Ravyn's alarm goes off at eight o'clock the next night. She stretches in her bed and rolls over, coming face to face with a half asleep Shannon. She smiles at him and brushes a piece of his fallen Mohawk out of his face. He pulls her closer to him and kisses her gently. Blinking she leans in and returns his kiss. They stay wrapped up in each other a little longer before deciding that they should check in with the others. They head downstairs to find Jeff and Jenn lounging in the living room on one of the couches. Jeff is clearly feeling much better after getting some rest. The four of them hear Matt and Shane coming up from the game room. Shane proclaims himself the Power Stone 2 champion. They all just hang out and chat until Matt gets up and starts pacing the kitchen.
"Something isn't right," he claims. "I don't know what. But something is wrong. We should go home."
"Do you want to come?" Shannon invites her to their home. "We're probably going back out later if you want to join us."
"I'd like that," she smiles. "The sun will be down completely in a few minutes. Let me get cleaned up and I'll follow in my car."
They sit in their cars waiting for the sun to finish setting before opening the garage doors. When it's finally time Ravyn taps the door opener and follows Matt from the garage. He leads her on the most direct route to their home. Shannon sits at her side in the passenger seat nervously. She reaches over and places a hand on his knee to reassure him. The woods start to grow thicker around them as they get farther out of town. There is a faint glow in the distance. Matt's car picks up the pace and speeds towards the strange light. Ravyn follows, hot on his heels. Shannon balls up a fist angrily as his home comes into view. Flames shoot out of the second story windows. He's out of the car before she can even come to a complete stop. Along with everyone in Matt's car he tears into the house. They're out a few minutes later, each with an armful of their possessions.
"We need to get out of there before the cops show up," Matt huffs.
"Come back to my place," Ravyn insists. "We'll regroup and go from there." Matt nods a thank you and gets back into his car to follow her back home.
Ravyn sighs heavily. "This isn't your fault," Shannon tells her. "They've been trying to find our home for a long time."
She puts a hand on his leg as he stares at the small pile of items in his lap. They ride in shocked silence back to her place. When they arrive they group decides that tonight is probably better spent in. They all head off to separate rooms trying to wrap their minds around losing everything that they had. Shannon and Ravyn end up outside in the garden patio just chatting. The night air is cool enough for them to be sitting on the wicker couch snuggling together.
"You've known these guys a long time huh?" She guesses.
"Yeah," he agrees. "Matt and Jeff are brothers. Shane was one of our best friends growing up. We all lived in the same town."
"So why does everyone call you Prince?" She wonders aloud.
"The full title is The Prince of Punk," he laughs. "Probably because of my punk rock fashion sense, or love of the music, the tattoos, or my ridiculous Mohawk. Who knows, I like it though."
She smiles, "It does fit you rather well."
"What about you?" He prods. "What's your family like?"
She hesitates slightly, "My brother is my maker. Then we've got three others in our little clan that we picked up along the way. "
They continue to make small talk watching the fireflies and listening to the crickets.
The next evening the group prepares to go out to the club. They're all gathered in the kitchen and attached dining room. Ravyn looks at each of their fallen faces. "I know somehow what happened last night has something to do with me," she stammers. "And I want you all to know that you're welcome to stay here for as long as you'd like." She tosses Matt her spare key.
"Thank you," Matt nods. "They've been following us, trying to track us back to our home, for months. They probably thought that we would be there fixing Jeff up last night. In reality you may have saved us."
Jeff looks at her with sincerity in his eyes,"We promise not to over stay our welcome."
"We truly appreciate this," Jenn agrees.
"Just let me know if you need anything," Ravyn offers.
"Let's go out and try to have a good time at least," Shane suggests.
They head down to the garage and get into their cars. Shannon rides with Ravyn and everyone else is in Matt's car. Matt backs out of the garage and starts down the long driveway. Shannon stops her before she can shift into reverse. She looks over at him questioningly. She watches intently as he pulls something out of his pocket.
"I want you to have this," he says slightly unsure of himself. "I know it doesn't look like much, but it's really special to me."
He opens his hand to reveal a simple, yet beautiful teardrop shaped emerald pendant. He looks at her hopefully and she nods in excitement. A sigh of relief passes through his lips as he loosens the black cord enough to slip over her head. She looks down to admire the glimmering stone before leaning in to kiss him.
"Thank you," she almost whispers as she tightens the cord up a bit. "It's beautiful."
He reaches out to take her hand as she drives into town. They arrive only a few minutes after Matt and the group. Everyone heads to their usual empty booth. They're all a bit on edge until they scan the building to find that Vampiro's clan is nowhere to be seen. Shannon, Shane and Matt head to the bar to get everyone drinks. Ravyn and Jeff begin an intense debate about hair dye brands when Jenn interrupts them.
"Did the Prince give you that?" She exclaims, pointing to the emerald pendant.
"He did," Ravyn confirms.
Jeffs eyes grow wide, "Damn, he must really like you."
Ravyn looks at them skeptically. "It belonged to his mother," Jenn lets her in on the secret. "I've never seen it out of his possession."
"He did say that it was really special to him," Ravyn reaches to touch the gem lovingly. "But he never said why."
"His mother, his vampire mother... His maker," Jeff clarifies.
Ravyn lets out a heavy sigh, "Wow."
As she takes a minute to contemplate the piece of knowledge that Jenn and Jeff have dropped on her, Vampiro walks in with his clan. They walk directly past Shannon, Matt and Shane. Shannon visibly considers attacking one of them before Matt and Shane step in front of him to curb any potential violence. The guys return to the table, Shannon almost trembling with fury. Ravyn reaches out to tilt his chin and make him look at her. She leans over to kiss him gently, attempting to distract him from his current murderous thoughts. He lets out a deep breath and starts to relax. She rests her head on his shoulder while he wraps an arm around her protectively.
"It's probably safe to assume that you've been to The Council," Ravyn only sort of asks.
Shannon huffs,"Yeah, lot of good that did."
"There's nothing they can do," Matt tells her sadly. "Vampiro is incredibly good at covering his tracks. He never leaves any evidence so there's nothing to support our case."
"Looks like he left tracks all over AJ," Shane says in surprise as AJ lifts his hood at his table.
Ravyn's gaze follows Shane's and she gasps as she sees what he's talking about. The right side of AJ's face is completely bruised up. It's obvious that he's trying to cover it with his longish hair.
"Vampiro must have almost killed him to get him that bruised up," Jeff concludes.
"I hope he's okay," Ravyn barely manages to squeak out. Shannon squeezes her tightly to try and comfort her.
The next few nights pass quickly. Ravyn gets to spend a lot of time with Shannon and his friends. She begins to feel completely at ease with them. Shane has become her greatest video game rival. At least once a night they try to beat each other's high scores. She discovers that she loves having Jenn around too. It was not terribly often that she got to have actual girl time.
Any night where they went out she tried to keep in touch with AJ. He told her all about the beating he had received after refusing to help Vampiro and his clan burn down Shannon's home. He felt terrible that it had happened and Vampiro made him pay for that. They had to be incredibly sneaky when hanging out. They both knew there would be hell to pay if they were caught, and Ravyn didn't want to see him get hurt because of her. Shannon always stayed close by when she was with AJ, making sure they wouldn't be found out. If he saw anyone coming he would turn and pull her close to him, allowing AJ to sneak away unnoticed. AJ and Shannon had formed a unique friendship. Each of them looking out for the other, even though they were part of opposing clans. Ravyn and Shannon worked hard to try and get AJ to leave Vampiro. He seemed to be seriously considering it. They talked over a few different ways to get him out safely. But every scenario ended in Vampiro's death. None of them were ready to become murderers.
Shannon plays with Ravens hair as she sits on his lap the next night at the club. Vampiro and his clan walk in and sit at their normal booth putting Shannon on edge. Ravyn looks over to see AJ in a knit hat and dark glasses. He lifts his hood for a moment, then sets it back down, almost sulking in his seat. Usually he would have at least glanced over at their table. Instead he just sits with his hood up, almost hiding.
Ravyn looks at Shannon and whispers,"Something's up."
"I don't like it," he nods in agreement.
They keep and eye on him all night, but he remains at the table, not even looking their way. Eventually Shannon leads Ravyn down to the dance floor to see if they can lure AJ out. They having fun dancing with Jenn and Jeff when the notice Edge and Desmond on the other side of the dance floor with a couple of girls. Jeff goes back the their table just moments before Shannon feels hand on his shoulder. He spins around defensively to find himself face to face with Vampiro. Shannon steps protectively in front of Ravyn. As he reaches behind himself to grab her hand he's met with nothing. He turns back around to see where she is only to find her struggling in Edge and Desmond's grip. He snarls, fangs out, and goes after Edge. But before he can get near him Vampiro thrusts an elbow into the back of his neck crumpling him to the floor. It takes a moment for Matt and Jeff to get to him. By the time they can help him to his feet Vampiro and his clan are gone... with Ravyn.
"Where is she?" Shannon yells. "Where the fuck is she Jeff!?"
Matt looks down at his feet, "He took her. I wasn't fast enough."
"Where did they take her," Shannon fumes.
"I don't know Prince," Jess asks his head. "They were gone so fast."
Shannon brushes Jeff's hand off of his shoulder, "I'm going after her."
"Don't be ridiculous," Matt scolds. "We don't even know where they went."
Shannon sinks to a chair next to the dance floor. He looks up at Matt and Jeff with heartbreak in his eyes. "We have to find her," he pleads. "She's the best thing to happen to me since meeting you guys."
"Don't worry Prince," Jeff assures him. "Vampiro will be back. He'll want to flaunt this little victory."
A look of rage passes over Shannon's eyes, "If he touches her.. I swear I will stake him faster than he can blink."
"He won't hurt her," Matt promises. "He needs her. I think he anticipates her family joining up with him if he has her."
"That's an awful plan," Shannon grimaces. "We have to go to The Council."
"Let's drop everyone else off. Then you and I can go to The Council," Matt suggests.
Shannon agrees and rounds up the rest of their friends. Shane, Jenn and Jeff wish them luck as they're left at the doorstep of Ravyn's home. Shannon stares out the window snapping a hair elastic against his wrist the entire way to the Council building. As they pass the club he looks into the parking lot to see that Vampiro took Ravyn's car with them. He's at the edge of his seat when Matt finally parks the car. The building itself looks like any normal, boring, office building. While many humans have accepted that vampires exist, some were just not ready to embrace them. The building would be easily overlooked by those people, because of its simplicity. They walk inside and a secretary sitting at a metal desk points them to a large wooden door to her right without even looking up. As they walk through the door they see another desk with a blonde woman sitting at it. She looks up to greet them.
"Can I help you?" She smiles politely.
"We need information on a vampire," Matt starts. "Is there a way to do that?"
"I'm sorry sir," the woman apologizes. "We aren't allowed to give out any personal information."
Matt sighs as Shannon paces behind him,"Is there anyone we can talk to?"
"She's been kidnapped," Shannon pipes in, hoping to change her mind.
"Just have a seat," she tells them as she types on her keyboard. "Someone will be with you in a few minutes."
Matt sits in one of the hard plastic waiting room chairs while shannon paces anxiously in front of him. Matt watches him go from one side of the room to the other for nearly ten minutes, not even thinking to suggest that he sit down. Matt is soon distracted by a man with long blonde hair in a button up shirt and jeans. He recognizes him as one of the three members of The Council, Chris Jericho. Jericho feels Matt's gaze on him, looks over and smiles.
"Do you guys want to come into the office?" He gestures to the big double doors behind him.
They follow him into the spacious room. A large round table sits in the center of the floor. Two others sit on one side of the table shuffling through papers and typing on laptop keyboards. One has blonde hair with dark roots and a dark beard, Steve Corino. The other, a dark haired serious looking man with a crew cut. He could only be Lance Storm. Matt and Shannon sit down across the table from the three Council members.
"So what can we do for you?" Jericho asks as he sits down behind the third computer. "Mona says you're looking for information on someone."
"You know we can't just give out personal information, right?" Lance warns sternly.
"Yes," Matt nods. "Her name is Ravyn. She's been kidnapped?"
Corino looks at him, unsure if he's telling the truth, "By whom?"
"Vampiro," Matt answers bluntly.
Jericho shakes his head in frustration, "You guys just can't get along can you? Every other month you're in here with a complaint about his clan. Who's to say she was even kidnapped?"
"Considering that Vampiro burned our house down a few days ago and she graciously let us move into her home. I highly doubt that she actually wanted to go with him," Matt tries to hold back his anger.
"We can run her through the database," Lance offers. "Name and hometown?"
"Ravyn. R-A-V-Y-N. Storm," Shannon jumps in. "She's from Calgary."
"Ok, Ravyn with a Y," Lance types. "Storm. From Calgary, Alberta... Canada." He clicks a few more buttons and watches the screen intently. "This may take a few minutes," he admits.
"What can we do about getting her home safely?" Matt presses.
"If she is, in fact, being held against her will then we can intervene. However," Corino pauses. "As you are all too aware. Vampiro is a master of manipulation. I can only imagine that this is some scheme to empower himself and his clan. He's not going to make this easy to track."
"I think he anticipates her family aligning with his clan just because she's with him," Matt theorizes.
"I wouldn't put that past him," Jericho wrinkles his nose in disgust. "He did burn your house down afterall."
"Where are you guys staying, by the way?" Corino asks Shannon, as if to double check what Matt had said earlier.
Shannon looks at him sadly,"Ravyn let us move into her place. She was with us when we found our house burning." Jericho nods, coming to the realization that there was almost complete certainty that Ravyn did not want to be with Vampiro.
Lance looks up from his computer. "Nothing," he says quietly. "She's not in our system at all. I can try and make a few phone calls for you guys. It may be a few days to get anywhere. So for now it would be in your best interest to try and talk things out with Vampiro civilly."
"Thanks," Matt says dejectedly. "We'll try."
He and Shannon shake everyone's hands before leaving the building. When they step outside they realize how close to dawn it is. Matt drives back to the mansion quickly. Upon their return Shannon goes directly to Ravyn's room while Matt explains the situation to everyone else.