The Merovingian was sat at his rather expensive antique desk, using his laptop to work out some new information laundering scheme which would hopeful gain him yet more power and prestige in the Exile world, there were few people who could rival him with sheer power and he was working to succeed them, including that annoying woman vampire. Mero pursed his lips, its seemed to be a programming trait that all vampire women must be a thorn in his side, perhaps the system was conspiring against him, whether it was Lilith, Persephone or one of his lesser Vampiresses they all seemed to give him some headache or another.
The tried not to hire female vampires for such reasons, the only reason he kept Persephone around was that she was still pleasing on both the eye and other parts of the body, although he would dispose of he once he tired of her.
Whilst he was happily anticipating his wife's unfortunate demise, one of his lower henchmen entered the room and marched up to the desk, the Merovingian raised his eyebrows and looked like he was expecting him whilst simultaneously trying to remember the guys name, he gave up about 2 seconds later, they all looked the same anyway. His regular bodyguards and the twins were not present, having somehow managed to arrange holiday time just when they heard that Persephone was planning to go on vacation, how very convenient...
The henchman huffed slightly out of breath; it becoming obvious that he had ran from wherever he had come from.
"Yes? Vell? Zhat iz it?" Mero asked annoyed and wanting to get back to his work, he had a new operation to plan and did not need the distractions of the riff raff variety.
"Persephone seems happy" The henchman told Mero importantly.
Mero blinked at the sheer stupidity behind that answer and counted to 5 before answering, dead henchmen told no tales, they also stained the carpet. "And you though thiz important 'ow?" he asked.
"REALLY happy" The henchman insisted "Like when the stock market crashed"
"meeeerd-euh" Mero drawled out the curse as he closed his laptop and stood up, anything that pleased his wife was likely to be nothing sort of an absolute disaster for him, he cared not to remember the previous times. "Vhere iz she?"
"In the foyer" The henchman answered swiftly and straight away, walking to keep up with the Merovingian as he stalked his way towards the foyer, bursting through the downstairs double doors the Merovingian was greeted by a most unwelcome sight. Lilith and Persephone finished their idly chit chat and turned to face the newcomer that had stormed in, behind the pair stood Lilith's almost entirely female entourage complete with that Vampiress bitch who had raided him only a few months ago, Illyanna smirked as Mero scowled when he saw her.
Mero looked over Lilith's group in disgust "zhat its zis? Ze attack of ze valkaries?" he sneered as he walked up to the pair.
"Merovingian. How nice of you to abandon your whores to grace our presence" Lilith greeted Mero with barely concealed sarcasm.
"Persephone, you did not invite zis... woman, did you?" Asked Mero deeply disapproving, the question was laced with threat which Persephone shifted uneasily under.
Lilith looked Mero over coldly and calmly. "Oh no, I came by myself. It seems you have difficulty grasping the very basic concept of territory"
"Territory? Vat territories are you speaking of?" The Merovingian asked with a sickly sweet condescending tone.
Lilith stared at him before whipping out a pistol, aiming at head level and firing.
"Putain!" Cried Mero as the bullet skimmed his head and exploded an antique vase behind him.
"You missed" Commented Persephone idly.
"You! You Crazy English bitch! Zat vaz an 1703 original. One of only two in existence!" Mero shouted as he looked in horror at the destroyed vase.
"One of one now" Lilith smirked, holding the gun calmly at her side. "Now shall we talk about violating my territory again?"
"Vhat territory?! I don't know anything about territory" Protested the spluttering Mero.
Lilith raised her eyebrow before blowing the other vase away with her gun, Mero stood fuming, Ember swore she could almost see the steam coming out of his ears and from the way the Merovingian's mouth was flapping it seems words, for once, had failed him.
Doors opened around the foyer and Mero's less reliable Henchmen rushed in, attracted by the gun shots. They paused confusedly after taking in the scene, their boss fuming in front of a smirking vampiress and a group of unknown soldiers, female soldiers mostly, behind her with lady Persephone standing alongside the Vampiress. The move was not a blatant show of her joining up the Vampiress against Mero but she was definitely standing closer to the vampiress than she was to the Merovingian.
The Merovingian finally got a grip of himself, straightened his jacket out and glared at Lilith. "I think mademoiselle Lilith, zhat you have out stay you welcome" He announced imperiously.
"Success hasn't changed you a bit has it? You're still the same ass you always were." Lilith commented idly, Illyanna from back in the crowd snorted.
Mero narrowed his eyes and clicked his fingers, his henchmen stepped up and readied their weapons, Persephone took the time to take several cautious steps away from Lilith to the edge of the foyer.
"Kill zhem" Mero announced to his men and the room exploded into chaos.
The Werecats Triplets moved like lightening, pulling out their twin Uzi's and firing at Mero's lot as they sprinted for the sides of the room splitting up to avoid the hail of firepower from Mero's men as they opened up on Lilith's people with their Guns, Ember screamed and threw herself to the ground to avoid a hail of bullets. Lilith stood calmly in the centre of the firestorm, twisting reality so every bullet easily missed her and calmly collided into the wall behind her leaving rather large holes in the otherwise extremely expensive décor.
Raven slapped her MP5, chambering the first round whilst moving sideways to avoid the volley of bullets being only partly successful as bullets clip her shoulder and side, her return fire however caught two of the Merovingian's men in the chest and both of them went down. Mortis stood side on to Mero's men using his side on position to limit his exposed profile and unloaded his shotgun into face of an unfortunate before throwing the gun up and using it as a club to brain another one of Mero's men.
The Werecats skimmed along the sides of the foyer, engaging in fierce fights using Uzi's on those lucky enough to be far enough away and mauling those who weren't with a vicious transformation into tooth and claw, their large black Werecat forms claws tearing horrific chunks of flesh away from their opponents who were near defence less.
The remaining two of Mero's men leapt forward to fight Illyanna and Lilith in close combat, a mistake in anyone's book, the unfortunate soul who attacked Lilith will probably forever be held as an example of why such things are bad. Reality and shadows around Lilith twisted transforming her into a terrifying shadow beast that shredded and devoured the hapless fool with shadowly tooth and claw, Illyannas attacker paused horrified at the sudden transformation and Illyanna took advantage of his distraction in order to snap his neck.
The snap echo'd around the room as all the fighting finished, the room was devastated with bullet holes in priceless antiques and the exquisite Marble stairs blow to pieces by the firepower, all around lay the Merovingian's non regular henchmen in various states of dead or dying.
Conveniently the Merovingian was nowhere to be found, the Frenchman obviously using the slaughter of his less useful men as a prime chance to escape, Lilith shooked her head and kicked the twisted body at her feet. "Mero. You are living proof of reincarnation. No one could possibly get to be so stupid in just one lifetime." She muttered disbelievingly, she couldn't understanding wasting such life on nothing more than a basic insult.
Sometimes Lilith wondered how such a smart person could be so chronically stupid, still that was what made the Merovingian so easy to play against at times, this battle was never one he was going to win, some of Liliths better people and against human type henchmen who seemed to have fairly poor training. Talking about training Lilith frowned somewhat disapprovingly at Ember who was picking herself off the floor after all the shooting had stopped, Ember caught Liliths eye and blushed in embarrassment at her actions.
"It would appear my husband has abandoned me, again" Persephone announced without humour from her place standing at the edge of the foyer.
"It would seem so" Lilith commented looking around the destruction of the foyer. "He is going to be most displeased when he returns" Lilith said grinning, almost mentally disappointed she wouldn't be around to see his ranting, maybe she should install a spy camera.
Lilith finished her musing and turned her attention back to Persephone. "You could come back with us childe, you would not have to put up with his Attentions" She told the younger ex-vampiress.
Persephone looked uneasy "I would love to but you know I cant." She answered back sadly.
Lilith smiled at Persephone. "Well the offer is always open" She told the woman before turning to walk out of the devastated foyer with her people following her out, it would be an idea to leave before the Merovingian returned with much better reinforcements.
Persephone watched the group disappear into the backdoors before walking off deep into the chateau.
Morning had arrived and gone, Quentin having spent the day at his computer visiting Vampire enthusiast websites in an attempt to learn more about the legends and what to expect however like any true paranormal specialist will know that information on the internet ranges from totally inaccurate to near impossible to find.
Night beckoned with its usual dark embrace as the sun set, Quentin slammed the door to his apartment shut and headed out into the dark city with the very real intent of finding one of its predators. Walking through the streets tonight the world seemed different, less real and Quentin spotted several individuals walking down the street that long ago he would have passed his eyes over but now was attracted by them, they seemed to radiate a different aura, one that he couldn't quite recognise but couldn't shake the feeling he would soon find out.
Arriving at the graveyard, Quentin explored the dark and shadowy graveyard, ignoring the eerie glow from the street lamps, unfortunately the rest place of the dead was void of the living dead however the night was still young and Quentin was confident that would see another vampire here. Quentin settled over the twin gravestones that he had first discovered the Vampiress on, sitting across the tomb stone Quentin tightened up his jacket and sat and waited for someone to come.
Waited and waited and waited and waited and waited............................
Quentin suddenly jerked awake and tried to work out what had awoken him, it took him several moments for his sleep addled brain to notice the pale feminine figure sitting with her knees up just across from him and when he did, he blinked.
"What are you doing back her again, Child?" Asked the same vampiress cocking her head to the side as if that would allow her to better study him, it was the same one from last night, Quentin could tell by the voice.
Quentin looked the woman before him, she had wild tousled black hair that seemed purest black against her pale white skin which all but glowed under the moonlight and scarlet eyes which seemed to spotted every detail with cold detachedness. Her clothing was vampiric trademark black although at the same time did not scream gothic, instead she seemed like a normal woman in her mid twenties if one did not pay to close attention to those sharp scarlet eyes which reflected unnatural age.
Quentin licked his lips nervously. "I want to join you, to become a creature of the night and live forever"
"Don't you understand? This is not living forever, this is dying forever, never one nor the other for all eternity. Most mortals fear death but for them death is but an instant, to me it has stretched for almost 110 years." The vampiress spoke with some exasperation, mortals didn't consider the repercussions of their fantasies.
"I don't care, it is what I want, it is what I've always wanted" He stated firmly to the vampires, she merely raised a perfect eyebrow to him.
"You do realise it is a secret world, a hidden world with dangers beyond your understanding and once you walk this path of Exile there is no turning back" The vampiress warned the youngster in front of her.
"I understand do, do it" Quentin told the vampiress, She just shook her head in disbelief and then lashed out faster than he could follow, her teeth clamped around his neck and she held him in a deadly grip as she feed from him, time seemed to slow down as she feed from him until finally she let him drop to the ground.
Quentin saw the vampiress stand over him as his heart beat slowly began slowing down. Beat.. Beat... Beat.... Beat...............
Enchantment looked down at his cooling body. "Welcome to the other side" She muttered.
The Rebels had been shot, sliced, disembowelled, vaporised and otherwise killed, Merovingian's new paint job was sporting brand new holes and the clan had gained an EAH or two, something perhaps worrying as EAH loyalties could be dubious but all in all it was an average month for Lilith's clan. Wraith, the Albino second in command of Liliths forces, laid back in her chair with a chocolate bar she bit into, damnit after all that had happened she deserved this and the clan would survive, hopefully, without her pestering everyone for just 5 minutes.
Wraith sighed contently as the white chocolate melted in her mouth, normal or dark chocolate was such a pain to get out of all white clothing, something people now expected Ghost exiles to wear, pesky twins setting a fashion trend. She was sat in one of the more higher up common rooms used only by Crew leaders or the more Elite members of Lilith fraction, this had two main advantages, firstly it was much more luxurious than the normal common rooms and also most people avoid such places like a plague lest they be volunteered to join in some crazy task the higher ups set them.
Wraith at the moment almost had the room to herself except for the Werecat triplets whom were curled up leather couch in front of the huge fireplace, they had come in with Lilith and Illyanna discussing old and new times, it was good to see mother and daughter together for once. The pair had some pretty interesting history in their pasts, mostly revolving around Illyanna's choice of partners still despite all her faults at least Illyanna was around when needed, you rarely heard about Liliths other daughters and perhaps that was for the best all things considered.
Wraith looked at the now empty chocolate bar wrapper and frowned before throwing it into a decorative bin in the corner of the room, it was best she get back to work, an XO job was never done. Now... Wraith mused, she had to find two certain Exiles and punish them for the incineration of one common room...
The mess hall was a huge busy affair with several hundred exiles bustling to take seats at the tables and kitchen staff coming and going with food that they laid down on the tables in seemingly random patterns, Pyro entered the room and looked around the room for someone he recognised. In the far back corner table her noticed Ember and walked over to her, avoiding a brunette who was carrying a stack of plates before pulling out the chair and sitting besides her.
Ember looked up as he sat down next to her. "What do you want?" she asked annoyed and not particularly wanting to deal with another one of his stunts.
"Nothing, just some company" Pyro told her before looking around. "You haven't seen Jennifer have you?" He asked her, revealing his true cause for hunting her down.
"Who?" Ember asked in both annoyance and confusion.
"Red headed girl about so high, Irish accent" Pyro described gesturing the approximate height.
Ember pursed her lips and shook her head "Don't know her" she told Pyro, hoping that he would disappear after it became obvious she didn't know.
She had no such luck as he grabbed one of the serving dishes and began piling food onto his plate. "Hey could you pass me that?" He asked pointing to a tray of French rolls, Ember sighed and passed him the tray.
Pyro was busy eating when he sudden spotted Ross walking past him "ooh.." he mumbled around a mouthful of food as he reached out and grabbed him.
"hmm? What?" Ross as distracted as he was stopped by Pyro
Pyro swallowed and cleared his mouth. "Do you know were Jennifer is?" He asked Ross, he hadn't seen the girl since the 'Aquat' and had quite liked her.
"Jennifer? The red haired girl you were with at the Aquat?" Ross asked
"Yeah, that's her" Pyro told him
"She works on the kitchen staff mate, She's probably up to her eyeballs in work right now" Ross informed Pyro, grabbing an apple and taking a bite before walking off to find somewhere to sit.
Pyro turned around back to the table. "Bugger" he muttered before taking a bite out of a French roll slice.
"Girlfriend missing?" Ember asked sarcastically deciding if she had to put up with him sitting next to her she might as well talk to him.
"Yeah" Pyro bemoaned failing to notice Embers sarcasm, Ember rolled her eyes and took a spoonful of soup.
She was about to take another spoonful when she stopped. "Hey. Who are those two?" She asked nodded over to a table in the centre where a young man and woman where sat surrounded by Exiles of all shapes, sizes and species.
"Ah, Haven't you heard? They are the new EAH's. The guy is Quentin, a vampire EAH and the woman is Laverna, Werewolf, of course she is going to be shipped of to Tokyo when Alyssa and that lot leave" Pyro told Ember informatively, rather proud that he at least was in with the latest gossip, one of the advantages of befriending the Mermaids.
"Their taking a very long time to do a simple meeting" Ember mused puzzled
Another Exile on the opposite side of the table leaned forward. "The groups don't get too meet up all that often, they take their time so everyone can catch up. It improves moral you see and also gives the higher ups an excuse to mess about for a while" He told Ember waving a breadstick in emphasis.
Ember quirked her lips at that piece of information as a hand lands heavy on both hers and Pyro's shoulders, a very pale hand and in almost comical style they slowly turned to see that hand attached to very white certain second in command.
"Well, well if it's not the two Exiles I was looking for" Wraith informed the pair way too cheerfully for their liking, she leaned forward. "Tell me... how good you two at D.I.Y.?" she asked rhetorically.
Ember screwed in a lightbulb and then glared banefully at Pyro. "I hate you, you know that?" She asked narrowing her eyes.
Pyro sighed as he paused in painting a wall "You've only told me that 5 times in the past half an hour"
"I must be slipping then" Ember said as she climbed down the ladder back down to the floor. "This is your entire fault, you know that?" She asked again.
"You've also said that about 5 times in the past half an hour" Pyro said distractedly, Ember just shoot him a look of irritation.
Wraith leaned back in her chair enjoying a white chocolate bar and watched the squabbling pair work... life was good.
The End.