AN: Trying to do at least three chapters a day until I get the story up to where it currently is on my forum, then I will update it with my own writing alone if my friend doesn't contribute anymore (or if no one else wants to join in). A third friend joins in shortly. Will mark her parts with a different symbol as well. I just want to make sure everyone knows that I didn't write everything on my own. Nether Dragons from Warcraft are VERY vaguely hinted at here (as in, you probably need to know WHAT they are in the first place to even find the small reference), so don't fear this crossing over with WoW as well. Sam and Dean finally appear. Ruby is human here and helping them, sort of.
Prophecy – Chapter 4
+ Working at the casino during daylight hours was beginning to bore Lena to tears. Nothing ever happened! Perhaps she shouldn't wish for outright brawling, but even a shouting match to break up would relieve some boredom. Only her predatory instincts kept her from tapping out a rhythm on the balcony rail as she overlooked one of the many gaming rooms from the bar area. This one was filled with pokies and was her least favourite post. All the lights and noises from the obnoxious machines hurt her sensitive eyes and hearing.
Not a permanent issue as a shifter, but distracting and uncomfortable none the less. She decided to talk to Al and get him to move her into one of the quieter rooms, perhaps back to the card tables. Sure, she hated being around that damned avian and that human…behind her the bartender jumped as she muttered blackly under her breath about Zach. He'd even had the nerve to knock on her apartment door! How he'd found it she didn't know, or care, but Lena was pretty good at ignoring people and he'd eventually had to give up and leave.
She wasn't sure but one of her neighbours may have had something to do with that. She thought he was in a human gang of some kind. Lena yawned, thoroughly bored and wished again that something would happen. Even just a light-globe suddenly exploding…Lena grinned as she thought of the possibilities in that idea. Lights produced heat, so in theory if she caused them to heat up enough they would explode…another yawn interrupted her musings and she decided to move around. While one could see almost all of the room below from this vantage point, there was an area with couldn't be seen. Lena stretched luxuriously as she began to move I suppose I'd better go look, even though I'd probably hear any problems from here anyway.
Stupid Night World laws. If they didn't exist she could just sit here and use her hearing to monitor her entire area, but posing as a human (which she found rather difficult, even after all this time) made that impossible.
Besides, there was something fishy about one of the humans who was at the bar, and the possibility of him trying to start something once she was out of sight was too tempting to pass up. As she reached her second vantage point she heard it, even over the obnoxious sounds from below. Damn fool was trying to hold up the bar. Lena turned around smartly and headed back, unable to keep what could only be described as a satisfied smirk off her face.
Finally she could get some action! Even if it would only be for a minute or two. Actually, it was even less than that, much to Lena's disappointment. Maybe she should have that little conversation with Al. Work did keep her occupied, and allowed her to observe other beings, even some of her own kind. There were a number of human bounties who frequented the area, but getting information on them was difficult, if only because she was an outsider. She was just finishing up with her erstwhile burglar when her sharp ears caught the sound of shouting. A moment later her ear-piece squawked and one of the Chipmunks (last shift it had been a Daffy Duck) said something about a riot in the card room and requested all available help. A riot! Now this was more up her alley, and being a daytime 'quiet' shift there was less security on than usual.
Lena whipped out a pair of handcuffs from her jacket and cuffed her burglar before instructing him to call the security hut about him and racing off to help with the riot.
The bewildered bartender looked down at the captive and marvelled at Lena's original way of immobilising the man. He had one hand on either side of his hip and the chain of the cuffs passed between his legs. It also became apparent that the chain on the cuffs was a little too short for comfort. He looked at the rapidly receding Lena and wondered if she was simply ingenious, or just sadistic. He sighed, deciding it didn't matter and made the call.
Lena, meanwhile, actually had some fun for the day. On a full shift for security it would hardly have been a riot, with only a dozen people and most of them human, but today on what was supposed to be the quietest shift in the quietest day there was only a small handful of security. If it wasn't for Lena being around there probably would have been quite a bit of damage done. Lena darted into the fight, doing quick painful things to several of the fighters at once and knocking a couple more out. Her presence seemed to give the rest of security a morale boost.
Unknown to her she'd gained a reputation as being something of a one-woman-army among her colleagues. Not that she'd've cared what they thought anyway. Out the corner of her eye Lena spied one of the 'rioters' ducking into a nearby service hallway. She elbowed her latest victim in the face, hearing something crunch and took up the chase. The scent in the hall told her that her prey was actually another shifter, a canine if she wasn't mistaken. Lena put on a burst of speed, crash-tackling him to the floor, and somersaulting over his body and back onto her feet, just out of reach. She saw him grin, he knew her scent, he would know her for a feline and as a canine, would likely want to chase her then pound the stuffing out of her.
What he couldn't know, was that she wasn't just any feline. She was a Rapa and a Rapa would never back away from anything. The canine shifter smiled, hoping to intimidate the tiny dark woman who had cut off his escape. "Move, little kitten, I would hate to mar that pretty face of yours." He almost took a step back at Lena's response.
"No." Lena blinked in surprise as he disappeared, no, he'd run behind her! She glanced back just as he hit her with a resounding thump on the back of her neck, actually managing to stun her. Had she been any other being, except perhaps a vampire, he would have taken her head off. As it was, he gloated over his strike. "A pity you had to cross my path little kitten. A blow to the back of the neck at the base of your brain will keep you in a coma for the rest of your life. Dream about the foolish choice you made to face me."
He turned and began to walk away, but froze as a low, deadly voice spoke from behind him. When he turned he was stunned to see Lena actually standing back up, her microphone tossed aside so anything incriminating she might've said was not recorded.
"You're much faster than I gave you credit to be, and your precision is second-to-none." Lena rolled her shoulders and felt her neck click, easing the tension his blow had caused. "If I hadn't relaxed at the last moment to deflect your attack, I probably would be a goner." For a moment the canine just stood there, stunned. No one, and no thing had ever survived one of his attacks. She observed his face for a few more moments before it clicked.
"It's no wonder your bounty is as high as it is, Dogboy Jackson." One of the highest bounties ever offered, she briefly wondered why he was here, then decided it didn't matter. Of all the places to stumble on a meal ticket. She glanced outside, gauging the time from the angle of the sunlight and smirked, her shift was either over, or very nearly. She tossed off her jacket and dress shirt, revealing a sleeveless white tank top underneath and took a stance, beckoning her bounty. This should be fun!
++ Zach figured Lena had only been upholding her end of their bargain, but…I don't think I've ever seen that girl smile…not once. I've never seen anyone touch her either, unless she's beating the crap out of them. There was probably some sort of psychological disorder that she had that made her behave the way she did, yeah like Autism or Aspergers or something like that. He thought back over the game they'd played against the 'Saints' (probably the most inappropriately named team ever).
If he was remembering right she'd been asleep for most, if not all the game until it was her turn. She never turned up for practise either, which, judging from all the local media attention they suddenly had after their win the other night, was probably a good thing. It wasn't hard to imagine Lena beating the crap out of the reporters. He walked slowly through the hallways of the casino, taking his time since he was way too early for his shift when the sounds of fighting caught his attention, as well as police sirens from outside. He picked up the pace and entered the room to see…Chaos.
Card tables had been overturned or completely smashed; most of the daytime employees were huddled in a group near the doorway he was in. After gaping at the scene for a while (which completely erased all his musings about baseball) he got the story out of the day-shift dealers. No one was entirely sure what had caused it but for some reason a riot had broken out about half an hour beforehand. Most of the uninvolved patrons had fled once the skeleton security team had turned up. Someone mentioned Lena was on security that day and wondered why she wasn't in the thick of the proceedings.
"Everyone known she's been bored out of her brain during her shifts."
"I heard she's a bounty hunter. A fight like this would be just her thing wouldn't it?"
"She was here earlier. I saw her run into the fight." Zach glanced at the young woman who had said that. Not someone he knew. "She broke that guy's nose before she ran after another guy who went tried to get away." Sure enough she was pointing at some poor sucker who was nursing a swollen and bleeding nose.
"What in the world happened in here?" Zach turned at the soft query to see Kerowyn standing behind him, just as gobsmacked as he'd been earlier. He gave her an abbreviated run-down of events as he knew them. "They said Lena went after another guy a couple of minutes ago but-" Zach cut himself off as there was a crash and the object of their discussion came flying back into the room and skidded across the floor before flipping herself back up onto her feet again, apparently none the worse for wear. At least that's what it looked like, until she spat out a mouthful of blood to one side, revealing a darkening bruise on the side of her face.
"Oh, please. You can do better than this." Zach realised Lena was speaking to the figure standing in the now-ruined doorway, and damn if it wasn't the most insultingly patronising tone he'd ever heard.
Jackson, on the other hand was scrambling. What the hell was this? The girl was a shifter; that much he knew just by looking at her.
He watched as she began to pace towards him once more and knew that the planned heist in this casino had gone down the proverbial drain before it had ever gotten off the ground, with her working here. Even his own escape was in doubt now. He'd have to defeat her in order to even consider it. They exchanged more blows in the already destroyed card room, more careful now that there were human witnesses, or at least he was.
It didn't take long for him to notice that she was hitting him twice for every attempt he made to connect with her. Damn the little bitch was fast! Too fast for the humans to see what she was doing, and damn near too fast for him too. He made a strike for her throat, his hand flat, blade-like, only to have her fall backwards to avoid it, landing on her hands and striking up at his overbalanced form with both of her feet. He saved his ribs by using his crossed arms as a shield.
Jackson fell back, unable to recover before Lena pounced and had pinned him face-down on the floor, both of them out of breath and covered with sweat. He tried to get his breath back as she kept his face squashed into the carpet and he became vaguely aware of some applause somewhere. He knew all of Lena's considerable concentration was on his person at that moment, so it was unlikely he'd ever get away from this particular screw-up and turned his attention to trying to analyse the tiny being currently perched in just the right position to prevent him from getting back up.
Her scent indicated she was feline, which meant she should have been scared of him to a degree as he was a canine but…Not only was she fearless, she moved better than he did! Was she a trained martial artist like he was? No. It wasn't that, he would have recognised a specific style if she was so then what was it about this mere slip of a girl that made her so damn good? Out of the corner of one of his eyes he examined her face. She already had her breath back and there was a sparkle in her eyes and a smug smirk hovering around her lips. No, he decided, she didn't have any real training in how to fight. She was just a born fighter who loved to brawl, pure and simple.
+ - Night World prophecy, 'ending the darkness' = 'ending the secrecy'?
- Night = Dark?
- "Night World" a world of darkness existing below the world of normalcy and light?
- Oddities of the supernatural kind are being observed by the normal world more and more regularly.
- Science and forensics are advancing fast enough that Night World quirks can no longer be written off as anomalous data. Said data is slowly compiling into evidence for our existence.
- Is the prophecy a warning? Indication that the 'outing' of the supernatural world is inevitable?
- Is it inevitable? Could it be controlled enough to minimise fallout?
- Prophecy:
"four to stand between light and shadow".
- Four who are a part of the Night World but live as much or more in the normal world?
"four of blue fire, power in their blood".
- Wordplay? The term 'power' is subjective. Is 'blue fire' meant to be taken literally or figuratively or as a mixture of both? Some with magical blue fire, some with fiery attributes and a 'blue' feature? A mixture of both? Again, "blue" literally or figuratively? Colour? Personality? Attitude?
"Born in the year of the blind maiden's vision".
- Which year? Year that the oracle had the vision? (Again, which year? When was vision…envisioned?) Or is the 'year' referred to one which occurs within the vision? One year? More than one? Consecutive years?
"four less one and darkness triumphs".
- Straightforward. All four must exist for the prophecy to come to pass. Must exist at the same time? Or one after the other? Does one make way for the next? Most common belief is that all must exist at the same time and work together some how. Impossible if one of these being a human is true. Even a part-blood human poses risks and problems with exposure. Assuming any survived the Council in the first place.
"One from lands of Kings long forgotten"
- Unknown. Which lands? Which Kings? Too many forgotten kingdoms and 'lands' throughout the history of both humans and the night world. No known theories on translation. Seer's vision clouded and provides no clue to identity or even species.
"One from the hearth which still holds the spark"
-Thought to be a witch. Divined as such by an oracle. Self-serving divination? "Spark", a reference to magic? Species still unclear.
"One from the day world where two eyes are watching"
-believed to be a half-breed. What does "two eyes" refer to? Twins? Two halves of two different races in one being? (Would support half-breed theory). Someone with two-different coloured eyes? Does "from the day world" refer to a human or a night person who has all but renounced the night world to live in the normal world?
"One from the daylight to be one with the dark"
-Believed (divined?) to be a shifter. Supported by the fact that most shifters look as human in daylight hours and only change at night.
-Belief that world will end if "Wild Powers" de prematurely.
-Why? Is prophecy a warning that the Night World will be forcibly uncovered sooner or later but with the Powers alive they do or say something which causes the Night World to reveal itself in a controlled manner? Controlling the exposé avoids media ruckus and human knee-jerk extermination?
Lena sat back and looked at her pages of notes, tapping her pencil on the table as she thought. Being on leave was a pain. Being on leave while the casino was rebuilt after a riot and with a police investigation still ongoing royally sucked. She couldn't go anywhere, couldn't find anything to do to fill in her time with anything remotely interesting and so her brain started working itself into progressively more and more complex knots.
In this case, that thrice-cursed blasted prophecy. She read back over her notes again, wondering why she was bothering. Most prophecies were self-fulfilling after all. That being the case all she had to do, all she could do was sit back and let it play out. Lena leaned back and rested her head against the wall. She was sitting on the floor in a patch of sunlight which was coming in off the balcony, essentially twiddling her thumbs, waiting, as it were, for the other shoe to drop. Not that it mattered, she had the bounty money from the nutcase canine shifter bandit she'd beaten the crap out of, and on three different fronts no less. Human authorities paid for him, the casino gave her a bonus for stopping his plans of theft and the Night World Council also paid up, on the grounds that she'd potentially stopped a leak of their existence, so she had more than enough cash to get by on, for quite some time.
Of course none of this changed the fact that she was essentially under house-arrest until the bloody human cops questioned her about the casino riot which meant she was still stuck here with nothing to do but pick apart that infernal prophecy. She felt like slowly and repeatedly bashing her head against the wall, if only for something different.
But that required her to get up, and her inner feline was enjoying the warmth of the sunshine here far too much for that. It was with that thought that someone knocked on her apartment door.
Lena growled.
They knocked again. Deciding that she may as well see if it was at least someone she could beat up Lena answered her door. On her doorstep where three uniformed police…people. Was it still politically incorrect to say policeman? Especially since one of them was a woman…and a witch. Lena eyed all three of them with distrust. Seeing her wary eye on them one of the men introduced them and asked if they could enter. None of the names were familiar, and unfortunately Lena had no handy excuse to keep them out so in they came.
The tiny girl who opened the door simply couldn't've been the woman security who had almost single-handedly stopped a potentially huge casino theft three days ago…could it? Officer Sarah Dragan looked around the apartment as the dark young girl let them in. It was…far from cozy, to say the least. It wasn't even furnished, especially if you didn't count the bedroll and second-hand coffee table in the living room. Beyond that there appeared to be no personal possessions in the apartment at all.
No pictures, knick-knacks, nothing. Lena gestured a sunny patch of floor as one of Sarah's colleagues asked for somewhere to sit, the look on her face clearly asking him just how stupid could he be?
The other, a more experienced officer, simply sat and began asking her questions as Sarah discreetly probed the apartment with her magic, discovering that it was booby-trapped for vampires in many nasty and most likely violent ways. She also noticed that Lena was glaring at her from the moment she started using her magic and in that instant realised that not only did Lena know what she was, but Lena was a Night Worlder too.
Eventually they broke eye-contact as Lena was distracted by a question which received yet another reply that consisted of only one syllable. Bored, Sarah looked at the paper on the coffee table and froze, stunned, as she read notes about the prophecy. This was incredible! A leak of the highest magnitude! None of this information had been made public before and yet this…this…immigrant knew intimate details of the prophecy?! Impossible! Crone Harman would have to be notified right away! Sarah tried to plot, she wasn't really a planner, but realised that it would be too risky to try and take the notes, so instead she used her magic to make copies of the notes and materialise them into the pocket of her coat. Lena glared at her again and abruptly announced that she'd cooperated enough and they had to leave. Before Sarah could leave though Lena's voice reached her ears.
"Would you use magic without permission in the home of one of your witches?"
It wouldn't be until later that Sarah would realise that Lena considered her use of magic to have been rude, no matter the circumstances. Sarah also noticed that Lena appeared to have spent a great deal of time thinking about the forgotten kings of the prophecy, if the marks from a tapping pen at that point were any indication. Crone Harman would definitely like to see this.
* Kerowyn's head throbbed after a hard night at the casino. Business had been hopping lately, with all the tourists and vacationers. How and why people enjoyed coming down here to waste money, Kero did not know. She appreciated every penny she had. Thea, on the other hand...spoiled ditz, even though she was living with Miss Harman. Kero hadn't taken a car today. She'd flown in her raven form. She made sure she was out of sigh, then close her eyes and concentrated.
"So, you're here, little shifter." Kero jerked, concentration lost, and almost fell over. Her eyes widened as her already half-owl eyes were able to focus clearly on the figure in front of her. He had just materialized or either moved very slowly. The leech! Oh dear goddess! Kero was starting to hyperventilate. Vampires! Even the so-called good ones like this one, the only one she sort of knew, scared her.
"Please, don't be frightened. I won't hurt you. Look, I mean it! You're under the Harman Crone's protection, didn't you know?" Ty put his hands on his hips. This one was such a little bird. And yet...something about her...he couldn't explain it. She was weak and fragile, that was for sure, but Ty sensed an inner core of strength. He had spent days studying shifters. Bird shifters were supposed to be very powerful, though Ty did not yet understand why. They were supposed to be able to shift into something else that could fly. Something powerful. But apparently they had lost that knowledge long ago, and were left with spineless wimps like this girl.
"Wh-what do you want, vampire? My blood isn't powerful or potent, like most shifters! It won't get you high!" Kero understood that she was babbling. She was just too afraid of vampires to not be terrified on him, whether he meant well or not.
Ty sighed. "I'm not after your blood, girl. As I said, you are protected by the Harmon Crone. She would kill me if I harmed you. Yes, she can kill me. She and Lena are probably the only ones who can. Except perhaps you, if you would realize your true potential."
Kero let her owl eyes fade. She could see well enough in the dark. This vampire...he knew something. Perhaps he knew more than Thea or her cousin. Curiosity overrode her fear. "What do you mean? My full potential? This is it. The most dangerous thing I can turn into is a bird of prey. Nothing else. Nothing at all." Her last sentence was barely above a whisper, but the vampire could still hear it, and hear the anguish in it.
Something had happened to this girl to make her resent her gift. "I may not be able to help you release your true power. Only you can do that. But I can give you information."
Ty once again sighed and rubbed his head. He wasn't used to going out of his way to be nice to someone, especially a shifter and a timid one at that!
"The avian shifters weren't always the weakest. A long time ago, there was a type of avian that looked like a lizard but could fly like a bird. It was so long ago that vampires didn't even exist then. Shifters did. Your race is ancient. Your powers are ancient. I'm not talking about dinosaurs. Yes, birds did descend from dinosaurs, so they say, but that isn't what I mean. There is something else. Its up to you to find it. I can't tell you, because I don't know myself. I was reading a book about the ancient shifter world while in my vast library one night, and came across a description of each type of shifter. Avian shifters, feline shifters, and canine shifters were among the most powerful. I sat and wondered why birds would be considered so dangerous. Then I remembered what they came from. Look into it, little bird. What can fly like a bird, has hollow bones like a bird, but is powerful enough and big enough to eat people? Farewell. I'm sure we'll meet again."
Ty bowed to the shifter and went to the waiting limo nearby. Dawn was nearing, and he didn't want to get caught out in it. He had given the girl information. It was up to her to do the rest.
+ It was the next day that Lena was finally able to go back to work. Lena and Zach that is. Zach had discovered, most painfully, that Lena was not to be crossed after several days of inactivity, and did his best to avoid her for now. Instead he decided to see if he could find Kero, and talk to her instead. She may not say anything, but she wouldn't hit him either. In the coffee room a few other colleagues pointed out his rapidly-turning-purple eye to which he responded with a cheerful "Lena, who else?"
This in turn resulted in his co-workers nodding sagely and congratulating him on not being torn limb-from-limb. No one doubted Lena was capable of actually killing, so evidence of her restraint was considered a relief. Continuing his way through the room, studiously avoiding the side the security team had claimed, Zach finally found Kero, only to discover her studying a piece of paper with what appeared to be a riddle written on it. He glanced over her shoulder to look at it.
'What can fly like a bird, has hollow bones like a bird, but is powerful enough and big enough to eat people?'
Strangely Kero was so absorbed in her riddle that she appeared to not have noticed his approach, which was seriously odd. If it was one thing he'd noticed Kero and Lena had in common it was that it was practically impossible to sneak up on either of them. Not that anyone wanted to experiment by sneaking up on Lena of course. He decided to make his presence known.
"I didn't know you liked riddles Kero." The little jump and squeak she made would have been funny on a less skittish person. Zach pretended to not notice and scratched his head in thought. "It's a tough one too. Hey, if you get stuck you should ask Lena!" At this suggestion Kero turned several shades paler, then paler again as it was noticed that Lena had apparently heard her name, from across the loud room, and was now glaring in their direction. Zach, being oblivious, noticed neither of these things.
"She's really good at riddles y'know? At practice the other week the pitcher's kid was doing homework, got really stuck, Lena helped him solve the riddles…come to think of it that was really creepy. Lena helping someone voluntarily…" Zach trailed off and shuddered. As he wandered off he could be heard muttering "anyone'd think she liked kids or something…creepy."
Boring. That was the adjective that came to mind for this shift, her first back after the near-riot several days…or was it a couple of weeks ago? Bah, it didn't matter. This damned shift was boring. It was enough to make Lena want to pick a fight just for the hell of it, plus those stupid human men in black suits were staring at her, following her every move. It was seriously fraying what little patience she did have. Odds where if she saw them after-hours they were going to hurt.
A lot.
And what was that bloody fool and the avain talking about before the start of her shift that included needing mentioning her anyway? She thought it was clear that the avian wanted nothing to do with her, and she was certain the human idiot knew better than to accost her again. For someone so large to actually be able to hit his eye like that was quite a jump. The hardest part was keeping it toned down enough to not be too suspicious.
As she walked past the glass enclosed high-roller's suite she focused not on the inside of the room, but on the reflections in the glass. Those bloody suits were still following her. What the hell did they want anyway? Lena checked the clock, should be sunset at this point. She moved on, heading back out to the card room and looked out over the room from an upper storey balcony. Odd, there were more suits down there.
Lena checked their positions as a frown briefly flickered across her features. Apparently she wasn't the only one being shadowed. There were at least a dozen or so trying to discreetly watch both the avian and, for some reason, that mountainous human boy. Lena couldn't help the smirk that developed at the sight of his now-blackened eye. There was no way he'd be able to see out of that for at least a day, even if he did find something to reduce the swelling.
Deep within the neon-lit streets of early-morning Las Vegas a quiet meeting was taking place. At first glance there was nothing really out of the ordinary. In any other city an-early morning meeting like this would send alarm bells ringing and calls to the police, but Vegas never slept so business was done at all hours of the day and night. This meeting was special however. None of the participants were human. Most were young, middle-aged at the most, and all deferred to an ancient man with white eyes and hair. At this moment though, the meeting was somewhat disorganised, and each new phrase was spoken by a different being.
"It has begun."
"The humans are starting to get suspicious of our people in their communities."
"Who is asking the questions?"
"Military mostly."
"Some have gotten offers from human terrorist organisations."
"Special Forces are most interested. Intelligence agencies, the higher-profile protection agencies. Government."
"They are starting to suspect…but why? Why now?"
"Human technology for the most part. I have a contact with Inland Revenue, had a rather tricky time of it covering up a few vampires not long ago."
"Vampires?"
"Yes. Stupid leeches who got caught in a photograph hundreds of years ago then gets caught again in more recent years. Normally their accounts get no notice at all, until something like that happens to get attention focused on them. Mostly they can pass it off as family resemblance, but some of them have rather distinguishing marks that simply cannot be swept under the rug."
"Witches too."
"Witches? Don't tell me we're going to have those pitchfork-and-bonfire mobs starting up again."
"Maybe. They're bloody careless. Think they're God's gift to the earth and can do no wrong. Before their magic was interpreted as acts of god or anomalous data, these days though, with human technology what it is, it's becoming obvious that there's 'something else' out there going on."
"What of our people?"
For a few minutes silence reigned, then a sigh, "until recently we were under the radar. Then the vampire attacks started. The humans got to some of the corpses before our cleanup. DNA sequencing has shown the humans that there's something different about a section of the community. They've been watching the 'miraculous survivors' of various scrapes much closer in recent days. It was only in the last two or three days that pointed questions were starting to be asked."
"Why are we being targeted by bloodsuckers these days anyway? I get the feeling that everyone knows except us!"
Finally the ancient man spoke. "That, my friends, is because everyone did." He sighed heavily as a stunned silence filled the room. "It is because of the Millennium Prophecy." Before the various clan heads could start their shouting he recited the prophecy as it had been told to him, and admitted he may not have gotten the wording correct due to hearing it fourth hand or so. "The witches and vampires have known of this prophecy for years and never saw fit to tell us, despite the fact that they know that is has to do with us. At least one of the mentioned is to be one of our kind.
However that is not the current problem. What are we to do about the humans?"
"…what are our options Greatfather? As I see it there are two; keep the secret and try to cover up what has been found, which will be near to impossible. Or, we withdraw from the Night World treaty, and come into the open, reveal ourselves to the humans." All factions in the room began shouting as some thought there would be a third way while most were all for leaving the witches and vampires to their own devices. No one believed that they could cover up what had begun to snowball.
Finally someone managed to shout loud enough to be heard over the din.
"At this point I think we can agree that a cover-up is impossible. The question then becomes, how much do we tell, and when?"
"This is clearly a breech of the treaty, I say we tell them to stick it in their collective craw and reveal ourselves to the world. If we do it right we can avoid a lot of bad press. Make it seem as though we all go into more militaristic occupations, let them assume that we're all 'grunts with guns'. Showing us as fighting for our respective countries will go a long way to endearing us to the humans."
"I agree. I also say it should be done soon. If we leave this too long we leave ourselves open to blackmail, from both the humans and the Night World."
"Aye, and what do we do about the Night World?"
"Let 'em stew in the juices of their own making I say. It's simple enough to simply not say anything about them."
Once again the ancient spoke. "We are in agreement then? Very well. Go back to your clans and filter our discussion through the ranks. Gather ideas and comments; see what else our people have to say. We will meet again in a few days to put together our 'coming out' plan. I want to also make it clear though, that if people do not wish to reveal themselves right away they do not have to. We are revealing our existence, not an individual's identity."
Sarah ran to Elspeth's as fast as she could from the bus stop, barely giving the magic in the wards to recognise her before she clattered up the stairs, barely even noticing she was interrupting a meeting between some of the higher-ups. Of course, the late-afternoon sunlight streaming in through the windows directly into her eyes may have had something to do with that.
"Crone Harman! There's been a breach in security! On duty today we were running a routine follow-up investigation on an attempted theft from one of the casinos when I noticed these notes on the table!" Once Sarah handed the copied notes over to Elspeth she bent over, resting her hands on her knees trying to get her breath back.
Elspeth glanced over the notes, taking in all the little marks where the author had apparently been thinking or places where words or sentences had been underlined. She waited a moment while Sarah got her breath back before asking
"Can you describe the author to me?" She passed the notes on to her colleagues to peruse as Sarah began to describe, of all people, Lena. "Lena wrote these? I wonder why…" Elspeth mused. "She didn't seem to put much stock into the prophecy when I told her…" This particular revelation didn't go down well.
"What do you mean you told her? You leaked the contents of the prophecy to a shapeshifter?" There was a murmur of agreement at the disgust in Creon's tone.
Elspeth's patience with the man was getting close to being used up. "Of course I told her." She replied hotly. "I'll tell any shifter I come across, as we should have done from the beginning instead of keeping them in the dark all the time!"
Creon opened his big mouth again only to have Elspeth continue to talk over him "the prophecy is as pertinent to the shifters as it is to witches." She sighed and closed her eyes briefly "there have been rumours recently…talk of the shifters isolating themselves from us." Splutters of indignant outrage filled the room.
"So? The miserable beasts have threatened to isolate themselves from us before. This will work out the same as all the other times. They'll rattle their sabres a bit then back down and come back with their tails between their legs."
Elspeth shook her head. "No Creon, I'm afraid this time is different. In the past our races relied on each other to exist in secret. Now in this modern world with all the advancements that humans have made in their technology we are more of a liability to them than a help. Withholding the prophecy may be the final straw for them, once word gets out in their communities. They'll consider it a breach of treaty, especially since the vampires knew of it and have been hunting them relentlessly." Elspeth looked at the notes Lena had made.
The girl must have been thoroughly bored to have analysed something she was scornful of. Into the shocked silence Elspeth dropped another bombshell, referring to those very notes "I'd heard rumours that human military authorities have been approaching members of shifter communities. Luckily for us they are natural chameleons, I believe they are better at blending into human society than we are."
*Ty stood in the corner of Elspeth's apartment, arms crossed, wondering why she had called him, especially during the day. He was tired and weak, and did not feel like being here at all. Normally, he would be asleep at this time. As it was, he'd had to take caution to avoid the sun's burning rays as much as possible. While he wouldn't burst into flame, it would hurt like hell and that was not something he cared to experience again. The UV traps in Lena's apartment had been painful enough.
The real sun would have been even worse. The curtains were closed and the room made as sun-proof as possible, for which the vampire silently thanked Elspeth. She wasn't prone to showing courtesy to his kind, so this must have been dire. There were others there. Other witches, even some from Circle Midnight, the Dark Coven. He recognized Sarantia, Thea's cousin, with her long black hair and air of haughty disdain. She also crackled with magic, unlike her cousin. Sarantia was indeed a powerful witch for her young age.
There was also Melania, Elspeth's Dark Coven leader counterpart. Ty could tell she disliked being here as much as he did. Her sons, a tall blonde witch and a smaller dark haired witch stood near her, the blonde one looked bored and irritated, while the younger one looked a bit frightened. That one was not cut out for Circle Midnight, he could tell. He was likely only there per his mother's wishes. Unlike Elspeth, the leader of the Dark Coven was no crone. She was the Crone, but she was not elderly, or did not appear as such.
Her lips were tightly pressed together and she had an irritated look about her. Melania caught Ty staring at her and shot him a nasty grin. The curtains nearby fluttered open, bathing the room in brilliant sunlight. Ty let out a gasp of pain. Melania laughed. Elspeth banged her walking stick on the ground and glared at both Melania and Ty. She waved a hand and the room was darkened again.
"For all that is holy in the Night World, let us put aside our differences for now. Mistress Melania, there was no call for harming someone I called to this meeting. Master Vampire, you need not provoke a witch, no matter how much their views differ from ours." Elspeth shot a glare once again at both the Dark witch and the vampire.
"Lady Elspeth, I am not part of the Council, nor am I privy to any of their doings. I do not wish to be either. I prefer my solitude, as you well know. Lately, however, things that have been happening have drawn my interest, as nothing has in hundreds of years. I'm sure that is why you called me here?" Ty said, in a clipped voice, simply wanting to get this meeting over with and get home to sleep.
Elspeth gave him a long, soul-searing look. "Yes, I know that. As you and I both know, your solitude and our secrecy may shortly becoming to an end. I assume you've been watching TV and reading the newspaper? Oh, yes, your kind is a bit technophobic." Ty stopped her and held up a hand.
"Crone, I have been paying attention to the news lately. Or did you not hear what I said previously?" his discomfort was making him unpleasant, and he knew this, but he could not be pleasant when it felt like his insides were burning,"There have been things in the news, some of my kind being careless. Human technology is making it harder for our race to hide, and yours as well. There are technologies that can detect changes in air waves, and your magic certainly does plenty of that. My kind are immortal, which really raises questions when one of us is caught on camera in the 50s and again in this year and look the same. Sure, family resemblance can be passed off sometimes, but tell me, Crone, how many people look exactly like their ancestors? Very few. The Night World has begun to draw the attention of the human world. That is why you called me here."
"Indeed, vampire. Both of our kinds are responsible for this. We have gotten careless. So careless that we forget the Night World treaty. The shifters know nothing of the prophecy. I understand that you have no interest in talking to or being part of the Council, but you are likely the eldest of your kind. I dislike vampires greatly, but I trust you more than I trust those of the Council. What is your opinion, Tylendil? Shall we call the shifters to a meeting?" Elspeth once again seemed to be staring into his soul with those sapphire eyes.
A snort from the other side of the room interrupted Ty's reply. It was the Dark witch, Melania.
"There is no need to tell them. They are animals, pure and simple. If the human military catches them, what do I care? The animals are disgusting and depraved, almost as bad as leeches," she shot a sneer at Ty before continuing, "They should be locked up. They should be exterminated. Forget the Night World treaty. We should never have made a treaty with beasts. When you called me here, you said the shifters were talking of isolating themselves from the rest of the Night World. I don't care. Let them. Animals should not be able to speak or make treaties. Nor should dead people. I am insulted by the presence of the vampire. He has no stock in the prophecy. His kind are not even considered in the prophecy. Get rid of it. We witches are the true rulers of the Night World. Not leeches or animals."
Ty felt a blast of heat and power. Elspeth's sapphire eyes almost shone. "Mistress Melania, you forget where you are. This is my home. My place of power. If you wish to leave, then leave. But I believe this concerns us all. All Night people. Not just witches. Now, Master Tylendil, please have your say."
Melania tried to speak but Elspeth had apparently cast a silence. The silence spell would not hold for long, but it would hold long enough for the vampire to express his opinions.
"Despite Mistress Melania's hatred for all non-witches, I believe we should include the shifters, as I am sure you believe. Lena, she is a shifter and knows of the prophecy, as does the young bird girl. There is no reason to not call the elders of the shifter council or whatever their inner circle is called. If they isolate themselves from the rest of the Night World, it may spell disaster for us. If they side with the human military and expose witches and vampires, then we are done for. My kind will be hunted down and exterminated."
Melania tried to say something rude, but the silence spell still held, "And your kind would be exploited. What human wouldn't want a magic solution to all their problems? Also, if my kind is NOT exterminated by humans, then they will lock us up in labs and use our blood in experiments. They will try to find ways to make themselves immortal. In essence, if we are discovered, or purposely exposed, the result could be disastrous. Now, if we were to...I know no other way to phrase this...come out of the supernatural closet on our own, things may be different. We may be able to do some damage control. I dislike contact with the Council, but if they hear this information, then perhaps they will stop trying to kill shifters and we can all find a way to tell the world we exist without them trying to kill or exploit us."
Elspeth nodded. "Well said, Master Ty. I am in perfect agreement with what you say, and I am glad you see it as well. I thought I was the only one. You needn't trouble yourself over the Council. I may not be one of your kind, but I am leader of the Witches, and the Council will listen to me."
The silence spell had finally worn off Melania and she had something to say to that. "What makes you leader of the Witches? You are an old woman, a Crone in every sense of the word, but that makes you no more our leader than I. I am capable of spells you've never dreamed of. Spells that would make you cringe for their power." Melania's dark eyes shone with malice.
Elspeth held up a hand, waiting to speak, "Mistress Melania, I do not doubt what you say. You are capable of spells I've never used. Dreamed of, yes, but never used. That is the difference between us. Your spells require blood and sacrifice. Powerful they may be, but they are not worth the price. Anyway, you may leave, Ty. I've no more need of you. The rest of this can be discussed amongst us witches."
"Mistress Elspeth? Where is the bird shifter? I have a gift for her. Its not much, but it may help her find what she's been looking for." Elspeth gave him an odd look. Vampires normally did not go out of their way to help shifters.
"She worked the night shift last night. She is sleeping upstairs. Do be careful not to startle her." Ty nodded and headed up the stairs to Kerowyn's bedroom. It was darker and cooler up here. He swayed slightly, tiredness overwhelming him for a moment. He let out a breath and knocked lightly on the avian's door. She would hear it, even if she were in the depths of sleep. The vampire heard the patter of slippered feet across carpet. Kero peered out the door, let out a small shriek and backed away.
Ty rubbed his forehead. How many times did he have to tell her he meant her no harm? "Little shifter, I come with a gift for you. Crone Elspeth is downstairs and she allowed me up. She would not have allowed me up if I meant you any harm."
Kero slowly approached the door, but did not open it more than a slight crack. "What do you want, vampire? What gift could you give me? I have been pondering the riddle you gave and came up with no answer. I have no reason to believe you mean to help me. Go away." Kero sounded near tears and started to shut the door.
Ty stopped it with a hand. "Just take this book. I will leave you then. Consider it more help from me. I still do not know if it is possible, but this book was written by a witch who does not know she is a witch. A lost witch. She had visions, I believe, and that is why I think this book may be of some help." Kero took the offered book gingerly, as if it may bite, and closed the door. Ty did not try to stop her. He had gave her what he meant to.
He headed to the waiting limo outside the building, Toby, his faithful driver patiently waiting for him. The sun's bite from the door to the car stung, but he had made sure to wear a hat and dark sunglasses so as to avoid most of the pain. "Let us go home, Toby. I am in dire need of sleep." Toby glanced back at his tired master. The vampire was laying on the seats, eyes closed. Poor man, thought Toby, I would hate to be a vampire. The perks are not worth the downfalls.
Back in her room, Kero looked at the book the leech had given her. It was written by someone called Amy Lynn Laurence. She had wrote a series of books, and this was apparently a reference guide to the fiction series she wrote. She turned to the table of contents. Her eyes widened slightly. Vampires, witches, shifters...it seemed as it her books were about Night People. But then, the vampire had said she was a lost witch. She could have been writing about the Night World without knowing it was real. Kero turned to the chapter on shifters. The usual descriptions of different types of shifters...until she came to the last entry.
She knew that the world had been ruled by the shifters in its early days. This was how. These beings ruled the shifters and the other races, until the witches became powerful enough to lock away their ability to become what they were meant to be. Hollow bones, large, strong, carnivores, and they even breathed fire. Dragons. If Lena could become a supposedly mythical Rapa, then why not? Dragons were real.
And they were part of her bloodline. They were what made the avian shifters so powerful. Kero looked at the illustration. The lizard-like being was strangely beautiful. Even though the picture wasn't colored, Kero could swear she saw gold scales, violet eyes, and...magic. Dragons could wield magic in addition to being shifters. Her hands were shaking. This was what she had been looking for. There was no guarantee it was real, though. She needn't get her hopes up for no reason. Kero's breathing was fast and hard. She lay the book on her nightstand and tried to go back to sleep.
In another room, far away and much different than the homes and apartments of Las Vegas, Master Sergeant Ruby Declan of the Initiative for the study of the Supernatural watched a video from the security cameras in a Las Vegas casino. A young, seemingly harmless young girl beat the living shit out of men twice her size and weight. No matter how much training she had in the martial arts, that was physically impossible.
Ruby was a feminist and firmly believed women to be superior to men, but even she knew that no woman of that size and weight could have handed the asses to men like that. Her agents, Sam and Dean Winchester, brothers, had brought the tape to her. They were firm believers that the world was not as it seemed and that there were things out there that were not human. She, too, believed in the supernatural, and so did some of her superiors since they had given her this post and had taken every word spoken by her and by the brothers completely seriously.
Something was going on, and soon it was going to come to a head. It was the military's job to keep such knowledge from being made public. If they knew of the existence of non-humans, the world could be flung into chaos if it was not done right. She continued watching the video, making note of a pale man in the corner, silently observing the fight. His violent red hair and the rest of his appearance rung bells in her head. She gestured to Sam and Dean, still in the room. Dean was not paying attention, eating a burger and reading some inappropriate magazine, but Sam immediately came over to her.
"Who is this man, Sam? I swear I have seen him before." Ruby pointed to the red-head in the video, making sure to have paused it at just the right angle to give Sam the best view possible. Sam scratched his chin thoughtfully.
"Well, Sergeant, I've seen him on the cover of one of those Fortune magazines before. I don't know his name, but if he was on the cover of that magazine, then he's definitely a wealthy dude. Uh, Sergeant, what would a guy like that be doing in a shady casino anyway?"
Ruby clapped her hands at the revelation. She knew who this was now. "This man, Sam, is Tylendil. I don't know his last name, but he is probably one of the wealthiest men in the world, if not the wealthiest. His name and money go back hundreds of years. Old money, as they say. Perhaps its not just his name that goes back hundreds of years..."
Sam looked a bit stunned. Normally, Ruby didn't like to admit her belief in the supernatural as easily as he and Dean did. From what she was saying though, it almost seemed as if... "Ruby, are you saying this guy is some kind of immortal something? This girl too. I know you've watched this video of her kicking ass at least 3 times. She's hot, but I know you're not watching it for that. I mean, Dean would, but you're married and definitely not into that kind of stuff."
Ruby and Dean both glared at Sam. "Sam, regardless of whether or not either of them have anything to do with non-humans in this world, I would still like it checked out. How would my boys feel about a free trip to Las Vegas?"
Dean jumped up, suddenly not giving a damn about his burger or the magazine. "Vegas? Sign me up, baby. Anytime, anywhere. I've always wanted to go there."
Ruby sighed. She knew he was going to react like that. "This will be a business trip, Dean. You and Sam are to investigate all the unusual things happening in this city and report and record what you can and send them back to me. This is no pleasure trip. If I hear any hint of either of you not doing your job, you'll be demoted back to boot camp in a heart beat. Now go. Your plane leaves tomorrow. You both have credit cards issued by the US military. You will have no need to pack anything or make hotel reservations. Simply show them your IDs if you are given any trouble. I expect to hear from you boys soon."
Ruby waved a hand, dismissing her employees. One way or another, the US military fully intended to find out what was truly going on, and had been going on, with this world. Ruby was going to make sure of that. The Initiative already knew of the existence of the non-humans, but had no way of proving it, nor had they ever been able to contact any of them or get any of them under a microscope. If Ruby had her way, the girl or the man would be with the Initiative before long and she would have her proof.
QUICK RUNDOWN ON EVENTS:
-Kero & Lena intro
-Lena arrives in Vegas and sets up camp
-Vampire attacks introduced
-Lena attacked by (and subsequently beats up) a vampire. Ends up in hospital.
-Thea 'kidnaps' (bird-naps?) Kero to the Harman abode.
-Lena healed by Harman, moved from hospital.
-Ty introduced
-Prophecy introduced/discussed
-Ty attempts to spy. Unsuccessfully.
-Seer introduced and freaks out Ty before divining Lena's past and then goes into shock.
-Zach (the eternally cheerful moron) is introduced and tries to make friends with everything that moves.
-Lena beats people up.
-Ty scares the crap out of Kero.
-Lena's past. Some of it anyway.
-Shifters talk to Harman.
-Lena booby-traps her building against vampires.
-Ty pays people to investigate Lena.
-Lena beats more people up.
-Zach cons Lena into playing baseball.
-Ty discovers some of Lena's booby-traps
-Lena beats people up during an attempted robbery/riot. (I think there's a pattern starting to emerge here...)
-Lena ponders the prophecy out of sheer boredom.
-Ty gives overly cryptic messages to Kero. (After scaring her again.)
-Humans start getting suspicious and begin following Lena, Kero and Zach around.
-Shifter council meets and talk of ending the Night World treaty.
-Lena's prophecy notes get back to the witches.
-Covens hear about the Shifters' impending treaty split
- US Military gets involved, Sam and Dean head to Vegas to investigate the supernatural (hah?)
RUNDOWN WAS FOR ANYONE LOST!
May post character sheets for Ty/Kero/Lena and the third player's characters who will be introduced in the next chapter. No character sheet for Chris/Wyatt/Sam/Dean, because most people pretty much know who they are. If not, just consider them random witches/military 'hunters'.
