after her. She wasn't in a state to take on anything, none the less something that was clearly a trap. Clay was able to catch up quickly, trying to use his free hand to grab at her clothing, but the material kept sliding from his finger. The deeper into the forest they got, the slower he went and the further ahead she got. Not only did his crossbow slow him down in the thick woods, but he kept having to stop to make sure that the wolf didn't circle behind them. He shot a few warning shots into some suspicious looking shadows, but nothing howled in pain. Soon she fell totally out of sight and tracking her in the darkness was mostly lucky guess work. By the time he reached the clearing, Senna was already going after the beast. Not wanting to out them both, he put a tree to his back and started firing shots at the largest werewolf he had ever seen.

The werewolf growled at the woman hunter in an amused tone. Raising his head as he was shot at in the back. It did not howl in pain, as it was more of an annoyance. Suddenly the werewolf spoke in a low deep demonic voice. "To continue to try and fight me will only make it so you are easily turned in the end." He chuckled and looked directly at the other hunter firing bolts at him. "It's useless. No mortal weapon can harm me." He looked back to Senna and raised his paw of which she struck at. The slight cut was healing already as well as the burns. He sniffed the air and moved closer to Senna. "You... You have Demon's blood running through you." He said as he sounded slightly excited. "That's good. Ill make you into my mate." He finished with a laugh.

Senna was honestly a little shocked that this thing was talking. Not only that, it was apparently interested her in that way. She might have actually laughed at that, but what he said before that, immediately infuriated Senna. Demonic blood? Her? Bullshit, she was human. Her father was human, and so was her mom. So where did the blood come from? She refused to believe such a thing. She had heard rumors of course, that some people started spreading about her.

But she refused to believe them. She was human, damn it.

“Heh…you’re….goddamn hilarious.” Senna replied as she stood, laughing at his comment. “You think you’re smart or something, don’t you, mutt?” There was a clink of metal as she extended the haft of her axe, the end of the axe extending as the old metal clinked into place. ”The only thing I see with tainted blood here, is you.” She snarled.

“So why don’t you shut up and die already so I can make you into a new coat, mongrel.”

"Mongrel?! Do you know who you speak to?" He said angrilly while standing straight up as tall as he could he looked down at the woman. "I am Varoth! The Demon Lord of werewolves! I am he who hunted the woods thousands of years ago. I am he who created the werewolves! I am their Lord and GOD!" He roared, as he clenched his fist. "As I said, You cannot kill me... I. AM. IMMORTAL."

He was running low on bolts. It was a sickening feeling to know that he could easily use up twice the number he had. It would have been okay had the bolts been having any effect on the werewolf whatsoever, but they seemed to be more likely to bounce off of them than sink into his skin. He fired a few more, trying to go after it's eyes and fingers, demon lord or not, it'd be tough to ignore a bolt in his eye."I know you don't need me to tell you this Sen, but don't listen to him, don't let him get in your head. Don't let him make you angry!" He shouted, although, he was pretty sure that Senna /came/ into the battle already pissed. "Don't listen to anything he says!" It was only then that he noticed how quite the rest of the woods were. Like all other living things had long since fled. Almost as though there was something else out there.

Senna could honestly not give two fucks about this mutt. Sorry Clay, too late.

As he spoke, she grabbed her axe with both hands, slamming it’s blade as hard as she could right into the side of his head, the rage-fueled bow hopefully doing more damage than it had earlier.

“Immortal, eh?” She chuckled darkly. “Well…I can at least make you bleed” She pulled her axe backwards, sliding the blade along his face, before driving the head of it right into the creatures chest with a powerful thrust.

Varoth grunted at the blows, she was powerful, he gave that to her blood. His skull was cracked and face bleed, but all she managed to do was knock him back two steps. He grew tired of the womans cockiness and mouth. Growling fiercely he swung his arm with alarming speed and knocked the woman back. He then turned to the other hunter and made his way to him. "This body may bleed, but it always heals. Just give up and become another one of my wolves." As he grew near he leaped forward and stuck out towards Clay.

The wolf got close. Fast. Too fast. Soon his distance weapon became useless, so he dropped it and pulled out his small, silver dagger. It wasn't much, but it was better than going after the mutt with just his bare fists. "If I die because of your hotheaded stubbornness Senna," he shouted, slipping under the wolf's claw in a forward somersault "You can consider our partnership over," He struck out at the wolf's paws. He wouldn't be able to hit anything vital, but it could irritate it quite a bit. He started working his way backwards towards the clearing closer to Senna, but his luck ran out and soon of the lumbering arms caught him on the side, tossing him clear off his feet.

Once both were on the ground he walked over slowly and said, "Once you two become my new followers, I will continue to hunt every hunter and make them into werewolves, and create a powerful army to take over the world and become the only and true God here."

Senna was knocked clean off her feet, axe still in hand, a death like grip on the item. She rolled, landing on the ground with a thud. Possibly breaking something, but she didn’t care. The werewolf was going after Clay, and she couldn’t have that. She stood, ignoring the slight pain in her torso.
She approached the werewolf swiftly from behind, her halberd swinging in a wide, horizontal arc.

“Oi, fleabag!” She growled. Instead of swinging for his head, however, her axe went right for his leg – intending to cleave it clean off. “The only thing you’re going to be, is a rotting flea-infested head on the end of my axe.”

Varoth bit back a howl of pain as her axe connected with his leg, cutting halfway through the bulky meat and snapping the bone just below his knee cap. That would heal, but it still hurt at the moment. He gripped the Axe and ripped it from his own leg jerking forwards to try and slam the woman into his back with the sudden force.

Senna was unprepared for the sudden movement. She moved forwards, slamming into the werewolves back with enough force. A sickening crack was heard. She likely broke a rib from that impact, but that only enraged the woman further.

But her body fell, and she wasn’t able to move as she had hoped.

The blow dazed him, although he couldn't remember most of it. Slowly Clay found his feet again, but still found it difficult to make sense of the scene, his brain kept seeming to wander, noticing the way the trees seemed to bend in and not at the same time. How the wolf's fur seemed to be both soft and prickly. All the while knowing his thoughts were nonsense,yet struggling to keep his mind from thinking otherwise. Soon, his thoughts cleared enough that he was able to jump up behind the wolf, holding onto him by wrapping his arms around the wolf's neck. Not exactly a safe place to be.... "I hear that working for a god doesn't pay well these days. And, as Bobby will tell you, I have a tab to cover," his voice straining slightly from trying to hold on. He situated his knife so that it was digging into the wolf's neck, causing hot blood to run down Clay's arm. In another moment, Clay was flipped over the beast and held dangling. His throat being held up by one of the creatures harry claws. He scrambled, putting his own hands over the breast, trying to release the strain, looking into the were's soulless eyes.

[Meiyuki]

Laina & Genoveve

Saevire rushed back to the castle. Genoveve’s wound would probably need some healing, and Laina would likely need quite a bit of rest after that summons. Normally her spells weren’t quite so…costly, but she had perhaps overdone things a little. She had wanted to end things quickly, but perhaps she could have used a less costly spell.

The black knight wasn’t the fastest of people, but damn it if he didn’t have a lot of stamina. He didn’t stop sprinting the entire time as he brought the two witches back to the castle, and likely the sentinels already told of their approach. With any amount of luck, Lorelai would have already prepared something to help the two of them.

He brought them to the main common room, setting Laina gently down, and allowed the wounded Genoveve to rest upon some cushions. Laina looked like she was more or less asleep, but he didn’t feel as though her life was in any immediate danger with a little rest - so The black knight then proceeded to do what he always did, and wait.

---

Enter Lorelai Von'Strauss & Vespa Ruvina

Lorelai awoke from her comfortable rest to the sound of her sentinel's voices in her mind. "Mistress, two of yours approach, one had been wounded."

Her eyes sprang open, "The redhead or the white haired one?" She carefully extracted herself from Vespa's embrace and began getting dressed.

It wasn't long before Vespa too awoke. Sitting up while holding the blanket to protect her modesty, she tried to rub the sleep off of her eyes. Lorelai was still putting on her undergarments, and it would have been the greatest lie if Vespa said she did not enjoy the view. So she took some time before saying,

"Lorelai? Up already?"

"The redhead mistress." The demon spoke in Lorelai's mind.

Lorelai paused to lean over the bed and kiss her sleepy, beautiful, perfect lover. "I fear Genoveve's been wounded while out collecting the reagents I requested." Her face was contorted with a combination of guilt and worry.

Vespa mimicked her frown. "That's not good. Were they ambushed by hunters?"

She leapt out of the bed and began dressing as well. "Is someone tending to her wounds? I must help her immediately."

"Sousiel will know more." Lorelai resumed dressing.

Sure enough a knock came at the door. "Genoveve's got a gash in her neck Mistress, it doesn't look good." She continued knocking. "I've got your blade and cloak."

"How bad is it? And what happened?" Lorelai demanded.

"It's a gash in her neck ma'am, how good can it be? Ambushed by vampires just as they'd settled into that little picnic you packed for them, or rather one vampire and a shit ton of thralls. Does a House Ruvin mean anything to you?"

"Ruvina?" Vespa called out, while fitting out her simple house gown at the other side of the room. "Did you just say Ruvina?"

"Nope, House Ruvin." Sousiel hurried over to her Mistress' side and began laying out Lorelai's warscythe and cloak. "I thought it sounded similar though, I grabbed a seal off of one of the fallen thralls though. I'll retrieve it once you two have seen to the girls?"

Lorelai looked over to Vespa as she finished the last clasp on her robe. "Ruvin sounds eerily similar to Ruvina, do you know anything love?"

She was putting on her swordsman's belt now, near her sword rack. "I remember reading in my House's chronicles that we were descended directly from an ancient family of the same name, but there was next to no information on that family save for that they existed. It might just be coincidence, though."

Vespa was no stranger to the martial arts. In fact, her mother trained both of her daughters thoroughly in them. A proud owner of several blades from short to long, she favored the one in the center of the rack: a gleaming rapier of the finest steel, excellent for stabbing and slashing. She took it with care and respect, then expertly sheathed it into the scabbard.

She turned to Lorelai with a determined expression. "I really doubt I'm of vampiric blood. Whoever these fools are, I will make them pay for plagiarizing my ancestor's' name."

"I'm sure you will, and we'll extract sevenfold the blood they spilled from our sister." She hefted her scythe as Sousial tied her cloak about her shoulders.

Vampirism, blood magic. Lorelai was never a fan of coincedences and this would be quite the one. Now was not the time, but there might be more to their claim than simple plagiarism.

"Sousiel, inform Medusa of this turn of events." She turned and moved towards the door to wait for Vespa. "I'm sure Vespa will have Genoveve looking good as new in no time."

"As you wish Mi'lady." Sousiel offered a small bow before taking on her cat shape and bolting from the room.

---

The two's pace was brisk as they navigated through the largely empty hallways of Castle Bloodrose. Lined with artifact after ancient artifact, the torchlit corridors were cold and foreboding as they echoed their footsteps. The stairwell to and from Vespa's tower exited directly into the bowels of the castle's southern wing, and after a few doorways they were on the second floor of the main common room. Over the railings, they could see both Genoveve and Laina down by the cushions and the chairs, and upon setting their gazes on the former's bloodstained appearance, the two swiftly came down.

"Genoveve," Vespa called, a sorrowful look on her face, "gods above, what's happened to you?"

“Mmmh…ambushed by…someone in the woods.” Laina quietly replied to Vespa, her voice straining as she struggled to form coherent words that the two of them would understand. “I…will be fine with a little rest. I perhaps…was careless with a spell. Genoveve is…wounded.” her voice trailed off as her eyes closed.

"Saevire, please take your mistress to her room to rest." Lorelai examined Genoveve's wounds, they were dire, but hopefully not mortal. "Vespa love, please tell me this is within your power to fix."

Saevire bowed, Laina was too exhausted to refuse. So the knight gently picked her up, and moved her to her room for rest.

Genoveve's eyes seemed vacant and distant, her breathing was faint at best. Seeing as her wounds had not only not been treated yet, but had suffered somewhat from the trip to the castle. Her collarbone near her neck was a bloody ragged hole, and her left upper arm did not look much better. She had lost quite a bit of blood. This, however, was only the surface damage. Her violent seizure had caused unseen damage, several organs were rather seriously bruised and at least one had begun to bleed into her body cavities. Her brain was a bit worse for wear, but luckily she had not had a hemorrhage. Her vacant eyes drifted to the witches there and she meekly tried to speak, "Th-... ssss-sorry... we... I... Laina... o-ok...?", she reached out after the unconscious form of Laina being carried away, fighting to remain conscious.

"Hush, hush, now. Take it easy and relax." Vespa had rushed to Genoveve's side and was beginning to take off the woman's clothing. There was blood everywhere, some of it wet, but most of it dried already. It certainly was not a pleasant picture. Genoveve also seemed to be in a poor mental state at the moment, perhaps owing to the loss of blood.

She turned her head to Lorelai for a moment. "I have enough power in my veins at the moment to heal the worst of it, perhaps more. Then it will have to be bedrest and supervision from someone dedicated fully into the medicinal arts."

Vespa then stood rigidly still and closed her eyes, controlling her breathing and placing her hands upon Genoveve's shoulders. Inhaling and exhaling deeply, her aura - a bright orange nimbus about her - gradually became visible. This energy then began to flow into the injured woman's wounds. Nothing could be done about the spilled blood, but the woman felt her soreness drifting away along with the pain as cuts were closed and fully sealed, and as new, magically born blood came flushing into her heart to replace what was lost. All the while, Vespa was uttering incantations in a language unique to her family's style of magic.

Soon, her aura became invisible again, and her eyes opened. "How do you feel?" she asked. "Better?"

Shakily, Genoveve sat up, still very pale as the blood created by Vespa needed time to circulate. Her internal bleeding had stopped as well, and most of her organs were fully or partially recovered... but she probably needed to tell Vespa she had a seizure. She hadn't had on in several years, having largely learned to control the spirits, with Yers's help of course, but if she ever did anything like what she did today then.. someone needed to know and it may as well be the person who takes care of healing.

"I... I feel much better but..., she still felt very lightheaded and had to concentrate in order to speak, "During the fight I... uhm... I had a seizure...", she looked down shamefully, it made her feel very weak and vulnerable to admit such a thing... especially in front of Lorelai, one of her two true 'superiors' and a powerful demon binder.

Medusa had arrived by the time Genoveve had finished her confession. "Lorelai, Sousiel brought me up to speed." Her eyes flashed with rage. "I want blood Lorelai."

Lorelai stood from her vigil beside Genoveve. "Blood you'll get mistress. Just allow for Alexina and Elina to arrive and we'll discuss our options."

"I want blood tonight Lorelai, go get it. Or at least a lead." Medusa moved over to Genoveve's side. "I see Vespa has dealt with much of the damage."

She patted Vespa's shoulder. "Excellent work, would you be willing to attend to Genoveve until you sister arrives?"

Vespa bowed respectfully to her Mistress. "Yes, my Lady. I will keep her company. But what of Laina? She seems to have botched a spell and lost quite a bit of blood."

"YOU DITZ! YOU STUPID BITCH! YOU HAVE ONE SEIZURE AND YOU TELL THEM??!! YOU'RE JEOPARDIZING YOUR... ME!!! ... fix this, play it off, do that or I will take this body myself and force you out of it. Do you understand me? Well, you're lucky that dumb whore Medusa has them on a different subject, no one seemed to notice... you better hope I'm right Ditz."

Genoveve had dreaded Yeris' return, and of course it was at the worst possible time. She continued looking down... Yeris may be right... maybe they wouldn't care?

Medusa turned to Vespa. "If it's not life threatening then I'll prepare a tonic to envigor her blood. If it is, then I'm sure you can repeat this feat yes?"

She looked between Lorelai and Vespa wryly. "I'm sure you've the energy for it."

Lorelai blushed slightly, more notable was the brief flash of anger that crossed the witch's face before it returned to her serene mask. "I'm sure she can if required."

Vespa had blushed as well, although to a greater degree. "My reserves of mana are still," her eyes flicked towards Lorelai for a moment, "full. I will be able to do it again if it is required."

Medusa tossed one of Genoveve's arms around her shoulder and gestured for Vespa to do the same with the other. "Let's get her to bed then, and we'll check on Laina immediately."

Lorelai took a hard look at Genoveve. "Yes, she'll need her strength over the next few days."

Lorelai moved over to Vespa and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. Normally such a display wouldn't be fitting in front of Medusa, but she was worried. "I'll be back by morning light."

With that she strode out of the Castle with Sousiel in tow, cloak billowing behind her.

Genoveve let herself be practically carried to her room, but in her mind Yeris was gloating, "What a bunch of ridiculously naive fools calling themselves witches. Medusa will run this coven into the ground and we will re-build the ashes, but only if you do. As. I. Say. Ditz. We are lucky you were ignored thanks to Medusa's sudden arrival, but NEVER go over my head again, understand?", absentmindedly Genoveve physically nodded, but such an action was hard or even impossible to distinguish from a simple bobbing of the head from exhaustion... Genoveve would suffer alone, and silently.

[Aerandir]

Bobby

Emiliano Sebastiano Parisi

Bobby stared hard at Emiliano. He heard of him, Knew his father. Good man. He grew irritated as he went on with his woe is me attitude. His lips curled up as if he had tasted something nasty, his eyes narrowed and he reached out and slapped the back of the young mans head. Not hard enough to actually knock him out but to gain his attention.

"Listen 'ere lad. Ye may not be the best hunter, or well known like ye brother or Fenros. But they are men bred for one purpose. To hunt. They take it to a whole new level of crazy. But because they are great at what they do, and they seem like they are untouchable. It doesn't mean ye are worthless." He scratched the back of his head, trying to think of something easier to explain.

"Wot I'm sayin is, ye don't take a sledge hammer to nail in finishin nails. Ye use a proper tool for that. Ye may not be the fastest, nor the strongest, but yer a certain tool that only ye can perform effectively." He bent down and raised an eyebrow. "Ye hear me sonny?"

Emiliano grasped the back of his head, a sharp inhale noting his discomfort. Once Bobby was finished with his little speech and Emiliano was done rubbing the back of his head he addressed the bartender, "And what purpose is that Bobby? To mildly inconvenience witches with my ineptitude? Distract them whil the real hunter take their heads off?", he angrily finished his ale before slamming it back down, "You know what I discovered recently? I'm only a Parisi hunter because my brother sabotaged my test! I'm hardly even fit to wash a hunters boots! I can't go home, my father thinks I'm a disgrace! What am I supposed to do? Run in musket raised against whatever witch or beast I find and die to remove myself from the family name? What possible specialized purpose can I serve?", he was unaware of Bobby's knowledge of his father, but it hardly mattered. He finished his statement with a challenging look to the barkeep.

"Yer missin the poin boy. Ye are not like yer father, nor yer brother... Ye understand that clearly, but what ye are missing is what ye are. There has to be something yer good at. Also if ye know ye are a terrible hunter...why do ye still go out and hunt? That's mad Sonny, more so than Fenros, at least he knows his stuff and takes on way more than he can chew to grow stronger, but ye go out knowing that ye are a hot mess and still...your sittin infront of me. Tells me ye are doing sumthing right." He sat down and continued.

"You can just stop and find something else to do. But the fact your still hunting and without ye brother tells me something more. "

Emiliano sighed... Bobby was right, if he was so bad why was he still hunting? He sighed, "I don't... I guess I'm not helpless Bobby, I've killed like... 4 witches? I guess I'm what, an average hunter? Maybe a bit worse? I don't know Bobby... but average Hunters don't live long. I guess... I must do something particularly good aye?", he had no idea what though. He was only a decent shot, he was generally clumsy... what was he good at? "I... well, I'm pretty good at investigation, gathering info... being prepared for whatever is going to be trying to kill me? I'm not sure..."

He then raised a finger, "If ye are at all what I've heard from ye father.... then ye have one trait that ye don't realize thats one of the most important traits a hunter can have..." He leaned closer to him.

"Luck."

Emiliano looked confused at Bobby, but slowly his brow un-furrowed, "Huh... I guess so... so... what? Do I just... keep hunting then?"

"The choice is yers to make laddy, Do not base yer decision solely on how effective yuu are, Being a great hunter does not relate to how strong ye are, or effective with a weapon. I know a few hunters that have the skills to challenge Fenros to a duel and I wouldn't know who would win, but are horrible hunters in comparison to that lad. Wot I'm sayin is that it really counts with why yuu use yer abilities. Why do yuu risk yer life to hunt these monsters?" He said as he leaned back in his chair and rubbed his leg.

Emiliano had to think on that for a minute, "Because... I'm a Parisi, we have always done so... but, *sigh* no thats not all. They hurt people. Innocent people, guilty people, just people. Werewolves hunt them, Vampires hunt them, the kind of Witch we hunt hunt them and they can't fight back. I may not be the best hunter, but even I am leuges above an ordinary man. We are the only things between them, and the monsters... and I don't think I could stop knowing that truth."

"That makes a great hunter, is the knowlege that you are protecting something, not just the money....Now GET YER ARSE OUT THERE!" He said getting up, grabbing the boy and pushing him out the door to catch up with the group.

---

Fenros Digard

Emiliah Hazelbrush

Fenros looked to Emiliah as she spoke to him again as he adjusted the new gauntlets he had placed on, mostly making sure the finger tips that were sharpened slightly were firmly in place. He heard the testiness of her voice and raised an eyebrow as he looked back to his gauntlets, finishing messing with them he answered, "Yeah... I'll lead this. We are not hunting a normal werewolf pack as it is. Something much worse that cant really be killed."

He glanced over the group of hunters that was walking behind him. Just under twenty men, some with cross bows, or bows. many more had swords or axes. The ranged weapons were going to be tricky in the woods, easy to miss their shots at a distance with a bunch of trees in the way. If they were all swords and axes of the sort, it would be easier to formulate a strategy. The best bet was to stay together, leaving the ranged hunters in the distance with no protection wouldn't work, they would be easily picked off by the pack.

"And you know that this....werewolf pack is unnaturally unnatural ...because of a few words from a clearly traumatized man?" asked Emiliah, raising an eyebrow, but not loosing pace with Fenros. "Or did you already suspect that the pack was near the area?" If he was already aware of the pack, then she'd probably dig into him for not making the town alert his top priority.

Looking to Emiliah again as she asked him questions. He answered quickly. " The man clearly said a pack, No one would say that if they saw one of two. Also I have never heard of a pack of werewolves ANYwhere since about a thousand years ago. I've also never heard of this pack untill today, else i would have told Bobby earlier..." He stopped as she asked another question,

"Yes but...how do you know that they can't really be killed?" Perhaps there had been some detail that she missed. She kept replaying the scene over and over again in her head, but nothing in it seemed to point to the fact that they were running towards an army of werewolves who couldn't be killed. If that was, then she had no idea how to proceed. Not that that scared her, one never knew how to aproach a new situation the first time. But.... she had no answers for herself. "And, what tactics work best against an immortal werewolf?"

At the use of plurral of werewolves he knew he misspoke, "Werewolf...not werewolves. The others can be killed by normal means. But the Alpha. That's a different story, The only time in history that werewolves created a pack was about a thousand years ago. The Alpha werewolf was named Varoth, He is a Demon Lord, one of my ancestors managed to send him back to hell for one thousand years, so he can't be killed by normal means, he needs to be exorcised just like any demon would be, But a normal priest is not able to, they don't have the proper training to do so, and they speak in latin which is ineffective." He turned his head to the group, and suddenly switched subjects.

"Alright We are all going to stick together in there. No one is to wonder off by themselves. All the ranged hunters stick to the middle while the rest surround them. Once we find the pack we are going to hit them head on, but do NOT Break formation, We cannot allow the ranged hunters to be hit, as they pick off the wolves at a greater distance. To everyone who has any kind of oil pass them up to me for a moment.

He then turned forward again as Alltia reached the first trees of the forest and sniffed, looking back she said, "I don't smell any near by.... But deeper in I do. There are many of them Fenros..."

He stopped and asked her, "How many Alltia..."

"I can't tell, but there are more than us I can tell you. Plus four humans..." She said low grumble.

/The plan seems simple. Or rather, the ....plan part of it was, but following it might be were the difficulty is/ thought Emiliah, looking around to make sure that the rest of their ragtag group seemed ready and willing to follow the plan. For the most part, they all seemed more than eager, a few looked as though they were only there because Bobby wouldn't have let them stay and only a headful looked as though they were ready now to break formation. Her thoughts distracted her from Fenros for a second. When she looked back, it seemed like was ...concentrating, very hard while looking at the wolf near the edge of the clearing. "Well," she said. "I think we are as ready as we will ever be,"She also wanted to get moving before more of the men split into the category of 'ready to bolt'.

He nodded and turned back to the group to recieve the oil they all had, in a leather satchel, the vials clattering softly as they moved. He bowed his head and closed his eyes and then spoke in a different tounge.

"הו אבינו שבשמים , על ידי הכח והסמכות נתת לי , אני מברך שמן אלה כי הם יוכלו מקודשים עבור ציד השדים ומכשפות .

דרך בנך , ישוע המשיח , אמן"

After he was done speaking he passed the oil back to everyone and said, "Now it's blessed, just like Holy water it will burn any unholy thing. But this is more powerful, as the oil is more pure, the stronger it burns, with the added ability to actually burn on top of that. Save that for the Alpha when I say!"

He waited another second and then continued, "There are four people in the forest! two I am assuming are hunters who didn't know what they walked into. The other two are possibly the family members of the man, We must save them, it is our duty as Hunters to protect those who cannot protect themselves against the monsters in the dark. You might be scared, that is apart of this job. But Over come it! Become stronger! YOU Hold your life in your hands! It's your choice if you die here or not! As we stand together we will not fall!"

He pulled his sword off his back. and motioned them to follow him, as he started for the forest, he then said, "While we are in there I need you to guard my back, I cannot be caught off guard if we are to defeat Varoth."

The strange language danced through her head as Fenros spoke. The words all blending together, but she felt a spark of...power? Emiliah felt like there was a better word to describe the situation, but is escaped her. But /that/ /that/ was the type of stuff Emiliah had been hoping to learn from Fenros, so perhaps this was not all in waste. Not the stratgey, but but having to ability to create something as potent as that on her....now that was a valuable tool.

The harddest part at the moment, was the fact that she had to pull her speed. Moving as a herd made them undoubtedly slower. Think about the humans that were at risk made the pace seem even more agonising. As soon as they entered the forest, a sort of hush seemed to settle over them. She started seeing werewolves in every shadow, but none seemed to truly be around. In fact...the whole area seemed...empty. Suddenly a voice seemed to echo from everywhere. A deep voice, "Once you two become my new followers, I will continue to hunt every hunter and make them into werewolves, and create a powerful army to take over the world and become the only and true God here."

The voice seemed like it was being used right by her ear, yet...she knew that couldn't be. A few moment later, they arrived at a clearning, in the center were two of the humans, and on the far side, the hunters.

Varoth Snarled at Clay as he held him in his massive claws. "You will be the first of this batch," Snapping could be heard as his bones started to heal at an alarming rate. Fenros noted the girl hunter on the ground behind the Demon Lord.

With their party now close together, Fenros rose his left arm to form a square and again spoke in the diffrent tounge. "בשם האב , ובנו , ישו ועל ידי הכוח והסמכות של הכהונה מלכיצדק שאני מחזיק . אנכי מצוה אתכם , נפל אחיו של המלאכים לשחרר את הגוף הזה אשר ברשותך . כדי לחזור אשר באת, ולעולם לא לחזור."

As soon as he started to speak, Varoth the Demon Lord began to howl in pain and anger, dropping clay from his grasp as he reached up to hold his head, his bones which were almost healed stopped as he fell to his knees, he began to thrash around for a moment before yelling, "WHY IS THERE AN ELDER!? KILL THEM! KILL THEM ALL MY SERVENTS!"

As he said, the forrest seemed to come alive with many red eyes and howls that could chill anyone to the bone. They came out of the tree's that surrounded the clearing, There was about twenty to twenty five of them.

Alltia growled, as her hair stood on end. "What are you waiting for Fenros...kill it!"

"It takes time Alltia!" He snaped back out loud and he yelled, "Do not fear! Our Father in heaven is on our side! PUSH YOUR WAY TO THE GIRLS!"

There were so many werewolves. Within a few second, three of the hunters who had strayed too far from the group were down. Dead. Hopefully. None the less, the rest of the group pressed forward, heading towards the girls in the center of the clearing. The girls seemed frozen with fear, but they were soon convered. A few of the wolves fell from the long range wepondary, and now they seemed a little more hestant to get too close. Fenros seemed to be shouting...encouragement or....something. A brave werewolf jump towards them, Emiliah quickly downed it with her net before ending it with a little more force then needed. There were a million more questions running through her head, but now was not the time to start asking them. In a few moments later and she had three more down by her feet. "If you are going to do something, better start now!"

Clay hit the ground, hard, he felt his legs give out when he fell. Now all he could see was the stars and the demon wolf somewhere off to the side. He could hear the voice of other hunters, but he was also aware of the massive amounts of weres that now filled the clearing. The demon were seemed properly distracted, so Clay chose to crawl over towards Senna, he hadn't seen her move in a while and that was... a little concerning. "Your not dead right?" he asked, his voice coming out surprisingly horce from having behind held by his neck only a moment before. "Don't be dead, I'd hate to have to find a new partner,"

Alexina

"And where are we going? A castle? There aren't /lords/ in it are there?" He was going to say witches or lords, but in present company it was better to just ask about one of the two greatest evils in the world.

As she continued to run she heard the boy ask about the were wolves and how she knew... With out looking back at him she quickly said in 'as a matter of tone' "I can speak with all the forest animals. They let me know if there is any danger, so I can respond properly, and inform Lady Bloodrose." Then turning to his other question, "It's she who is the master of the Castle, the head of our Coven." She said with relatively ease as she ran. Growing up she often ran through the woods with wolves and has much more endurance than most witches...or regular humans or hunters as well.

They soon made their way to the edge of the forest to where the castle was hidden by an illusion. It only looked like more thick woods, almost impassible but of course She and Elina knew better. She stopped and allowed the other two to catch their breaths as she lightly touched the edge of the illusion. Whispering a few words needed to see through it. As soon as the words escaped her mouth, a small opening big enough for all them appeared, revealing a massive castle behind it. She smiled and looked at the boy and said, "Welcome to Castle Bloodrose, safe haven of witches. I'm sure Lady Medusa Bloodrose would love to meet you. Follow me." She said with a smile.

Where most would have been warry of this boy that could be a hunter. she saw a potential, not many men practiced magic, and with him and a little training, he could easily fool hunters and protect the coven. But it be up to Medusa.

Elina had been quiet, as she normally was... she was very unlike her twin sister, she even wondered if they WERE sisters. But that wasn't her position to pry, though she did hear she had the chance to sacrifice a powerful hunter and didn't take it. Strange as that was she was very pleasant to be around and didn't want to upset anything by asking. She looked to Elina. "You are free to join us to inform lady Bloodrose of the werewolves and our guest if you wish...unless of course, you have more pressing matters."

[SillyGoy]

---

Elina Ruvina

They had run for quite some time and distance, and Elina was tired. Her long silver hair, usually perfectly kept, was marred with more than just a few errand strands, and her forehead was laced with sweat. She was thankful that they'd finally stopped, and directly in front of the Castle. There, it was safe, and she could catch her breath. Elina was breathing quite hard. Perhaps she shouldn't have refused Vespa's occasional invitations to join her as the elder twin practiced her sword techniques. Just how out of shape was she?

Still, she managed to recover her aristocratic bearing and procure a small handkerchief from an equally dainty pocket. With it, she wiped the sweat off of her face. Her normally pale cheeks were now rosy in color.

Werewolves. She was still trying to comprehend their significance, and the swiftness of their flight from the forest. Alexina was a brave woman, but for her to have fled so quickly... Elina did not know much about werewolves. Much of the lore she did know pertained to blood magic and necromancy. Vespa, by contrast, knew far more about those things than her, and was a vastly more talented witch, equal to or perhaps even surpassing the fiery Alexina beside her. There were Lorelai, Genoveve and Laina, too - all good people who seemed to know what they were after. All who seemed to be Elina's total opposites.

The pain in her limbs, borne out of exhaustion, came to underscore the centerpiece of Elina's thoughts at the moment: that she was, out of all the members of Castle Bloodrose, the most inferior and the weakest witch. Perhaps even a liability. These were notions not at all unfamiliar to her by any means, but ones that were quite frequent, especially recently. There were werewolves back there. If Alexina hadn't been there for her and she lingered in the forest instead... the silver-haired girl shuddered.

Somehow, she managed a smile. Luna too looked worse for wear. Gently, she picked the cat up and let it rest upon her bosom.

"I'm a little tired," she said, "but I'd be more than happy to accompany you to Lady Bloodrose."

@Aerandir@Ellion

[Rune_Alchemist]

~Senna~

Ugh, she had gotten a bit careless, didn't she? As senna laid on the ground, she could barely hear what was going on around her. Seemed like the other hunters had finally arrived. About goddamn time they got off their asses and showed up. Late to the party as they always were. She wasn't going to be missing this party, either. Blood was being spilled, and it was making her more than a little excited. She wasn't going to be missing out on this. Not one goddamn second.

"If ye think something like that is going to off me," Senna replied to clay. "You really must not know how goddamn stubborn I am."

The black clad hunter pushed herself to her feet, using her axe to help. She had definitely broken something. Probably a rib, but she'd deal with that later. Nothing a little bed rest and drink couldn't heal. As soon as she was on her feet, she took a look at the chaos unfolding around her. Werewolves and hunters engaged right in combat, and she felt right at home. Whatever that Fenros fellow was doing, was doing a pretty damn good job of holding down that ugly big one too.

Heh, maybe he was as good as Bobby had said, then.

"Hope you're ready to earn your pay, Clay!" she said. "Because I'm going...to kill these fleabags."

@Aerandir@Ellion

[Meiyuki]

_{Collab with @SillyGoy}

Vespa Ruvina & Lorelai Von'Strauss

The moment her lover's billowing cloak left her view, she was filled with a sudden longing, a pang in her heart. Oh, Vespa knew fully well that Lorelai could handle things by herself, but the thought of leaving her to face danger alone became absolutely abhorrent to her as she gradually comprehended its gravitas. It simply wouldn't do. If Lorelai was going to shed blood, both the enemy's and hers, then it must be with Vespa present. There came the problem of Madame Bloodrose's request, however. Would the young Ruvina be really so impertinent as to request-

"Go ahead," said Madame Bloodrose, smiling at the serious expression of the younger witch at the open doorway.

"But Lady Bloodrose-"

"Go. I know it is foolish to tether a youth's free spirit in love. Go exact vengeance upon our enemy. I'm sure you will both repay this new blood debt and more."

Vespa smiled and bowed deeply. "Thank you, Mistress. I am truly grateful." Then she ran, intending to join her beloved.

She found her quickly, in the main courtyard. Amongst the garden blooms whose colors were not apparent due to the nighttime, she was conversing with Alexina. It appeared that they were in a serious discussion. As Vespa approached, a smile came upon her lips the moment she saw her sister - a smile that ended abruptly at the sight of a man.

"Sister, Alexina," she greeted. Elina bowed in kind. She leaned in then to give Lorelai's cheek a small kiss. "I've decided to join you after all, love. But who is the boy?"

Lorelai turned to Vespa, her stern frown immediately melting into a grin. "I'm elated dear."

She turned to Taran. "As for him, he's fortunate enough to be a newblood, and not Alexina's plaything."

Lorelai reached for Vespa's hand and led her to the stables, they had quite a lot of ground to cover tonight. Especially if what Alexina had reported rang true, and she had an unfortunate habit of not being wrong when speaking of ill omens.

"Apparently there are werewolves about as well, and they're roaming in packs no less." She began saddling her horse, a towering stallion of unknown heritage Ardat-Lili had served her since she arrived.

She'd named him after a nightmare demon, and it was most fitting. His hair was stark black and his eyes glinted a strange red in the moonlight, almost with malevolence. He'd never balked during battle or any other commotion. In fact he was almost as bloodthirsty as she had been when she arrived.

Once she was astride his immense bulk she reached out to help Vespa up. "I can't describe how relieved I am to have your company my sweet."

"I know poor Genoveve is in a state," Vespa said, "but Madame Bloodrose is more than skilled enough to handle it. Besides, killing werewolves? This is going to be an amazing date, I can already tell!"

She leaned in then, content to rest her head upon Lorelai's back. "Let's avenge our friend, love. Careful not to ingest the blood, though."

Lorelai let out a small giggle at Vespa's mention of this being a date. A date amongst the broken bodies of their enemies? That could work.

Once Vespa was situated comfortably she urged Ardat through the black iron gates and across the bridge to the forest proper. They were headed to the Glow Wood, certainly a romantic destination.

A few minutes of comfortable silence later they'd arrived. The Glow Wood was beautiful tonight, the trees cast everything in a vibrant teal, the bulbs glowing a deep sapphire, and fireflies danced in brilliant yellows. The stars were out in force tonight, glimmering over their heads. They seemed almost in reach.

Lorelai slowed Ardat's pace. "It's gorgeous tonight."

"Isn't it?" Vespa slowly moved her hands from Lorelai's hips to join them at her stomach. She was embracing her now.

Lorelai leaned back into Vespa's embrace, her hands moving from the reigns to rest over her lover's as she let Ardat follow the path. "A shame we're here on business."

"Just think of it as a different kind of date. I look forward to bathing with you after we're covered in werewolf blood. Not a bad thought, is it? Romantic, all the same," Vespa said, giggling.

"All my moments with you are romantic love, and I treasure them all equally." Lorelai let out a satisfied sigh. "But we'll have to come out here just to walk sometime soon. Ok?"

"Yes, we have to. This place really is wonderful. But until then, werewolves."

Ardat came to a halt as he lowered his head to examine something on the forest floor. With a snort of derision he backed up several paces.

Lorelai dismounted and approached whatever had halted Ardat. "Blood, perhaps from the wounded vampire?"

Vespa followed behind her. She crouched, and waved her hand over the blood splatter in a magically charged gesture. "Seems to be," she said. "We must be on the right trail."

Lorelai paused a moment. "You know, vampires claiming to be from an ancient family. Werewolves organizing in packs...I'm not sure I'm liking these coincedences."

Lorelai unsheathed her ritual dagger and drew it across her palm. Smearing the blood in a small but carefully drawn circle she chanted in a guttural speech. The area inside the circle grew darker and darker, until finally it was pitch black. With a wiff of brimstone out of it stepped a twisted parody of a bloodhound. It's black fur was matted in places with what seemed like fresh blood, spikes protruded from it's shoulders and along it's spine.

Lorelai dipped her finger in their quarry's blood and offered it to the hound. After sniffing the sample it loped off into the woods ahead of them.

"There we go. The only question is do we continue on foot for stealth? Or Ardat here incase we need speed?"

"Taking Ardat appears to be the safer choice," Vespa said. "You know, it always bothers me when you injure yourself for rituals like that."

"You of all people know that magic comes with a price love." Lorelai pressed her lips to Vespa's in a brief kiss. "Mine costs my blood, in one way or another."

"Do you mind taking the reigns?" Lorelai turned to Ardat. "I should prepare some pacts."

"Wait," Vespa said, grabbing Lorelai's elbow all of a sudden and turning her around. Lorelai then found herself in a liplock with Vespa again, this time longer, and much more passionate. The Ruvina even went so far as to embrace her tightly, and use lots of tongue.

"Sorry," she said, after it had been broken, blushing deeply. "You just kind of got me excited. Thrill of the hunt and whatnot, you know? And no, I don't mind." She went to mount Ardat then. "I promise you a smooth ride."

Lorelai shook of the daze of the sudden kiss. Her face flushed. "You never need to apologize for that my sweet."

She quickly climbed behind Vespa and encircled her small waist with her arms. "And you know I like it rough don't you?" She let out a giggle.

"More than anyone else," Vespa agreed. "Now, we should probably catch up with that bloodhound you summoned." The smallest of kicks to his belly and Ardat developed a small trot.

Lorelai prepared her summoning mentally while leaning comfortably against Vespa's back. She didn't need ritual circles to invoke pre-existing pacts, although the price was still exacted. A surge of pain tore up her spine as Lilith took up residence in her flesh.

Lorelai took a moment to wonder why it was never as bad in Vespa's presence. Then again, a great many things became tolerable when she was with her love. For Vespa, Lorelai could probably endure anything, no, could endure anything.

She put such embarrassing thoughts from her mind as Ardat came to another halt several minutes later. They found themselves in the forest just before a clearing, and in the clearing gleamed a Blood Moonstone.

"Well, that has to be a trap huh?" She leaned forward to whisper to Vespa

"Or maybe it's too obvious to be a trap," Vespa opined. "Actually, nevermind what I said, that was stupid. Say, what do you think would happen if we got down and picked that thing up?"

Lorelai gestured to the ring of trees surrounding the clearing. "Well if memory serves that's when whoever laid this little ambush lets loose crossbow bolts, and if they have a moostone they probably have silver bolts. Likely laced in a poultice of lavender just to be sure."

Lorelai dismounted and whispered again in that guttural tongue. Soon thereafter the bloodhound returned from the foliage. "Now if this little bastard grabbed it and blew their ambush that would give us an opportunity to spot their positions. Thoughts?"

"And when that happens," Vespa said, "we rush in and kill them."

The witch already had a hand resting upon the hilt of her sword. She steadied her breathing and tapped into the energy of past sacrifices and Lorelai's intimacy. At that moment then, her eyes became keener, her reflexes sharper, and her feet quicker. If anything gave her reason to, she could have further expended what she had saved in her blood and become a whirlwind of flashing steel and death.

"I'm ready."

Lorelai closed her eyes and let Lilith further into her essence. The Blade Mistress had earned her place in the pit on the piled corpses of her peers and superiors alike, her fury was volcanic, and her unholy strength nearly unmatched. She'd destroyed Hector Digard, and would serve now to destroy some lowly leeches.

When her eyes opened again they burned with that rage, no longer a deep brown but rather a glowing red. "So am I love."

She kicked the poor bloodhound. "You heard us, go get it boy."

With a small yelp he bolted into the clearing after the gem, and that's when all hell broke loose.

The bloodhound's body was immediately pincushioned by a dozen or more bolts, they glimmered silver in the moonlight. Almost as fast as the eye could see a tall pale haired man darted into the clearing, snatching the gem away before the demon could reach it. With a quick look around he spotted the two witches.

"There! Kill them!"

Vespa leapt almost immediately. There was nothing complex about her plan, just a frontal charge. Yet she did so with supernatural agility and elegance. Somersaulting through the air, the steel of her rapier flashed once under the moonlight, and flashed again in the next moment, covered from mid-point to tip in blood. When she had landed, a poor thrall had found his neck pierced and his spinal cord severed. His nearest comrade then swung his mace in retaliation, but this was neatly dodged by Vespa, and the poor man received a punctured heart for his troubles. Clawing at the wound, he fell down while gasping for air his limbs could no longer receive and his chest gouting generous amounts of blood.

Vespa, in between two fresh corpses, faced the rest of the thralls then, who appeared unsure of how to proceed. She traced an elaborate pattern in the air and settled into a textbook fighting stance with her rapier pointed at the nearest vampiric slave. Her grin was determined as it was bloodthirsty. Already, she was drawing power from the leaking blood of the two men she had just killed, but without a proper ritual, the flow of magic was spotty at best.

"Show me your mettle, fools!"

Lorelai was confident in her love's ability to handle multiple foes simultaneously. What Lilith lacked in grace and speed she made up for in raw strength. She singled out the vampire once Vespa had attracted the attention of his thralls.

"We've a blood debt with you, foolish immortal. Prepare to pay in full." With that she launched across the clearing, her first strike easily parried by the vampire's longsword.

Lorelai proceeded to unleashed a horrific torrent of blows. Demons did not have mercy, they did not tire, and they did not fear injury. Empowered by the Blade Mistress neither did she. The strikes continued to rain down in an unending deluge of black steel. The vampire kept up, at first. Soon openings began to show in his stance, and he was quickly tormented by nicks and cuts at his legs and arms. Several times his blade sliced through Lorelai's flesh, but found nothing but brimstone and smoke as reward.

Lorelai smiled, soon the deathblow comes.

Vespa was keeping the thralls busy while Lorelai focused on the vampire himself. Several times a few thralls tried to run past her blockade, and those who did quickly found twenty inches of steel slipping easily into the gaps between their ribs. They fell down twitching, helpless and dying. The rest, who thought themselves Vespa's equals, attempted to take her out, and their efforts also ended in failure. More bodies came crashing and gurgling into the ground. Two of them had the rare foresight not seen often in slaves to do a coordinated attack, but the one with the longsword kept himself open for too long as he wound up his strike, and was killed immediately by gleaming steel rushing into his eye socket. The one with the axe was simply too slow, and was wondering where Vespa had gone to when her rapier entered the base of his skull from behind.

As the last of the thralls fell to Vespa's cyclone of steel and death Lorelai intensified her assault. The air echoed the rapid staccato rhythm of steel on steel as the vampire continued to be driven back by her unholy strength. With a resounding crack the vampire's blade shattered, and he only had a moment to contemplate this before Lorelai's scythe was in him again. With a spin she'd brought the previous blow full circle and as quickly as it entered her prey it exited, flinging his entrails and the majority of his spine in a spray across the clearing.

With a smile, the vampire collapsed. Unmoving at last.

"Glory, Lorelai," Vespa called out, her sword already sheathed. Her smile was as warm as her panting breath. "None can stand against you!" Her dress appeared to be in ruins. None of the thralls got any hits in, but her clothing was streaked and splattered with their blood. Of an aristocratic bearing, the young witch found this to be, of course, entirely displeasing.

"Not with you at my side love." Lorelai stooped down to clean her blade in the grass. She surveyed the wreckage. "Your talent with the blade raises it to high art my dear."

She made her way over to Vespa's side, pausing to take in the sight of her sweet covered in blood knowing full and well that none of it was hers. "I'd almost forgotten how beautiful you look covered in blood. You're like a Goddess, resplendent in the offerings of your vassals." She sighed. "If only I had a talent for painting."

Vespa blushed at the compliments. "Oh, you. If I'm a goddess, then you must be my angel of death. You are amazing with that scythe, my love."

Yet her blush grew in intensity. "You know what? To the abyss with poetry! Just come here!" And then she leapt upon Lorelai, lips pressed against hers and arms already around her waist. Eyes deeply closed, she put her tongue inside of her lover's mouth, intent on releasing all the unused energy she had failed to utilize with the stunning weakness of her enemies. Blood magic invigored not only the heart but also its passions, and with how tightly she was holding Lorelai, it was clear she wasn't letting go for quite some time.

Lorelai was quite content with that, and met her love's passion with her own. Vespa's love melted away her pain, and soon her mind went white with lust. Soon enough, their hands were racing across each other's' garments, feeling for straps and buttons with the intent of undoing them.

---

Several steamy hours later, still in the clearing.

Who could ask for a more perfect evening? There Lorelai laid, Vespa's head on her shoulder. The stars bright over head and the beauty of the Glow Wood around them. Lorelai kissed the top of her sweet's head. "Do you think they're getting worried back at the castle?"

"Hm, you're right," Vespa conceded. She rolled onto her side, and placed her leg over Lorelai's. It was one of her favorite things to do in the afterglow. She shared gazes with her lover and found only happiness within the other witch's eyes. "But it's a little hard to just get up and leave, don't you think?"

"A little hard? I'm finding it difficult to imagine, much less accomplish." Lorelai turned to face Vespa, bringing her face closer to her lover's. "I say we just stay here. We can leave for the castle when we wake. We've earned this time to ourselves wouldn't you say?"

"I don't know," Vespa said, her smile coy. "We've worked up quite a sweat, and the notion of sharing a bath with you is just way too tempting."

Lorelai's eyes smoldered. She debated simply rolling on top of Vespa again, but decided against it. The allure of a soft bed and hot water was enticing. "I agree, let's see if we can salvage our clothes and then head back."

As the two witches got dressed in the tattered and stained remains of their garments a gurgle could be heard from the remains of the vampire Lorelai had eviscerated.

Lorelai, who'd just finished the clasp of her bloodied cloak turned. "By the snarling depths..."

Vespa's sword flashed one moment, and was at the neck of the vampire in the next. "Damn you," she snarled. "You dare to ruin my evening?"

The ruined remains of the vampire's lungs sought air it couldn't quite reach, yet. New flesh was growing in place of the severed organs and muscle tissue. It smiled, as if laughing.

Lorelai stooped down to examine the new growths. "Shouldn't a vampire this damaged just die?"

"Maybe we should just burn the accursed thing," Vespa said. "If blood loss isn't enough, incineration should cover it."

"Perhaps..." Lorelai strode to Ardat, who'd been waiting patiently amongst the corpses of the fallen thralls to retrieve some oil and her flint.

After dousing the vampire thoroughly she struck a spark onto its form. The oil immediately ignited, but to her growing dread once it had burned away the vampire still remained. "I defer to your expertise on all matters related to magic blood dear. I'm at a loss."

Vespa closed her eyes and thought for a moment. "A curse. A curse upon his blood. Something that would prevent him from regenerating by attacking the very foundations of that ability. Know any hexes?"

Lorelai shook her head. "Not by rote no." She sighed. "I suppose this means we'll have to drag him back to the castle for research."

A wild grin came upon the young Ruvina's face. "We could tie his wrists to Ardat's saddle and gallop all the way to the Castle."

Lorelai laughed. "Well I certainly wasn't planning on strapping him on comfortably."

So the two witches returned to the castle posthaste, heralded by screams from the vampire's ruined windpipe, and a trail of his blood in their wake.

[Aerandir]

Lorelai Von'Strauss & Bobby

---

Another failed hex, and another set of reagents wasted. Lorelai snarled in frustration as the spell failed with a flash of black, acrid smoke. Vespa had gone to bed a while ago, and only after a great deal of convincing.

Lorelai had exhausted the last hex the library had to offer. She'd dug through the restricted section of the Castle's volumes for several she'd thought might serve to suppress the vampire's damnable regeneration. Each had failed with no more fanfair than the last.

Her...interrogation had not swayed the vampire's claim to be a decendant of House Ruvin, and Lorelai for one was starting to believe him. She was beginning to fear that the only source of information on how to destroy this clan might reside within Vespa's childhood home, in the hands of Reyna Ruvina.

Vespa had explained, after they'd become close, the situation between the twins and their mother. Reyna had evidently lost faith in her daughters after...a particular failure. Lorelai smiled, how would the witch feel if she could see Vespa now?

She shook her head. Lorelai had no desire to expose either of the Ruvinas to their mother's wrath, but she was running out of options. She had just one more.

Gathering her blade and cloak she exited the Castle discretely.

---

Bobby grunted as he kicked Emiliano out and slammed the door. Sighing he looked around the empty tavern and a rush of uselessness filled him. Looking up to ol Betsy on the mantle of the fireplace he yearned for the chance to go and fight those pack of werewolves. What a glorious battle that would be...he hoped the young female whippersnapper would be alright, as well as the others of course.

He slowly made his way to the kitchen, his weight causing creaks to scream loudly in the silent room, slow and long, just like him. He turned into the kitchen to see Sophia humming to herself as she was cleaning up and gathering some herbs and other medicinal items, narrowing his eyes, he asked in a soft voice. "Now were do ye think yer goin lassy?" His tone much more different than that he used in the bar.

"Oh I'm going to visit a friend, Susan on the east end of town. She has come down with a nasty flu, I was going to go help her really quick before coming back to help with any of the hunters who are hurt." She answered him, looking at him over her shoulder.

Bobby growled. "I doont' like yuu goin out there by yerself, Not with the mention of a pack of werewolves out there."
Sophie moved up to him as she pulled the strap over her head and rested a hand on his chest, "Ill be fine dear." She gave him a quick kiss and continued into the tavern's bar. "Besides Ill bring Buck with me..."

Grunting as he turned and followed her he looked at his old dog, who didn't even move at the mention of his name. "That ol fleabag?? Lazyiest damn dog i've ever had. Yuu've spoiled him rotten, Now he's just a 'pet' not a war hound."

Sophie smiled and patted Bobby's big stomach, "I've spoiled you rotten too yet you are just as fiery as ever my love." She laughed before calling Buck to her, as he slowly raised his head and meandered over to her. Which only made Bobby motion towards him. "YE cant compare me with that dog! He's like almost a hundred years old! Just look at him." Buck raised his head and cocked it to the side at his voice.

Shaking his head he moved over to the mantle with Sophie shaking her head, "No dear, stay here your leg is hurting you more today than usual." She moved towards the mantle with him, trying to head him off.

"I'M FINE! No wey in hell I'm letting yuu out of me sight with that old mutt." He pulled Betsy off the mantle and looked at Sophie. "Now I'm goin with ya, and that's that. To hell with me pain, nothing would compare to it if yuu got hurt and I could've stopped it."
He stood firm and raised his stature so she would know that he wouldn't back down from his stance. Sophie let out a sigh, knowing he would follow what ever she said, but still it was sweet how much he cared for her. His leg never really healed properly, and it was always in constant pain. Despite her help. It would be a long walk and knowning what that would do to him showed how much he cared for her.
"Alright alright dear. "She smiled and kissed him again, "Thank you. Now lets go."

Lorelai spotted Bobby and his wife coming down the trail from her hiding place near Susan's cabin. A simple hex was all it took to lay the poor woman in the hut up with flu-like symptoms. She wasn't particularly proud of using the man's wife to ensure a meeting, but it was certainly a better plan than wandering into the tavern.

Once Sophie had entered the hut, leaving Bobby to wait outside, she stepped out of the shadows. "Robert Flint, it's about time we had a little chat don't you think?"

Buck growled and Bobby turned to face the woman walking out of the Shaddows. He gripped Betsy a little harder and shifted his stance... obviously it wasn't a friend...Friends called him Bobby. He hated Robert. Not to mention her voice was not normal, Demonic by the sound of it.

"Wot do ye want with me lassy?" He asked as he moved around to be between the woman and the hut.

"I'm hoping we might help each other." Lorelai moved further into view. "There's a family of vampires in these woods that call themselves the Ruvins. You've been a hunter a long time Robert, and you've hunted with those even older, it ocurred to me that you're practically a walking library of information."

Raising an eyebrow he scoffed. An evil witch asking a hunter for help? That's a new one. "Why would you think in God's name would I help Yuu? In case yuu didn't notice, Hunters don't help witches." He stated while trying to think of ways to kill this witch quickly if need be. Him not being able to move around quickly greatly hindered his manuverablity, but he didn't show any reason that his leg was worthless.

"Does it really have to be that way with us?" Lorelai smiled. "My coven has opertated in this area for years peacefully, these vampires are already spilling blood. I'd hate to have to start harvesting human sacrifices because of this little territory war, but I've got to protect my sisters. You understand that don't you?"

She eyed his stance. "Hector couldn't do it and neither can you Robert, I'm just here to talk. You and your wife are free to go after our chat."

His eyes narrowed at her as she spoke, She was the one that killed Hector. This was the witch Fenros was searching for all these years. And if that be true, he truly didn't stand a chance. Hector was far more experienced than he was in fighting Demon Lords and summoning witches...he was also five years younger with out a broken leg. He didn't trust this woman and with his hand which was already situated behind his back, he pulled a vial of pure holy oil, all the while making sure his arm didn't move enough for her to notice.

"It could have been from the amount of hunters all in here that could have deterred yuu from here." He said bluntly. But it clicked now she said vampires.... vampires and wolves? What was going on in that blasted forest.

"Don't blame me if I don't trust yuu Lorelai Von'strauss. You did kill my best friend and his wife, that's something not easily forgotten." He said through his teeth as he waited a moment to think of what he could do... though it wouldn't hurt to hear her out.

"So wot, yuu just want info on killing suckers? every hunter worth his weight, knows how to kill a vampire....I've never heard of the Ruvins." He said with a lie... He knew of the Ruvins, use to use this town as a farm hundreds of years ago. stories of it passed down through the village hunters. Nasty bunch of vampires from what he heard.

"I'm sorry about Hector and his wife. I thought satisfying the blood debt from his slaughter of my family would make me whole, but it didn't." Lorelai was indeed regretful. Vengeance was useless, only the destruction of active threats had meaning. "I'm hoping we can do better than that. An eye for an eye would leave the whole world blind, we can stop the bleeding you and I."

Slowly, being sure not to startle the old hunter, she retrieved one of the insignias Sousiel had recovered. "I've got their house emblem, maybe we can do some research? If you help me get rid of this threat to my sisters I'll owe you. I won't forget that."

She tossed the emblem to him. "What do you say? One old hunter to a less old witch? Can we help each other?"

He caught the emblem as it was tossed to him. Looking at it he said to drive a nail more into the witch, "Ya know...if ye didn't kill him he would have known. Hector knew more of the ancient evils than I did." He then looked to her, "Yuu'll owe me eh? Donno wot I would want from a witch." But she did sound more and more like she was going to let them go. Better to live than die knowing Sophia would be next...besides he would have to tell Fenros he ran into her.

He then realized Hectors Journal was at his Tavern, the book Fenros handed him before he hunted the werewolves. Despite his better judgement he said, "Fine... give me some time to read up on this... Ruvin family. "

"Thank you, I won't forget this." She smiled brightly. "If you need to reach me just go to the old tree just inside the forest on the trail north and leave a note."

"...You may be considering telling Fenros I'm here." She said just before leaving, pausing before the treeline. "But maybe you don't. Maybe our blood debt ends before he ends up like I did, he may not be lucky enough to have someone pick him up when he realizes blood won't fix his pain."

With that she left Bobby and Sophia peacefully.

Bobby fiddled with the vial of olive oil in his hand, contemplating on if he should just attack now and try to kill her...but he waited too long, as Sophia came back out oblivious to what had just happened. She noted his stance and the vial in his hand. "Everything alright?"

Bobby quickly nodded and slipped the vial back in his pocket. "Yeah..." He looked back to the shadows where Lorelai disappeared back into. "Everything is fine..."

Medusa, Alexina, and Taran

After talking to Lorelai about the boy and getting info on where lady Medusa was, and also informing her that there are werewolves now in the woods. She nodded to Elina as she mentioned she would come before looking to the boy. "Are you ready? She's not that bad, after all she made this castle to protect us sisters..and hopefully a new brother." she said with a wink.

"Uh, yes?" he said, still very overwhelmed with the turn of events. Mostly he was overwhelmed by the size of the castle, the largest structure he'd come across was a one roon tavern two towns over. He longed to just ...explore it, but at the same time he was scared to leave Alexina's side. Mostly because there were just so many new people. And the fact that there were witches.

Alexina smiled and grabbed his wrist and started to drag him behind her towards the castles doors, they opened silently despite their massive size. Nodding to witches as they walked by. She didn't know many of them, only of their names and the polite things to talk about, as she lived in the forest most of her time here. The castle was just too cold and dark for her, unlike the forest which was arm and alive. Taking their time as they walked passed rooms after rooms so the two could catch their breaths and compose themselves.

They finally came to the room where Medusa was taking care of Laina and knocked on the door, saying softly incase she was sleeping. "Lady Medusa? Alexina here with Elina, and a newcomer."

Medusa turned towards them from her seat next to Laina's bed. The girl was sleeping soundly while Medusa brewed some foul smelling concotion. "A newcomer you say?" She looked Taran over. "A male witch, I haven't seen one of those in ages."

Turning to Alexina. "Do you think he's a good fit?"

She shrugged. "Was I when I came here a few years ago? I still don't really fit in, and perfer the woods over the castle. Yet I serve my part." She looked at the Boy and said, "Besides if he is properly taught...he could become a great asset. And that is what he is looking for, to know how to control his own powers of pyromancy." She wanted to add that he would be perfect to hunt hunters once taught, as they would never expect him and he could easily pass for one later on.

"True, you might not fit in Alexina, but you're brave and have served loyally since you arrived." She looked to Taran. "If you can promise loyalty you'll find safety here. Not only that, but some of the most experienced and deadly witches this world has to offer, tutelage under me or Lorelai will not be easy, but it will strengthen you."

"So what say you boy? Would you join your fate to Coven Bloodrose, or should I have Alexina return you to whatever fate you might await elsewhere?"

It took Taran a second to realize that he was being spoken to by the woman....Medusa. This woman had an area of power like he hadn't ever witnessed before. Nor could he quite explain it. "Ah," He said, trying to think of a way to answer her question. "I want to not risk ...accidently hurting or killing someone because I...I can't control what I am doing. If you can help me, whether that is because I can control it or that I know longer have it, I'd be forever in your debt either way," the last part came out more as a murmur, his nerves over coming him.

Medusa nodded. "That you will." She reached under her cloak and retrieved a ritual dagger, then handed it to Taran. "Apprentice yourself to a sister that will have you. Once they've caught up your education I'll ensure your power continues to grow."

"Pyromancy is an old magic, almost as old as mine or the Dragon's Tongue. We've books on it in the library that you should peruse." She stood. "But first your Oath. Offer your blood to the coven, and swear to protect it with your life if called on. Alexina, be his witness if you would."

Alexina nodded and stood beside Taran and had a smile on her face she could not contain, having a new member of the conven was always exciting, but with a male, this would be even more interesting. As the first brother of the conven...he certainly would be mr. popular. As he wasn't a bad looking boy. And being the witness of the oath was indeed perfect for her, as she was the one who offered him to join in as well.

"I offer my word that I am his witness, and will fullfill the deed if need be done." She said solomnly. Though she would rather have not... such a waste if that happened.

Medusa then turned to the boy. "So witnessed. Swear your Oath boy."

"I-I," he started, looking at Alexina and then at Medusa, holding his hand out, but closing it at the last second. As wonderful as these woman seemed, he did only meet them less than..less than a few hours ago. It was clear that these wasn't some little promise either. "What if...what if I change my mind? Am I allowed to leave at any time?" His hand wasn't quite retracted yet. "What if I don't believe.... for what ever reason, the coven shouldn't be protected?"

Alexina turned to him and gave him a very serious look, "If you were to change your mind, you will be betraying all of us who trusted you with our lives to protect one another. And it will be my duty to hunt you down and kill you. Such is the way with our conven. You do not break that trust." In a soft but firm tone. "You must remember we are also just trying to live our lives here....there are hunters out there that kill us on sight, not understanding what we are or how our magic works, and how it could benifit our lives. They kill in fear of us. So remember, we are here to live and to learn of our craft."

Medusa extended her hand, after slicing her palm with her own dagger. "We've stood here for a long time. We did not do that by either being easy with our promises, or by terrorizing the countryside. So what say you?"

"Okay, okay," he said, taking a breath. "Just... just two more questions. Am I allowed to come and go as I please or as you please? And...am I sworn to the coven or to you personally?" He asked Medusa. He wasn't sure that her answer would cause him to say no, but...he wanted to know what he was getting into.

"You may come and go as you wish, although I might not recommend it considering what seems to be a foot in the forest around us at the moment. You'll be expected to learn your craft, that's between you and the sister that takes you as an apprentice." Medusa's hand did not waver. "Your oath is to the Coven, of which I am the leader. You'll be expected to obey my orders as well as those of any sister who outranks you. Although we rarely have need to boss around the newbloods, often it simply means extra cleaning duty."

She smiled. "Time's up newblood. Decision time."

"Okay, then. I swear," he said, raising his hand up and taking the offered knife. With a small breath, he drug the knife across the palm of his other hand, hot blood pooling down his palm. It stung, but he'd had worse. "I swear," He paused. Almost for dramtice effect, before he followed it up with "Wh...What do I say? " He looked first at Medusa, then at Alexina, unsure of how to make an oath.

Alexina smiled and looked to the boy and said, "Swear to protect the coven with your life, to keep it's secrets, obey those above you, and respect those below you." She stopped as she looked to see Medusa smiling. Medusa then added. "Swear it on your future."

"I swear, on my future, to protect the coven with my life...to...to keep it's secerts....to o-obey those above me and respect those below me," The blood from his palm fell to the floor in thick, red drops and spattered, mixing with Mesdusa's.

Taran waited for a spark or a flame, or...something to occur to show that the oath had taken place. But nothing occured, he almost asked if he did something wrong when Taran felt...different. The cold gloomy castle suddenly felt secure and refreshing, safe really, more like home than the house with his parents had ever felt. It was a wonderful place and it deserved to stand a hundred thousand more years. Taran knew that he would do anything to keep it safe, because he /wanted to / all the doubt had suddenly been washed away. He glanced around the room at the four women, there was an...aura around them that seemed to reek of an... alphaness? Something like that, either way, the aura screamed that they should be respected, which he felt an unusual willingness to do.

"So, Mistress," He said with a slight pause, glancing up to meet Medusa's eyes. "What...do I do now?"

"Now, Alexina will show you to one of the empty rooms. If you do well here eventually you might get your own tower." Medusa turned to Elina who'd been quiet through the proceedings. "Elina, if you'd attend to Gevoveve, seeing as you sister departed with Lorelai, I'd appreciate it."

As soon as Alexina was about to show Taran the way, a little sparrow zipped through window and landed on Alexina's shoulder. chirping wildly for a moment while looking up to Alexina. She then turned to Lady Medusa and said, "There is a battle going on in the forest." She then raised her hand to her mouth as she forgot to tell medusa about the Werewolves. "Also I forgot to mention there is a werewolf pack in the woods milady. Lady Lorelai has been informed, as well as Lady Vespa. But I just heard that about twenty Hunters have engaged the pack in battle. A large bald man with a massive sword and a white wolf leading them....I believe that sounds like the Hunter Fenros..."

She hesitated as she realized Elina was once close to the hunter...perhaps in love....she didn't know how close She was to him. She even realized the wolf she met earlier with Elina might have been his wolf. She looked to Elina to see her reaction.

Medusa smiled. "Good, good. Lorelai's been looking bored lately, maybe Fenros will perk her up." She shrugged at Elina. The past is the past, If Fenros was here to kill witches then he was just another hunter. With any luck she might get two birds with one stone in this.

[agentmanatee]

Emiliano Sebastiano Parisi

As he stalked rather aimlessly through the forest, Emiliano pondered what exactly he was trying to do. He decided that finding and helping Senna and that prick Clay was the best choice... besides Clay's face had a rifle butt coming to it after the hunt, which was far easier to do if he knew his location. It was then he found the tracks, far to large to be regular wolves and with the wrong gait... werewolves. He started to follow them, becoming worried at the sheer number of prints he found. It seemed a rather large pack was running and hunting in these woods, and he could see a larger print here and there, meaning they had a... rather terrifyingly large alpha... that was when he heard them.

It sounded like combat... shouts, steel and screams. He stalked slowly toward the growing sounds of combat drawing his musket slowly as he stalked through the brush. Werewolves? Silver, right, he brought a vial up, powdered silver in it, he shook it slightly before saying a little prayer and dousing himself with a bit it in case a werewolf decided to get close. As he closed in he realized the wolves were fighting with... someone. The large number of were-bastards were circling and attacking and being thrown back in a pattern... trying to wear down their pray. Emiliano wanted a betteer look, carefully and quietly he climbed up a tree, praying he wasn't heard as he reached a high and thick branch. He turned and was not at all happy with the sight that greeted him.

Well, he had found Clay and Senna... Senna looked fucked up. She was bleeding andd even from this distance he could see she had a broken bone or two... or more. Clay was trying to protect her, along With that other woman hunter. Fenros was... talking to the Alpha? Whatever he was saying seemed to be effecting it... and Emiliano didn't want to possibly interrupt him, besides the lesser wolves needed thinning out, something a sniper was quite useful for. He shouldered his musket, taking aim and trying to decide which wolf to hit with one of his silver bullets. It was then one charged an opening towards Senna, perfect. As it charged he aimed, and with precision lead his shot ever so slightly, catching the beast i the head. The silver bullet tore through its skull, turning its brains to an ashen splatter all over the ground. The beast tumbled forward, coming to stop in front of the other hunter. Emiliano quickly began the much practised reload, hoping he'd have another shot ready in case the wolves turned to come for him.

[Meiyuki]

Lorelai Von'Strauss

Lorelai finally returned to the castle as the first signs of dawn peeked over the horizon. Her meeting with Robert Flint went better than expected. Hopefully he'd come through with a solution to her problem, otherwise it was going to require more drastic measures. For now the vampires were simply a vexing foe, if they found the castle they'd become implacable. If they couldn't be slain the witches would quickly find themselves fending off wave after wave of suicide strikes. Her captive had also hinted at the magical capability of his master. No matter, she was confident she'd find a solution before it became too much of an issue.

Her heart sank as she remembered the wards. They needed renewed, today. "No rest for the wicked huh?" She sighed.

Lorelai shook of her fatigue and strode into the castle to prepare. Hopefully Vespa or Elina would be available soon to assist her, their fine control of blood made the precise work of drawing the required diagrams and ensuring they stayed in place practically trivial. Their flexible source of power was also of great utility to fuel the magics, which was why Lorelai was hoping it would be Vespa who woke first. That and the affect Vespa's face had on her currently fatigued heart.

Although it had been awhile since she'd spoken with Elina, maybe she'd find out what was bothering the silver haired girl lately. Either way she wouldn't be sleeping for awhile yet. She set about gathering the reagents, and getting some much needed coffee.

[Rune_Alchemist]

~Laina~

Laina had been resting for most of the night. Sleep was easy that night, either due to exhaustion or simply losing a large amount of blood, she wasn't sure. What she did know was, that she should probably check on Geneveve. She was injured yesterday, wasn't she? And from what she knew, she should at least be slightly concerned about her since they had that sort of relationship. Whatever the case, she was not going anywhere without Saevire again. And she wasn't going to let Geneveve go somewhere without him, either.

...in fact, she wasn't going to let her go anywhere without her.

It was early in the morning, so Geneveve should still be asleep. Which was fine, it just made finding her easier. She was probably in her room then, or at least nearby. If she wasn't, she was going to have to find her though she didn't know where to begin on finding Geneveve. If she was there, she would simply walk in, and see how she was doing.

Unless she was asleep...then she'd have Saevire wait outside and wait on the other girl to wake up.

A perfect plan with no flaws whatsoever.

So with that in mind, Laina got up, dressed, and headed right for Geneveve's room with Saevire following behind her as always. It didn't take her long to reach it. She opened the door, and walked inside.

@Agentmanatee

[Aerandir]

Fenros Digard

,

Emiliah Hazelbrush

,

Clay Hale

,

~Senna~

As Emiliah covered him he continued to speak in the different Dialect, though his eyes were not wholly trained on the Demon Lord Varoth, he continued to watch his surroundings, and as soon as the group made it to the girls, he took them in his arms and moved backward into the circle, the gap coming shut as soon as he did. He looked to them and paused in his monologe with the Demon and said quickly, "You are safe now, just stay here in the middle."

The girls nodded and he moved to the outside of the circle again, just as he exited two wolves jumped towards him from his left and right. Emiliah was busy with another wolf, so he slammed his sword on his right side into the ground and used it to block the werewolf from him, a loud thud could be heard as the werewolf slammed into the silver, and the automatic hissing of burning flesh commenced. But at the same time he reached out and caught the other werewolve by grabbing the top of the mussle, his hand sliding till his middle and forefinger slid right into the werewolves eyes, using the werewolf's momentum against it'self. The wolf would in pain as it's eyes were gouged out and suddenly stopped as his silver tipped gloves dugg into the brain behind it, flopping to the ground.

He then began to speak again, citing Revelations on when Christ will return. Though in the other language.

On the far side of the clearing, Clay and Senna were mostly out of harms way of the main pack, obviously the slower moving prey didn't quite catch their interest... for the moment. "I am serious Senna," growled Clay, his voice still coming out much hoarser than usually. "You will just fuck everything up if you go out there. You are hurt and.... and...fucking irrational. You'll just get in the way,"

Senna shot a glare to Clay.

“Aren’t I always?” She huffed. Ugh, her sides hurt but nothing she couldn’t walk off. “Besides, I’m not going to sit around and wait for them to kill everything.” Senna still had her hand on her axe, walking towards the fray and apparently not listening too much to Clays warning. Her blood was practically boiling at this point, screaming for her to do something other than sit around.

The sounds of battle, the sounds of the hunt were calling her and she wasn’t going to ignore them.

There was an explosion from Clay's right side and then a yelp and a thump from his left. Looking left first, he saw a wolf not seven feet away. He hadn't even...noticed. So close to death or...worse. But he couldn't think about that right now, nor who ever it was that had just saved Senna and himself. He had to now save Senna from her self. With a last burst of energy that he didn't know that he had, he took off after Senna, then lept using his shoulder to crash into the girl, trying to not feel [i]too[i]guilty about the injuries she had already gotten.

"You are going to sit around here and wait. If you'd use you eye for one god forsaken second, you'd see that they don't need us right now. She you are going to sit here, even if I have to sit on you," he grould, holding tight to her body, trying to shift his weight into an sitting position.

Varoth during this time was still on the ground, groaning, but he was starting to be less and less effected by Fenros and his chanting. Growling he stood up, his wounded leg, slowly but finally healed. His attentions were drawn from the two hunters he batted around and focused solely on Fenros, "Death come to you Son of the order of Melchizedek, I will not be bound again!" He rushed forward to the circle. Fenros also moved forward, not wanting the massive wolf to crush the protective ring. He pressed a button on the guard of his sword and a latch popped open, oil spilled out onto the blade and with a flip of his finger, a small flint ignited the oil, causing his sword to burst into flame.

Swinging his sword in a wide arc, to stop Varoth's progression, he wasn't finished with his chanting yet, and while he engaged in the fight with the beast he continued to speak.

Senna had certainly not expected Clay to do something like that. One moment she had been just about ready to jump into the fray herself, and then she was on her stomach, clay on top of her. Her axe fell from her grip, falling beside her as she fell.

“Goddamn it clay,” She growled followed grunt of pain. “Let me up this instant, or I swear to god I will have your head as a paperweight.” She struggled to get free, though it wasn’t going to do much good. While she did want to fight, she also didn’t wish to actually hurt clay in the process.

It was all very...distracting. Yes, the wolves were very demanding of Emiliah's attention, and she knew that she couldn't lose focus, Fenros was depending on her to keep the little wolves away while he dealt with the big one. But all she wanted to do was watch and study what he was doing. The language danced on her ears, both familiar and foreign, almost as though she could understand and speak it, but the words wouldn't stay still enough in her mind or on her tongue to allow her to try.

But now wasn't the time to watch. More than one hunter now lay lifeless or, worse, changing on the forest floor because they were unready or inattentive to the chaos around them. "Hopefully," she thought to herself, watching another hunter fall "The new cursed have the sense to end themselves, so I don't have too," She noticed that the wolves were getting closer now, it seemed that the forest was empty now of wolves and they were all trying to get at Fenros to save their...leader? Master? Something.

She risked a glance towards Fenros, who seemed to have shifted from chanting to chanting and fighting...And that was her mistake. One glance, one moment when she took her eyes off of her enemy and one jolted past her. It didn't even pause to consider attacking her, it had eye only for Fenros. "Fen--!" was all the warning she was able to give him, before she saw the wolf clamp down on his arm.

Fenros stopped chanting to let out a cry of pain, The wolf had bitten his sword arm, and caused him to drop it, but with out missing a beat his cry of pain turned in a feral growl as he turned his attention and gripped the wolf's mussle and squeezed as he dug his silver tipped gauntles into it, a loud snap could be heard as he broke the wolf's upper nose, releasing the pressure on his arm as the wolf yiped in pain. He managed to then pull the wolf in the way just enough to take most of the blow from Varoth. Sending both him and the wolf flying and rolling over eachother like two ragdolls. Till they came to a rest with the wolf on top of Fenros. Varoth had no interest in the group as he slowly moved over to where Fenros lay.

Emiliah felt like a lead had dropped into her stomach.....Fenros was...gone. Sure, his heart still beat, for now. But he was tainted, and would have to be put down. When she lept towards him, even she wasn't exactly sure what it was that she was going to do when she got there. A part of her wanted to kill Fenros while he was weak and distracted. It would be easier that way, she would have to think about it and she'd be able to tell Bobby that he died in glorious battle. Another part of her knew that, without Fenros's [s]magic[s] godly words, they wouldn't stand a chance. Leaping over Fenros and the dead wolf, she landed crouched with her spear facing Varoth. "I pray that your human side can outlive this battle," she growled through clenched teeth.

Senna had enough.

She watched the battle transpire from where she was subdued, unable to act.

And it infuriated her.

She gripped the ground, tearing up little tufts of earth in the process as she tried to contain her fury. She didn’t want to hurt Clay, she didn’t but he was just getting in the way now. Fenros was down, likely bitten and would need to be killed. If Clay had just let her do what she was going to, she could have very well handled that, damn it!

So the hunter reached for her axe, just barely grabbing the hilt…and smashed Clay right in the face with the butt of it.

“Clay, Let me up right this instant, or I’m going to do a lot worse.”

Fenros growled and snapped the wolf's neck as he shoved it off. Slowly getting up to his knees while holding his injured arm to his side. He could feel the wolf's cursed venom coursing through him, causing him to sweat and burn trying to turn him, but his own blood fought back. He knew he would be fine, it wasn't the first time he was bitten by a werewolf. He shoved himself to his feet, "Ill be fine..." he said simply to Emiliah as he flexed his right hand, sending jolts of pain from his injured arm to the rest of his body, causing his adreniline to pump and lessen the pain just enough.

Varoth had stopped and hesitated, the man should have transformed by now, even with his presence there. But he was standing, not writhing in pain. He looked to the woman who had stood between him and the large man, but paid her no mention, as it was the man who he needed to kill. "Why aren't you turned yet human? " He asked but Fenros ignored the question and began to speak again in the old tounge. which caused Varoth to flinch. Giving him just enough time for Fenros to finish his incantation. "FIRE AT THE ALPHA!"

The ranged hunters in the circle turned their weapons and fired, arrows, bolts, and even a few bullets connected to the Alpha and caused him to howl in pain. Fenros then bolted from behind Emiliah with all his brute strength tackled the massive wolf to the ground. With Fenros so close he was able to land punches and gouges over the wolf, yet make it hard for Varoth to do anything back to him. "EMILIAH GET MY SWORD!"

Clay felt an explosion of pain across his face as Senna's axe came crashing down, it nearly through him off of her, nearly. He could tell that his nose was bleeding and that a gash had open up on his cheek. "Fuck'in Senna!" he growled, sliding so that he was now laying next to her, rather than on top of her. His hands grab instintivly at her arms, fighting to hold her down. "Don't you dare," He hissed, "We have to get out of here, now,"

There was a volly of arrows and bolts swishing through the air and into the werewolf, then a pause and Fenros went around her and right at the werewolf. She heard him call out to get his sword, the strange on that still burned, yet did not melt. She grab it in her hand, running, then walking towards Fenros. The last thing that Emiliah wanted to do was arm a potential threat. She took a deep breath, tossing the sword lightly to Fenros, all the while, positioning herself to take his life as soon as his swing fell on the Were.

Senna roughly broke her arm loose from Clay’s grip. She stood, taking note of the battle around them. Goddamn it. She missed everything thanks to clay, because he was too goddamn concerned about her. Either that, or he was just concerned about losing his meal ticket. She would like to think it’s the former, but knowing Clay it could easily be the latter.

She simply looked at the ground, shaking her head as she gripped the handle of her axe. She was restraining herself, if she didn’t she might very well just chop Clay’s head off, and If some unfortunate werewolf decided to mess with either of them, it’s likely they would be getting the axe.

While Fenros was wrestling the slowly weakening burning werewolf lord, he did manage to get a few good gashes from the werewolf, on his chest and his face. He did catch the sword [i]Barely[/] with his left hand and slammed the still burning blade downwards into the chest of Varoth. The Demon Lord howled in pain as the sword went through him and into the ground, pinning him to the forest floor.

He aimed it so close to his own body the heat was unbareable for himself as well, but he held it as it was (For he was growing tired from the loss of blood) and recited his last words, "אנכי מצוך Varoth , אדון שד של אנשי זאב , לחזור עד עמקי לעזאזל עם השטן , נפל בנו של הבוקר . כדי לא לחזור untill היום של חשבון נפש הסופי שבו השטן הוא שוחרר מן שרשראות שלו אל העולם , עבור millienia . כדי להיות מובס סופית על ידי מיכאל . וכך זה יהיה בשם ישו."

He slowly got up, his face and arms burned as he stumbled backwards and onto his back. As he did, Varoth howled even more as the holy fire burned him from the inside, causing a massive black cloud of smoke to rise up from it and suddenly shoot back to the ground. Silencing the massive wolf once and for all.

All the remaining wolves, now fearful that their Lord was killed, darted into the darkness of the forest, and away from the hunters. A roar of chearing erupted from the remaining hunters, while Fenros started to grow light headed, But not enough to pass out as he simply pulled himself into a sitting position.

Alltia came over and started to lick his wounds asking him, "Not your best fight...you got sloppy." Fenros simply said back to her, "Shutup..." Before pushing her away.

[Meiyuki]

_{A collab featuring @Ellion}

Medusa & Taran

Alexina left him in a large stone room on the ground floor of the castle, with a small window that showed a grassy clearning that turned into the forest. There were two beds and other furnature that made the whole thing seem a lot more homely and less...castelly. Taran didn't have much to put in the room, so even after he had unpacked all of his belongings, there wasn't much change in the room. But, he still felt very content, the euphoric feeling of the vow still running through his veins when he finally fell alseep that night.

It all came crashing down when he awoke to the smell of smoke in his room. Some how he had manged to set his blanket on fire. Taran immediately lept out of bed, trying to smother the blanket fire in itself. After the fire was put out, his adrenaline was rushing through him far too much to allow him to even think of sleep. Besides, now he was starting fire in his sleep, that did not make sleep a tempting option to say the least.

Instead of waiting around his room for morning, he decided to get up and wander about his new home. Despite it being well before dawn, the castle still seemed wide awake, with fires roaring in every fireplace and candles and torches fighting away the dark gloom of the hallways. He didn't run onto anyone however. He did find the kitchen and variouse other rooms that held an assortment of tools he couldn't even begin to describe or name. Finally he came to a library.

Taran had never known that there were that many books in the whole world and never in a single room, no matter the size. His village rarely was lucky enough to come across books to sale or to borrow and his parents only had religious books. Even those got dull after a while.

Taran didn't dare to take any of the tomes off of their selves, but his did run his finger across the titles, he could read some of them, but most seemed to be written in an unfamilar tongue.

"Dragon's tongue." Medusa suddenly spoke from behind Taran. "Lorelai's addition to the collection. They detail Demon Lords, something I doubt you're prepared for."

Taran jumped nearly a foot off the ground when Medusa spoke, he hadn't known anyone was in the room but himself. "D-dragon tongue Ma'am?" he said before he could stop himself. "I-I mean, sorry, I didn't mean to intrude...I just, couldn't sleep,"

"Not to worry Taran, I could use a diversion anyway." Medusa smiled and moved next to him facing the shelf. Her fingers traced the spines of some leather bound volumes fondly. "Dragon's Tongue is the language of demons, the Von'Strauss gift."

She sighed. "Enough about that though. What's troubling you?"

Taran understood less than half the words that Medusa spoke. But, he figured that if it was important, it would be explained to him at a later time. "Well," he said, shifting slightly. "I sort of... Set my blanket on fire while I ...slept. That's never happened before,"

"I see." Medusa suppressed a small laugh. It may have been cruel, but the thought of the boy leaping out of his flaming bed in the middle of the night was unfortunately amusing. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Do you have any suggestions on how to get it to stop?" He asked " I can't help but feel like the lack of sleep will lead to you having a problem with a sleepwalking ball of flame,"

"Well I wouldn't want that." She smiled and walked over to a different section of the library. "You've spent alot of time running from what you are, from what you can do."

Medusa pulled a small book from a shelf. "Pyromancy has a long history, and we hardly have the largest collection, but some powerful witches had your talent." She handed him the volume. "How can you hope to control a part of you that you can't even accept?"

Taran took the book that was offered. "I didn't know that what I could do could fill even one book," he said, flipping through the pages. There were a lot of complex diagrams and equations that made his head hurt just looking at them. "For the longest time, I had no idea that I could even do magic... I mostly just...hoped that I was crazy," he glanced down. "Did you always know you were a...a... Witch?"

"Yes, but I was fortunate. The Elders spoke to me when I was little, and imparted an understanding of what I was, and what I would become." She patted Taran's shoulder. "But not many are so lucky, and many squander their talents. Do not think you are lesser because of your ignorance, but think instead that you needs simply to catch up."

"Perform this for me, and I'll take you as an apprentice if you'd like." She moved towards the door of the library. "Go into the forest, and find that piece of yourself you've been hiding, speak to it. Not with words, but with your will. Make it a part of you, feel it's desire to make you whole. Whole, and powerful."

"Once that is done, I think you'll have little difficulty with control, and will be well on your way to true witchdom." With a final smile she left, leaving Taran to his thoughts.

"If...if that is what it takes Mistress, then I do it gladly, although I won't pretend I am not... Afraid," he said, biting his lip before watching her go. I can do this knowing in his heart, that the fear was not from danger he might encounter in the woods, the castle would keep him physically safe.

~mystic spirit animal journey ~

By the time Taran returned to the castle, the sun was well past noon. It was even later when he found Medusa in tHr library once again.

"Mistress," he said, bowing slightly. His voice was significantly more steady and his posture showed h wAs more sure of himself "I think, no, I know I am ready to continue my training under you ,"

Medusa smiled, pleased. "Yes, you are. It will not be easy." She had a small stack of books on basic magics waiting for Taran by the time he arrived back. "You are to read these, and perform a small spell from each discipline."

"We'll meet here every other day, and I'll answer any questions you may have." She looked at him, her eyes hard. "Your power is expressed in it's rawest form through destruction. Enemies haunt our woods and lands. I want you, as a testament to your cunning and power, to convince Alexina or Lorelai to take you along as she scours them from our home."

"Do you think you can complete these tasks?" She asked bluntly.

"I will not fail you Mistress, no matter what it takes,"

[agentmanatee]

Genoveve Boudicca

Genoveve's wounds had been grave indeed. And her body needed to recover. Her mind however was not left alone, as Yeris had yet to say her piece, "-and another thing, why would you risk our body for Laina? Do you want to die?" "N-no I just... I didn't want to see her get hurt and what if he killed her an-" "None of that matters if we are dead you ditzy whore! If you cared about us as much as you did that slut maybe we would already have killed that cunt Medu-", as Laina entered the room Yeris cursed herself... unlike Genoveve she was strong enough at the moment to monitor the room while her and Genoveve spoke. She felt an... idea coming along and a cruel feeling came over her, "Well Genoveve, guess who's here? Since your... indisposed I'll take this one.", before the weakened Genoveve could stop her Yeris had taken over her body again. She had her sit upright and look doe eyed and Laina, innocently covering her body with the sheet.

She looked into Laina's eyes as she entered the room, they were, with lack of a better word, innocent and submissive as she watched Laina... exactly how Yeris saw the girl. "O-oh... hello my love, wh-what is it you need~?, she loved manipulating Genovev's body and voice... she found it hilarious. "A-are you just here to check on me love? Or do you... need something?", Genoveve's body had been stripped to better let the badages she was wrapped in be put on, hence why Yeris had her weakly holding the sheat to herself. This was a chance to possibly manipulate Laina, and Yeris was not going to give that oppourtunity to a weakened Genoveve.

[Ellion]

Taran and Sheevi

The books that Medusa gave him were far more complex than anything Taran had ever had to read before. He'd spent most of the time since she had given him the books trying to decipher them, or even a paragraph of them. Taran already had a list of questions nearly as long as his arm and a head ache to go with it. On top of that, the sun outside his room had been mocking him. Taran never had to spend long periods of time inside before, it was making him feel antsy. So...taking one of the lighter books, he decided to venture outside to finish trying to read it. Only to crash face first into someone right outside his door. "Crap," he said, shaking his head and steadying himself on the wall. "I'm sorry, I ...didn't see you there,"

Heh, hey there. You ok? Despite the woman's calm and slightly worried demeanor, an obvious hint of playfulness settles in her eyes. She stares at the man while correcting her stature and awaits his response.

"Yeah, I am fine," He said with a little laugh. "Trust me, this doesn't even register on the 'list of things that have happened to me today,'" He looked at the woman again, she seemed very warm and welcoming, not that anyone he had met so far had been scary or unapproachable. "Sorry, I don't think we've met, I'm Taran, I just got here...well, last night,"

She gives a small giggle and smiles warmly. "It's not that much longer than I've been here, I only joined a few days ago..." She makes a point in looking the man up and down dubiously, obviously impressed by his figure.

Taran shifted uncomfortably under the woman's appraising gaze "Well, I mean, I've only met Medusa and Alexina and...um, a few others. But, it has been great so far," He said, shifting on his heals. "Medusa said I was supposed to find...well, you don't happen to be Loreali do you?" He asked with an awkward half grimace.

"Uh...no." She shifts her feet around with perturbed awkwardness. "My name is Sheevi...Sheevi Mekedo!" She says with an excited voice, a hint of nervousness in her tone. She extends a hand towards the man with a grin. "Nice to meet you!"

"It's nice to meet you as well," he said taking Sheevi's hand in his own. He held her hand a moment longer than strictly necessary before dropping it far to quickly.
"Well, Ah, I guess, I better go find the real Loreali or... Um, Alexina,"
He said. "I think Medusa wants me to help them...I am assuming burn things? But I might be wrong,"

She gives a strangely devious smile, a bit astray from someone of her character to have, as she quietly enjoys a private thought. "Yeah, burning things is fun, isn't it..." She realizes her peculiar slip up and quickly reverts back to a wide and happy smirk. "But I wouldn't know, worst I've burned is the top side of a pork chop!" She chuckles nervously.

"Burning things is not fun!" Taran said, a little exasperated "I ...set my blanket on fire this morning... But i've gotten much better at being able to select what to burn on purpose. Medusa has been amazing at helping me with that," He said, rather quickly "But, really, it was great to meet you, but I think I really must be going now," He said, but made no move to leave.

"Oh, I understand...a man as rugged and handsome as you must have scores of tasks to complete!" She said in a rather disappointed tone. A small wink is sent in Taran's direction as she bites her lip softly. "And scores of women too, heh."

"Um," said Taran, his face turning scarlet. "I...don't think...that...has anything to do with....anything. I am going now," he said, stepping around Sheevi and all but running out of the castle.

She continues staring forward, giggling to herself deviously. "You can run, but you can't hide.." , she states before continuing along her path, making sure to sway her hips in an alluring fashion.

[SillyGoy]

_{Collab featuring @Meiyuki}

Lorelai Von'Strauss & Elina Ruvina

Lorelai wandered through the castle gathering the supplies she'd need to renew the wards. She needed salts soaked in various substances known to please the infernal lords she was calling on to aid in the defense of the caste, rubies which were said to resonate with the sanguine impulses of the pit, and last but not least a large portion of her own blood.

She smiled wryly, at least she carried one of those wherever she went. She was also hoping to run into either Vespa or Elina, their mastery of blood made inscribing the complex sigils required for the binding trivial by comparison to using her own hand. Vespa was the usual one to aid her, for obvious reasons, but she'd been up late last night. Besides, Lorelai was hoping to pry at what might be bothering the silver haired Elina anyway.

Her footsteps eventually came to a halt outside Elina's door. She knocked firmly. "Elina, it's Lorelai, I was hoping for your assistance this morning."

For such a shy occupant, Elina's answer was quick. The door opened almost immediately after Lorelai's rapping, although the first eyes she saw were blue: that of Luna's, whose furry white head peeked around the corner and made a curious meow. However, the second pair of irises were crimson and unmistakably Elina's. The silver-haired witch took a moment to regard Lorelai, before pushing the door further to reveal her entire form. She was still dressed in her bed robes, and had a sleepy look about her.

"Lorelai?" her voice was soft - not quite a whisper, but faint in another way. "May I help you with something?"

"I was hoping you'd assist me with renewing the bindings laid into the castle." Lorelai favored the sleepy witch with a small smile. "Genoveve and Laina were kind enough to gather the reagents required last evening. Without proper sleep however, I fear my hand might be shaky. Would you mind?"

She waved her hand a bit. "It can of course wait until you've gone about your morning preparations."

"Oh," Elina visibly hesitated, and rubbed her forearm. Meanwhile, an uninterested Luna snuck back into her room. "Oh, well, I guess I could help with the wards. Please give me some time to finish my morning tea and dress properly for it."

"Meet me in the lounge outside the library when you're ready, and thank you." Lorelai flashed a somewhat sleepy grin and turned to leave.

Lorelai unpacked and began organizing her supplies once she arrived in one of the many spacious lounges scattered throughout the castle. She was currently seated in a high-backed leather armchair that was entirely to soft for her current state. Doing her best to shake off her fatigue she surveyed the one wall in the castle that remained unadorned.

Well, it seemed adorn. The grey stone wall was covered in fractal glyphs and sigils in dragon's tongue. Even with the magic diminished they still pulsed a deep red, in rhythm with her heartbeat. This was one of her finest works, and it would not have been possible without the wealth of lore Medusa had collected over the years. Or the Blood Moonstones consumed in it's creation, also provided by her mistress.

Once she'd sorted her supplies Lorelai leaned back in her chair and resolved to rest her eyes a bit until Elina arrived.

Luna was the first one to peek through the doorway, as usual. The cat always heralded the arrival of Elina as it always walked several paces in front of its master as a sort of vanguard even within the safety of Castle Bloodrose. The little creature gave a small, nondescript meow towards the powerful witch before making way for the ghostly figure that was its master. Elina was dressed in truly formal attire, corset and all, sporting black cloth, white frills, and blue ribbons. Her bearing was even more refined than her sister's - she walked like a queen, with her chin held up, even though he did not mean to. Her gait was graceful, and her aura was pleasant - yet, reserved.

Her red lips, stark against the rest of her pale skin, curved into a faint, polite smile as she approached. "Hello, Lorelai. What needs to be done?"

Lorelai's eyes fluttered open and fell on Elina. She considered the difference between their attire. While Elina was dressed gorgeously, appropriate for any and all ballroom affairs, Lorelai sat in her traveling leathers. Lorelai couldn't even remember the last time she'd had a reason to dress up, other than for Vespa, and that was usually her undergarments. Perhaps she'd take a leaf from Elina's book and dress extravagantly once in awhile for no perceivable reason at all. Then again, the Ruvinas were beautiful young witches, and she was an old nightmare with a youthful form, maybe it was better if she didn't try to play the former.

"Ah, Elina, no need to be so formal. Although you look lovely as always." She sat up yawning. "If you wouldn't mind I think I need some coffee before we continue."

She gestured to a chair nearby. "Please, keep me company lest I fall asleep again." Sousiel, ever the anticipator of her mistress' needs, brought Lorelai a steaming cup. "I'd like you to ensure some ritual blood remains in highly complex sigils long enough for me to perform some spellwork. Also if you'd manage the other reagents while I handle the will-work I could complete this ritual with minimal difficulty." a bald faced lie, but it would be relatively easy with her aid.

Lorelai took a sip and smiled. "So, what's new in the exciting life of Elina Ruvina hm?"

Elina gratefully took the offered seat, bowing her head slightly in thanks as she sat. Luna then immediately jumped on her lap, and soon enough, the cat was being cradled, spoiled in its master's arms. "Nothing much," Elina replied, "unless you count yesterday. Running away from werewolves and all." It was rather clear from the tone of her voice that she wasn't in the mood for small talk, but whether from a distaste of her own powers or social anxiety, not even she herself knew. "What needs to be done?"

"Renewing the pact that ensure the castle remains safe." Lorelai sighed. "Is something bothering you Elina?"

"Your sister worries about you. Sometimes too much I think, but you have seemed unhappy of late." Lorelai looked at Elina, smiling softly. "I think you're a wonderful young woman, and seeing you so out of sorts pains me. I wish you'd share whatever burdens you so with me. Whatever you tell me will stay between us, I promise."

This sort of interrogation was exactly what Elina had tried to avoid by discussing business first, but her brusque way of doing so evidently appeared to have backfired. She held her personal issues dearly, almost jealously, private, and the silver-haired witch would only trust her sister with them. Oh yes, Elina had been a member of the Coven now for quite some time, but it seemed to her that she never developed friendships with the others, and they turned out to be mere acquaintances. So it pained her quite a bit when she saw Vespa conversing happily with Alexina, finding love in Lorelai, and becoming respected by everyone else. Of course, she would never, ever have admitted this.

"I'm fine," she said. Her mask of lies was recently untried, but it was more or less adequate, especially as she smiled. "I'm just prone to a bit of melancholy, that's all. You're right about Vespa - she really does worry too much about me. I assure you, though - I am quite fine."

She breathed in deeply, shoring up her composure. "Now then, what exactly needs working on? Are we strengthening specific wards or doing the entire collection? I will have to," she gestured with her hand, pausing, "prepare the appropriate sacrifices in either case."

In her fatigued state Lorelai almost considered pressing the issue. She had an eye for pain, and while Elina's face betrayed nothing, her eyes didn't quite match. A witch's, or a woman's, problems were ultimately their own however. While she wished Elina would accept Lorelai's outstretched offering of aid, she couldn't force her to.

She didn't have to keep her frustration to herself either though. "Whenever you decide to talk to me, feel free. I'll be here a long time I imagine."

"But enough of that. We're essentially rebinding the entire matrix." Standing she gestured to the wall. "This manages all of the pacts and sub pacts that compose our defenses. It also provides the power to each. This will be no small task, but you'll measure up to it I'm sure."

She quickly finished her coffee. "Sousiel, clear the area."

Elina stood up, and walked to the wall. Slowly, she reached up to feel the many grooves upon its surface. Her fingertips tingled as her magic brushed against that of the Castle's. A warmth began to seep into her limbs as her hand lingered there, and this alien feeling was stirring up the most raucous thoughts within her mind, all involving blood, domination and blades. The most disturbing mental image was her about to be taken - raped - by a sort of minotaur, until the Castle remembered that she, in fact, was a member of the Coven, and promptly withdrew its probing tentacle from her mind.

"What power," Elina whispered, more than just a little shaken. "What terrible power," she said again, in the lowest tone she could manage, before turning to Lorelai. "I will need... a stag. A fine one that has duelled against many other bucks and won, and mated with plenty of doe. If its fur is white, then much better. Any powerful creature that could symbolize strength, determination, and domination would do, but I don't think there are any lions nearby. Ah, bears would do fine as well. Of course, a sickly one wouldn't do."

That she was even able to be this eloquent came as a surprise to Elina. She was only just beginning to comprehend how the Castle willingly - if it even had its own consciousness, and at this point she was convinced it was so - and purposely violated her sacred privacy. A flurry of emotions stirred within her chest, but outwardly she was as composed as ever. There was anger at the wards and seals, but this died down to a feeling of helplessness. The protective magicks of Castle Bloodrose were inscribed and ratified in that most primitive of languages where words were understood by their intent as opposed to their literary meaning - Dragon Tongue. So what was she expecting?

Another emotion was disgust, mainly at herself. She still did not fully understand the gravity of it all, but the image was so clear in her head: thrown to the ground in the nighttime forest by a bipedal monstrosity, her clothes ripped apart by savage claws that even opened wounds; the beast spreading her legs open, and she moaned, for the love of God! She wanted it to take her!

Her fingers tingled again. Immediately, she withdrew her hand from the wall. Her face was unmistakably flushed with an incredible blush. She cursed herself for not being able to look at Lorelai in the face.

The humiliated sigh that escaped her lips was a deep one.

"Sousiel, bring the stag Alexina retrieved last week in." With a bow Sousiel set of as soon as she'd finished moving the furniture away from the wall.

Once Sousiel was gone Lorelai turned to Elina. "I don't recommend touching it, I'm sorry for not warning you."

She walked up and laid her palm on the wall. Rather than violation, the twisted power laid there by her own hand called to her. It spoke to that dark part of her, the one that dreamed of blood and bone. She stood in a field surrounded by twisted corpses, around her squatted her demonic servitors feasting happily on the flesh of the fallen. It felt good, that white hot rage, the devastation, so much untapped power. It whispered to her to unfetter herself, to let out the pain and rage, and to watch the world burn beneath her.

She shivered and pulled her hand away. These weren't thoughts she wanted, but harbored deep in her heart anyway. They'd stay there as long as she had will enough to keep them there.

"It's disgusting isn't it?" She sighed. "The twisted dreams of the Adversary?"

Elina had picked up Luna again, and the cat was having a fine time burying its head into her elbow. "The Adversary?"

"The Lord of Illusions, the church calls him Satan." She took a deep breath, centering herself again. "Bound here, in part anyway. Inscribed into the walls with my own blood. I often wonder how disgusting that makes me."

She stared with wide eyes. "You bound the Devil into the castle where we eat, sleep and bathe?" Roused from its master's fearful tone, Luna looked up and meowed inquisitively. Elina stroked the cat till it settled down again.

Lorelai arched an eyebrow at Elina. "You haven't felt him until now. That is because I also blinded him." She gestured to the wall. "Here you can feel his twisted dreams, but I've no interest in controlling the Devil, as you say, rather harnessing his power."

She laughed wryly. "I'm not quite up to the task of binding the whole of the Betrayer to my will anyway. I'm evidently only black souled enough to manage this."

Elina gulped. This reminder that Lorelai was entirely leagues beyond her, was a forceful and unwelcome one, so she settled upon bringing up a topic that was only slightly less distasteful.

"So what I saw, and what you saw, were Lucifer's dreams? Odd," she said. "Have you read the Book of Sirius? Oh no, the only extant copy is within my family's castle. It was considered to be the most blasphemous work ever presented to the council at Nikaea and so it never got into the church's current version of their Holy Book. Somehow, somebody managed to save a copy when the scrolls were burned and it ended up in Castle Ruvina. It was written by a very powerful magician, so very long ago."

"He walked with the Devil here on earth, and approached Lucifer not asking for power, but for answers. Essentially, the magician interviewed him as they walked across the desert sands. Anyway, the whole book made me think of the Devil as a tragic character who longed to be in Heaven again, and wished to atone for his sins. But you know what?"

She glared at the wall, and her voice rose to an uncharacteristic choler. It was loud, even. "I'm sure now that it was just propaganda. This wall gave me the most horrible vision, Lorelai! I cannot even begin to describe how disgusted it made me feel."

Lorelai nodded. "I'm truly sorry for that Elina. What I know of the Devil comes from my own pilgrimages into the inferno, and the notes left behind by Solomon which I actually left in the library when I arrived if you'd like to read them."

"As for a tragic figure, I suppose I can see it. We don't always get to choose what we are, and our mistakes can't be erased. I doubt he ever wanted to be the way he is now, and long has lost the power to change." Lorelai smiled sadly. "Hope flees only when one can no longer see beyond their current situation, and no longer can reach out for help."

"Well," Elina sighed, still feeling rather hyper. "If he can try to rape me in my own mind and be so chummy about it, then maybe he can go to Hell, and to the abyss with him and his hopes and dreams. Oh wait."

And at that, she giggled. It was at her own joke, but it was the very first time Lorelai saw the silver-haired laugh in front of her.

"Sorry," Elina said, recovering her elegant bearing with ease. "That was unbecoming."

"Not at all. I rather enjoyed the sound, I'll just have to figure out how to make it happen again." She grinned. "And you're quite right about Satan, fuck him."

Sousiel finally returned with the stag, it was a huge beast. Gleaming white in the rays of the sun filtering in through the windows, its rack curled nearly to the top of the room. "One blood sacrifice mistress, would you like me to prepare your tonic?"

Turning to Sousiel. "Yes please. Take your time Elina, I need to mentally prepare for what is to come anyway."

Elina nodded. So the time had come, and she was feeling more than just a little nervous. Maybe it was because the creature that stood near the doorway was taller than her even without the horns, or maybe it was the trusting way the stag looked at her, its eventual murderer. Either way, she startled herself with the clarity of her own mind as she easily reached to her waist and pulled out a dagger. The torchlight made the exquisite steel gleam the moment the weapon left its sheath.

She opened her arms, as if beckoning it to an embrace. "Come here," she said. Elina could feel Lorelai's eyes on her the entire time.

The whole room was silent as the stag made its way towards Elina, crossing the area from end to end. Its gait was slow and somewhat awkward, almost doe-like to the witch, and instead of walking with its head held high, it did so with its snout mostly pointed to the ground. Why was this so? Perhaps she had imbued a little too much magic into her words when she had told it to come over.

The stag stopped about three paces away from her, and Elina let her hands drop to her sides. The stag looked up at her shyly, and snorted with animalistic respect. Elina blinked, and began to pace around it. It was easily taller than her by a few inches, a veritable giant of a deer. Its fur shone healthily, and it had been moving with a restrained strength the entire time. And it would have been holding itself with a regal bearing had the witch not poisoned its mind with fear and temptation. And yet, it was still a majestic beast.

Elina Ruvina wondered if it would look just as proud when it was lying on the cold, stone floor in a pool of its own blood. She gulped. She had circumambulated fully, and the wooden handle of her dagger felt oppressively solid to her. She had to do it now, or Lorelai would think of her as a coward and a failure and undeserving and pitiful and an idiot.

Lorelai walked up to the stag. She sensed Elina's hesitation, and found it endearing if impractical. Maybe she could give her another way to look at this. "You've been king of the woods for a while haven't you?"

"This is Elina, she's a sister in my Coven. She needs something from you today." Lorelai gestured for Elina to come around. "She needs your power to help me protect our little family."

Lorelai patted the mighty stag's head. "You understand that don't you? You've sired quite a few fawns in your day I'm sure." She gestured towards Elina as if to present her. "She's a good soul, and I'm sure she'll honor your sacrifice."

"Sorry, I just wanted to explain why this had to be done, to give him the honor he deserves. There's no weakness in that." She stepped away from the beast.

Elina bowed towards Lorelai, her expression somewhat tense, despite her efforts not to appear so. "Thank you," she said, "but please, don't do that again."

She looked towards the stag. "Raise your head," and it did so, exposing the lighter fur of its neck. From its superior point of view, it was looking at her, almost expectantly. Elina reached out and caressed its cheek. Her smile was a pained one as she returned its simple, naive stare.

"Don't move, okay?"

Then, with other other hand, she plunged the dagger square into its throat.

It did not squeal, and it did not buckle, not at first. It instead, closed its eyes, trying its best to follow Elina's directive. The cut was deep, and her thumb was brushing its rapidly redding fur. Thick, rich blood, almost maroon in color, flowed down her hand to soak into the cuffs of her elaborate dress. The stag gurgled, and its legs twitched as respiration suddenly became an awful lot harder for it.

Then it opened its eyes, and looked at Elina. And it broke her heart.

It drove her to tears.

And yet, somehow, he found enough will and clarity of purpose to retrieve the dagger and plunge it again in almost the same area. With tears streaming down her face, she heard something of a cough or a scream - perhaps a mixture of both, she did not know. The hand that was caressing the deer's cheek suddenly found itself pushed away as its chin impacted her wrist. Somehow, the stag's snout remained stubbornly in the air, even trying to twitch itself upwards. Blood was flowing freely now, in a constant river that turned the animal's entire chest crimson and which sprayed all over the silver-haired witch.

The stag closed its eyes, once, twice, before looking at Elina again, this time almost at eye level.

"Don't look at me like that!" she pleaded, as she retrieved the dagger from the new wound. "Please!"

Perhaps it was no longer thinking straight. Maybe, with the shock of injury, the stag was no longer capable of hearing her at this point. Either way, with its hooves beginning to slip as its body began to go limp, it continued hold its stare with Elina. The witch saw nothing but trust, and loyalty, and contentment and it disgusted her to no end.

So she stabbed it in the same eye. The blade easily burst the organ and reached the brain further in. There was a loud noise as the once proud animal fell, and a smaller one as Elina dropped to her knees. The dagger was still firmly lodged into the skull of the animal - she had lost her grip.

Her breathing was haggard, and her usually serene face was fixed with one of panic. There was a massive pain in her chest and she brought her blood soaked hand to it, yet no thoughts or actions could ease the pounding drumbeat of her aching heart. She looked away from everything.

Like the blood flowing into the grooves of the castle's stonework, the energy of the stag's death was pouring into Elina's soul like a waterfall cascading down an abyss a thousand fathoms deep. Her crimson eyes suddenly seemed brighter, more healthy - but perhaps it was just a redoubled onset of tears. Yet, she did not sob. Elina Ruvina, undeserving of the title of Blood Witch of the Crescent Moon, was simply too dignified for that.

"I d-don't like killing," she stammered, not looking at Lorelai. "I- I'm n-not like you." She breathed in. "I'm n-not l-like you people. B-but, k-kings and..." her voice drifted away into incoherent muttering.

"Kings and Queens do what they want, the rest of us do as we must." Lorelai's voice was hard, and angry. "We're not so different, what manner of monster do you think I am that I would enjoy killing?"

"What do you imagine? Do you not think I weep inside for my victims? Why do you think I make offerings of my own body? My own blood? My own spirit!?" Her voice had risen throughout until she was nearly shouting from the top of her lungs. She breathed deeply, calming herself. Lorelai's voice was small as she continued. "We're not so different you and I. I don't want to kill, but if I'm to keep us all safe what choice do I have?"

"I hadn't imagined you'd think of me, of us, that way Elina. I'm sorry, you needn't worry about aiding me again after we finish this if you don't want to."

"No," Elina said, closing her eyes. "No." Luna was meowing fiercely at her, demanding an answer for something too complex for her feline mind to comprehend. Elina ignored the cat for once and stood up, shakily. She was still holding a hand to her aching chest, but somehow - surprising herself yet again - she found enough of herself to look at Lorelai dead in the eye.

"I," she began, "Am Elina Ruvina. I come," she paused, "from a long line of powerful witches. I..." she coughed. "I cannot bear to be a disappointment before my ancestors any longer. And before you, most of all. I will help you," she said, but even though she meant for her tone to be full of resolve, her hesitation was still palpable.

"I hate being weak," she said. "Please, let me help you. I don't want to... I don't want to be a failure anymore. I can do it. I've," she forced herself to look at the stag's corpse, "I've had enough of my escapism!"

"So please," she looked towards Lorelai again. "L-let me help you."

"There is no weakness in feeling pain, only in burying it." Lorelai smiled. "You're no failure, and I know you can do this. I wouldn't have asked otherwise."

"Witches are still human too, to think otherwise is to place entirely too high of expectations on yourself." She patted the girl's shoulder. "So cry as much as you need, and share your pain as you need, you're not alone. No one could face this alone."

Sousiel arrived with a small vial and handed it to Lorelai. "Now, if your preparations are complete we're nearly poised to begin."

It took some time for Elina to compose herself, and by the end of her weeping - which took only a short time, surprising herself yet again - she looked dreadfully tired. Her eyes were bloodshot and quite swollen. Yet, the rest of her was looking quite fine, save all the drying blood marring her dress. She was sitting on a chair, and had tried to get Luna up her lap, but the cat would simply not deign to ruin its pure white fur with icky deer blood. So instead it was sleeping peacefully in one corner.

"So," she began. Exhaustion was apparent in her voice. "Where do we inscribe the sigils and how do we begin the spells? I know next to nothing about that wall."

Lorelai laid out four small braziers, each filled with a different offering, before the wall. "You'll press my blood against the grooves carved into the wall already, but it must be perfect."

She struck a long match and kissed the flame to each of the braziers in turn, each one began to burn a different color - red, blue, purple, and finally a sickly green - once that was complete she pulled a chair to face center of the wall and took a seat. "I'll need you to ensure that the fires remain lit as well."

She drank the contents of the vial Sousiel had brought her. She grimaced as the foul liquid slid down her throat. Removing her ritual dagger she rolled up her sleeve. "Whatever you hear, whatever you see, remain calm. I'm here with you, and won't let anything happen ok?"

With that she opened her wrist, blood began flowing from her incision in steady rivulet. The cut also released a small tendril of black smoke, more proof of her demonic heritage, it coiled into the air at an almost sinister pace. The tonic Sousiel had brewed would ensure she didn't bleed out, but that didn't mean she didn't expect to get close to it.

"Whenever you're ready."

Elina promptly stood up and made her way towards Lorelai. Her expression was firmly stoic as she stood in front of the more powerful witch and let a hand run down from the inside of the latter's elbow down to her wrist, to let her fingers brush against the blood. When she withdrew her hand, Lorelai's blood, too, rose, as if tethered to Elina's fingertips. The blood witch stepped back until she had almost reached the wall, and was about to ask Lorelai if she was sure of this, but she decided that she'd had enough of hesitation for today.

So she drew more blood, and Lorelai's severed veins were more than willing to comply. Elina expertly split her five ropes of blood and tethered them to her other hand, making it appear that she was some sort of demonic puppet master, with Lorelai's wrist being her puppet.

She turned to the wall then, and studied its myriad grooves and sigils for a time. Then she stood at the very center, where the symbols all appeared to sprout from or perhaps converge into, and gingerly touched the middle rune with both of her hands. Elina then willed Lorelai's blood to fill the grooves. The resulting exponential mass movement of liquid reminded the young Ruvina of an illustration she saw once, in a book about agriculture and irrigation. Except here, the ditches were being filled with the blood of her friend.

Friend? Elina found some time and effort to contemplate upon that. Controlling blood like this was an easy task. Was Lorelai really her friend? Or were they still acquaintances? What did a friend even mean? Elina shook her head. She'd never had friends before. The people she met when she lived among the common folk didn't count, because she lied time and time again to get their shallow friendships, and she was thinking of how best to murder the best of them the entire time. Thank you, Mother.

"But anyway," she muttered. Time to focus on the task at hand.

Once the last groove was filled with her blood Lorelai instructed Elina to stand aside. "Do not look directly at the wall while I perform the spell, and do not let the fires stay out."

Time for the hard part. With so much of her blood laden in the right sigils the border between worlds was thin. Even now she could hear them whisper, the hordes that awaited beyond the brimstone veil.

Once Elina was safely to the side Lorelai began calling out in Dragon's Tongue. Guttural words that man should never know, much less speak, poured from her throat. She compelled the way to open, for contact to be made.

So it was. A small hole opened in the center of the wall as it seemed to fall into an endless abyss, then that hole widened slowly as more and more of the wall crumbled and joined the rest. As the gate to the inferno widened wails could be heard from the tortured souls within, dark thoughts assailed her as demons reached out to test her will, and through it all her chant continued.

The room darkened as the abyss yawned deeper and deeper, she caught small glimpses of landscapes bathed in fire or ice, twisted bodies sat impaled by spikes atop the great citadel of brass. Finally the room grew cold as her portal finally reached its destination, the deepest layer of the inferno.

She saw him there, the Betrayer, his maws chewing the screaming forms of traitors. One of his many faces turned towards her. It spoke in a voice composed of the rending of flesh and shattering of bone. "Lorelai Von'Strauss, come before me again. You seem tired, are you sure you're up to this dance again?"

It let out a hideous laugh. "Perhaps you'll simply offer me something this time, maybe that little doll there? I believe she's got a date with a minotaur coming yes?"

The fires were snuffed out, and the room began to melt.

Elina was shaking. She was holding Luna so close and so tightly that the cat was meowing in pain. She heard voices, many voices - some of them tempted her with promises of peace and pleasure, while others expressed nothing but a desire to kill and rape her, in that order. She was in the corner, eyes shut fiercely closed, and when the fires were snuffed, a strange sensation, like the world falling apart, came upon her. Fear set in, but the urge to do something was stronger.

The witch stood up from her crouched stance and risked a full turn, to look upon Lorelai.

"Lorelai!" she cried out. "Are you okay?"

Lorelai stood atop a mountain of broken bodies, each bore the face of a person she loved, or a person she cared about. Vespa's face looked up at her wherever her eyes fell, her glazed eyes burning an accusation into her mind. Medusa's face smiling, Alexina's disappointment, Elina's...

Elina! She was still here! Pushing the betrayer out of her mind wasn't easy, but her will was still strong. She built a staircase of bone and blood towards light.

Lorelai's eyes opened to the room again. It was beginning to twist, soon they'd both be in the abyss, and at the Betrayer's mercy. "Elina! The fires!"

Elina heard her voice and thought fast, but her movements were faster. Today was a day for surprises for her - she did not even know she could act with such swiftness. She threw her arms forward, hands open and her palms facing forward, before willing the stag's blood all over the four braziers, turning the ichor suddenly into oil, and setting the liquid alight. Red, blue, purple and green flames sputtered into life once more, but the witch accidentally stared into the center of the portal.

She felt a pain in her heart. No, it was not quite like the pain she felt when she killed the stag, but it hurt just as bad, and it clung fiercely to her chest. Her breath caught up in her throat for an instant as she saw the outline of a shadow forming against the backdrop of a clear, impossibly white sky, as if the entire heavens were nothing but the sun. The shadow coalesced into something solid in front of her, forming a shape that was unmistakably that of a hooded person's, whose hand, she found out, was extended towards her chest, to hold a dagger in place there.

It felt real and unreal at the same time. The room shifted between maddening scenes. She could hear Luna meowing crazily.

She felt the shadow speaking to her. It said, "I do not like being called a," but it would never finish the sentence, as the strength of the four braziers became too much, and the room regained its sanity. The illusions disappeared, and Elina could breathe normally again, and the dead deer's head was no longer looking her way. Elina was more confused than fearful at this point, and she was down on the ground, sitting on her rump.

"Lorelai?!" she cried out helplessly.

"Brilliant! It'll be over soon I promise." Lorelai resumed her chanting.
ting.

Her chest burned with white hot rage, she screamed her dominion in Dragon's Tongue. Words of binding, of tyranny, and ownership. Chains began to form on the figure beyond the portal, snaking their way up and around it's cyclopean mass. It screamed and struggled against them, but it was too late. Lorelai's will wound through the Betrayer's essence like coils of iron, and soon the very thought of opposing her made even the King of the inferno sick inside.

Finally it lowered its eyes, the first to look away, and with the sound of rushing air the portal snapped shut, revealing the wall once again. The glowing blood, imbedded into the wall now, was far brighter.

Lorelai's breath was ragged with fatigue, she'd spent too much of herself here and would be feeling it for quite sometime. Already tendrils of pain were working their way up her spine. "Elina...are you...ok?" She managed between labored breaths.

"I don't know!" Elina said, "But you aren't!"

The silver-haired witch, who by now looked thoroughly ragged, rushed to Lorelai's side. The demon binder was clearly out of it, paler now that she had lost blood, breathing haggardly from the ordeal she had just surmounted. Elina shook her head at Lorelai's audacity. She was pretty sure, or maybe she was crazy, that the woman actually told the Devil that he belonged to her.

What a crazy life this is, she thought.

Elina grabbed Lorelai by her shoulders, closed her eyes, and focused inward. She called upon a massive boon, one that was sure to exhaust what was left of Marcus' energy that roiled angrily within her soul. It had been festering there for some time, and that small part of his essence appeared to remember the indignity of its situation and the ultimate sin that had been committed against it. She toyed with it sometimes in her mind, but as she called it out from within the bowels of her heart, she reached out with two symbolic hands and crushed it entirely.

A deluge of energy came to flood her arms and legs. She tightened her grip on Lorelai's shoulders to the point where her nails were biting the woman's skin even through her clothing. Elina opened her eyes, and funneled all of this energy into Lorelai in the form of newborn blood and regenerated, invigorated tissue. Through her fingertips, Elina could feel the latter's weariness going away, but there was just too much energy, and the entry point was too small.

So she repositioned herself in front of Lorelai, leaned down, and kissed her. Later, she would see this as an entirely embarrassing affair, but content herself to the fact that she wasn't thinking straight during the time. What she could not give to Lorelai through her hands, her was giving with her lips and tongue. Elina wasn't blushing, probably because she had no idea what she was doing.

When the last drop of positive energy trickled down, Elina pulled away, glad to see Lorelai suddenly, well, healthy again, even if she was judging just by the massive blush alone.

Elina beamed. Perhaps she was still confused. "Now you're alright."

Lorelai was drifting off into a dazed sleep, wondering rather calmly if she was dying, when she felt a familiar sensation of lips on hers. Smiling she returned the kiss happily, and when her lower lip was brushed by Vespa's tongue she allowed it entry. She felt energy flowing into her restoring her damaged body. Dampening, even suppressing, the twisted energies she'd invited into her essence.

The sensation was euphoric, when did Vespa learn this trick. Opening her eyes Lorelai looked into...Elina's... Her eyes widened in shock as the silver-haired witch pulled away, a small thread of saliva still connecting their lips for a moment.

Heat immediately rushed into her face. "T-thank you." Elina was beaming at her happily. Even Vespa would be blushing at this point, what was going on?

Lorelai decided not to think about it. "You did an excellent job Elina. I think I may have over done it a bit?" She was having trouble not thinking about it.

Elina continued to remain calm. Her expression was that of a mild smile, and a slightly cocked head. That had been her first kiss, she thought, and she brought a finger to her lips to confirm a few doubts and to better remember those hazy feelings. She stared deeply into Lorelai's eyes, her cheeks becoming rosy only now. "Hey, Lorelai?"

Lorelai's head was swimming. Maybe she was still wounded, but she couldn't seem to properly order her thoughts, why would Elina kiss her? Her blush only deepened as she responded with a voice calmer than she felt. "Yes Elina?"

Lorelai found her shoulders taken again, as Elina leaned in once more. Her whispered breath was hot against her lips as the silver-haired witch said, "Keep this a secret?"

There was Elina again, scattering Lorelai's already confused thoughts into corners where she wasn't confident she'd ever find them. "As you wish." She didn't know how to explain this turn of events even if she had wanted to.

It was a mild brush of the lips at first, tentative, almost. Then she grew in confidence and Elina fully pressed her lips against Lorelai's once more. There wasn't much movement on her part, unlike the first time, and when the tongue came, it was Lorelai who initiated. For the virginal Ruvina, the feelings that stirred within her chest and flashed within her mind were curious little things, but were by no means unpleasant. She wanted to explore all of them, so she wrapped her arms around Lorelai and put more of her heart into the liplock, passionately pressing and twisting and dancing her tongue against her partner's own. She was embarrassed, but her curiosity was stronger. It was some time before it was sated and her confusion was gone, before she pulled back.

And she panicked. "Don't tell," she said. "Please don't tell anyone, especially not Vespa!"

As Elina pressed her lips to Lorelai's again her swirling thoughts found focus, just the wrong focus. She deepened the kiss at every opportunity, exploring the young witch's mouth without restraint. Lorelai was somewhat disappointed when it ended.

Eyes twinkling with equal parts lust and madness Lorelai replied. "Of course, but if could explain to me how this happened?"

"I, uh, was curious?" Elina flushed deeper, and put her hands over her chest. "And, I was putting too much energy into you but the entry point was too small. My hands - my hands weren't enough, you see? And then I remembered that blood magic could do things with intimacy so I just went and kissed you?"

She gulped. The witch felt like a cat that had been kicked around and been made fun of. As if in response to this thought, Luna came meowing at her ankles.

"Sorry I made you cheat on Vespa!!" she finally screamed, with her eyes shut closed.

Lorelai laughed, her voice was still sultry as the lust wasn't eager to leave her body or voice. "I'm sure Vespa would understand the first kiss at least, I doubt she'd be thrilled, but she'd understand. The second however I think you may have damned me with." She sighed. "Kisses are two way streets Elina, I wouldn't have let it happen if..." Lorelai trailed off.

Elina crouched down to pick up Luna. "Anyway, cheating is wrong," she said, her voice firmly resolute, but uncharacteristically shaky. "We shouldn't do that again! Okay? Promise."

"Of course, of that we agree." Lorelai attempted to stand, but failed miserably. While she felt no pain, which was miraculous, her body had become frail. "I don't suppose I could trouble you to help an old witch to her bed could I?"

"As much as I am loathe to touch you anywhere again, I guess it can't be helped, huh." Elina said sorry to her poor cat as she set her down again, and lifted up Lorelai with a small boon of strength from the sacrificed stag. As she carried the older witch in a humiliating bridal style, she searched the very bowels of her being for that spark of Marcus' soul, only to find that yes, it was gone forever, because she had used it to heal this demon binder in her arms and kiss her afterwards.

Change was a strange feeling. Perhaps it was because Elina had been raised in a castle where everything was more or less the same day by day, but she welcomed Marcus' absence with a resigned acceptance that was entirely foreign to her. Moving around with purpose, as opposed to her frequent, aimless walks in the forest, also felt good, somehow. She wondered if she was more confident about herself after her most recent trials. Perhaps not.

What a day, she thought. Her mind wasn't usually this scrambled, and she was sure she hadn't yet grasped the gravitas of everything that had happened, from killing the deer to Lorelai talking with the Devil himself, to kissing Lorelai. Or maybe, they were not such big events in the first place, and that she could actually do what had just occurred every day, and that life was simpler than she thought it was before. Maybe, if she could literally stare at Hell and come out still sane, then catching up to Vespa was not such an impossible notion.

Those were her thoughts as she gently laid Lorelai down on her bed and more or less tucked her in. Luna tried to jump up to join her but she was swiftly retrieved by its owner. "I'll make sure you'll get the care you need," she said. Her voice was no longer faint - it was stronger now, only slightly so, but the change was noticeable. Perhaps this ghost of a witch was slowly evolving into something more, into a wraith perhaps, to become a champion worthy of bearing her ancient name: Ruvina.

[Aerandir]

Fenros Digard

Emiliah Hazelbrush

Clay Hale

Emiliano Sabstiano Parisi

Emiliah allowed her self one tiny sigh of relief as the wolves vanished into the woods. The Hunters would have to hunt them down soon, but not tonight. The rest of the night was meant for resting the wounded and desposing of the infected. Sorry FenrosShe thought, knowing that if she spoke the words allowed, she'd never go through with it Nothing personal. She was standing less than a spears length away when she jabbed her spear at the man's back while he was distracted by the wolf.

Fenros! Alltia yelled as she noticed just as she raised her spear and jabbed to towards Fenros's back, Fenros had just enough time to jerk to his right, the spear slicing through his left ribs and leaving a nasty scar, but it didn't penitrate his back or lungs. Quickly wrapping his left arm around the shaft, then jerked to his left, pulling up on the head of the staff with his forearm and allowing his upper body to fall upon the shaft, ripping it from Emiliah's grip, as he rolled sideways and back to his feet barely. Adreniline was pumping through him again as he ignored the pain. His eyes fierce as he glared at Emiliah and turned her weapon over in his hands and aimed it back at her. He was going to tell her that it was not needed to kill him but his head was still swimming from the loss of blood. Though his wounds had begun to heal, at least the one from the werewolves. His left ribs hissed as the silver had touched his skin.

Emiliah instictivly went for the dagger at her waist. It wasn't long, a foot more or less, but it was the only wepon she still had on her. "Fenros," She said softly. "Don't make this harder than it needs to be. I"m sorry, but it has to be done," She kept her eyes trained on her spear, trying to find the fast in past it. "I say you have little more than a minutes before the wolf takes your mind. Don't you want to die a human? Rather than a monster?"

Alltia did not attack directly, but circled around, her hair on end, her teeth bare as she growled. As soon as she would be directly behind the woman she would pounce...no one tried to kill her Fenros.

Fenros eyes burned for a few moments before his shoulders relaxed and he realized that they didn't know of his curse/blessing, how ever you look at it. Bobby knew... and maybe one or two others. Of course she would try to kill him. Wincing at the pain of the burning ribs and his bones popping back into place thanks to the added werewolf venom in his blood.

The other hunters looked at the massive man in awe and fear, it was clear the werewolf blood was coarsing through his body as his wounds healed, but yet he stayed human... most would only last a few minutes before transformation...it already had been five.

He looked to Alltia and shook his head, "Alltia...No!"

Alltia popped her head up, her hair down and her ears up. "What?" confused that he was going to let the woman kill him or not even fight back. She backed off of Emiliah's back still growling at the woman, but she listened to Fenros.

He stood up straight and tossed the spear to the ground at Emiliah and looked her directly in the eyes and said slowly. "I am who I am... I wont turn... as I've always been....part werewolf."

Emiliah let out a grunt of pain as she was knocked down from behind from the white wolf. Her vision darkened for a moment as she felt an immense weight settle on her back, she scrambled for a moment trying to get the beast off of her. After a moment, she heard Fenros speak again
Is that supposed to make me feel better about you?" she growled, her breath coming out in heave pants as her lung struggled to fill up with air. Suddenly the weight was gone and Emiliah pushed herself back to her feet, grabbing her spear on the way up. "In my opinion, that makes you even more dangerous," She didn't attack, but she didn't lower her spear, at best she felt...conflicted about her next move.

On the other side of the woods, a more deadly battle was possibly about to begin. Clay shifted up, wiping the blood from his eye. "I'm sorry that I ruined your little suicidal killing spree Sen, but you would have died. And don't pretend otherwise. You should be thanking me and ...whoever shot that wolf" he said, gestering to the fallen Were that was half back to human form.

Emiliano had climbed down his perch once Fenros had killed their Alpha and the wolves had dispersed. He took a look at his own handiwork, the now partially returned to its human form... disgusting. He sort of wanted to examine his kill... but a more pressing issue guided him now. He saw Clay and Senna, Clay sitting on Senna before kneeling. Unfourtanetly as much as he wanted to confront them, hearing the biggest baddest hunter in the clearing admit to being a werwolf, Emiliah attacking him and all this, Emiliano raised his rifle. Though he had dropped from the tree he was still in the shadows of the underbrush, and quietly walked out before addressing the hunter, "Fenros... is this true? You are part beast eh?", his musket was aimed for the back of his head, the cross hanging from its barrel and a silver bullet wadded and stuffed inside, ready to be fired. "I may not be the greatest Hunter Fenros, but I was always good at shooting. I use to nail Pigeons from over 200 yards away... now please explain why I don't need to bury a silver bullet as deep in your skull as far as it can go?"

Fenros closed his eyes at Emiliah's words, As he tried to think of a way to answer, Emiliano snuck up behind him and aimed his weapon, thanks to Alltia who alerted him mentally, before Emiliano spoke. He grew slightly irriated that these hunters would suddenly turn on them even though he just killed Varoth at almost the cost of his own life. But he remained calm as he answered looking back, "Because with out me Varoth would have killed you all."

He looked back to Emiliah and continued, "The reasons you've heard about my family soo much is because we were all part werewolves. My Great Great Great Great Grandfather was bitten on a hunt, and thanks to the priesthood of which I hold now, he was able to keep his sanity. That extra strength from the cursed blood we used to hunt down hundreds of witches and werewolves and other fowl creatures of the night."

He held his side which was still burning from Emiliah's attack."Because it's so dilluted I am immune to werewolves bite now, though I cant and never was able to turn myself. So you have nothing to worry."

Emiliah allowed a couple of seconds to pass before taking another step closer to Fenros, pointing her spear tip up towards the sky. "Alright then," she said, her voice low. "If you tell me that Bobby knew about this....unnatural part of you and was...okay with it, then I won't kill you here," She took a final step forward so that they were standing chest to chest and she was forced to look up to meet his eyes. "But give me one reason to doubt you, and you are dead, got it?"

Slowly, almost imperceptibly at first, Emiliano lowered his rifle, cocking one eybrow at Fenros before shrugging, "Same as the little las says Fenros. Don't trip up, like I said, pigeons at 200 yards... with a sling.", with that he moved to hold his musket under one arm, before turning and making his way to the heap that was Clay and Senna, smiling down at them. "Well, good to see you two here. Oh yea, that guy,", he said, pointing to the wolf he shot, now basically a naked human with a hole in his head, "I'm the Guardian angel you have to thank for that... by the way Clay, how's she doin? From far off she didn't look to great...", he was waiting for his 'friend' to stand up and address him to his face.

"I think she'll live, unfortunately," Said Clay, standing back up, it was then he recognized the man who had saved him and nice partner. "Well, if it isn't the guy from the tavern with the free ale," Clay dusted a bit of dirt off of his pants. "Don't tell me, it was you who saved us, I don't think I could stand the shame,"

Fenros looked down at petite hunter that walked up to him, standing chest to chest. He respected her for her lack of fear of a potential threat, for all he could have said, it could have been a lie. He stared back at her in the eyes, as she said she wouldn't kill him if Bobby knew. But if she doubted him she would kill him. Big words from a girl who just got disarmed by a wounded man and wolf. But he blinked once as Emiliano also spoke, agreeing with the woman, and claiming he managed to kill a pigeon at two hundred yards, with a sling. Raising his eyebrow as he didn't believe him, as that was just too far with a normal sling. But he got what he was trying to say.

He glanced back to Emiliah, taking adeep breath as he looked down at the young woman, "Yes he knew... he was my fathers best friend long before I was born, and knew of it well before they were friends.If he thought I was dangerous he would have never let me hunt with you." he said softly.

Emiliah let out a breath of exasperation. " Well, I guess we better head back to town," a not so warm smile crossed her face. "You first, I'll watch your back," . All the while, she tried to keep an eye on the sneaky wolf creature.

Emiliano made a hollow smile at the incredibly haughty man in front of him, "Well, looks like you'll have to stand the shame I guess... seeing as it was me who saved you... though it was mainly for Senna.", he smirked antagonizingly before acting as if he had just remembered something, "Actually, that reminds me, here,", he appeared to reach into his pocket before grabbing his musket in both hands and bringing the butt of it straight into the side of Clay's nose, with intent to break. He exhaled as if having just releived stress, letting the musket now swing freely on its strap, That was for your rude accosting at the bar. Now,, he very gingerly moved to pick up Senna, carefully picking her up, " Petty scruples aside, I do believe she needs a healers attentions no?"

Fenros shook his head as he moved over to the girls, Who, after hearing what he was coward a little at first, but were a little more trusting of the tall hunter. Kneeling down he said, "Don't worry these hunters will take you back to your father....Do you know what happened to your mother?"

The youngest, who was ten, shook her head, "She dissapeared into the woods to get the wolves to follow her....we heard her scream...." She started to cry again. Fenros lowered his head, not knowing what to say. After a moment, "You will see her again... I promise. She will always look out for you in heavan. Just remember that. " The two girls nodded before he stood back up and walked back to his sword, the oil had finally burned up and left his blade unusually cool to others who examanded it. He picked it up and winced as he lifted it over his shoulder, the wound Emiliah gave him still open. He reached into a satchel and pulled out a white cloth which he wrapped around his chest and over his wound, cinching it tight to stop the bleeding. He glanced Emiliah, before walking passed Emiliano, Clay and Senna back towards the town.

Alltia flanked him on his left, though a few feet away and kept looking back at Emiliah, "You should have let me at least bite her....it would have taught her a lesson."

He looked down at her and said, "I doubt she or the hunters would have been more willing to listen if I let you have at her..."

Alltia looked up at Fenros then back at Emiliah, Growling as she bore her teeth. "We've could have taken them"

"Hush Alltia..." He grunted as he held his wound that still burned.

Clay let out a growl of pain as he felt the butt of the rifle hit nose. He didn't think it was broken, but he was too angry to care much at the moment. "Mother Fucker," he growled. The blood from his nose mixing with the blood from the cut on his head. "You best put her down, right now," Clay's fist clenched and his eyes read You best start running, fast .