OTA

[miss_ives]

Vanessa had always had sharp instincts, and had long since learned to follow them. That night, as she walked home after dark, there was that odd pinprick on the back of her neck. Someone was watching. And as it lingered, she trusted that she wasn't simply being watched, but actually followed.

Her heart beat a little faster as she picked up the pace, cursing the fact that she was far from any busier street.

London, her home, the city she knew and loved, suddenly felt like a strange, dark, dangerous place. The lampposts felt less efficient than normal, and her steps on the pavement sounded louder than they ought to. She glanced back and saw three men a few yards behind her, hardly more than dark figures, doing nothing to hide themselves.

When she turned into the next street over and they were still following, her mind was made up. She stopped walking and turned around, a forbidding look on her pale features.

The three men slowed their steps but eventually came into clearer view, stopping a few feet from her. They were even paler than her, with sunken, abnormally clear eyes, and they felt wrong to her. Not, she reflected, unlike Mina had.

"What do you want with me?" she demanded.

They shared a look, and the one in the middle replied, "We don't want anything with you. We're not allowed. Our Master, however..."

Their Master. Mina had used that word as well. "Where is he?"

"Do you want to meet him?" the same one offered, stepping slowly nearer Vanessa.


((Feel free to stumble across Vanessa having a chat in a dark street with some vampires, Penny Dreadful style! They'll probably attack you if you try to jump in and get her away from them. Good times!))

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[miss_ives]

"Wait," Vanessa told him, before he was even done speaking. She walked over to him. "If you come across Mina... she is fair, in every way." Both blonde and beautiful, and most importantly, not to be harmed, hence her telling Yves about her.

[yves]

Yves raised a brow, wondering if she warned him so he might protect her from others- Or because she feared what he might do himself. He did have a reputation after all, in some circles. Either way, he had no interest in this Mina- At least, not outside of what she meant to Vanessa. For that knowledge alone, however, he'd take great care.

Silent, he nodded his understanding.

[miss_ives]

Vanessa nodded in reply, grateful for his understanding, and turned once more to the building. She squared her shoulders, then walked over to the large door as Yves slipped down the side of the building. She gave him a few more seconds, and herself as well, to compose herself and steady her fear, then slapped her hand three times on the huge metal door, the only appropriate knock for a building of this size.

Ten seconds or so later, it was slid open, and the vampire from earlier peered at Vanessa curiously, then stepped aside. "The Master will be so pleased."

Despite the unease stiffening her spine, Vanessa walked into the warehouse.

[yves]

Watching her vanish inside, Yves stalked around to the back, moving slow and observing everything. He could see a few of the windows near the roof were currently open, and he considered his options for a moment before finding a shadowed wall and beginning to climb. Honestly, this was all a bit beneath him- What was he even doing here.

Huffing to himself, he managed to drag himself to a window. A peek inside showed the space below was empty, but he could hear voices nearby and moved with caution and grace as he slipped inside.

[miss_ives]

"What does your Master want with me?" Vanessa asked, striving to show none of the anxiety she felt as the door closed behind her.

"That's for him to tell you, miss," the vampire replied, gesturing for her to follow him.

More vampires were drawing near; their attention was clearly on her, for all that none of them came close. The only one near enough to touch her was leading her farther into the warehouse. She looked at their faces, all of them. They were all sorts, all ages and genders, all skin colours but all of them paler than they ought to be, almost sickly, their eyes sunken. And none of them were who she hoped to see.

"Is Mina here?" she asked, looking back at the vampire she was following.

"The Master will have all your answers."

That was when she saw the first body. A young woman, drained of blood, lying on the ground. And there were more corpses, scattered around the warehouse. Vanessa's breath caught in her throat.

[yves]

Yves could hear voices through te floor, but hesitated to get closer just yet. No doubt the vampires would smell him, but a spell with the right amount of stink would help. Sandalwood was very good at confusing noses, he'd found.

He didn't depend heavily on his fae abilities often, but soon enough he was invisible, and a strong scent of sandalwood and a heavy musk filled the warehouse, making it easier for him to creep down and keep an eye on things.

[miss_ives]

The vampire leading Vanessa on stopped walking, frowning, a few seconds before she noticed the new scent. She slowed to a halt as well, confused. Was this Yves?

"So you haven't come alone," the vampire remarked. "Find the intruders!" he snapped at the others, who reluctantly broke off to search the warehouse. The vampire stepped closer to Vanessa, a little too close for comfort. "It won't change anything. The Master will have you."

"Tell me where Mina is," Vanessa retorted, glaring at him, her heart thudding against her chest.

[yves]

Yves moved carefully as they searched, every step silent, every move cautious.

Slowly he made his way to Vanessa, still unseen as he rolled his sleeve up and once again summoned pure sunlight, the shimmer of it fracturing the illusion around him that kept him unseen. This time he didn't throw it though- Instead, he pulled a dagger from his pocket, dragging the blade through the light. The blade caused the light to bounce and reflect, burning any of the creatures it hit, but when it was done the blade itself was pure light.

"I don't think he knows," the fae drawled.

[miss_ives]

There was such comfort in hearing Yves's familiar voice, and when Vanessa glanced at him, he was striking, a pale figure in dark clothes holding a blade of light. A Knight of Swords.

The moment was ended when several of the vampires launched themselves at Yves, completely ignoring Vanessa in their violent attack.

[yves]

Lovely, more fighting. Scowling, Yves swung the blade without hesitation, striking the first to get too near across the cheek, then slamming the blade hard right through the chest of the next. He was graceful, and the damage he dealt was nearly surgical in its precision.

"Call your idiots off, unless you want to watch me remove their heads one by one," the fae snarled, turning the dagger over in his palm and swiping it gracefully through the air. The action elongated the blade of light, leaving it less a dagger and more a rapier as he pointed it towards the next attacker.

[miss_ives]

Instead of putting them off, the threat made the vampires attempt to overwhelm him with numbers. Vanessa stepped in the path of some of them, counting on their reluctance to harm her to give Yves a more manageable number to deal with.

And indeed, the vampire who had been leading her shouted, "Don't harm her!", right when one of them snarled at her.

[yves]

It was a lot, and Yves was a bit rusty. One vampire managed to claw at him, ripping his shirt and leaving angry red lines of blood down his shoulder. Yves didn't react though, he just swung, moving and swinging as he fought them off.

One by one they dropped, and by the time the ones Vanessa had thankfully stalled came towards him, the fae was looking a bit worse the wear.

[miss_ives]

Vanessa had total confidence in Yves's abilities, and besides, there was little she could have done at that stage. Using the verbis diablo was always an absolute last resort, and it was very much not something she wanted to ever have to do, at all, even less so in front of Yves. It was too dark a part of her, and always took her a step closer to being a Nightcomer.

And Daywalker magic, of course, was useless in this situation.

Instead, she started to go through the bodies, heart beating hard every time she saw long, blonde hair. But it was never Mina.

And then, suddenly, she found herself face to face with what she had no doubt was the Master so talked about by the human-looking vampires. This one would be called humanoid at best. It was naked, and entirely hairless, its skin pale and eyes blood-red. Its long fingers ended in sharp claws, and its mouth was full of fangs. It drew itself up in front of Vanessa and appeared to watch her curiously.

"Yesss," it hissed in a rumble of a voice. "You are she."

[yves]

Yves tried to keep one eye on her but it was no easy task, by the time his last attacker fell he'd lost track, and he took a moment to catch his breath (and stop some of the bleeding) before looking around. He didn't know what the hell that thing was, but he had doubts that it just wanted to sit and chat with her over tea.

"Vanessa!" he called out, leaning hard on his sword. Not a command, not an instruction of any sort. Just her name- To make sure she knew he was still here. ...Perhaps to make sure she was still here too.

[miss_ives]

Vanessa gulped, heartened for hearing Yves' voice. He did not sound in distress, and she did not dare look away from the creature in front of her. "Where is Mina?" she demanded of it.

"You've come for her," it replied, curiously. It seemed to have no more eyes for Yves than she did, entirely focused on her as she was on it. "I can reunite you."

[yves]

"In what realm?" Yves asked dryly, not believing the creature for a moment.

[miss_ives]

"This is the only realm that matters," the creature told Vanessa, his voice feeling like sandpaper sliding against her skin. Finally, it looked over at Yves. "You should not have brought him."

Its attention now firmly on the Fae, it stalked around Vanessa and towards him.

[yves]

Yves was still looking worn out and leaning on his sword, but he pushed his sleeve up again, revealing the symbols there once more.

"I wouldn't come any closer," he warned.

[miss_ives]

"Do you know what I am?" the creature asked, and did not show any hesitation in his steadfast approach. "You do not scare me, Fae."

Vanessa watched with wide eyes, barely breathing at all.

[yves]

"Oh, I let go of my fae ways a very long time ago," Yves assured the other creature, running his fingers over the symbols as he spoke. "And while I'm not sure what you are, exactly, I'm certain I'll find your autopsy deeply enlightening. It's been forever since I picked apart something new."

His sword shone brighter then, growing larger until it became a full-blown broadsword. Yves didn't struggle to lift it though, moving with expert precision despite years of avoiding combat like this.

[miss_ives]

The creature's lips bared rows of fangs in an eerie grin, and it moved with lethal grace and impressive speed into an attack on the Fae, meaning to use its speed to evade the sword and get in close enough to rip his head off and gorge on his blood.

[yves]

The fae was graceful, leaning out of attacks and swinging again, not bothered by how many times he missed. Missing wasn't important, what mattered was that last strike. The sword crafted from pure light sliced into the creature as though it were nothing, like a hot knife through a pat of butter, and Yves had no mercy in him to offer as he cleanly removed its head.

As the creature crumpled, the fae huffed in annoyance and pushed his hair back. "Remind me not to go on any more field trips with you, Vanessa. ...Not after sunset anyway."

[miss_ives]

Vanessa felt on the edge of a precipice, not unlike the way she had felt around Coby, on occasion, but this was a precipice of a different sort. The Fool and the Queen of Cups mingled in her, the serpent by her shoulder, the crocodile at her feet. She stared unseeingly at the body that had crumpled to the floor, then the head that had rolled to her feet.

It took a few, long moments before she felt the momentousness subside. She came back fully to this world, lifting her gaze to meet Yves's. He had been terrible and beautiful in action, and the blood on his face was highlighted by the glow of his sword.

Vanessa took a moment to wet dry lips with her tongue, and in that short time, knew better than to say what she had been about to. "I think this would have gone quite similarly had the sun been out," she simply replied.

It was not knowledge she had, but knowledge she felt. As if this had been meant to happen. She trusted her feelings.

[yves]

Yves huffed again, then sighed.

"Perhaps," he allowed. "Perhaps."

[miss_ives]

As if suddenly released from some form of paralysis, Vanessa finally stepped forward, taking care to avoid walking on any of the bodies, whether human or vampire. "Are you all right?"