Hunting Ground... Coming together (any and all Shrine Vamps.)

[Alana Stormcloud]

Alana stood outside the gates of the Shrine. Her long hair pulled back from her timeless face. Crimson lips glistened in the soft moonlight of Roon. The Sith Lordess stood in her familiar tight black jump suit; she had found that for a hunt it suited the best.

The female Vampyre had sent out a call to all Shrine vampires. She had planned a hunt, to bring them all together. There were many fledglings that were in need of what she used to know. The bond that they had all once shared at the coven. To hunt their human prey as a family. It would give them a since of belonging.

Alana tilted her face to the night sky, her smile cold and cruel. Her teeth extended with the need for blood. It would be a night to remember....

[H. A. Ferenczy]

Hannibal was not beside Alana when she got there. But as she turned her head, he was there by her side via the vampiric speed. He smiled, his eyeteeth revealing themselves, as she noticed him. He stretched, his eyes peering upward at the young night sky. Such a beautiful purple moon, with all the stars surrounding it. Such simplicity and such complexity in one sky. It made Hannibal feel truly alive. The hunt would prove fun, hopefully. He nimbly pulled the bow from Alana's hair, watching it flow downward.

"You should not keep such beautiful hair up. Show it to all, especially the victims, for they should marvel at it before they sleep for eternity."

[Dirjj Mordrai]

The sound of earth unsettling beneath the approaching footsteps of Dirrj announcing the fledgling's timely arrival. He had overheard Ferenczy's compliments. Indeed, Lordess Alana was as beautiful in appearance as she was frightening in power. He heard her call while resting in his appointed quarters lying down upon black satin sheets. The fledgling awoke from his undead state of catatonia and arose, answering her call. He had looked out the window of his bedchambers and saw the figures gathering beyond the gate below.

Dirjj stretched his powerful limbs and retrieved a shirt draped over a chair nearby, pulling it down over his lean muscular body. His skin was completely blanched of color and had a porcelian-like appearance. A condition ubiquitous to all vampyres, he observed proudly, looking into the mural situated near the elaborately adorned doorway. A grin broke upon his bloodless lips while he pulled the corners of his moustache, twisting and tweaking them with obsessive care. He gathered his longcoat and settled an archaic fashioned black hat upon his head. Taking a final glance into the mirror, he adjusted the hat down low over his brow, casting his eyes in dark shadow. His reflection flashed one last sinister grin, revealing a hungry pair of fully extended fangs before casually stepping out the door. It slammed shut behind him by an unseen hand.

Now he looked over at Alana, admiring her beauty, "You summoned me, Lordess?"

[imported_Ambrose Braeden]

Lying in his ornately carved coffin, he awoke to the sound of the Vampire Lordesses voice beckoning him.

A short time later, he arrived at the spot where the two vampire fledglings stood, his dark cloak rustling around his feet as he walked. The two were trying harder than each other to impress Alana. Like two kids trying to better themselves in the eyes of a father. 'How funny' he thought to himself. Ambrose kissed her hand gently, felling the rough skin that all vampires aqquired after a time.


Mi'lady...How good it is to see you.

[Alana Stormcloud]

"You should not keep such beautiful hair up. Show it to all, especially the victims, for they should marvel at it before they sleep for eternity."

Alana smiled and brushed her ankle length hair over her shoulders. "I usually do keep it down but this night I am watching the hunt more than enticing prey." Her smile grew wicked as her eye teeth extended. "It is good to see you here Hannibal. I am glad you have decided to come."

She glanced over at Dirjj, her eyes rising slightly. "Yes I called, I am pleased to see you to. Her hand brushed over his cheek softly. She was as always the seductress.

When Ambrose arrived her smile grew wider. It seemed that tonight would be far more devastating to the female populace then before imagined.


Mi'lady...How good it is to see you.

Alana nodded and placed a kiss on Ambrose's cheek, he was as always suave. "It is my pleasure to see you. It has been far to long my sweet." Her purring whisper reached his ears and settled there.

A soft breeze wafted across her pale skin, blowing tendrils of her hair around her body. The soft purple light of the moon glimmered against there skin. As soon as the others arrived, the Lordess knew they would be a force to be reckoned with. All devastating in there many charms....

[Dirjj Mordrai]

"As I likewise, Lordess," his eyes narrowed with a verdant glow as the cool skin of Alana's hand affectionately brushed across his cheek. Dirjj watched her pass before the gathering vampyres, moving with elegance and grace, greeting each and every one of them in turn. Her demeanor was alluringly seductive and always left a lasting mark on him. He detected a hunt was in order and hadn't sated his thirst since last eve in his master's quarters. He was quite ravenous. Soon suffering and great evil was going to abound on Roon tonight.

Dirjj pulled his gloves on, tightly clenching both fists as the band of vampyres waited upon more to join them. He glanced down and observed the pale translucency of his skin below a gloved hand. Bulging spidery veins created an illusion of marble while he listened concentrically to melodies of the night. An owl called out to shadows and struck from it's roost with beating wings, and nocturnal insects were enjoined in an alien symphonious performance. Even their minute movements in the leaflitter can be heard by his extraordinarly heightened sense of hearing.

Dirjj identified a medium-sized quadriped stealing into the night, scurrying swiftly away through the underbrush once it caught scent of the nosferatu. This rebirth never ceased to marvel him. Each day was a ever-growing discoveries within... and without himself. He heard the bleating of livestock from the rural villages far beyond the Shrine whose human inhabitants would likely be settling in or drinking themselves under the table at a local tavern long into the eve. His attention returned back to the dark mistress who summoned him.

[Kolarik]

Willingly, he joined Alana and the others for the hunt. He was newly turned and had much to learn about the life of a vampire. This hunt would likely teach him much – about himself, about the others, and about the general nature of the Damned.

His gaze at first was for Alana, the one who had turned him. It was a familiar shared look between them and eventually he had turned away with a somewhat shy grin. He had not sought out the Shrine, seeking to become a vampire. He had not sought out the Shrine seeking to enter the darkness.

He had instead, through a series of events, found himself at the mercy of Alana to save his mortal life. And she had, only to take it from him a few days later and give him a new one – the life of a vampire.

He found that it rather suited him – at least so far. He’d spent the evenings in bars, picking up women and kissing them dead. Only to return to the Shrine with Alana, who he had fallen quite under the spell of. He slept through the days, quite soundly, I should add, only to awaken at night and begin the party all over again. It was quite an easy life, and he was enjoying most every moment of it.

Of course, he knew little of the true darkness in which he now dwelled. In time, he would learn. As he waited for the hunt to begin, he was silent, perhaps dwelling on the fact that he hungered. It was like this now it seemed. Whenever he awoke, he awoke with an unbearable thirst for blood. But in his silence, to distract himself from this hunger, he gazed about at the others who had gathered.

[Alana Stormcloud]

Alana's feral gaze fell on her newly turned apprentice. She had found his method of hunting to be much like hers. To lure the prey in with charm, and seduction, only to turn and take what they valued most. The Sith Lordess, from the beginning, had found Kolarik to be fascinating. The fact that he had not sought her out but rather accepted her dark embrace innocently, and unknowingly.

Alana moved to him, her movements slow and methodical. A breeze tossing her hair about her. The purple moon of Roon lighting her eyes with an unholy glow. The darkness that covered there part of Roon, forever night, enhanced her delicate beauty.

"Kolarik....." Her husky whisper for his ears alone. A small smile tilting the corners of crimson lip, which brushed across his own in greeting. There was no need for introduction, the damned knew the damned instantly.

"Tonight we hunt as a family, tonight I watch you all discover the pleasure, and power of the terror we can wield." She said to all, lacing her arm though Kolarik's.....

[H. A. Ferenczy]

"Oh, what joy, a family feast....I shall show you young ones how to feed the old fashioned way....for I was around during the archaic ages of the Vampire.....and I would say, those were the good old days..."

Hannibal grinned at all, his two top eyeteeth showing only slightly as he did so. He began to walk leisurely, at a human pace, away from the group....and with a sudden burst of speed, he sped off into the night, a black bullet of death, floating on butterfly wings.....

It was easy to find victims, for the cities of Roon were full of fodder for the 'forsaken.' He grinned as he perched himself on a rooftop. He watched the prostitute stand on her corner, offering her voluptous body to male passers-by. He fluidly slid down the wall, landing in the shadows. Hannibal, at a human's pace, walked out of the shade, his footfalls resounding on the walls of the buildings. He slid close to the prostitute, taking her up in his arms. Instead of biting her he whispered sweet nothings into her ear, about how he would 'buy her wares,' and 'try her flesh to the point of oblivion.' She was all too willing, and let herself be walked slowly into the shadow, as Hannibal's hand gently carressed her curvacious hips and round buttocks. In an instant too fast for the human eye, her legs were wrapped around his waist, and he was sucking the blood from her neck and breasts. Her heartbeat thundered in Hannibal's ears, and his heartbeat became in rhythm with hers. She moaned slightly with delight, and as her heart began to slow, he simply kissed her with bloody lips, so that she may realize her death was soon. Too wearied by him, she only kissed back, and died shortly thereafter. He then dropped her to the ground, her blonde hair soaking the puddle of water from a nearby gutter, and her once beautiful skin pale as death, almost as pale as Hannibal's. The marble-white pallor of his own skin was replaced with a ruddy redness of blood as it warmed his usually 'cold as death' skin. He continued his leisurely stroll in the light of the streetlamps, in seach of a gilded youth, male or female...it mattered not, for like death, he killed and feasted indiscriminantly, even though he did sometimes have his prefrences.....

OOC: By the way, Ambrose, you must mean another fledgling, because I'm a Warrior.....just lettin' ya know. :smokin

[Dirjj Mordrai]

Dirjj chuckled lowly at Ferenczy's enthusiastic boasting and antics as the warrior vampyre fled into the night sky swift as the wind. A most disturbing noise.

Then he looked over at the newest arrival in the great hunt. Dirjj noted the kid was young and carried a clout of naivete but that of which was passing quickly away. Alana was preparing him for this new emerging nature with a gentle loving maternal hand and the lustful embrace of a lover. He could already see death beyond the eyes of Kolarik and the forlourn stare of lost innocence was inscribed upon the youth's mien. Splendid.

Alana almost coddling him with a arm slipped under his, whispering of forsaken delights and dark nocturnal promises. Mortals found it futile to resist the charms of the vampyre lordess, so likewise did the lowly-ranked damned.

The vampyre wondered if any others were going to arrive and eagerly caught Alana's eyes. Their eyes met and his own bore a question upon them. By the Darkside, their thoughts melded, The hunt has already begun, may I feed my bloodlust now, Master.

[Sol Invictus]

"And I've been dragged out here for what reason exactly?"

Sol is highly irritated; he has had to halt his studies of Roon for this...family get together. In his trenchcoat he's packing a slugthrower; other than this, he has no weaponry. He folds his arms and pushes his opaque silver-lensed glasses up his nose, bringing his hat low over his eyes. This had better be damn good.

[Miranda Dunleavy]

appearance of Ambrose. Though she was accepted into their ranks and embraced fully by Saurron, the Assassin still had yet to acquaint herself with the rest of her own kind. It was simply not her way. She even debated with herself whether or not to show here tonight. Would her presence really have been missed?

At home within the shadows cast by the Shrine Castle, faceted emerald eyes surveyed her 'Brothers and Sister' conversing politely in greeting. Nothing extraordinary happened until the Fledgling Kolarik appeared, eagerly approaching his Mistress. It was fascinating to Miranda how much he faun over his Maker. It had a childlike quality to it. Almost endearing.

It was finally then that the redhead knew why they were summoned. They were going to hunt together. The notion of such an excursion was undeniably foreign to Miranda. She learned to hunt for survival all on her own the very night she was turned. It was a test of strength and fortitude, her Maker had said. If she was to survive then Miranda had deserved the Dark Gift he had given her. Ever since that frightful night, the only being that had ever witnessed her feed was Soth. She could feel a wash of anxiety pass over her as Ferenczy sped off into the night.

The other one, Dirijj, that was his name, was soon quick to want in following suit. And another came, utterly and completely angered to be disturbed by his tone and body language. This was when Miranda finally stepped out from the shadows, now visible to everyone present. Her skin was alabaster white causing her red hair to seem ablaze in the moonlight. Her body remained hidden behind the gleaming black cloak as if it were a shield.

When she spoke, her question was directed at Alana. "We are to hunt. Together? I still don't understand why, though you explained it to Kolarik."

She hated being so ignorant of what it meant to live together with her own kind.

[Alana Stormcloud]

Alana watched with a smile as Hannibal sped off into the night. He had his own methods of taking prey, and had been doing it for some time. She had no doubt that there would be quiet a few bodies littering the back alleys this night.


The hunt has already begun, may I feed my bloodlust now, Master.

Alana's eyes locked with Dirjj’s another she had no doubt in, he had proven himself time, and again to be a hunter of the damned. His blood lust shone plainly in his eyes, his want becoming her own, with the link he established. "Then hunt..." Came her soft reply, via the force. He to would have many fall under his spell... An evil smile tugged at Alana's crimson lips.


The Sith Lordess felt the presence of another, not one turned by her. He had been turned by Thorn. One of her own. "Sol such anger, even you must close the book to take sustenance, young one." Alana had always loved his attitude, the underlying anger, and surly attitude, so becoming of a vampire if directed in the right places.

Alana's eyes quickly shifted from him to another, a dark sister that had just come to the Shrine family. She had been, like Alana herself, a member of the Coven. Her power and abilities were renowned. A look of sadness marred Alana's other wise unreadable face. She knew of Miranda's past, and some of the things the Vampyre Master had suffered.

"We are to hunt. Together? I still don't understand why, though you explained it to Kolarik."

“Ah Miranda, a true pleasure that you could join us this night." The purple moon lit both women, casting a soft glow against there pale skin. "To hunt as a family holds many pleasures. To watch as each one kills indiscriminately, and differently. You are a part of us now. Even we can become lonely Miranda, as you know. At times we can be solitary creatures, but we have all of eternity to suffer that fate. Now is the time to take pleasure in each other." Alana did not truly know how to explain the need; she had always craved the love of a family. Her memories were tainted, and empty. Even the love of her mother was a fallacy created by her uncle.

Alana looked back to Kolarik, and then to the others. They meant more to the dark Lordess than even she cared to express. She, simply put, would die for each of them. When Alana loved she loved fully. Though it was not beyond her if crossed to destroy what she loved. It had always been in her dark nature to do so.

Her hue shifting eyes trained once again on Miranda, a soft smile lit them. "Is it not better to have someone share you bed than to sleep alone? Even if the scent of roses has faded there are always others Dark sister." Alana said cocking her head to the side. She knew of the past Miranda had with Soth. Alana swept her hand out, pointing to each in turn.

"Now there will always be others to choose from." Alana tightened her hold on her newest fledglings arm, a soft seductive whisper of promised delights filled his ear. Her laughter carried to each on the breeze. There was nothing sweeter than the life of a Vampyre....

[Sol Invictus]

"Hunt? I suppose we'll all take blaster rifles and a few kegs out in the forest and shoot at things?"

Sol is smiling, despite his sarcastic criticism.

"Then let us begin."

He sets out toward the distant villages that border Roon's dark half.

[Dirjj Mordrai]

Dirjj approached the outskirts of the village, a grim grin upon his face and bloodlust in his heart. Alana had loosed him upon this unknowing settlement and the bodycount was soon to rise. Initially he casually stalked down the cobblestone streets, looking for indiscriminate targets, there was quite alot of traffic for this time of night. He could taken any or all them if he chose but his eyes fell on the towne's constabulary building. A small two story mission inspired affair.

The vampyre's path swung in it's direction, the front entrance growing larger as he approached it with cool deliberate steps, stalking like a predator, boots ringing on the cobblestones. The building's tiled terrace cast a shadow over the doors as Dirjj converged upon them. His hand reached out and grasped the handle, it turned and the door swung slowly open. An errant lightning bolt cracked across the nightsky like a uncanny pronouncement, but lightning was quite common on Roon. Tonight was no exception.

A clerk assigned at the front desk looked up irritably sighing, and politely requested Dirjj 'close the door, sir, please'. The door slammed shut with impossible force, causing the whole entranceway to tremor yet no physical hand was laid upon that door. The clerk looked up again from his paperwork and reports. What confronted him was a stranger in a dark longcoat with a rather olde-style hat upon his bowed head, the clerk's brow furrowed with concern and laid down his pen, "How may I help you, sir?"

The stranger shoulders began to tremble with a deep gutteral growl arising from his bowels, sounding nothing remotely human but unholy like an infernal beast. The clerk froze with fear, wetness soon spread across the crotch of his uniform trousers and down his leg. A puddle of the noxious-smelling human waste gathered around his black leather loafers. "Oh, dear god...," was the last words he spoke as Dirjj leapt catlike over the information booth, crashing into the constable clerk Kenaldo offering him no means of mercy. A scream was abruptly cut short by the wet ripping sound of torn flesh and a loud hungry growl.

[Lord Soth]

A familiar deathly coldness seemed to fill the already frigid night air as the Family of the Damned resided in the murky shadows. A sickly greenish fog rolled in around their feet as they spoke in low tone's with one another about the ensuing hunt that was sure to come...

Death was ever so near them, studying the accursed intently from a short distance away with eye's that glowed and sparkled with a malevolent fire within the inky recesses of the night. They would not have the pleasure of knowing what it was like to feed with her, a coveted bond that the two had shared between them long ago when they were once lover's. This was the searing thought that pressed on the Death Knight's mind as he narrowed his gaze in their direction.

"I will gladly accompany you m'lady...It has been quite some time since,..." The hollow sepulchral voice from the shadows trailed off as a black armor clad form emerged from the shrouded veils of the Dead Forest ...It was the dreaded Death Knight,...Soth Nuevole!

"...We have dined together Miranda Dunleavy." Soth held out his pale hand to her in an inviting gesture, wishing to place a kiss upon Miranda's own as it his custom in doing so as a renowned Knight of the Black Rose.

[H. A. Ferenczy]

After a thought of his behavior, it seemed that Hannibal was being a bit anti-social, for he was feeding alone...habit was so hard to break. He had company now, he should enjoy it. It was not like this when he was a 'child.' He had his master Yanos, which later became unfavorable company...... But that was then and this was the now.....

Instead of finding the others, he simply waited for whatever Vampire or Vampires came closest, leaning back against the wall, his booted foot propped on the wet, gray stone. The light of a nearby lamp post threw a shadow over half of his face, making him seem a veritable Jekyll and Hyde. He smiled slyly, and simply enjoyed the pale purple light of Roon's Luna.

[Miranda Dunleavy]

It was still so very foreign to Miranda. To be part of something, together. Not as a tool or a token of someone else's desires. Alana truly meant being part of a family. The only family she'd ever know had long since departed from this existence by her very own hand.

These thoughts filled her mind with questions still until Alana mentioned Soth. Oh no, it was not by name but the innuendo was prevalent throughout her words. Miranda had forgotten that Alana and her shared loyalties to the Coven and would have known about her intimate involvement with Soth. Now her mind was consumed with thoughts of him and what happened between them at the Inn days past.

Perhaps Alana was reading her surface thoughts or merely it was coincidence, it was hard to tell with Vampyres. It just seemed well place that she mentioned that there were others in the Shrine for suitable replacements for her lonely nights. The mere thought of it intrigue Miranda. Maybe it had been too long that she harbored these feelings. Would it be possible to let go?

There was no answer this night. Fate again brought forth the very being himself that occupied her thoughts. His voice was the first sign of his presence and it clung to the air heavily. Miranda already was eyeing his shrouded form even before he stepped from the shadows. Their eyes were locked together as Soth appeared and stepped before her so gallantly, asking her to hunt Room together this night.

Miranda could feel those that still remained focused on them both, wondering what she would do. If this had happened weeks ago, she would have brushed him off like he was nothing more then a fledging that wasn't worthy of her time. But now, things were different. There would have to be another night for thoughts that did not involve Soth.

Her cloak parted down the middle and her right arm lithely extended forth and was placed within the Death's Knight grasp.

[Vampyre Dalamar]

Dalamar had found the idea interesting when Alana first suggested the hunt. He watched in the darkness as one by one they came.

Standing out of sight on a nearby precipice he examined the fledglings. They where all new to the dark gift. Straining at the bit to feed. Miranda and Soth's arrival was a pleasant suprise the hunt could truly begin soon.

Seemingly the shadows came alive as the Vampyre's black armor caught the light. Smiling he nodded to Soth and Miranda. "Alana my dear, I have missed you. I see you still play the game of hearts with all your fledglings."

Soth sighed, and Dalamar caught the hint. "Sorry my love there will be no ill feeling tonight."

Pulling out some Blood wine and glasses. The Warlord poured everyone a drink. He then spoke with a smile. "A toast to family!"

[Sol Invictus]

Sol gestures as if toasting, though he lacks a glass of wine. He's fed already and had every intention of remaining hidden away in the Shrine's vast library. This hunt is redundant to him, but he will join them out of respect, at the very least. The aged man lurks at the back of the crowd, the better to keep his actions hidden and unnoticed.

[Dirjj Mordrai]

Splat!--Thud!

Something struck the constable chief's door with great force, cracking the wood near the hinges, and heard a muffled voice beyond the door mutter, "....aw damnit." The voice was laced with disgust. And it did not sound like Kenaldo or Trujillo. The two constables pulling office duty during the graveyard shift.

Chief Thurbin arose from behind his desk, a look of befuddlement crossing his face. As he took a few steps towards the door, it suddenly exploded in his face. A large, hairy object flew over his shoulder, and gone with a blur, smashing out the window behind him with a loud shattering crash. (The very one that overlooked the beautiful rosegarden in the courtyard below.) What? Was a wild animal loose in the constabulary. Destroying my office. That tears it!

He stomped to his door with determination. The chief was going to find out what frellin dren is happening around. But then he noticed the newly acquired large hole in his office door had blood running down it. Too much in fact. Something and somebody was badly injured. As he reached out for the doorhandle, Thurbin peered through the splintered opening and saw a body lying at the far end of the hall. A uniformed body sans it's head. And blood dressing the walls.Oh my mother!

Gotcha!"A hand flew through the gap in the door and cold iron fingers gripped the chief's throat. Thurbin instinctively tried to wrench the hand off but it held-on like steel. Choking and wimpering, Thurbin convulsed like a fish out of water but Dirjj's strength never laxed. The vampyre was quite capable of hoisting a struggling 287lb obese man singlehandedly such as this, even larger no sweat. Thurbin face began to turn blue when a merciful -snap!- ended his pain.

[Kolarik]

He had not expected that she would come to him among the others, but he had hoped, certainly, that she would. As Alana's gaze fell upon him, his eyes had not left hers. It was then that she had moved to him. Adoringly his eyes had followed her, the innocence in them being replaced only by an intense and perhaps lustful gaze.

She was beautiful and the night only enhanced what was so easily already hers.

And then her lips had brushed his before her arm had slipped comfortably into his. A small smile had entered the corners of his lips as the young vampire basked in the glory of Alana’s attention.

Alana my dear, I have missed you. I see you still play the game of hearts with all your fledglings.

His head had whipped around at this comment. It was biting – both towards him and her by the tone of it. He had never seen this one before, though he could feel something powerful about Dalamar. It did not place him in fear, but he was wise enough to keep his mouth shut.

His gaze flickered to the ground, considering the words and he might have stiffened slightly from the rather relaxed state he’d been in only moments ago.

[Alana Stormcloud]

"Alana my dear, I have missed you. I see you still play the game of hearts with all your fledglings."


A cold light lit Alana's eye as Dalamar spoke. He had never forgiven her for tossing him aside. They had loved once, and her heart still held a place for him. He had with no trouble, not unlike herself, moved on. But he still could not resist taking jabs at her expense, and now it seemed at the expense of her fledglings.

"Ah Dalamar, I see you have left your pious prayers to join our little group. Did you once again discover you are a Vampyre?" She jabbed back, his one down fall, and his noble nature. He held that above all else, with claws dug deep into his standards.

"I do not play the game of hearts with them Dalamar. I only played that with you." Her cold retort did not mask the fury in her eyes.

"Sorry my love there will be no ill feeling tonight."

His next words did not quench the anger she felt towards him. He would forever vex her about the choices she made. Of that she had no doubt. Alana gave a slight nod as she looked into his eyes, an unreadable understanding falling between the two. "No ill will Dalamar...... This night." Came her soft reply.


Alana turned back to Kolarik. Her eyes softening. She had felt him stiffen at Dalamar's words, and she had felt his hurt through the blood bond they now shared. "Pay him no heed, he cannot stand the fact that I walked away from him. That I choose to be, what it is in my nature to be... my love..." She whispered softly into his ear. Her lips settling on his cheek in a gentle caress.

"Come let us hunt, the night grows old..."

[Kolarik]

Such biting words in return. He'd cast a curious glance in her direction, but stayed out of the fray, for he did not find it his place to be.

As Alana turned back to him, her whispered words were enough to ease the tension within him. Though a part of him was curious to know of their past, a part of him likely did not want to know, lest he find himself somewhat jealous over something he had no need to be jealous over. In either case, if she wanted to share this with him, at some point, she would.

He did not try in any way to lay claim over Alana or what she chose to do and when. He instead simply found enjoyment in the time she bestowed upon him.

As her lips brushed past his cheek, his eyes closed briefly and then he turned to her, his gaze somewhat hooded as a small smile crept over him.

Come let us hunt, the night grows old…

He could feel his fangs elongating at the thought of the hunt and his breath might have caught in anticipation. He gave a last glance in the direction of Dalamar, not as an effort to gloat over the fact that Alana had, for this evening, chosen him, but perhaps to make note to himself should he chance upon the more powerful vampire in the hallways of the shrine – or anywhere else for that matter.

[Vampyre Dalamar]

Pay him no heed, he cannot stand the fact that I walked away from him. That I choose to be, what it is in my nature to be... my love..."

Dalamar was shocked at her words. It was he that had left her but then she always liked to put a good spin on things. Old rivalry's where to be forgotten. They had both moved on. If she wished to play that the Warlord was the wounded party then let it be so. There was some small truth to the opinion at any rate. Her fickle way's did grate on his heart. Kolarik would soon learn when the next one came along and he was tossed to the side. A vampyre's attention was hard to hold on to after all. The Vampyre pitied him.

Crushing all thoughts he smiled at everyone present. All bitterness forgotten in the glory of the Mother, the family and the hunt. He adjusted his swords and readied himself.
:smokin

[Valirion Thorn]

:: The trees echoed with a maniacal laugh that simmered to a silky hum before a voice seemed to come from the sickly pale moon itself.::

Alana... you of all of the Queen's blessed are a testament that the night is forever young.

:: The shadows that always semed to be delicately wrapped about her shifted in the moon's light before the shadows along her neck became hands that caressed her face. They ran over her eyes before actually becoming substance and withdrawing from her face. They slide down her back before slipping into the shadows of the trees behind the gathered damned. The laughing started again, this time sounding silky to begin with and then changing drastically as I stepped into the light of the moon.
My dark red garments hung from me like dripping blood as my violet eyes took in the rare sight before me. My laughing stopped as my mouth closed and driblets of blood escaped the corner of my mouth when my fangs sliced them.
There wasn't much to dribble though, I always starved myself before eating because I loved to become drunk off my victims, the ecstasy of drinking crowds and crowds of people until I was almost as red as my garments from so much blood had been my style recently and my messes were always for others to pick up.::

I am glad to see so many of the godchildren together, our Goddess would be pleased to know so much blood shall be taken this eve.

:: I served the Shrine and Ashiva the Queen of the Gods, they had given me my immortal pain and I owed them both my godliness. I was well on my way to power and oblivion and it was always good to see what I could become, Soth, Alana, Dalamar, and the other woman who resonated with older and stronger power of an elder. Either one of their power would sufice my taste, I believed if I drank their blood I could accumulate some of their's but I could only lick what I could get from my blade when I "sparred" with them. Dalamar had been the most recent and it had tasted like a deep wine, a very good vintage. But that was all on my way to pure immortality. My armor burst from my spine and shoulders at these thoughts and and it hardened, making spikes and twisted metal hang from my back as I returned to the present moment.::

Lord Soth, Lord Dalamar, greetings. A pleasure to see even more of the council poised to drink blood in the same hour.

:: The thought of Dalamar drew smaller streams of blood from my palm as my nails dug into my hands, last time we had fought, I had been left to rejuvanating within my armor for quite some time until recieving a blessing from the Goddess and finding my wounds gone, it had been a pleasant surprise but the pain had been welcomed.
And my armor twisted again at Soth, it adored the visage of Soth whenever he was around, whispering that I should do as Soth does and such nonsense, I was sure it would leave me for him if I gave it the chance.
But I turned to the Lady Vampyre I didn't know, my psychoticly glowing eyes turning downcast as I took her hand and brushed it with my thin lips before stepping back.::

And you m'lady, I am Valirion Thorn, Pain incarnate at your service.

:: The sword wrapped along my spine suddenly shrieked with laughter at the statement, Pain was it's partner in fufilling it's purpose, and I was it's partner. I liked to take the meaning dmaned to the next level.
I looked to the other fledglings near me, I sniffed lightly to taste their powers. A youngling of Alana and Sol, my own. I was proud to have Sol as my apprentice but he would never learn of it. He was a symbol of chaos in himself, anarchy that defied every wall placed before him, even if it would fall upon him and crush his body to the dust he had come from. But the other seemed unknown to the world of Heaven and Hell we owned, I would enjoy talking to him sometime. And then there was Ambrose of course, a rock of a vampyre. A stone that seemed to show no emotions but cold fury when it pleased him, I wouldn't mind sharing my philosophies of pain with him when I could remember to. I smiled even more, my white face showing no real sign of it though, as my violet gaze turned back to the elders. I could hear sounds of pain through out the near town.::

[Sol Invictus]

Valirion. Finally, someone worth talking to. Though it seems he's busy with Miranda. Sol maintains a respectful distance, watching for an opportunity to approach. Idly he captures an escaping citizen of the town and holds her close to him, with one arm draped over her shoulders.

"Tell me, girl, what are you doing out this late? There are dangerous people afoot tonight."

She stutters, trying to pull away, and finally screams in fear. Sol bites her to shut her up. Her scream fades to a gasp, a soft sound that Sol finds to be oddly arousing. He drains the girl and lets her lifeless body drop to the ground.

[H. A. Ferenczy]

Hannibal, after waiting for only a minute on that wall, decided to take another action: to go to the other Vampires instead of letting them come to him. He was obviously getting nowhere with his patient waiting. His feet barely made a single noise, for they were fleeting, one barely touched the ground as the other rose just as quickly. The locals and pedestrians walking the streets, in their myriad dress and style, did not even notice the shadow that fell on them and left them. Hannibal, using his blood ties with the Shrine, found the large group with no problem. He, instead of making a big, 'impressive' entrance, he made no entrance at all. He just slumped slightly against the wall, to wait for the arrival of some fellow Vampires. A high-pitched whine began to resound in his head, and he looked, smelled, and listened for a cause, and even extended the Force to find it, but with no avail. It was a sound from inside his own head. And what pain!!!! Hannibal had not had such a migrane ever since he had become the Vampire he was. He rubbed at his temples, feeling the blood pounding into his brain. It was not the blood that hurt him, for it acted more like an asprin, curing his headache, but the migrane simply did not leave. The scene was a blur in his eyes, and the words were amazingly loud but distant, for the pain became the holder of all his attention. He sat on the pavement, taking deep breaths and rubbing his temples, in wait for the pain to reside.

[Lord Soth]

The Death Knight's piercing blue eye's remained affixed on the red head's own as he walk to her with a stately stride. An air of arrogance played on his chiseled face, his slightly narrowed eye's seemingly smiling at her, sending a silent message their own as he neared her. The Death Knight of the Black Rose carried himself amongst his brethren as a champion would before a howling crowd of spectator's. His foreboding presence alone demanded their fullest respect. Anything less from them might and had been known to result in a quick and deadly conclusion...Perhaps it was the Vampyre way of thing's, the strongest on down to the weaker of their brood, a reflection of nature it's self in a dog eat dog universe. However, to Soth it was simply his innate right and the accursed power's as a "Death Knight" over the Damned that he invoked his indurated will.

Like smooth silken fabric, Soth's ivory hand slipped into Miranda's as he kept eye contact with her. His crimson lip's pressed softly on the back of her delicate porcelain hand as he did so.

"M'lady...A pleasure to see you once again." The Dark Knight replied in a low gentle tone. Soth eye's then momentarily broke away from hers then trailed slowly over to Valirion, Miranda's hand still within his own as he addressed the young Vampyre beside them.

"That will all for now my apprentice...The Lady and I wish to hunt alone this evening." The Death Knight nodded respectfully to the understudy then returned his gaze back to the assassin.

"Come Miranda,...I have a personal score to settle with a rich young aristocrat who resides in Rooden." Soth paused as he slowly let Miranda's hand slip from his then continued.

"My sources tell me this young fool has hired two jedi's as retainer's for the time being until he can make his way safely off the planet surface by tomorrow evening. A trip I wish to stop before then m'lady." The Death Knight's seething word's seemed to carry a poisonous tone as he mentioned the word "jedi."

"I will discuss the finer detail's with you on our way there,...That is if you agree of course." Soth bowed slightly to Miranda as he placed his hand's within the sleeve's of his black Sith robe's. A wicked smile tugging at the corners of his lip's as his eye's met with hers again. The Death Knight knew the assassin was not only deadly in her own right, she was one in whom he trusted with his unlife...

[Miranda Dunleavy]

It was a surprise to see that another Vampyre of the Shrine beat Soth to the punch first. The one known as Valirion had taken her other deadly, yet delicate hand, and place a brief kiss upon its surface. Miranda could feel the unspoken jealously from the Death Knight but it was held in check with the command of authority, and as the wish of Master to Apprentice.

She graced Valirion with a smile, intrigue by the ferocity emanating from within those crimson eyes. "A pleasure to met you, Valirion. I am known as Miranda Dunleavy."

Soth had decided that he had seen enough introductions between the two of them. Her lips smiled in an unspoken greeting while he formally addressed his student. Seemed that Miranda had thought correctly as to Soth's appearance. The night was always their's to share in nights past and the Death Knight was not willing to relinquish that privilege to anyone as of yet.

"Perhaps another night, Valirion." Emerald eyes sparkled against the moonlight hypnotically, "I'd like a chance to speak with you one night. I've been a hermit too long in a home we all share." Her smile was thin but even the young Vampyre saw the sharp tiny fangs peeking through before her attention returned to Soth. He never lacked for an impressive victim, and there were Jedi involved.

A red brow arched upwards at the absurdity of Soth's last statement. "I didn't come out here to enjoy the chilled night, my dear Soth." In a grand gesture, she flipped back the right side of her cloak revealing the familiar weapon. Soth recognized the jeweled hilt immediately as the silver sword that Critchon had bestowed upon her after surviving all his trials. It was the only obvious weapon seen but Soth knew better.

"Please," she said in curiosity as they began to walk down the street. It's inhabitants completely numb to their presence. "Tell me more about this aristocrat that has inccured your wrath."

[Dirjj Mordrai]

Belch!

Dirjj rose up from a crouching position in one of the constabulary's cells, seems there was a couple of citizens serving time on misdemeanors or public drunkeness. He picked up his hat and brushed it off, returned it atop his head and turned stalking out of the cell, exiting the obliterated ruined remains of a heavy durasteel door. He discovered four of the six cells were empty but the other two held a single person each. An old filthy barfly and a young tough. He killed the whino first so as to torment and fill the other's heart full of unholy doom.

The whole constabulary was now silent and nothing stirred, he passed a mirrored plexiglass window and examined his reflection. Cold cruel eyes bored back at him and didn't feel like they belonged to him anymore. A complete stranger was staring back at him. His mouth was drenched with thick gumpy blood and Dirjj gave the mirror image the wet raspberry before smashing a fist through it. Time to clean up and seek his brethren out.

[imported_Ambrose Braeden]

Ambrose watched his Master, Soth Nuevole, come and go like the night. He was always like that. Ambrose wanted to make him proud, with anything his apprentice does. And the Vampire warrior would not let him down this night. He looked over at the Lordess, and thought back on all of the times they have met. They had a big history. And that history would grow even further tonight. He said one final thing to his master before he departed from the group with the Vampire.

Master, it is nice to see you again. I would go with you, but I know that you wish to travel alone with her.

OOC: Ok...sorry about that remark hanibal. wont happen again.

[Valirion Thorn]

:: My face went impassive at Soth's remarks but as I nodded to Miranda Dunleavy, what a name to roll my damned tongue over, and turned away the side of my mouth twitched until Soth and Miranda were out of sight but not hearing distance. I burst out into more insane laughter and my armor went simply ecstatic with the taste of the tension that had barely been there for only a moment.
Soth deserved respect with his power but possession over another vampyre was only the Queen's to claim, it was like trying to say you had Alana on a leash, no matter how much you tried to think you "had" a vampyre, none of us could really be enthralled by another unless we so chose it.
I turned and nodded to Alana once more, eying the "innocent" vampyre that attended her like a lap dog. I loved to hunt with Alana, she had brought me into it, but I couldn't stand to follow anymore than Sol could follow orders. It wasn't incompetence, merely... Strength of independent will that most vampyres seemed blessed with.::

Sol, I'm starving. I hear the screams of mortals under the moon and I hear the breathing of our brethren in the streets. Let us say hello.

:: The spikes protruding from my back twisted into the air and then spun, making it look like I had a Mantel of Death on my back. I started to walk away. I could care less what Dalamar or any of the others planned to do, especially Ambrose, but Sol and I were going to have something to do. I had taught Sol how to feed properly by starving him right when he was turned, messes and gore always made the meal more rememborable.
I leaped upwards easily into a tree, in one bound I was at the top and holding on with one hand, my blood red garments flowing with a wind that wasn't really there. I smiled before leaping away from the tree and to the village. Sol would learn to keep up. With a few bounds, I was on a roof on the outskirts and I took one deep sniff of the air, my armor making tendrils with small eyes that rolled about and viewed the area for me. I wanted to meet another vampyre before I fed myself.::

[Sol Invictus]

Sol walks behind at his own pace, following Valirion's movement with eyes hidden behind his glasses and hat. When Valriion stops, Sol gathers the Force and leaps in a long arc to land next to him.

"Well then...who is to be our first prey?"

[Alana Stormcloud]

Alana smiled as she felt the hands of Thorn run over her face, and neck. He had always had a way of doing things. He was a true testament to the dark side. Utterly in love with his pain, and that of others. His symbiotic suit craved her attention at times, as he did, it was not a tender night they wanted of her though, it was the darkness she cast over them.

"Val.... as always an entrance to be admired." Her soft words floated on the wings of the dark side.

Her mind turned sharply from Dalamar, and his biting words. They had in a sense, ceased to bother her as they once had. He would always hold a place in her heart. He would always be her dark knight. But.... If he chose to make it a war, Alana would have no problem killing what vexed her. It was in her nature to do so.

Alana dismissed her thoughts, and turned back to Kolarik. Her eyes caressing his. For now he held sway on her heart, in the vampires eyes, it was up to him to keep it.

She could feel all of the vampires gathering, some doing there own thing, and others waiting to join up. "Come my sweet lets see what pleasures we can take in the Roonstone Inn. I hunger..."

[Valirion Thorn]

:: I nodded to my apprentice, seeing his skin faintly pink with feeding. One hand pointed to a man holding his head at the corner of a street for a moment. I smiled before speaking, my slightly glowing violet eyes turning to Sol.::

That one, Sol, is a vampyre, you can taste te glory of his damnation from here. We must gret all we meet so that we may judge the strengths of our companions. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Attacking one of the Shrine is treason but if they decide to turn false, it would be better to know how to strike well than falter and be killed by a fool yourself.

:: The ntion wan't proposteous, I had hunted several former Shrine members and enjoying the fact that I had mentally broken thembefore breaking their souls had been very satisfying.
I leaped down and took a stride more like a cat than a human on two legs, arrogantly taking my steps, like I used to when I was a mere mortal noble.
I approached the vampyre and smiled even more, my fangs glistening in the moon light.::

Hail brethren. Does your head need healing, I can only think of one cure and it runs red and feels warm from fhe tap when the tap is scared.

[Kolarik]

It was interesting, the way the others seemed to eye him. A mixture of pity and jealousy.

This led him to believe that there was some truth in Dalamar’s words – that Alana was somewhat fickle and liked to play games with the hearts of her fledglings.

It was entirely possible that she had had some sort of fling with any or all of the others there, and that the looks they gave him both pitied him for what eventually might come, and were envious of him for the attention he was getting at the moment – as if they remembered what it was like to be as he was.

These thoughts were interrupted by her enchanting voice.

Come my sweet lets see what pleasures we can take in the Roonstone Inn. I hunger...

And who was he to deny her the satisfaction of the kill?

Wordlessly, he consented, and with her arm linked in his, they began the short journey to the Inn.

[Alana Stormcloud]

Alana cast her eyes sideways at Kolarik, feeling his thoughts. Dalamar’s words had bothered him. Though she had a few lovers, it was not as he thought. The love of her fledglings though powerful, was born of the blood call she had over them. She had only been lover to Dalamar, and then there was Ket but he had long since disappeared. She was not a fickle woman but she was not one to be tied with words or actions.

She had drifted from Dalamar due to her seductive games, he could not tolerate the fact others wanted her, but it was a game of words and simple looks. The blood call she shared though erotic, did not mean she had taken them to her bed. Not as she had him. No one had captured her heart and mind, yet.... Though he seemed to hold her more ensnared than even she wanted to admit.

"Remember my sweet it is you who holds me every night." Came her husky whisper.... As they opened the door to the inn, and the soft light washed over them....

[Sol Invictus]

Sol follows, maintaining the distance between himself and his master. The old man isn't quite sure what Valirion intends to do with this vampyre...though by the way the latter holds his head, it would appear that he is either weak of will, physically weak...of course, it could be that he is both of these.

"Valirion makes a strong point, friend. Find for yourself a vessel and drink until you have had your fill. Life's wine will cure whatever ails you."

[Lord Soth]

Before the two Master's departed from the family group, Soth's attention fell on his understudy Ambrose. The Death Knight nodded to the fledgling as he approached.

"Master, it is nice to see you again. I would go with you, but I know that you wish to travel alone with her."

A note of ernest was evident in the young Vampire's tone as he spoke. Soth's demeanor however remained like ageless marble, emotionless as he listened, glancing over to Miranda then back to Ambrose before he replied.

"Yes my apprentice...The Lady Dunleavy and myself will hunt alone this evening. Nevertheless,...I wish something of you before we depart from here." Soth's penetrating gaze fell on Valirion monetarily who was now preoccupied with his own understudy Sol, then the Death Knight eye's trailed slowly back to Ambrose. Soth's understudy cocked his head slightly to the side as he followed his master's path to Val.

"Keep an eye on him Ambrose...We do not wish to be followed nor interfered with this night...There is to much at stake...Do this,...And you will be rewarded...Have I made myself clear?" The Death Knight words were tipped with a curtain hint of steel as his apprentice's turned to face him once again. The young warrior noted within that moment as his own eye's met back with Soth's the lethal glimmer in Vampyre's distant stare. He had seen that deadly look many times before in his master eye's, one he had seen first hand and personally witnessed to the fate of other's at it's end resolve...The last thing the Death Knight said before he left with the assassin at his side confirmed his suspicion.

"I will deal with him later..."

Later on that evening as the two Vampyre's pressed on stealthily into the night towards the well guarded hilltop keep where the rich nobleman resided, Roland Edrinn; Soth recounted his discrepancies with the man to Miranda. The Death Knight explain to her how Roland had met with him formally only two weeks prior at his villa regarding a venture that went all but sour. The young aristocrat had made a deal with the federation to sell out all of the out laying regions he owned that produced mining area's for some of the largest export's of Roonstones on the planet...When Soth generously offered to buy the lucrative territories from Roland, he refused. This infuriated the Death Knight to no ends and with that the young man, fearing for his life, acquired the protection of the two jedi knight's.

[H. A. Ferenczy]

Hannibal looked up slightly, noting the strange-looking Vampire. What strange looks! But while they looked bizzarrely-bestial, there was a certain hint of ferality that Hannibal found to his liking. At his mention of blood, Hannibal answered him.

"That might be true, brother, but you see, I do not know where this headache comes from. My last victim had no problems with her blood, for it was quite exquisite....I shall hunt with my bretheren. My name is Hannibal Ferenczy, it is a pleasure to meet you."

Pulling himself from the edge of the wall, Hannibal stood beside the group.

"And where will our palates take us tonight?"



OOC: Thanks, Ambrose. Not tryin' to bust your chops, man... :)

[Miranda Dunleavy]

"I will deal with him later..." A sentence not to be taken lightly coming from Soth. Miranda wasn't sure what had happened just then but the chilled night had dropped several degrees with that exchange.

Why is it you don't trust him, Soth? Miranda was deeply curious about this but did not want to break the subterfuge. To be completely private was to speak to Soth mentally, a link that no one could eavesdrop on.

To the causal Vampyre observer, since the populace were unaware of Miranda and Soth's presence, they were simply discussing the specifics of man that had crossed the Death Knight. It all came down to a sour business deal.

"So, let me understand this correctly," she began. "The fool said no to you, obviously knowing who you are by the fact he hired two Jedi to protect him." The red head huffed under breath at the stupidity. "He obviously doesn't know you as well as he thought if that would stop you."

[Kolarik]

Remember my sweet it is you who holds me every night.

It was impossible to forget that fact. Impossible. And in that moment, any insecurities were washed away.

As they stepped into the Inn, the soft light washing over them, he finally turned to face Alana. There was something in his eyes, a hint of mischief perhaps as a boyish, yet fanged grin appeared.

“It’s that simple fact that keeps me from being able to think straight…” He replied.

Being a newly turned vampire, he slept rather soundly during the day. Though he could have sworn he had woken from time to time to find her in his arms, or to share a kiss. But always when he awoke, it seemed as if it had been a dream of sorts, and he was still trying to discern dreams from reality. Which seemed to be a difficult thing to do around the Vampire Seductress.

[Valirion Thorn]

I am Valirion Thorn, the pleasure is mine.

:: My armor laughed, a vampyre with a headache? Was it weakness? I would excuse it this time. My violet eyes scraped across the street and my armor split from my skin, tasting the air for mortal blood. I was hungry now, seeing that evryone else here was slightly pink while I was still blanch white.::

Hmmmmm... Sol, find us a family, wife, husband, children, I need a family value meal. Now.

[H. A. Ferenczy]

Hannibal knew that his headache was a sign of weakness....but he was far from that. Perhaps this headache was a sign of things to come. As his thoughts dwelled on what it could possibly be, his ex-master Yanos seemed to keep coming to mind....perhaps he had something to do with it....but how? He had been dead for about three hundred years....

Something hit him mentally, like a cargo load of bricks. He almost physically reeled, as his vision did something wierd....the streets of new replaced themselves with cobblestone, and the vampires simply did not exist any more. He was alone....and he felt a physical tug, and it seemed to pull him into motion. He began walking slowly but surely away from the bar, towards the outskirts of town. To the other Vampires, it seemed as if he had become a veritable zombie, his eyes glazed and glassed over, making him seem a walking piece of taxidermy work. His slow walk became gradually faster and faster, until the scenes around him, of old but 'new' buildings, gas-lamps, and blurry windows disappeared, replaced by a cemetary. Hannibal, his mind blank, asked no questions to himself, but slowed to a walk, moving among the tombstones and the family masoleums. Hannibal stopped at one particular masoleum, whose entrance had long been overgrown by vines and weeds. His hands shot out, gripping the stone. With little difficult, he pulled the door aside, and entered. The smell of damp, mold, and decay immediately hit his nose. He did not reel, just continued to walk into the darkness. The walls were shelved, and in these shelves were the bones of family members. Some were intact skeletons; some were broken, hanging from the shelves; some were adults; some were children. As Hannibal's glazed eyes scanned the room, he saw, in a corner to his right, a large pile of broken bones, their meat and skin long sloughed away from the bleached bones. Looking alternately, to his left, he saw an opposing corner filled with the clothing and belongings of the pile. And betwixt the two lay a coffin. It was not an ornate coffin; in fact, it was very plain, old mahogany. He took two steps and was beside the coffin. Bracing himself, he lifted the lid, and after a small hiss, it came loose, and Hannibal flung the heavy lid to the side, hearing the crunch of bones as the lid clattered onto the seemed 'waste pile.' Within the coffin was a decayed body, brown and worm infested, its teeth yellowed; the eyeteeth were sharp, as a Vampire's teeth. It reeked of death. Clutched in its withered hands, there was a cube, with runes carved on it. Hannibal, with little trouble, pried the fingers from it. Holding the fist-sized cube, he stuck it into his pocket. As he did so, the corpse shot up, gripping Hannibal's neck with the bones. Hannibal, shocked, fell backwards, pulling the corpse out of the coffin. It fought with him, trying to bite and strangle him. Hannibal, within the struggle, composed himself and also gripped the neck of the creature, with one hand to hold it at bay. Laying on top of the coffin's lid, he felt it shift, revealing some bones. A complete skull came into his vision. He gripped it with his free right hand and shattered it against the cranium of the fighting corpse. As a decaying 'juice' shot from the impact, the creature fell to the side. Hannibal's hand shot out again, gripping a shattered femur, its broken point sharp. Hannibal sat astride the corpse, stabbing at the neck consecutively, over and over and over, until the neck became almost nonexistent. All the while, the corpse roared with a fury. Hannibal grabbed the hair of the head, and with a yank, pulled the head from the body. It instantly fell dead, writhing no more. Hannibal, looking at the accursed skull, threw it to the side. Getting up and dusting the dirt from his clothing, he looked around the room for any other threat, his blood flowing angrily, agitated. Rumaging through the pile of clothing and belongings, he found a large duffel bag. Gripping the belongings, he shoved them into the bag, and once done with the random pile, he tied off the end of the bag and slung it upon his back. Fingering the cube in his coat pocket, he stepped out of the cemetary. His eyes unglazed, and he sprinted back to the crowd of Vampires across town, and found them with no trouble. The streets were normal again, made of pavement. The lamps were electric, and the buildings were modern. He stopped outside the bar, next to the group of Vampires.

"I apologize for my absence. I just realized that I had some business to attend to."

Hannibal smiled.

"My headache has left me. Let us hunt."

[Valirion Thorn]

:: My violet eyes twisted momentarily at the queer vampyre. I knew I was not normal by standards either but there was a difference between powerfully different and idiotically different.::

Yes, let us hunt.

:: I usually liked to play with my food before I fed but it would have to be different ths time also, playing took weeks and weeks, I had one night. I followed Sol as his senses picked up more living beings, I had made sure he was more attuned to the living by starving him when first turned, a good lesson.
We came to a house and I sighed as my vampyric hearing could pick up the sounds of small children breathing.::

We have found our nest.

:: I walked to the side of the clustered home and more beastial than man like, crawled up the side of the building, the window unlatching from the inside as I slipped in like a shadow. I was in the children's room, right where I wanted to be, but at the moment I as actually disturbed by something else.
Ambrose? I could sense him closer to me than beore, heading my way, from point A, Soth, to point B, me. And this disturbed me why? My armor shivered beeath my skin convulsively... Soth had taken a notice of me? Very interesting... My violet eyes sparkled as I sat at the end of one of the small beds containing a body, breathing slowly. It would be rude to begin until everyone was in here to share the meals. My fangs were exposed in the sliver of moonlight lighting the room but I wasn't smiling anymore because I was hungry.::

[H. A. Ferenczy]

Hannibal scaled the wall with little difficulty, his fingers finding the individual cracks in which to pull themselves up with. And sometimes, when cracks did not exist, they simply pulled him up all the same. Climbing horizontally, he found the window to the room. Within, Hannibal could see the rise and fall of the woman's breasts in slow, rhythmic breathing. Taking note of it, Hannibal simply pushed the window open.......finding it unlocked. His boots made not even the lightest sound as he stepped into the room. As he walked over to the bed, he noticed the man that lay beside her. He simply scooped her up, without even waking her or the man. Carrying her down the stairs, he finds some crystal. Biting her slightly on her wrists, so as not to wake her, he drained some of her life-blood into the two crystal glasses, sipping at it slightly. He could 'hear' Valirion upstairs, and bothered not with him. He sent him a message via the 'Blood Link' that they all held with the Shrine.

"There is a second crystal glass ready for you, Varilion. Perhaps we could chat a little, perhaps get to know of each other."

[Sol Invictus]

"A family value meal? I suppose you'll want a large milkshake and super sized fries as well," Sol quips.

He can feel it. Smell it, to an extent. The fear of the humans. A man, his wife, and their son and daughter. Valirion has found the children. Now for the rest...Sol lifts a heavy boot and kicks in the door to the parents' bedroom. He takes them, dragging them by the collars of their robes to throw them atop their frightened, shivering children.

[Valirion Thorn]

:: I shudder as my armor runs down the soft cheek of the human child. My eyes are closed as my breathing is in pattern with the slow rhythym of their heart beats but my concentration is disturbed by Hannibal's message...
I stand slowly, my lips peeling back as my armor reared back in the air like pit vipers, cold blades being formed at the tips of the many tendrils. In a flurry of movement, my expression of exhultation could be felt through the building by the other vamyres in it as my armor tore the children into scraps of flesh, blood swirling about me as I used the force to make it flow to my mouth in weightless streams. I swallowed some and then let it all drop, bones, guts, and blood all hitting the floor and sinking through the floor boards.
I turned from the room and slowly trodded down the stairs to Hannibal. My violet eyes were more fevered now than before and my skin was no longer white but dimly pink. I grabbed one cup in my hand and took the blood in one down, tossing the glass to the side as I took a seat and sighed.::

Chat a little? and what do you need to know of me?

[Lord Soth]

Soth chuckled slightly at the red head's blatant comment. Miranda knew him in way's in which no other vampyre had or ever would for that matter. There were thing's that the Death Knight had chose to keep secret, hidden for millennia, shrouded in obscurity for good reason. Evil and wicked thing's that only a very select few had ever been allowed to even peer into that dark ominous place.

"Why is it you don't trust him, Soth?" Miranda asked sincerely, turning toward's him slightly as they continued making their way toward's Roland's estate.

"I have my reason's Miranda..." Soth returned the glance, his ashen face seemed solemn as he spoke.

"Soon they will manifest themselves and then you will fully understand my dear. A challenge that I hope your up to when the time comes." Soth's cryptic word's lent nothing to her inquiry, only more unanswered question's as it had always been between them.


After awhile, the two Vampyre's made it to the summit that led up to Roland's keep. The massive stone keep was surrounded by tree's and other foliage that semi-obscured their view from the road they were now on...It would take some careful thought and planning before gaining access into the guarded compound.

"Indeed M'lady...A fool he is at that." The Death Knight word's were lethal and sharp as he viewed the structure.

"My proposition was most generous Miranda...One, if he had taken at the time when it was offered to him could have spared his miserable life along with his other retainers and servant's." Soth turned slowly to face the assassin once again, his piercing blue eye's glinting in the cascading moon light that bathed the landscape in hue's of gray.

"Now they all shall die for his refusal!" Soth snapped, his gaze falling back on the keep some quarter of a mile away from them. A long moment passed between them before the Death Master continued. Soth extended a long talon finger toward's the strong hold.

"We shall enter through the back way m'lady. There is an access point on the other side of the compound and the guard's there will be quite easy to over take. From there we will pass through his courtyard then enter into his house...Stay close to me and do what I know you do best." Soth hesitated in his sentence, then finished smoothly.

"However,...I only ask one thing of you when the time come's...Leave Roland to me." A wicked smile played on the corner's of the Dark Knight's lip's as he flashed Miranda a look of satisfaction. Blood would indeed flow like wine this evening and the two hungry Vampyre's would bring that old saying into effect once they pressed their resolve. "Killing two bird's with one stone!"

[H. A. Ferenczy]

Hannibal, hearing Varilion's response, answers Forcially.

"It is not what I need to know, it is what I wish to know. I figure that since we are in the same house, and family if you will, then we might as well get to know each other a little..."

[Valirion Thorn]

:: I laughed, my head leaning back and my armor twisting within my body.::

That is well Ferenczy. Then let me ask you one question and I will ask no more and only give answers for such talk is not normal from my tongue. What kind of mortal were you before recieving the dark gift?

[H. A. Ferenczy]

Hannibal answers with the Force.

"I was an adult, as you see now....I was the servant to a powerful Vampire by the name of Yanos. At a ripe age, he plucked me from the tree and deseeded me, planting me, so that I may soon become a tree, as he was....His end was tragic....he went mad and killed himself. But, for some odd reason, I want to believe that he was behind the headache, the one that I just suffered. For you see, I have, in all my Vampiric years, never had a headache. And now my power has grown to a decent standing, and the headache comes. I felt almost drunk, as if my eyes seemed to gloss over....I am not sure how to say this....I was the only one existing at the moment. You and the others simply were not there, simply vanished from my sight....and I know not what brought on this headache or the 'dreamscape' that I was engrossed in...it was as if I had simply went back in time...back to when the roads were stoned with cobbles, the lamps were gas powered, and the buildings' architectural workings were, by our standards now, classic, old. And compelled by some undeniable Force, I went to the cemetary, where I fought one of our 'Tainted' brothers, and proclaimed the belongings of his food....Pried in the corpse's grasp was this cube, fist-sized. It remains to me an enigma....I know not what it is....but it feels important...."

Hannibal smiles, then realizing his rudeness.

"I see that I have been rude, and have 'spoken' too much....what kind of human were you when you were given our Blessed Curse, as some are wont to call our Dark Gifts?"

[Valirion Thorn]

I was not and would ever be considered human before recieving the dark gift. I hate mortals and all their weaknesses, how easily they give into pain and how much they are drawn to themselves. They are nothing more than cattle in my eyes and I sw that bfore being turned also.
I was nobly born in the House of Thorn on Talon XIII, an insignificant planet that used symbiotics to say who was noble and who wasn't. Unfortuantely, my armor and my sword decided too much in their case and I killed them all, even my pre arranged fiancee.

:: I remembered those days very well. Those were the days when I couldn't drink the blood of my victims but had craved to even before knowing of vampirism or the Shrine. I hd been ignorant but eager. Fortunately, Alana had found me before I destroyed myself also for my own mortal weaknesses, she offered me a way to cheat man's doom. I could become a god...
I shook off the memories easily and stood, talking bored me when so any other mortals were about to be slaughtered. I loved carnage and so did my armor, we were not impatient, just simply didn't like to waste time.::

But I have had enough, I was never human, I had evolved. I was spawn to the godchilds before I knew it and now I am one of the Chosen. That is true and so is my hunger. Let us feed Ferenczy.

:: the door slammed off its hinges as I stepped outside. I could sense Sol feeding and I could sense Ambrose nearby. That was still an interesting subject to meddle in but I was still hungry.::

[H. A. Ferenczy]

"Yes, let's feed."

Biting the woman hard on the neck, he sucked her dry, waiting until almost the last second, when the heart was at its weakest, to stop. He felt the tug as he pulled away, and sighed. Following Valirion's signature, he left the house and its victims behind.

[Miranda Dunleavy]

"I have my reason's Miranda..." Soth returned the glance, his ashen face seemed solemn as he spoke.

"Soon they will manifest themselves and then you will fully understand my dear. A challenge that I hope your up to when the time comes." Soth's cryptic word's lent nothing to her inquiry, only more unanswered question's as it had always been between them.


Interesting, she thought to herself. There was, perhaps, more than jealousy that existed between those two. Still, it left Miranda in a quandary as to what it all meant, and she was still in the middle. Miranda would have to find a way to use this to her advantage. But later. There was business to attend to and the silent calls of death hated to be ignored.

She looked towards the compound with a gleam hinted in her eyes. In her unlife, there were far greater obstacles that she needed to break into to complete an assignment. Soth was worrying too much but when his thirst of vengeance was so powerful, he tended to analyze his prey inside and out to a fault.

Yet, she listened intently. This was his revenge. Miranda was only along to make sure nothing unspeakable happened to Soth and of course, for the hunt itself. The need to feed had long since evaporated from Miranda because of who her Maker was. But she could never deny how drinking fresh warm blood always soothed her troubled soul.

One guard would be no trouble. Wasn't even worth the time to feed off of him. Her mind was turned towards the Jedi protectors. Their potent blood was what she craved. Everything that Soth asked for was no trouble at all.

Miranda answered him with a gentle smile, so unlike the look of malice chiseled in his. "Of course, Soth. I wouldn't have it any other way."

[Dirjj Mordrai]

Dirjj finally resurfaced again in a most predictable manner, he found himself lying on a bar with a dead woman's naked corpse beneath his head while drinking a mixture of bottled rum and blood from her torn wrists.

He took a glance at the bartender whom stared impassively back at the vampyre, never blinking nor even twitching an eyelid. Dirjj laughed, for no wonder, the man was pinned to the wall skewered through with a poker iron.

Dirjj was in the parlour of an establishment catering the galaxy's oldest profession. A brothel which happened to be the largest available in this village and those neighboring it, specializing in exotic tastes. It was rather well-trafficed until Dirjj arrived. The whole place now resembled a freshly displaced morgue. Every working flesh and their clientele whom found themselves at this threshold this evening fell victim. But now the vampyre lie on the bar alone, nearly drunk on fresh blood and the spirits.

Wondering, as he gazed up at the blood drenched chandelier watching drops of thick coagulating blood make their slow descent down from glittering crystal ornaments, where the dren his brethren be. He amused himself with a silent thought, am I the sickest blood thirsty animal around? And where was Nightwatcher host Laroque when you needed a friend? Dirjj laughed at that thought of such humanity and belched loudly in harmonious agreement with himself. Instead, he closed his eyes and drew upon the Darkside. Maybe if my lost brethren can't find me, I can find them.

[Lord Soth]

As the two Vampyres silently approached the northern most side of the Keep, Miranda could hear a low and distinctive hum of power admitting from the Death Knight. Shortly after, a deep darkness fell over and enveloped the two Sith as Soth finished chanting the ancient ward's of protection that was from the arcane "Book of Arimos." This forbidden book of knowledge not only contained some of the most potent and powerful spell's of their sect, it was said to be one of only two Sith book’s in existence.

With an extended index finger, the Death Knight motioned and pointed towards two heavily armored guards that stood faithfully at their nightly posts near an iron portal. Both wielded lethal looking force pike's and heavy blaster pistols at their sides. Nevertheless, this encounter would soon prove to be a quick and decisive one. Soth’s intention was to deliver a fast and deadly assault on all and any who stood in the way to Roland’s inner sanctum…The Death Knight had no doubt there would be plenty more of along the way, however, Roland’s guard’s were the least of his concern for now.

Soth waved his hand to the left of him indicating for Miranda to split from him briefly while he took the right flank down and around to a lower embankment just out of the sight of the two guardsmen. The Death Knight would bide his time until the assassin dispatched the unwary men then they would move in the compound simultaneously.

The Death Knight’s movement was graceful and smooth as he neared a row of oaken trees that were surrounded by thick chest high foliage. Soth then held his position as he slowly unclipped his duel saber and waited, reaching out to the Dark-Side to get a better sense to the whereabouts’ of the two supposed jedi’s in the massive keep...They were there,...Not far from the intended target. Soth thought to himself…He could almost taste their life's essence within the compound and the force signature's admitting from them as if it were the fresh scent of blood. A sinister smile etched its way across Soth’s crimson lip's as the precise location of the three men came to his mind. His dark blue eyes narrowed somewhat as he patently watched Miranda move steadily along the shadowy masonry wall with cat like precision. He would now await the Master Assassin’s cue to strike...

[Miranda Dunleavy]

Miranda split off from Soth, using the trees and well kept foliage as cover. She stalked quietly forward, her footfalls silent as the wind. The Vampyre wasted no magic upon concealing her form ins shadow. Her own skills as an Assassin was more then enough to fool the eyes of the two mortal guards. Their fear was heavy in the air and Miranda could hear their thoughts. Only their foolish loyalty to Roland made their feet heavy but worry consumed them on when Soth would finally seek his vengeance.

Poor humans.

She slipped behind the guard on the left and snapped his neck. As the other one turned in complete surprise at what just happened, a thin blade whipped across six meter distance and embedded into his unprotected neck; proving that as long as you knew what to look for, every armor had its flaw.

The guard could not scream for help as the Vampyre closed the distance, grabbing the sides of his face with one hand. Miranda narrowed her eyes in thought momentarily before ending this mortals existence as she did the other.

She made haste to conceal the bodies within the bushes and called out to Soth mentally. All clear.

[Lord Soth]

Her fluent movement and precise execution as an assassin was extraordinary to watch. The unwary men had not the slightest inclination that they were about to draw their last breath's as mortals. As the Death Knight slowly emerged from the shadows that concealed him, he arrogantly made his way to the red head that was now hiding the two bodies in the thick undergrowth near the massive stone wall. Soth reached down with one hand and effortlessly tossed the remaining guardsman under the low laying shrubbery next to his lifeless companion. As the Death Knight stood to his full height, his eye's met with Miranda's emerald pools. Oddly, Soth demeanor was stoic and blank as he spoke to her mind.

"The two jedi's within the compound m'lady are no Knight's...One is a Master and the other is a disciple under his tutelage. Perhaps I underestimated Roland's resourcefulness." Soth words were even and smooth as they came to Miranda's open thoughts. Soth's gaze then trailed over to the locked gate to the side of them. With a simple wave of his hand, the heavy wrought iron partition creaked and groaned open on its rusted hinges.

"I've always loved a good challenge Miranda...And now that your here with me, I think it would be fair to say that this night would be less then,...A stimulating confrontation regardless of the opposition we may face inside." Soth lowered his piercing blue eyes at her, his lips curled into a suductive smile as he smoothly gestured with one hand to the now opened arch-way before them.

[Vladimir Vin Niktu]

Not 50 meters from their very location, in the cover of a small wooded patch, Vladimir Vin Niktu stood silently. His eyes--to those who would dare to notice--shone like two small mirrors as he studied the scene. He had watched the vampiress make quick work of her opposition and then noticed the emergence of Lord Soth, the Death Knight of the Shrine. The vampire was an imposing figure, and it showed in his pure smell--an air of intimidation that he carried with him.

Vlad carried the opposite: charm. He was vibrant, charasmatic, and loved games with his prey. He would seduce them, come into power over their minds, take control of their wants and desires. Then he would drink, but not until he had tasted their souls as well. Though he was known to handle himself adequately in battle, he was no warrior, and another good reason not to reveal himself before the opposition was taken care of.

He released himself from the shadows, making his way slowly to the pair. He smiled--they had most likely sensed his presence before, but they had more important things to act upon. Now, revealing himself, he would solidify any notions previously held.

"Perhaps, Master Soth--" he bowed his head respectfully "--I am interrupting. But I happen to be in the neighborhood and could not resist to make myself known." Vlad turned his glance towards the other. He had never met her before, and he smiled. "And, of course, to meet the stunning assassin whose deep-cutting beauty is only bested by her knife."

"My name is Vladimir Niktu, fledgling of the Shrine," he spoke one last time, outstretching a hand to Miranda.

[Syndell]

Syndell had finally arrived. The dead beauty walked under the moonlight. Her silk purple dress clung to her figure, moving as she moved. Long strands of black and silver haird dangled over her shoulders, and against her back. Like many here, she was considered a fledgling.........thought she had been a vampyre for a while. Syndell quickly took to being by herself.

Before she had been given this curse, she already lived the life of a creature of the night. She was a demon. A being, like vampyres, thought to exsist only in fairytales and myths. They were real however, and she was a testament to that. Her night of solitude would have to be put off for another night as all from the shrine had been called here.

Tonight was what she considered a family outting. They would all feast upon this village. A blanket of death stretched over the town as each vampyre made there way into the buildings and houses. Many people would die tonight. Most wouldn't even know there dead, as many sleep at this time.

Seeing no Vampyres around her she too headed into the city. Taking her only a few seconds as her barefeet moved effortlessly through the wind. Silence was her companion tonight. Her yellow eyes scanning the view. She would choose a prey for herself. Normally she wasnt picky, but tonight she felt like having noble blood blood.

[Miranda Dunleavy]

A Master and Apprentice. She mused on this and opened herself up to the Dark Powers, sensing the Light within the estate. This should prove ... fun. A word not often used by Miranda now-a-days. Killing for her was always a job, a necessity to please her Master. Slowly such necessities were starting to be thought of as a game to the red-head.

The last Jedi she killed was quite a long time ago when she was a fledging. She was looking forward to seeing how different a fight would go this time around as the creaking iron gate opened under the command of Soth.

True but I'd rather have less then a challenge and share it with you then be alone and faced with uncertain odds. A cruel smile spread across her lips.

I can't wait for the look of the Master's face when his poor Padawan is killed before hi.... Miranda stopped suddenly as the figure that was hidden had decided to reveal itself to them. She sighed heavily through her teeth at the poor timing of this Shrine Vampyre. They were just about to go into the mansion.

He was a sly one, this Vladimir. The fledging knew full well what he was getting himself into and her eyes slowly drifted to Soth, wondering what his reaction would be. Most likely he would find him nothing more then an interloper because this was taking time away from his rightful kill.

Still not to be totally rude, Miranda took the offered hand and produced a half-smile. "Charming you may be, you still have the worse timing."

[Lord Soth]

Soth's firm gaze traveled over to the young Vampyre fledgling. His face held no emotion as Miranda offered Vlad her pleasantries by extending a pale hand to him...However, this venture was one that he wished to do alone with the assassin and there was good reason for it...

“Ah, Vladimir Vin Niktu,...Walking to and fro this evening?" The Death Knight's word's came in a somewhat mocking fashion as he spoke. Soth's eye's narrowed at young one and a long painful moment passed between them before he continued.

"My apologies Vladimir...However, this night, the Lady and myself wish to travel alone...Perhaps back at the Shrine I will explain myself better since there pressing matter's before us as we speak." Soth bowed gracefully to the Vampyre warrior then gave Vlad a pleasant smile.

"Now if you will be so kind to excise the Lady and me,...We will now be on our way."

[Vladimir Vin Niktu]

Vlad smiled. He had been unexpected and, for the most party, uninvited, and he understood the right to privacy that his fellows deserved.

"Master Soth, Miss, please forgive me." Vlad bowed a long, sweeping bow. "My meanderings have lead me into the matters of others. I mean no offense, and I will surely be on my way." He nodded again to Soth respectfully and turned. Though some time with the two would be well met, there were numerous other ways he could amuse himself with.

With that, the vampire dissapeared back into the shadows.

[Miranda Dunleavy]

After Vladimir disappeared out of mortal sight, Miranda turned and looked thoughtfully at Soth. "Explain yourself better at the Shrine?" The Assassin crossed her arms and gave him an odd look. "Something you're not telling me?"

[Lord Soth]

After the young Vampyre disappeared into the stillness of the night, Soth casually walked a few paces past the red head then paused at the mouth of the entrance. Glancing back over his right shoulder, a subtle look of surprise seemed to play on his features as he looked the vixen up and down after hearing her question. His stark blue eyes quickly filled with lust as they finally trailed to Miranda's emerald green pools.

"Why,...Never my dear. Where would be the fun in that? However, the imagination left alone can run ramped...Wouldn’t you agree?" Soth's wet lips glistened with anticipation in the bathing light of the moon as his eyes toyed with hers.

"Or perhaps later,...I can better fill you in on this matter too..." The Death Knight's gaze slowly tugged from her suductive form as he stepped into the shadowy compound ahead of them. Soth waited just on the inside of the gate until Miranda came to stand at his side. He surveyed the garden ground’s and quickly noted four more heavily armored guard’s some thirty feet from them that stood at opposite end’s of a long opened hallway that connected two large structure’s. Soth then studied the surrounding tree’s that pressed past the roof line of the building they wanted to enter. The two Vampyre’s were now faced with either killing the guard’s or gaining access through another vantage point.

“You know Miranda, I have always found that attaining access to the thing’s I’ve always desired has been most complicated...” The Vampyre Master paused momentarily in his sentence, letting his eye’s slip to Miranda’s once again before he finished.

“Would you force your way in,…Or simply just go around the problem m’lady?” His words were silky smooth as he spoke to her in the Ancient Language of their kind. And to Miranda’s sharp and equally clever mind, Soth’s cryptic statement also seemed to carry duel significance as well with them.

[Miranda Dunleavy]

When they stared into each other's eyes, there was that fleeting moment that things were how they once were between them. It had been so long since his blue eyes held such desire; mostly they were filled with sadness or anger towards Miranda.

And the words that Soth said before he left continued to toy with her mind but it didn't frustrate her. Miranda always enjoyed such games; besides, Soth would tell her later what he meant ... and she would make him keep that promise.

The Assassin followed closely behind Soth until she too observed the difficulties in gaining entrance to the building. Her emerald eyes were focusing on the guards and access points, deciphering the best course of action for them to take until the Death Knight's words caught her attention. Her eyes snapped quickly to the side and gazed at him, long and hard, for she did not miss the double meaning in them. The question in her mind now was what he was playing at and why.

She cleared such unnecessary thoughts from her mind and answered in the Ancient tongue. "Considering that we are only after one objective, we should go around them. Focus on why we really came here. Otherwise, the chance of them alerting Roland would increase." Such was the ways of her training. Why create more problems then were necessary.

[Lord Soth]

A salutary smile etched its way across Soth's face at hearing her word's as they both stood idle in the murky shadows. Perhaps it was Miranda's dark gift as an assassin coupled with the eternal gift that intrigued him so. Soth's underlying fondness had always remained for her, a tie and bond that could never be severed regardless of the stormy past that had plagued them both.

"Yes, you are quite right m'lady...Your wisdom I see extends even beyond that of your beauty Miranda." Soth let his gaze linger on the vixen before he turned his attention back to the roof top that ran adjacent to them. With little effort, the Vampyre leapt from the ground to the upper structure some two stories above the courtyard. His ebony robes whispered softly as he gracefully passed through the cool night air. Once he safely landed atop, Soth turned and glanced down to Miranda, bidding her to jump.

[Miranda Dunleavy]

She gave a curt nod and observed the area, making sure that no one had seen Soth and that the coast was clear. Satisfied that there were no beings nearby through sight and the gifts of the Dark Side, Miranda crouched down close to the ground. The grass was pleasantly soft against her marble skin; and cool, chilled by the night air. She remembered a time when the grass would tickle her skin back when her life was on Corellia.

Such thoughts came and went at odd times with being a Vampyre, and Miranda was no different. She always made certain to never let such mortal trappings consume her and wish for the final death.

The Assassin sprung upwards two stories to where Soth beckoned. Her cloak billowed upward against the force of air as her dress hugged her thighs on the descent. It was a favorite of hers that she loved to wear on missions. The fabric was a dark blue that looked black in little or no light. Split down the side, it provided mobility and comfort in battle and offered enough of her body just incase death was not in order for her victim.

Miranda landed deftly next to the Death Knight, eyes searching the area ferociously for any signs of trouble. "Where to now?"

[Lord Soth]

Soth pressed closer to Miranda, he had that curtain familiar look in his eyes that she recognized, something that Miranda thought she would never see ever again. The Death Knight came within inches of her. A long moment of silence stood between them both as his reluctant words hovered on his glistening ruby lips. Like soft caressing viper's, Soth's hands moved slowly over the assassin's bare arm's until they paused at the back of her elbows. The temptation was evident in his eternal blue eyes, the hunger written upon his marble countenance. At that moment, time seemed to stand still as their gaze locked on times past. However, that was then and on a road long forsaken. Soth thought to himself as a pleasant smile then formed on his noble face, masking what he truly felt under the surface.

"Why,...We enter through that large open window,...Over there of course." Soth hesitated, and then slowly glanced at one of the many stain-glassed windows that lined the upper most part of the structure; one he just happened to open when he had met with up Roland only weeks prior.

Miranda knew within that moment that Soth's behavior was out of character to what had just taken place between them. And as Soth glanced back at her,...He knew she had already had figured this out for herself.

"Shall we,..." The Death Knight gestured smoothly to the slightly opened window beyond the stone balcony, attempting to change the direction of conversation that had already careened out of his control.

"...Or would it be more befitting of me to stand here and look into your lovely eye's like a bumbling fool?"

[Miranda Dunleavy]

Soth was an enigma to Miranda, more so now then ever. The sense of him so close and how he held her simply was driving her internally mad. She did not express any such uncertainties. The Vampyre merely was in the moment, staring into blue eyes that betrayed a hunger and desire for her that she had not seen in since he left her. Why all of a sudden was this resurfacing in him? She prayed that it wasn't a game because Miranda had enough of Soth playing with her feelings in recent months, though she too was guilty of such games. Maybe there was more to their talk two nights prior at the Inn and tonight's hunt was causing deep emotions to rise further. As they always did between them at such times.

As the moment happened, Soth regained his composure but Miranda wasn't fooled. He was hiding his feelings again and focus was returned to objective. She nodded, agreeing with the point of entry. Soth could tell when Miranda looked at him that there was some confusion as to what was going on now between them and to why it was happening now. It was the first sign that he saw that Miranda knew something was amiss and as her eyes grew in understanding.

"Hmm ..." She thought about it, rubbing her chin with the back of her index finger. "I believe that's a tough question." Without any hesitation, Miranda removed the hand against her chin and moved a strand of hair out of Soth's face. "Though the answer is easy. We came for the hunt and I'm thirsting for the kill."

Miranda turned her back on Soth and took several steps towards the window before cocking her head to the side to smile sideways at him. "Besides, you can always hunt me later." He heard that familiar throaty laughter from the red-head. The one that he usually heard before the most intimate of situations ....

[Lord Soth]

A wicked smile crossed Soth's face as Miranda disappeared through the mouth of the open window. It wasn’t long before the two silhouetted figure's made it to the heart of the castle like structure. It became quickly apparent that Roland was a man of great wealth. The lavishness of his estate was enough to make any red blooded Creature of the Damned salivate and covet over his illustrious holdings. In many way's, the Keep mirrored the extravagance of the Shrine. Priceless antiquities cluttered the halls and rooms in an orderly fashion. Nothing was spared when it came to Roland's affluent taste in the exotics.

As Soth and Miranda pressed on through a dimly lit corridor, the very shadows seemed to reach out and touch them as if welcoming their presence. Once they reached the length of the hallway, Soth cautiously peered around the corner. Both intruders’s hugged the wall tightly as he casually glanced back at the red head to his immediate left.

"I do believe you will have your summer house after all." A playful smile tugged at his lips as he locked eye's with hers.

Suddenly there was a snapping hiss and the hum of a blade that arched inwards to where Soth's head once rested against the oak paneled wall. The Death Knight rolled to the floor just in time, narrowing escaping the lethal blade that nearly decapitated him. Miranda easily stepped back a few paces as Soth quickly reached for his own dule sabers once he was back on his feet. However, the Death Knight was too late in his response to the attacker. Before he knew it, he was violently hoisted into the air then with lighting speed, was slammed against the adjacent wall with a tremendous thudding crash. The sound of shattering glass and splintering wood filled the hall as Soth's prone form smashed unmercifully to the table below him. The faint sound of rippling fabric filled Miranda's ears as the jedi master bore down upon her. His movement was force induced, rapidly closing the distance between himself and the assassin.

Soth rolled slowly to his back with a dazed groan. A racking pain registered in his mind as he lifted his head and glanced over to his left shoulder. One of the broken iron legs of the collapsed table had snapped and passed through Soth's upper deltoid and out his back. A crimson puddle quickly pooled around the Death Knight’s upper torso…He was in for a long night it seemed, Soth thought to himself as he quickly extracted the large protruding shard from his shoulder with a sudden jerk…

[Miranda Dunleavy]

Her eye sockets grew wide with rage as she watched the sharp iron leg puncture through his body as if it were butter. Miranda's head snapped towards the direction of the blurry form of the Master Jedi. "You will pay for that with your blood!"

Weaponless still, Miranda's own movements became just as fast as the Jedi's. She dove out of the way, her cloak taking the full on assault of his lightsabre. It sliced it in half but Miranda's marbled skin remained unharmed. Quickly she reached for her sabre that was clipped on the back of her belt when an alarm went off in her mind.

The fool's Padawan.

She called the Dark Side into her being and much like how his Master treated Soth, Miranda picked the Padawan up off the ground and hurled him back through the door he came, flying down the hall. From what she was able to see, that Padawan was barely even past his teens. So young, so full of life and now his Master has sealed his death by bringing him here this night.

Miranda ignited her blood red sabre and pulled it free to block the incoming strike of the Jedi Master. She was down on one knee and needed better leverage but he was fueling all his power into his strength, trying to overpower the Assassin.

[Lord Soth]

Within moment's, the Death Knight was back on his feet, quickly assessing the situation as he raised a talon hand towards the jedi master who’s back was now turned from him. As Miranda stayed the jedi's saber with her own, Soth called upon the forces of the Dark Side to aid him as a hateful grimace played on his face...

With a subtle motion of Soth's outstretched hand, the jedi master found himself violently snatched from the very ground on which he once stood. His brown robed form was then flung into the wall at his immediate left with a crashing thud. Immediately Soth rotated the long metallic cylinders of his dule sabers, forming two separate hilts as he engaged the crumpled form before him. An awful snapping hiss resounded in the long hallway as the green blade's shot fourth to thier full length. Vibrant emerald tracers marked the rapid trail of the lethal blades as Soth brought them both to his left flank then swept them both downwards at the jedi's stricken form. The sickly green blade's tore through the oaken wood flooring as the jedi master leapt from the spot just in time. Soth found that Miranda’s own saber had followed the same path to where the wiry jedi had once been as well. The light sider managed to summersault in the high vaulted hallway with graceful dexterity, up and over the Death Knight until he landed directly behind him. The red head’s emerald eyes widened as the jedi's saber came screaming at Soth's turned back. With blinding speed, Soth brought both of his sabers up and behind him, positioning them at a forty five degree angle as he stooped forward and intercepted the golden blade of the jedi’s, blocking the lethal attack that would have surly destroyed him. The three blade's crackled and hissed in protest as they clashed. The jedi master was quick and clever; however he was no match for the innate Vampiric speed of the Death Knight.

As the jedi master brought his right leg up to kick Soth in the lower exposed portion of his back, the Death Knight spun in his stance, crouching slightly as he turned to bring his left saber high while he carried the other on a low trajectory towards the jedi’s mid section. Once again there was a familiar clash of saber's that resonated throughout that long corridor. However, this time there was a pause as the blade’s arced of one another. The jedi had thwarted the upper attack, blocking the Death Knight's left saber with his own. Nevertheless and most unfortunate for him, the right emerald blade past cleanly through his extended leg where then exited out the waist line of the jedi. The three severed body part’s thudded to the floor as a dying gasp escaped the mangled master…

[Miranda Dunleavy]

Miranda stayed her hand as soon as she realized that Soth saw the same opening as she did. The Jedi Master would fall without question but there was still a small gnat in the area who's emotions were running rampant and fierce. Her Vampyric mind was sensitive to the turmoil within the Padawan and smiled as he walked in on the slaughter of his Master.

"MASTER???!!! NO!!!!" His cry of sorrow and disbelief was one often too many times by Miranda's ears. Her life was filled with death caused by her hand acting in the service of Critchon. At least this time she had wanted to help rid these sores from Soth's presence. There was a certain satisfaction that came with it that made Miranda feel lightheaded.

The sound of the Padawan's sabre slicing through the air marked his retaliatory efforts. He truly was a fool thinking that he could take on two Masters of the Dark Side that were also fueled by their immortal blood. Miranda stopped his progression by lifting him into the air. His mind was so intensely filled for revenge, the Padawan didn't realize he was running in place. The sabre was ripped out of his hand and flung to the far corner were it was disengaged harmlessly. Slowly Miranda turned around to face her captive Jedi and titled her head sideways in curiosity. "It amazes me how little control some of these Padawans have now a days, Soth." He words proven as the he tried desperately to break free from her hold.

The reality of the situation began to take a greater hold on the Padawan then his grief. If there was anyway out of this he would have to use the room. His eyes and mind raced for a way out but Miranda easily plucked those thoughts from him. She tapped the side of her with an index finger. "You should have learned to guard your thoughts better." Miranda turned her hand upwards and at the same time, the Padawan's neck was broken. She relinquished her power and unceremoniously he fell to the floor with Miranda sighing. "What a waste."

[Lord Soth]

The Death Knight clutched at the horrendous wound to his shoulder as he flicked the small ignition switch to his dule sabers with his other freed hand. The blades immediately dissipated back into the hilt as Soth's eye's trailed from the downed jedi's then to Miranda. Within that moment of time, Soth piercing eye's remained locked on the red head's as if they were both sending each other telepathic message's, but it was only an acknowledging look of confirmation that the two Vampyre's had between them.

As Soth pulled his crimson stained hand from the wounded area, the tear through the heavy fabric of his clothing and armor reveled nothing. It was as if he was never injured at all in the fist place due to the rapid regenerative properties that thier kind possessed. Even though the Death Knight was weakened by the on slot of the intense fight that had just taken place...They both knew they had to press on and finish the job they set out on.

"Miranda,...Leave Roland to me...I have something special in store for him...I want him to suffer before I take his miserable life." Soth's words were slightly labored as he studied her for a moment. Obviously, Roland at this time was somehow alerted to thier presence and chances were he had guards stationed throughout the Keep and in his chambers for a last hold out since his avenue for escape had been cut off. While Miranda took care of any opposition that would undoubtedly present its self, Soth would press on until he was face to face with the aristocrat himself.

"Come,...Let's make haste my dear...We have but a little time left before the accursed star awakens over Roon." The Death Knight finished smoothly as he motioned to her to follow back down the hall they had perused earlier.