Night's Omen

[2:03]

Like basically everywhere else that served the supernatural world, Hole in the Wall was busy.  It was so busy, in fact, that Coop had enlisted Rook's help waiting tables while he'd hopped behind the bar with Clarissa.  The cooks were keeping up, but only barely, and Coop rushed back there to assist when he could.  Rook had taken to the waitressing part pretty well, flirting and laughing with customers that were somewhat surprised at the number of people in there, as well as a few that gave her the heebie jeebies.  It was too bad that she couldn't catch Claire for more than a second in passing to mention the way they were giving her the creeps, or even to take a glance at the hand of cards she'd pulled RIGHT before she'd been asked to help.  She hadn't even gotten to look at them, nevermind really read them. but she probably would have lost it if she had.  As it was, she was pretty high-spirited, laughing, teasing and rushing around in the warm air of the bar.  She was thinking that maybe she should see if Coop had any extra shifts she could take, since she was kind of enjoying herself.  It was probably only because she knew her way around the place so well from many hours hanging out there, but she was picking it up pretty well.

"It's not always like this?" she asked Claire breathlessly as they both came to rest for an instant, waiting on Coop to pour a few drinks.  The man had the sleeves of his button-up rolled all the way up to his biceps, short hair spiked and sweaty from the heat and the running around, and Rook could see why Claire liked flirting with her boss so much.  Dude was hot like that, no pun intended.  He also had a look of concentration on his face that Rook thought was pretty intense, and didn't hurt that 'hot' factor.  Of course, her own hair was looking pretty edgy, the heat and constant movement taking the normally smooth look and roughing it up a little.  She'd stripped down to her tank top and jeans, donning a short apron that already had alcohol smears on it from grabbing glasses that weren't exactly poured too neatly.  That was mostly Coop, since Clarissa was pretty damn good, but Rook didn't blame him.  She was just going to go home stinking of bar and booze, which wasn't actually her usual.  She sometimes could smell a little on herself, but 'reek' was a better word for tonight, once you took into consideration the stink of sweat, too.  Hey, at least she was being productive. 

She blinked around, suddenly wondering where Melissa had gone, but only for an instant.  Almost as though her mind had been read, she saw a blonde pony-tail disappearing back into the kitchen after dropping some food off for Clarissa at the bar.  Melissa was down to her tank and a pair of dress slacks that were much too nice for the kitchen, but she seemed to have taken to helping them in the back.  That explained why Coop hadn't disappeared from the bar in so long. 

"Coop is so lucky that Melissa and I were just hanging around tonight," she told her friend, just in time for Coop to lean in and transfer a load of drinks over to them.

"You ain't kidding.  I might even have to pay you two," he told them, smirking just a little and winking before glancing over his shoulder as someone called his name, in need of a refill.  Rook didn't envy him, not when she had her own people looking for attention. 

 Clarissa was almost sorry that she'd invited her sister to the bar under the pretense that they would have some time to catch up. Melissa was a social worker for Single Earth, so she was usually pretty busy trying to smooth people's lives over, while Clarissa just did accounting and made drunk people more drunk five nights a week. Melissa was the one who was supposed to be taking a break, and Clarissa was openly frowning as she watched Daniel spill some of their more expensive vodka all over the front of his shirt.

"Seriously, just -- " and she reached out and snatched the bottle from him, pointing to his office. "Change. I can handle this. Cut Willa, too, she's been here since like, noon," she shouted at his back. She wiped up the mess and shoved the bottle back under the counter, turning to take more drink orders. She watched Rook and Claire hurrying back and forth trying not to spill things or collide with one another, and un-elegantly wiped beads of sweat off of her forehead. It was hot inside, but cold outside. Maybe someone should crack a few windows and let the place air out. The smell of all these people was starting to bother her.

"Rook, here's two more, for the table right there," she said, pointing with a French-tipped nail to the table adjacent the bar. It was amazing her nails were in perfect condition considering how rough she'd been the entire evening. Since about six or seven, the patronage had become thick, and it hadn't let up. They'd hit maximum capacity twice; Chad had told her that he'd had a line at more than one point that led out into the parking lot, but luckily there had been no incident. She waved Diego over to the bar. "I'm taking a five. Coop will be back in a few seconds to help you," she informed him, taking the apron she was wearing to protect herself from Daniel's messes off and tossing it behind the register. She went after Melissa back into the kitchen. "I am so sorry. I thought we'd be dead since that music festival is in the next town. Evidently not," she sighed. "Want to get some air?"

Claire had heard Clarissa telling Coop to cut Willa, so she cupped her hands over her mouth. "Willa! Leave!" she yelled. She turned back to Rook, wrinkling her nose. "No, it isn't always like this. You've been here when we've been "busy", it's nothing like this. Usually we get a little crowded around ten or so, but you know this area, most people are in bed by like, one. We're going strong and we close in an hour. What the hell," she hissed to herself. She watched Clarissa vanish into the back, and knew that asking for a break now was out of the question.

"I know I sound wimpy, but my feet hurt and I'm hungry. I'm going to see if I can't get Marissa to cover me for two seconds while I put in an order for some cheese sticks and stuffed potato things. Are you hungry yet?" she asked, knowing that Rook could have been swinging through the kitchen and she'd never have noticed given how busy they'd been. "God, Coop needs to get his ass in gear and do last call so we can get the hell out of here," she moaned. "Although, I think I've cleared a hundred bucks in tips. You?"

Claire would have liked for Rook to work there. She didn't seem to ever get enough of her best friend, although if she knew that she'd been checking out Coop, she might have said something territorial, but Rook wouldn't have been surprised, either.

"You got it!" she called to Clarissa when the other woman told her about two drinks for a table near the bar, and then she was off, dropping them off and seeing if the people there needed anything else.  She was pretty much operating under the rule that if someone gestured for her, she took their money and brought them drinks.  She sure as hell wasn't doing bad on tips, either, so it was easy for her to agree with Claire on that one. 

"I don't even know how much I've done.  I'm not used to this like you are, so I haven't even been looking, just stuffing them in my apron," she offered, rolling her shoulders back to crack a few things in her back and neck area.  She hadn't worked like this in quite some time, so she was actually kind of enjoying it.  Plus, she liked everyone here.  "I could eat, maybe.  Once we got busy, I forgot all about it.  Coop'll go for last call soon, I'm sure."

He had to.  Even busy, it was getting way late.  They were never open that late that Rook had seen.  Of course, they were doing a hell of a business, so she wouldn't have been surprised if they stayed open.  Most places didn't close as long as they had a crowd.  Rook wasn't so sure if she could do another two hours or anything, though.

Okay, so Melissa had definitely shown up to have a drink, hang out with her sister and do some catching up, but this worked, too.  She'd been wearing black dress pants and a nice top, but once she put her hair up, the people in the kitchen had just been glad to have her there, so they hadn't cared if she pulled the pretty top she was wearing off and just worked in the black pants and cami.  Her shoes weren't exactly kitchen-safe, but they were flats, so at least she wasn't trying to run around in heels or anything.  Besides, cat grace had to help keep her from slipping somehow, right? 

Right, it was working.  She wasn't exactly the best at this, but she could work a fryer, and that was the easiest part of the line, they said.  They also said she was a natural, which did feed her ego a little and keep her from getting discouraged, but she knew that it really didn't take much to operate the fryer.  It was just organizing everything in her brain so that nothing burned and it all ended up coming out around the same time.  Since everything was NOWNOWNOWFASTFASTFAST, it didn't really matter.  Everything had to be finished asap. 

When Clarissa swept into the kitchen, Melissa looked up, hair falling out of her ponytail and into her face, and offered her little sister a little bit of a frazzled smile.  Her eyes were a little wider and tired than usual, but she was in good spirits.  "I think I have this fryer thing down," she offered, almost as though that made it all better.  It certainly helped. 

"Really, it's okay.  It's just good that I was here to help," she returned, smiling again, and got a shove in the direction of the door with a 'we got this, go breathe'.  She wasn't asking twice, so she was out the door.  She'd come back, though. 

Once outside, she breathed deep, taking in the cool air on her hot skin and letting her muscles relax just a touch.  "Wow."

 "I tried to forget, but I caught myself picking on someone's leftovers," she admitted. When Rook made a face, Claire scoffed. "What?! Like I can even get sick! It isn't like ate a piece that had a bite mark taken out of it, damn," she said with a laugh. "But if you are going to ignore an entire serving of fries, why should I deprive my tummy of them? Melissa has been adding a lot of season salt to them, too, which is evidently a big hit with the crowd. Looks like a recipe change is in order," she observed. She glanced back at the office, where she couldn't see Coop anymore because his door was closed, and then looked back at Rook.

"I think my dad called earlier, but I haven't had a chance to call him back," she confessed. "So now I'm wondering, is he going to show up, or is he going to send my brother to come and check on me?" She rolled her eyes. "God forbid that I'm, you know, at work."

She didn't get much longer before she had to leave Rook and go back to tables. Marissa was bussing and serving, but it wasn't happening fast enough, so Claire moved in behind her, trying to take care of the little stuff so she could get the big stuff. If Daniel didn't make last call happen soon, she was going to have a real cow.

 Clarissa laughed at Melissa when she said she thought she had the fryer down. "The most important part is not to burn your hand off, not that it matters, since if you burned yourself, you'd heal in hours instead of like, weeks," she said with a snort. She ushered her to the door, eager to get away from the crowding for a few precious minutes. As soon as the night air hit her face, she sighed a long sigh of relief. She noticed her sister doing the same thing; it was amazing they weren't twins. They even looked almost identical - almost. You could tell Clarissa was younger, but not by much.

"I don't know what the deal is. That stupid rock fest thing is supposed to be going on like forty-five minutes away. I thought all of Ramsa would be there, not here," she said, flipping her hand up and gesturing the general direction of where the festival was held. She sat down on the top of the picnic table they had out back for the employees to hang around during breaks, and ran her hands through her hair. It was beginning to curl in the early morning humidity, and she made a frustrated noise.

"I'm going to do last call in fifteen minutes. If Daniel doesn't like it, he can kiss my ass," she announced, stretching her legs out. She was so glad she hadn't dressed "up" tonight. Jeans, a cute top, and some comfortable shoes. "Tomorrow, we can sit around my apartment and watch Netflix all day. I queued up a bunch of scary foreign films and bought popcorn, because I wanted to do it tonight, but... " she nodded her head back and forth and rolled her eyes.

"So, tell me about your day," she said, switching gears. Despite living within 15 miles of eachother, she and Melissa's schedules were retarded, so they didn't see eachother often enough. Clarissa didn't want to just bitch every chance she got.

 Outside, Veronica snuggled under her gray sweater, hands thrust into the back pockets of her hip-hugging, boot-cut jeans. She kicked at a rock as she walked from where she'd landed in the branch of a tree positioned some soft grass just outside and across the street from Hole in the Wall. The parking lot was gravel, loose dirt and broken asphalt; she could feel it as her boots crunched over top of it, but it didn't surprise her. The place did well, but the lot it was in was fairly old. She wondered when they'd spring for a new one. Veronica had been coming here off and on since she'd picked up her gig as a "double agent" for Midnight; she'd mostly been instructed to observe and report. Veronica wasn't a fighter, so she was happy with that singular assignment. Since tonight happened to be the first night of "The Cleansing", as Ivy had called it the day before, Veronica thought she'd have a beer and sit in the midst of the mayhem. Of course, if she were apprehended, she had to keep in cover, but since she knew it was coming, she could fly, and fly she would.

As she approached, she got a little surprise when a car in the lot, the lights of which had been off, had a door suddenly open and a man stepped out. Veronica jumped slightly, her hand out of her pocket and to her chest. "Oh, wow," she breathed. "You startled me. I didn't think anyone was even in there," she said, laughing at herself. She flicked her eyes up and down him, quickly - shapeshifter, but she wasn't sure what. Attractive enough for her. She tilted her head to the left, the motion so obviously bird that she didn't even have to tell him what she was - he'd already know.

"You know, this place is pretty packed. Hope you're not in a hurry," she ventured.

Not really all that aware of Claire's musing over whether their dad was going to show up to make sure she was alright or Kieran would, he hesitated in his car for a moment for a breather.  The place looked packed, so he was finishing his cigarette in the peaceful dark of the old, beat-up muscle car before venturing inside and facing the crowd.  He didn't really have a problem with crowds, but knowing that his sister was among them, probably taking crap for assholes while she was trying to work, that he had a problem with.  He didn't spend a lot of time at her job because of that, knowing he'd destroy the first idiot who looked at her wrong, but he was just as worried as their dad was.  He believed she was at work, but it was getting ridiculously late.  At the very least, Kieran was taking her home.  At this hour, it wasn't right to think that she'd be going on her own.

After a full day on-site working on a house in Ramsa, then a night at the tattoo parlor, there could have been a better day than this.  He was dangerously close to being up 24 hours, and it wasn't helping his mood all that much.  Who knew, though?  Maybe he'd get in there, have a drink and chill while he waited for Claire to get off work.  That would be nice, and was pretty likely. 

He could dig it.

Glancing in the direction of the girl who jumped when he hopped out of the car, he smiled at her as he took the last drag off of his cigarette.  It was a reaction he was used to, considering he was a little over six feet tall and not badly built, but she also smelled of bird.  He'd found that it wasn't often hard to spook them. 

"I'm not worried.  My sister works here, so they'll let me in," he said confidently, and if someone gave him a problem?  That was when there would be trouble, because he wasn't being kept from Claire.  Sure enough, he wasn't held up, and he offered the girl a smug sort of smirk before he slipped in the door, just in time for Claire's comment.  He couldn't hear it from across the room, but Rook saw him walk in the door.

"I'm thinking he's sending your brother to check on you," she whispered, flitting past Claire as the other girl worked to help Marissa bussing a table, then continuing to one of her own.  Coop had glanced up when Kieran entered as well, but he wasn't surprised, either.  It was only a matter of time before one of the wolves showed up.

Oh, Melissa thought that not burning her hand off mattered, especially since she'd already been splashed a few times and it hurt.  It definitely wasn't the worst she'd endured, especially not when she had Father Dantes to compare to, but she'd learned her lesson fast.  She was relieved that she had shifter healing, since it would get rid of those burns fast, and proud of herself for being able to jump back there.  She hadn't been so sure that she wouldn't just be a body in the way, but she thought that she might have actually been helpful, so mission accomplished, right?  Wait until she told Michael how her relaxing night out to hang out with her sister had devolved.

"I don't really think Daniel has any idea what time it is," she offered, taking her own seat on top of the picnic table beside Clarissa.  "He's been running around all night, and I think I remember hearing him complain in the kitchen that he hit his watch off something early on.  He probably still thinks it's midnight."

She was joking and deliberately mentioning an earlier time, but she really did think that he'd be shocked to find out it was after two.  Someone should really mention it to him.  Melissa didn't personally mind the craziness, but it was surprising, to say the least.  "Tomorrow is great for the film frenzy, especially after today.  It's not like I did anything too crazy with my day, mostly just boring stuff and paperwork, but I'm definitely not used to this restaurant thing.  Kudos to you," she offered, smiling and then stretching.  She could bet that she probably reeked of grease, too.  She'd had her nose in it too long to tell.  

"Do I stink?  I bet I do, huh?" she asked, the smile turning into a grin as she scrunched up her face like she could smell the grossness.  

 Veronica nodded with an "Ohh," sounding enlightened. She followed Kieran in, whether or not he chose to acknowledge her further his own problem. She got through the door, same as he did, but all she had to do was flash Chadwick that million-dollar smile and he said, "Hey, Veronica," stepping over to give her passage. She heard him yelling at people who began to bitch, but the line was thinning out once people realized how late it was.

Once inside, she gave the wolf a last glance, and then took a place at the bar. "Just a gin and tonic, for me," she said, holding money and her ID out. She rested the palm of her hand on her chin, glancing left and right. The bar had attracted a very, very large crowd. She could pick a few Midnight people out, but she worked exclusively with one or two people, so she wasn't going to be able to point them all out, even if there were lots of them.

All she was doing was taking Melissa's advice. Before they'd left for the evening the Cougar had told her to 'relax a little' and 'go get a drink'. So, Veronica was doing that. She didn't see her anywhere, though. Had she already been grabbed?

 Clarissa chuckled. "This restaurant thing is usually nothing like this," she said, holding her hands up in a half-attempted shrug. "Really. Most nights Daniel only needs about half of us here to do our jobs. The only reason I bartend instead of just being an accountant is because Jeff refuses to work weekends and Diego has class during the day. It's a good thing we're all here, though, or I don't even know what would have happened," she added with a sigh.

"He may not know what time it is, but legally we can't even serve past a certain point, so watch broken or not, I need to make him aware of it. I'm in charge of handling all our licenses and stuff, and I can tell you now, you do not want to see the paperwork involved in that mess," she said with a snort. "As for his watch, don't let him fool you. He's broken that thing more than once. Daniel is a closet klutz, and it gets worse the busier we are. I think he almost prefers slow and steady - and I do, too, but I counted my tips earlier and I think my rent is almost paid. People have been generous tonight."

She leaned back a little and sighed, knowing that they were about to have to go back in. "Maybe I'll go visit you at your job next week. Sit in your office and eat all your candies while you do 'boring paperwork'," she said, nudging her sister. "And you do smell - like fried food. But I smell like spilled beers and limes, so I think we're even. You are driving on the way home, though. Last thing I need is to get pulled over and try to explain why I smell like a raging alcoholic."

With a grunt, she pushed off of the table, sorry that she'd worn high heels. Her feet started to hurt as soon as she stood up, but that was just life. "Come on, let's get this over with."

Some people might have thought that it was too late to be roaming around, but this was Jared, so the night was still young.  Since he'd been turned by that bitch Akka, daylight had been essentially impossible for him.  He'd been messing around to see if it was just sunlight or the daytime hours themselves, and it was definitely the sun, so there were a few ways around that problem.  Not many, and it was a hassle, but he'd managed to cover up enough that he didn't feel like dozing off while he was walking down the street (or driving) in the middle of the afternoon.  It still drained his energy down to nothing, though.  He hated it.

Credit where it was due, Ryan had proven himself to be an awesome friend.  Jared hadn't gone to him for awhile after all that had happened, but when he finally had, the guy had reacted surprisingly well.  Of course, he'd also explained who his brother was and that he'd known about the supernatural shit, which had just pissed Jared off; had he been the only one who didn't know?  The situation with Ryan hadn't gone as badly as with Angela, however, and part of that was just because Ryan didn't give a shit.  In fact, having a vampire for a best friend had its uses, and they'd been trying that out ever since.  One of the things that Jared hated was that he couldn't get drunk unless he ate someone who was already drunk (which was a little tough to manage sometimes), but he and Ryan seemed to do well enough with it.

Tonight was a perfect example.  They'd gotten this one chick utterly trashed (Ryan had been pretty far gone, too) before Jared took her into a quiet corner and had a snack, then they'd gone off down the street to find another bar, laughing and messing with each other the whole way.  It was a good night, and almost made Jared feel like his world wasn't totally fucked.  Their intended target was Hole in the Wall, mostly because there were always hot chicks working there (and hanging out, since they were positive that the employees called all of there hot chick friends to hang around), so why go anywhere else to waste the rest of their night?  From the looks of things as they approached, they weren't the only ones who thought so.

"Dude, look at this clusterfuck!  We definitely wanna go there?" he asked, and the only reason he was even asking was because it was Ryan who had to wait on drinks.  It didn't matter to him if the service was slow because they were mobbed. 

Yeah, having a vampire for a best friend was paying off. Ryan would never get a DUI again, that was for sure. Also, on occasion, Jared had done that cool teleportation thing. It always made Ryan want to hurl, but it was a lot faster than anything else they could do to get anywhere - and cheaper, too. Once they'd gone to Vegas and been kicked out of a few casinos. It was worth it, though. Jared had hypnotized people into giving them money, which had been pretty fucking sweet. Yeah, this was a good thing, definitely.

"Uhhhh," he grunted hesitantly, blurry eyes covering the canvas of the bar. He looked from the bar back to Jared, his whole upper body moving as he turned. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, screwing one into his lips. He ducked his head and covered his lighter as he ignited the butt, and then stood back up, stumbling a little. He put his hand on the hood of his car (Jared had wanted to drive, and Ryan was cool with that - it was a midnight blue 69 Chevy Nova SS, blown. It was loud and fast and had wide tires on the back and Jared was superhuman so Ryan hoped that meant he wouldn't launch it into a tree like he had - twice.

He laughed his little Muttly laugh, pointing with the two fingers holding his cigarette as the crowd moved in and out and around the bar. "Check out that blonde bitch," he said, pointing to a slender girl who had her back turned. She was wearing a short red skirt and a black tank top, and she had long hair. "Looks good from back here," he said with a laugh. "You think she'd let me take her for a spin?" And he laughed more.

She was talking to a guy who wasn't much taller than Ryan, but he had tattoos all over his arms. Ryan made a face and looked at Jared. "Pft, look at that Ed Hardy motherfucker she's talking to. I'm surprised he's not wearing one of those faggot Affliction shirts in size Extra Sssmedium," he slurred. Then the girl turned around, and Ryan's cigarette fell out of his mouth.

"Holy fuck, that's Camille!" he shouted, grabbing Jared by his shirt. "What is that bitch doing? That stupid fucking slut!" Yeah, Ryan. So not over his ex-girlfriend.

Poor Melissa had no idea that Veronica, who she'd talked to earlier in the day and liked well enough, was wondering if she'd been 'snatched', yet, almost like the idea simply made her curious.  Honestly, anyone who thought that hurting Melissa was a good idea would have been smart to reconsider, if only because of Michael Light and the temper that he'd proven he was capable of, but how many would-be attackers had that kind of knowledge?  Not enough, you could count on it.

Too bad Melissa didn't know to even give him a call to tell him that anything odd was going on, or she'd have done so.  As it was, she sent him a text to tell him that Hole in the Wall was super busy and that she was proud of herself for helping in the kitchen.  It was silly and stupid, but she liked sharing with him, even if it was just little things about her day.  He seemed to enjoy being around her and hearing from her (otherwise, why would he respond and choose to be around her?), so she continued to do it.  She was looking forward to seeing him the next day, and even though they were moving ridiculously slowly with their 'relationship' or whatever it was, she really liked him.  He was just old-fashioned, and neither of them appeared to know exactly how to go about it.  She'd never dated a vampire before, but she didn't mind the idea at all (especially when it involved him).  She personally thought he was cute, and Matthew had been giggling to himself about it for what seemed like forever.  This was one of those things that she and Clarissa were going to catch up on when they did their movie marathon, but she wasn't getting into it all that night.  They had too much going on.

"Hey, I'm not complaining, so no worries here.  Why don't we go in, let Daniel know what time it is, and we'll get this place closed so we can go start our sleepover?" she offered.  The sad thing was that, as adults who'd been working for umpteen hours, they were actually going to get showers and sleep for this part of their sleepover.  The following night would be movies and fun.  "I'll drive, it's not a problem!"

The funny thing was that Camille didn't even know Ryan was there. If she had, she'd have left immediately. As it was, she'd felt sick and flustered from being inside the hot ass bar for so long. She was grateful for the guy who had offered to walk her outside, especially when one of the waitresses cleared him as her brother and assured Camille that she'd be fine with him. Camille wasn't in the habit of just walking off with strange men, but Angela had taken her to this bar before when they were in town from the university, and Camille had seen Claire a few times. She'd gone with Kieran to the front of the bar where there was a smoking area outside. She didn't usually smoke but she'd had quite a few beers, and sometimes a cigarette just went good.

"Sorry," she said, watching Kieran wrinkle his nose. "I know, they smell really strong. I'm thankful that you can't smoke inside anymore, honestly. I couldn't stand coming home with my hair smelling like that." She flicked the ashes into an empty beer bottle and looked back up at him. She wasn't trying to come on to him, which was funny - Camille wasn't the sort of person to throw herself at other people. She was certainly dressed provocatively, but to be honest, Angela had picked this out for her weeks ago and she'd finally decided to wear it.

"So, how late do you plan on staying?" she asked. She laughed at herself, and shook her head, holding up her hands. "Wait, no. I'm sorry, that sounds like a total line. I mean, how late does this place stay open? Sorry," she said. She laughed again.

Kieran had no problem walking Camille out for some fresh air, especially after catching up with Claire and seeing that she and Rook were both fine and still busy.  It gave him something to do and someone to talk to, which was actually pretty appreciated, even if he had to suffer through the clove cigarette's smoke that was almost painfully strong in his canine nostrils.  He was a smoker himself, but the spicy scent of her cigarette made his nose burn.  She was friendly and apologized for the smell, at least, right?

Oh, and then she butchered a 'line', fantastic!  He grinned, unable to resist being a little pleased with the fact that he was totally being hit on, even if it wasn't very smooth flirting, and he leaned against the building while she rephrased her question.  "They usually close about now, actually.  It's just not this busy so late most nights," he told her with a shrug, crossing his tattooed arms over his chest with absolutely no clue that this girl's ex-boyfriend was about to show up and see her looking extra hot and talking to Kieran.  

"Hopefully, they'll close up soon so I can see Claire off, but that's about all I have going on tonight.  You have a ride home, right?" he asked, aware both from her behavior and the smell of liquor on her that she'd had too much to drink.  He could see her home without being a dirtbag, and hopefully get her number out of her.  That would be pretty sweet, or he thought so until he heard some dude bitch about 'Ed Hardy', 'Affliction', Camille and a 'stupid fucking slut', which effectively caught his attention.  He wasn't exactly the most prone to fights, so he wasn't going to walk over there and break the drunk's face, but he'd heard, and he definitely made it clear when he glared over at the two idiots that he had.  The fact that the dude knew Camille was interesting, though.

He glanced back at her, the amusement of a moment before gone from his features as he cocked an eyebrow up.  "Do you know those assholes?" he asked, gesturing with a nod towards the morons in question.  If she had something bad to say about them, he wasn't going to play peacekeeper when they approached.  They looked stupid enough to walk over, too.

So, Jared was drunk after snacking on that chick, but Ryan was even worse off.  Jared had still been able to drive, and had even managed to get them there in one piece, believe it or not.  That didn't mean he had any ability to talk his friend out of trying to pound Ed Hardy's face in when they found Camille flirting with him, and why should he?  If he found Angela with some dude, he'd probably kill the guy, too.  He didn't blame Ryan in the least.

He also wasn't going to let Ryan know that he could see the dude's tattoos in detail from where they were and thought some of them were cool.  "Hey, dude, your new boyfriend's giving you googly eyes and he's definitely not drunk," he pointed out instead, figuring he might as well get that out there.  Need to know, and all that.  It was odd that the tattooed guy had heard them from there, since Jared didn't think Ryan had been that obvious, but then Kieran nodded as though he'd heard Jared speak, and the vampire grit his teeth together and practically bared them.  

Fucker ain't human, whatever he is.  His hearing's too damn good.

All the more reason to make sure he didn't mean Camille any harm, right?  Unless she was secretly Buffy the Vampire Slayer right there with Angela, which didn't seem likely, Jared was willing to bet she had no idea what Kieran was and how much damage he could do.  Stupid bitch.  She was going to end up like Jared himself if she didn't learn fast, and wouldn't that just suck?  Personally, Jared didn't give a fuck and would have left her to it if not for Ryan being there.  Ryan obviously cared, so as long as he didn't project nasty 'lovelovelovelovelove' vibes around Camille, Jared could handle helping him out with his ex-girl.  

Ryan had righted himself again by the time that Jared started talking, but neither of them had made any move to go into the bar. They were both transfixed on Camille -- or rather, Ryan was, and Jared was settled on watching him make an ass of himself. That was fine. He certainly wasn't projecting love vibrations Jared's way, though - it was surprisingly all hate. It was something Jared could probably relate to, come to think of it. Ryan took a long drag off of his cigarette and then gestured to Camille, who he saw looking over his shoulder.

"Hey, where's your brother? Inside holding your purse?" he called. That ought to piss her off.

He looked back at Jared with his glassy gaze. "Fuck is Ed smiling at?" he asked him. His gestures were loose and jerky at the same time - only someone totally obliterated could maintain this level of stupor and still be upright, but that was Ryan. He looked back at Camille, who he could see had fully turned to him. She said something he couldn't hear, and he put his hand up to his ear.

"SORRY BITCH, CAN'T HEAR YOU."

She cupped her hands to her mouth and called him a needle dick, and Ryan looked at Jared, his brows raised. "Yeah?" he said. He turned back to where she and the fairy Ed were, and shouted back to her, "TELL YOUR FAGGOT BROTHER TO STOP TRYING TO SEND ME LOVE MESSAGES!"

That was sure to piss her off, and judging by her facial expression of Ed Hardy behind her, nobody expected that to be the right button to get pressed except for Ryan. He looked triumphant that he'd made her cry  - that was, until she flew off of the step and got into his face with such speed that it made his asshole pucker a little. He shook it off and flicked his cigarette butt at her for good measure, though.

"FUCK YOU!" he yelled, just because she was close enough that he could get that point through her head that he fucking hated her.

 Camille shrugged a little. "I had a ride home until I started drinking more," she admitted. She succumbed to the strength of the Djarum Black that she had in her fingertips, throwing it into the tall smoke receptacle that had been put in place out front. She watched smoke teem out of the opening from dozens of cigarettes people had put in that were yet to extinguish themselves, and brushed her hair away from her face while taking a few steps away from it, rotating from the left of Kieran to the right more. "Now I guess it depends on this place. If they stay open later, I will remain here. If not... I'll probably call a girlfriend to come and get me." Would Angela be able to come and get her? She supposed she could call a few people - Seth, Dominic, hell, even her brother, provided none of them were in the city right about then. When Kieran asked her if she knew 'those assholes', though, she made a face without even having to turn around.

"Shortish, punkish, drunkish?" she asked, brows raised. "Yeah. Old high school losers that NOBODY CARES ABOUT ANYMORE," she shouted, turning around to roll her eyes over her shoulder at Ryan as he yelled something she couldn't hear. She turned more fully from Kieran and made a gesture to him along with a face and some arm waving, which translated into "I can't fucking hear you, retard." When she did that, Ryan screamed at her.

"You are such a fucking needle dick!" she shouted back at him. By now, the crowd had begun to hush a little, just because fights were always a good train wreck to watch. Ryan seemed to consult Jared for his next retort, which Camille was ready for - or so she thought. When he insulted her brother, though, she moved with a quickness at him like he'd just held out the keys to a brand new Porsche. She wasn't really looking to get into a screaming match, though she opened her mouth anyways and called him a loser all the same.

He screamed at her and flicked his cigarette at her, which hit her square on the arm. By now, Kieran was coming up behind her, and after being burned by Ryan's cigarette this was sure to be a quick fight for him - but first, Camille wanted to accomplish something. Angela had taught her how to hit, and she balled her first up, cocked back, and punched Ryan right in the jaw. It didn't happen that slowly, of course - it happened so fast that Jared sprang off of the hood of the car into laughter, but only because she'd hit Ryan with such force that she'd sent him back against the car. He'd connected with the bumper and folded over in fast-forward.

Camille leaned over and grabbed the back of his shirt, yanking it over his head. She started yelling a string of insults, no longer really something that they could understand, and began throwing her elbows and fists down on him. He was grabbing at her ankles and trying to defend himself at the same time until in one final yell she kicked, and felt herself lifting off of the ground. One strong arm was around her waist, but not before she'd grabbed a downed beer bottle. She flung it at Jared as Kieran got her arms under control, and she shouted, "Angela hopes you fucking die!" at him.

Two for one tonight, Camille was really making friends.

From inside, Veronica wasn't sure she'd heard properly what was happening right away. She sipped her gin and tonic and wandered around, squeezing through the crowds of people as she came across them. She hadn't found anyone worth kidnapping, unless you counted the splendidly large male wolf that was seated at a table in the back talking to Daniel Cooper, but V knew she was no match for him. She wasn't stupid, and that was why she was still alive. She slid beyond a good-looking hunter and his vampire-trying-to-play-human girlfriend and went to the door, which is when she heard the swearing and yelling.

She opened it up just in time to see Kieran shoot off of the porch after the blonde human, and the taunting continue from the boys by the car in the middle of the gravel lot, which by now had cleared out a little. She hesitated, and then grabbed for her phone quite briskly. "Yes, hello, Yvette? I've found Ryan Shane. Am I sure? I'll send you a photo with an address." She hung up, and then took a picture of Ryan right before the blonde girl busted him in the mouth, and texted it to Yvette's e-mail with an address for the Hole in the Wall attached to it.

No more than a minute passed before her phone rang. "Keep him here?" Veronica parroted. "I can try. He's getting his ass kicked right now, but I'll see what I can do." And with a sigh, she set her drink down on the thick wooden railing that lined the porch, walking as slowly as possible towards the situation. She'd like to arrive after the wolf had diffused it, personally. Ryan was drunk and from his profile probably not afraid to hit a girl - and his vampire friend, well, Veronica couldn't defend herself accurately without setting him off. She flipped into innocent, Single Earth mode, and her mind went free of all of those Midnight-related thoughts. Her goal had suddenly become to help, though she kept a good distance from them and tried to look as unthreatening as possible.

Okay, so this had gone from stupid to dangerous in no time flat, especially when there was a vampire on the other side when Camille flipped out on the one that kept taunting her.  Kieran had no idea that it was going to advance to this point so quickly, thus his choice to simply follow her when she rushed the other guy, and he almost expected to have to take the vampire to avoid Camille getting destroyed.  What he hadn't realized was that the vampire dissolved into hysterical laughter while his friend got beat on by Camille, showing absolutely no concern for Ryan's well-being.  Apparently, Jared thought his buddy could take it.

That didn't mean that Kieran did, especially since Ryan had resorted to trying to protect himself while Camille unloaded on him and Jared laughed his ass off.  He rushed Camille, grabbing her with an arm around her waist while he snatched at the bottle she'd scooped up.  It wasn't like it mattered all that much; she'd chucked the bottle at Jared, and he'd dodged it as quickly as he'd leaped off of the car when Ryan fell backwards against it, still laughing despite Camille's harsh words. 

"Whatever, bitch.  You can tell that whore that I've been nothing but loyal to her.  She's the one who abandoned me!" the vampire spat, making it even more clear to Kieran that this was a situation that he knew nothing about (and didn't want to). 

"Hey, calm down.  I'm not putting you down until you relax," he warned her quietly, holding her firmly against his body with the one arm around her waist and the other holding her wrists so that she couldn't scramble for another weapon or wriggle her way free.  So far, Ryan had taken her abuse and Jared hadn't done more than bitch back, but Kieran didn't want it to escalate.  Not with Camille here, anyway.  He might have disagreed if an obvious potential victim hadn't been hanging around.

Speaking of which, he gave Veronica an unpleasant look as she hit the scene, not so certain that he was alright with it.  In fact, he decided he wasn't, which meant that he wanted her gone.  He didn't have to be an ass about it, but this wasn't a situation that needed MORE fodder.  "I got it covered, thanks.  You should probably head back inside, before something else happens and people get hurt," he told her.  She was giving off more in the way of 'victim vibes' than Camille was, which he didn't like.  Better to avoid it. 

Too bad Chris hadn't noticed what was going on.  He'd have been more than happy to gank Jared for Angela, or at least to beat the shit out of him in her honor.

 Ryan wanted to hit Camille back, badly, but that bitch was faster than he remembered her being. Was she some sort of shapeshifter now? He pushed her while she hit him as best she could, but she got in some kicks before Ed Hardy yanked her up and away. He dodged as a beer bottle went sailing past him, Jared the intended target. He spit a mouthful of blood and snot in her direction, the glob falling shorter than he'd have liked and landing on the rocks near Ed's feet.

"Fuck you!" he spat at her. "What's your daddy gonna think when he finds out you were at this shithole, anyways, Barbie?" he snapped. He picked himself up off of the ground, giving Veronica a glare as she inched closer to him. When Kieran tried to tell her to go away, though, he snorted rudely. "Don't let Reverse Ken Doll tell you what to do," Ryan told her, his eyes fixed at the blood running down his arm from where he was trying to stop his bloody nose.

Veronica looked at Kieran, glad that he'd fallen for her act. Outwardly, she pursed her lips, exhaling through her nose. She didn't have her purse, which meant that she didn't have any of her first aid kit with her, and she didn't really want to ruin her sweater, but she supposed she'd have to play this part as best she could. She stripped her sweater off with a sweeping motion of her hands, and then pulled her tank top off from beneath it. She pulled her sweater back on after being exposed with just her black bra and jeans for a moment, and then reached out for Ryan.

"Let me see your nose," she said. The way she said it made Ryan want to do it, and she knew it, but he still hesitated, eyes narrowing at her. "Come on, let me see it. I'll make the bleeding stop for you."

Ryan looked at Jared, and then at Camille and Kieran. "Sure, okay," he said. He sat down on the hood of his car and let her approach him. Couldn't beat a bitch stripping down to help him out, could you? He could hear Camille's giant mouth open to say something again, and he held his hand up to her.

"Why don't you have your new boyfriend take you somewhere else before you get hurt?" he suggested, though the way he said it sounded like a threat.

"Stop, please," Veronica said, dabbing gently at Ryan's face. She took his chin in her slender, delicate hand, turning his head so that he looked at her. He was about her height now that he was sitting down, and she forced him to look into her eyes. Tiny, but commanding. Ryan could dig it. "Sit still and I'll help you. Keep trying to start a fight, and I'll leave."

Ryan made some sort of smug facial expression, smiling through bleeding teeth, and spread his legs a little so she could get closer to him. When she stepped in, he closed them, giving her a little squeeze. When she caught his eyes, his intent was dark, but completely carnal and human. Veronica had seen people give her half-hearted glances that scared her more in Midnight, so she blew it off, but she made sure to look away as though he'd made her uncomfortable.

 Camille thrashed around until it became clear that Kieran wasn't going to let her go. When the brunette acted all coy with Ryan, she opened her mouth to make a rude remark, but Ryan was already on top of her verbally. She thought better of it and closed her mouth, relaxing under Kieran's grasp until he had the presence of mind to let her go. She wasn't going to suggest they go back inside, but only because it was her pride telling her not to be the first one to walk away.

When he finally did let her go, she looked Jared square in the eye. "I hope she makes your head explode," she said coldly. She turned and began walking back to the bar, and that was when she heard a loud popping sound. She let out a yelp, because it felt like someone had hit her with a whip that had razorblades on the end of it, and whatever it had been had spun her around so that she was facing the group as they stood, staring at her. The other side was worse - it was the exit wound. From the back, it could have been a paintball, but from the front...

Camille looked down, and then back up, her mouth open in shock. She stumbled backwards and fell, and then she heard more of the same noise. Kieran fell across her, his upper body covering most of hers as he tried to determine how conscious she was. She heard slamming car doors and screaming, and then the sound of Ryan's Nova start up. It must have been Jared driving, because rocks and dirt went everywhere, and then the car hit the road sideways, taking off into the night. The brunette girl was gone also, because she'd flown off as soon as the first gunshot had happened.

The parking lot had exploded to life, with people running every which way and cars tearing out of the lot. Camille couldn't see what was going on, because Kieran kept screaming at her to stay with him. She didn't understand what he meant - she was with him, of course, right there on the ground - but then the ground felt like it wasn't there at all, and she wanted to close her eyes for a while.

Jared had to admit, he'd been having a pretty good night before they ran into Camille.  Then, it swiftly went downhill.  He'd even been in great spirits about Ryan getting his ass kicked (by a girl), having a bottle thrown at him, and Camille throwing nasty things at him involving Angela.  He'd dealt with it well, and brushed it off like it didn't bother him.  It was a lie, but he made it work.  Credit where it was due, right?  Except, Camille wasn't done.  Personally, Jared hadn't done a damn thing, and actually hadn't said anything to her until she brought up Angela and threw the bottle at him, which made him an innocent victim in all this, as far as he was concerned.  She was starting to piss him off, though.

He ignored the new girl, other than watching carefully as she pulled her shirt off to tend to Ryan.  As she got close to them, he could smell bird on her, which meant she was a shapeshifter and he instantly didn't trust her.  He didn't like shapeshifters at all (especially fucking lions, those assholes), so he had his eye on her.  He could watch her and hate Camille at the same time, though.

"You know, I didn't say shit to you, you little fucking bitch," he snarled from the seat on the hood of the car that he'd retaken.  "Why don't you shut your big fucking mouth about Angela and let me torment myself on my own?  It must be real easy from that fancy fucking house of yours to look down on us, but at least we know a thing or two about loyalty and relationships."

Everyone, mark that down, because Jared was actually being deep for a second.  It sucked, because he could totally sympathize with Ryan's anger and pain over the Camille situation; he was in a similar spot with Angela.  He didn't want to admit it, but he loved that bitch, and Ryan's advantages were that he wasn't an Akka that couldn't be around things he loved and Camille wasn't in the business of killing vampires.  Ryan was still suffering for the fact that he cared about Camille, and Camille was being a bitch.  Why did they even bother, seriously?

Personally, he thought it was funny that she screamed shit from the safety of Ed Hardy's arms, but he didn't much care.  It wasn't like he was going to break her face, which would be what happened if he laid a hand on her.  He couldn't much stand her, but he wasn't about to kill her; he wasn't that crazy just yet.  Besides, Ryan would never forgive him, and he'd already addressed the fact that they both knew how to appreciate people.  Jared wouldn't do that to his best friend.

If Camille had anything additional to say, she didn't get that far.  Jared saw the movement before the gunshots rang out, heard something that caught his attention and made him MOVE.  He honestly didn't give a shit about anyone there except for Ryan, which was why he grabbed his best friend and essentially plucked him right off the car and tossed him to the other side for some cover.  He wasn't quite fast enough, bullets whizzing past and Ryan himself yelling, but that was better than Ryan being dead. 

"Dude, shut up and get in the fucking car!" he screamed, bolting for the driver's side door and screaming again wordlessly as he and his car were sprayed with bullets.  He lost his feet, hit the pavement hard, and dragged himself up by the door handle, ripping it open in the process so that he could climb in and tear off.  There was a rush of feathers as a bird flew INTO his car, but until he was spitting gravel and on his way out of the parking lot, he didn't pay attention to the fact that Veronica had shown up in the backseat.

He glanced at Ryan, saw his friend holding his side where he was crouched in the passenger seat, and the turned his eyes back on the road.  "Hey, how bad are you?" he asked quickly, simultaneously trying to make sense of himself.  His left leg and a few spots on his torso were on fire, which was why he'd fallen, but he hadn't been hit in the heart or the head, so that was a damn good deal.  He'd heal up, however much it fucking hurt and destroyed his ability to be friendly. 

Where the fuck were they even going? 

At first, Kieran had no intention of letting Camille go.  As far as he was concerned, she was lucky the vampire hadn't gotten involved, so he wasn't giving her the chance to make the dude change his mind.  He only released her when she'd stopped struggling against him, and then she dropped a parting comment before turning back towards the bar.  Seemed like a good idea to him, especially if that crazy girl was going to strip in front of all of them in order to deal with Ryan's nose.  Seriously?  Kieran was pretty sure that the guy wasn't going to bleed to death from a bloody nose, so taking off and ruining her shirt was unnecessary.  That made him think she was an attention whore, which made his impression of her drop quite a few times.  Besides, who chose to get involved with some dude fighting with his ex-girlfriend?  Kieran was only involved because he'd agreed to escort Camille outside for a little, and he wasn't going to leave her alone out there.

It was a good thing, too.  If he'd have left her out there, she'd have probably died.  As it was, the gunfire came too fast for him to protect her completely, which meant that she did take a bullet as he was lunging for her.  She hesitated a second while everyone else stared, and he wrapped her up in his arms as she started to fall, bullets suddenly raining on the group as a whole.  That 'warning shot' or whatever it was only gave Kieran enough time to curl his body around her as he took them to the ground, trying to determine if she was going to be okay even as he heard someone approaching quickly. 

"Camille!  Stay with me!  I mean it, watch me, look at me, stay awake!" he shouted, giving her a small shake to try to keep her conscious before he had to pay attention to whoever was coming.  He jerked his body up to snarl at their attacker, eyes flashing amber as he crouched in front of Camille's fallen form, but this was never meant to be a fair fight.  As soon as their was a sign of life and fight out of him, whoever was out there opened fire again, taking him in the shoulder and twisting him around towards Camille.  He made eye contact with her for a horrifying instant of her consciousness seeming to fade, screamed at her to stay awake rather than just sounding urgent, and if she was at all aware at that point, she may have seen the man who'd come at them level his gun at Kieran's back.  Why not his head, he had no clue, but perhaps capture was supposed to be the next step.  Either way, the bullet rocketed through his back and busted its way out his chest, spraying Camille with his blood before it smacked into the pavement and ricocheted away.  He choked, his arms faltering in holding himself off of her for a second as his eyes went wild with pain, but he caught himself just before he would have crushed her already injured frame. 

If he was of any other lines, that might have been it right there.  People were screaming and running around, there were shouts coming from the door to the bar, but that didn't mean that they were safe.  Kieran was pretty sure he was going to die, but his father had raised a strong heir from a strong wolf bloodline, and Thane's son held on just so that he could do some damage.  Even if not for himself, he couldn't let Camille die like this.  She would survive, he was determined, but he was too damaged to get up and fight, that much was certain.  That was where the other half of his bloodline came in handy; the Grigore half.  If there were two things that the Grigores dealt well in, it was blood and vengeance.  There was blood everywhere, so that wasn't a problem, and Kieran was definitely interested in vengeance right then.  He could feel his strength ebbing away, lowering him ever further over Camille (maybe his form could protect her from further injury), and he just gave in and laid there.  His fingers trailed into the blood, tracing through it as he focused the intuitive magics that his grandmother and great-grandmother had fought so hard to teach him.  There were words as well, spoken so quietly that they were hardly a breath on the air, but they didn't need to be loud.  It heard. 

A shadow flit across the parking lot, just one, then followed by another and finally a third.  They shot from one pool of darkness to another, the high sound of chatting voices following them along and being lost in the chaos, but Kieran heard it like music to his ears.  Help, revenge, saviors, killers, they were here.  He heard the screams, heard the chaos become more, and there was a final shot from the man who'd walked closer to strike him a lasting final blow.  At that point, his back exploding into just too much, his hand splayed into the blood and his concentration erupted into nothing more than white noise, but the damage was done.  The first wave was down and out.

Nobody ever gave Coop any credit.  Sure, his watch was broken and he lost track of time, and yes, he'd had a rough night, but he started this place back up by bartending alone until the crowds got big enough and the money good enough that he could hire waitresses and bartenders.  He could do the job, and well, but they were busy as hell and he was a little rusty.  Besides, Clarissa had reorganized behind the bar, and he didn't know where anything was.  She snapped at him to go change, so he disappeared, but he vanished to get a glass of water and get a 'big picture' of the evening.  That included checking the time and making last call while Clarissa was out back with her sister.  He was on it, no problem.

He was ready for this night to be over, too.  He couldn't complain that they were making amazing money, but Clarissa wasn't the only one who knew that they'd be in deep shit if they stayed open too late, so he was moving things along.  He didn't want legal trouble, that was for sure.  He was even starting to get a handle on the whole situation, grinning at Clarissa and Melissa as they returned, when the gunshots exploded outside. 

Coop had training, everyone seemed to forget that on a regular basis, and he had left the police force by choice.  He reached behind one of the coolers to pull out a handgun, shouting for Clarissa to call the police as he took off for the door.  "Nathaniel!  Move!" he yelled, knowing that his friend and former partner had to already be headed his way.  This was his place, and he'd be damned if he didn't see what the hell was going on.

Hell, he might be damned for seeing what was happening.  He hit the doorway and had to duck back inside as bullets hit the front of the building, but other than a sharp curse, he went right back out, keeping low.  "If I get shot outside my own bar, I'm going to be sooooo mad," he murmured to himself, keeping low and running for the first car that he could use as cover.  He heard the much larger man leave the building behind him and didn't even spare his partner a glance.  He was too interested in the shadows he was seeing flit across the parking lot, causing him pause behind his cover while he just watched.  They rushed the men that had been shooting (who immediately started screaming), and all Coop saw was blood as they went down.  Yeah, that made him want to run out there.

"Oh, fuck," he swore, tearing his eyes away from the shadows to see who was injured.  There was a man on the ground, body draped over a woman, and Coop could see that underneath the blood, there were tattoos all up the man's arm.  Claire's fucking brother.  "Fuck!"

He had to hope that the shadows were on their side, rushing to Kieran's side as he took in the surroundings.  It didn't look like anyone who'd been shooting was still standing, incredibly, but he wasn't going to overthink it.  He just prayed that Claire didn't get anywhere near the doorway to see this.  They had to get Kieran and the girl some help, and fast.

Before Mike had even ended the phone call Frank was out of bed and on his feet. He quickly began suiting up in his full set of combat gear. As he had learned more about the Supernatural, and more importantly more about killing them he had developed a unique set of "armor" for hunting. He quickly donned a sleeveless black t-shirt and a pair of BDU pants. Over the t-shirt went his modified Kevlar vest complete with Ceramic trauma plates that could take a rifle round or a jab from a younger vamp. He quickly tied up his combat boots and strapped on his knee pads and thigh holster for his XD. Reaching up to another shelf he grabbed his leather wrist gauntlets that would off him some protection from claws or vampire teeth, on the same shelf were also his elbow pads and the improvised steel pauldrons he had built to protect his shoulders. When Mike first saw the gear he told Frank it made him look like the Comedian from Watchmen or one of the guys from Army of Two or some other fucking game he was always playing.

Frank grabbed his P99c off his nightstand and put it in his ankle holster, and sheathed his K-bar in the opposite boot. His machete went into its sheath on his back and he grabbed his shortened Saiga .308 and attached it to its 1 point sling so it sat nicely across his chest, ready at a moments notice, and he could even drive with the stock folded. Glancing around the apartment he made sure that there was nothing he was forgetting. As he walked out the front door he grabbed the modified Saiga 12 gauge that was leaned up next to it and attached it to another sling on his combat vest so it hung behind him but slight under his arm for quick access. If Mike said SHIT was going down, Frank was taking no fucking chances.

He debated whether to clear the way to his car with the pistol or the rifle, then decided his neighbors could go fly a fucking kite if he scared them with the rifle. He quickly brought it up and flipped the stock on his rifle out. He raised it to his shoulder and quickly but cautiously made his way to his Grand National. Tucking the stock under his arm he could still hip fire if he needed to he fished his keys out with his other hand and opened the car door. Frank started the car and slammed it into reverse. If Midnight wanted a war, they would get a fucking war he decided. As he pulled out of the parking lot he reached under the passenger seat and pulled out the sawed off Road Warrior style double barrel he kept there and sat it in easy reach on the passenger seat.

Frank pulled out his phone and dialed Skye's number, figuring his old partner might have some damn clue as to what was going on. It went straight to her voicemail, which meant she was either fighting right now or on the line. He then tried Connor's phone, and disturbingly got no answer...it just rang and rang...maybe the shit had hit the Guildhouse?

"Fucking Vampires", he said listening to the ringing phone.

Fucking Vampires indeed, while Frank was paying attention to driving and to trying to contact his Guild he failed to notice the black Tahoe SS that had whipped out of the apartment complex parking lot behind him. It wasn't until he stopped to check for traffic before blowing a red light that he noticed the damn thing FLYING up onto his ass, clearly going for a ramming move. Frank mashed the gas, but the modified turbo V6 decided it wanted to break his ass end loose. When the tires finally hooked up the SUV was almost at impact. Since he had some forward momentum Frank was able to lay into the gas and crank the wheel when the Tahoe hit him.

The force of the impact and his quick thinking resulted in him busting a U Turn in the intersection. He already had his window down in case he need to fire, so he grabbed the double barrel as he began to spin and he knew he would at least get a shot at the rear passenger in the SUV. He aimed across his chest with his right hand and fired into the blacked out window. Instead of buckshot or slugs, this little gun was loaded with flechette rounds, each shell had dozens of tiny razor sharp darts designed to shred anything in their path, and Frank's gun discharged both barrels at once, it was a one hitter quitter most of the time. There was a satisfying explosion of glass and gore that let him know he had at least hurt one of the bastards.

The problem in this situation Frank knew as he saw the Tahoe flip a bitch and start gaining on him again was that he could out run the damn things normally, but this one was modified and it had the advantage of All Wheel Drive. He tried to dip off onto a side street but miscalculated his speed and his ass end started to slide. As he tried to correct the Tahoe slammed into the rear passenger tire, disabling his sending him off into a ditch. Fortunately it also crumpled the nose of the SUV and from the steam cloud it was most likely disabled as well. Frank quickly kicked the door open and dropped out, using his car as cover as he brought his rifle up and sprayed the SUV.

As the first rounds impacted the windshield the doors flew open on the passenger side only. Two vampires against one hunter....one very, very pissed off hunter. Frank managed to put a round in the knee of the front seat passenger dropping him momentarily, and the rear seat passenger dove behind the rear of the Tahoe for cover. Frank used this momentary distraction to pop his trunk, he had a surprise in there for these sons of bitches. He opened the duffle bag laying there to reveal a Vietnam era M-70 40mm Grenade launcher. He quickly loaded a shell and slammed it shut with a satisfying metallic clack followed shortly by the hollow thump sound of the round firing. It hit the front of the Tahoe and exploded, blasting the vampire on the ground in half. Frank fired a 3 round burst of .308 into his head and what remained of his chest just to be sure. 3 down....but where the hell was number 4? He dropped the rifle to hang against his chest and brought up the shotgun as he approached the now burning Tahoe.

He quickly checked inside, but it was all bits and pieces now that remained. He swept around the back, but found no one there. Fuck, Fuck, Fuck, he thought...bastard teleported. As he turned to head back to his car to collect his weapons and head out on foot the shotgun was ripped from his grip and tossed across the road. He spun fully around to find himself eye to black eye with the 4th vampire. Too close for the rifle, and too close to draw a pistol. Before he could figure out his next move the vampire punched him swiftly in the chest, probably looking to rip out his heart or some stupid shit. Instead, Frank felt the ceramic plate in his vest and a couple of his ribs fracture. The force of the blow knocked him against the the Tahoe and gave him enough distance from his attacker to reach behind him and draw his machete. He swung it in a quick arc down from his shoulder as the Vampire closed on him. The vamp realized its mistake in time to move inhumanly back, Franks blow just grazing its face and drawing blood.

The Vampire again darted in and this time Frank went low with the machete drawing its razor sharp blade across his adversary's stomach. The Vampire hissed in pain and confusion as its guts fell to the ground, and enraged simply grabbed the machete with its hands and despite tearing its own flesh, ripping it from Frank's hands. It swung another hard blow that caught Frank on the shoulder and sent him sprawling. He impacted the ground hard, seeing stars for a brief moment, but his training paid off because without a conscious thought his K-bar was out of its boot sheath and in his hand. As the Vampire closed in on him on the ground Frank thrust the blade out and caught the Vampire right in the throat with it. Gagging, gurgling and gasping all mixed together came from the Vampire as the blood sprayed from the wound as Frank withdrew the knife. The Vampire, already disemboweled and now bleeding profusely from its neck sagged to its knees. "Oh no motherfucker, its not going to be that easy!", Frank shouted as he grabbed the....creature...by its hair and drug it over to a near by curb and forced its mouth open on it. "This is for my goddamn car you motherfucker", he said as he reared back and curb stomped the Vampire. Its skull split with a wet crunch and just to be sure Frank drew the .45 XD and put 3 in its chest and 2 more into the ruin of its head.

He staggered under the pain of his broken ribs, and aching shoulder back to get his shotgun, then to his demolished car to get the rest of the weaponry. He grunted with pain and effort as he pulled the heavy duffle bag out of the trunk and turned to get his bearings. He was to far from Crimson to hoof it, Frost was closer but in all the confusion he didn't want one of those crazy bastards to accidentally take him out. The nearest "safe" place he could think of was his favorite nearby bar, Hole in the Wall which was just a few blocks away.

As Frank neared the bar he heard shooting and screams which sent him instinctively to his belly in the ditch, he low crawled the last couple hundred yards, and was with in sight of the bar as he saw muzzle flashes, then something, then heard more screaming. As he hauled himself to a crouch and prepared to move as fast as he could to a nearby car for cover he saw the owner of the place come out the front door gun in hand. Over the past months Frank had gotten to know the owner since he frequented the place on most nights when not out hunting, and had busted up a couple drunken brawls that had erupted too close to his table and spilled his drink.

"Coop...its Frank! I'm coming toward you from about your 7'oclock don't fucking shoot me!", he shouted as he he crawled amongst the cars for cover, grateful for the elbow and knee pads...fuck what Mike had to say about his gear! 

 Camille could hear the sound of screaming and panic and general confusion as she saw colourful shapes dot the landscape, now horizontal, indicating people running in all sorts of different directions. She gripped Kieran's arms as firmly as she could, trying to breathe steady and ending up in short gulps of air as she struggled to stay conscious. It was very important that she stay coherent until the ambulance arrived, or else she could do something stupid like slip into a coma, a thought that forced her to widen her eyes and try to concentrate on anything she could reach to focus. When Kieran collapsed on top of her, barely stopping himself from squeezing her so tightly that he crushed every bone in her ribcage, she cried out, voice freakish and foreign to her.

What happened next, she could not explain. He was close enough to her that she could hear him speaking, or whispering - or was it breathing? She opened her mouth to wheeze his name, but he was crushing down on her enough that the air she had was going to provide her only what she could use to breathe, not to speak. She could see him, though, feel his face moving against her chest and the brush of his arm as his fingers danced in the large pool of blood they lay in. She felt like he was going to suffocate her if she didn't move soon, and as she felt herself begin to lose consciousness, she saw -

Shadows. Creatures. Shadows. She didn't know what they were. They were insubstantial and suddenly not, flickers of whispers and a chattering sound, laughter even, - and then they were just shadows again, sinking back into the darkness of the asphalt and rolling in a breeze across the empty field adjacent to the bar. She closed her eyes tightly - or had they already been closed? - and opened them again. The scene was different then before - shadows substantial and primeval, taking their wrath out on the party who had attacked their bearer had left a wake of bodies which were now littered around on the ground. Some missed limbs, others boasted large chunks of flesh burned and rotting away, as though it had been ripped from their bodies with a hot, jagged shovel.

Her wound began to burn, then. It began to burn so much that she managed to cry out once more, a true sound of despair as she tried to push Kieran off of her. "It burns," she whimpered, but she lacked the strength to move him. Her voice gave way into sobs as the fire fed through her gaping bullet wound, tracing black along her veins, which one would have seen had she not been covered in blood. "It burns, it burns!" she cried again, voice so high-pitched and wracked with tears that she sounded like a frightened child.

Nathaniel was behind Daniel in a matter of moments, though his own gun had yet to be drawn - and it was for the best, too. The shadows gave him the creeps, and if he'd been better versed in his own history, he might have even tasted the familiar sulfuric tinge of gypsy magic on his tongue, but as it was, he was more concerned that the shadows would target he and Daniel, next. When they didn't, he seemed satisfied, and followed Coop down the stairs to Kieran and Camille. Upon hearing her weak protests of burning, Nathaniel's eyes widened for an instant as he did the math on what was happening. The blonde had already been exposed to so much of Kieran's blood, that it was only natural the infection had begun to spread. He wondered what the O'Riley patriarch would think about all of this? He motioned to Daniel and gave him a hand in pulling the two apart, opting to carry Kieran since he was - well, he was just bigger.

"Shut this place down, NOW," he ordered as he came back through the doors. He kicked random tables and chairs out of his way until he came to one long enough to set Kieran's body on. He'd have to dig the bullets out unless Kieran was comfortable living with one or two floating around in his flesh forever, and it was going to be terribly uncomfortable. Luckily, Nathaniel had come prepared. He threw his keys at Rook, who stood by with a gaping mouth.

"Outside, black Audi S-4. Trunk, first aid kit. Get it and bring it back, and do not stop for anything. And get her out of here," he said, pointing at Claire, who had literally begun screaming at the sight of her brother brought in all banged up. Nathaniel was really going to concentrate, and he wouldn't be able to do it with her screeching relentlessly like she'd started to do. He had to flex that Alpha genetic to get her to shut her mouth, which he didn't like to do, but as a submissive animal by nature, it did the trick, and Claire literally almost ran Rook over to hide behind her.

"Daniel, lay her out right here," he said, gesturing to the next table. "We'll hire a cleaning service later. Looks like her wound is clean through, lucky girl. Too bad she won't see it that way in a few days," he muttered, beginning to do what he could for Kieran by way of propping his head up and getting clean towels from the cabinet by the bar. By then, the place had emptied out quite a bit, and now that Frank was there to stand guard, Nathaniel felt he could work a little more diligently without having to address an ambush - or, another ambush, as it were.

When Rook came back inside and tossed the first aid kit at him, he opened it up and pulled out an ugly pair of surgical pliers, along with some other menacing-looking tools. He'd leave Camille to Daniel for now.

"My friend, this is going to hurt," he assured Kieran. Then, the digging began.

Kieran thought it was just as important to remain conscious as Camille seemed to, but it was up in the air whether he was worried about a coma, or not.  He wasn't really sure exactly what would happen at this point if he passed out, but he definitely didn't want to find out.  His grandmother and great-grandmother had warned him that doing this would be seriously bad, and that being as careful and in control as possible was key.  Here, he had no control, and barely anything in the way of consciousness.  When Camille started screaming about something burning, her voice didn't cut through the white noise that had surrounded his senses until around the third or fourth try, and then he made the slightest attempt at pulling himself away.  Anything to get her free of him, especially with the threats taken down for the moment.  He didn't know that the shadows seemed to seep back into their proper places as the other threats fell, but the sole reason for that was because he could still hear them chattering around and caught a slip of darkness here and there.  He was far too bad-off to really determine how horrible this was going to be in the future.

He tried pushing himself off of her, but he didn't really get anywhere until Nathaniel and Daniel arrived beside them and pulled them apart.  He didn't blame them, as much as it hurt to be moved like that, and seeing Daniel scoop Camille up as carefully as he could was definitely encouraging.  It meant that things just might be turning in their direction once more, and even though Nathaniel's scent was dominant and aggressive, the big wolf was lifting him off of the pavement and dragging him back into the bar.  He could hear people freaking out still, but Claire's voice rose above the rest in his ears, drawing his attention towards her with a little tilt of his head.  He couldn't even function well enough to talk to her any longer, but when Rook returned with the first aid kit, he nodded to Nathaniel's warning that it would hurt.

Yeah, accepting and understanding were definitely different things.  He bit down on his own cry, hoping that if he kept the sound down that his sister wouldn't freak out more than she already was (wherever Rook had pulled her aside), and found himself digging his hands into the table that he'd been laid upon with a renewed strength that came from having the wolf digging around in his body for bullets.  He didn't even consider telling the man to stop, though.  He wasn't stupid, and he knew that getting the bullets out was key.  Someone was going to need to contact his father, and it sure as hell wasn't going to be him anytime soon. 

 Camille felt like her mind was melting. Her whole body was burning, and the more she tried to fight it, tried to kick and scream, the more Daniel held her down. Her voice became jagged and hoarse, and she clawed at his arms, screaming, "No, please don't let them take me!" It almost seemed as though she were having a flashback, but the random yelps about 'burning' would remind them they were depressingly in the present. It was incredibly fortunate for Daniel that he'd rolled his sleeves back down when he saw all the blood, because Camille was taking in the infection and she was capable of spreading it just as well. Daniel didn't want to be a wolf - not like this, anyways.

Nathaniel finally lost his patience, which was scary. He let off of Kieran, turning Daniel around by grabbing his shoulder. A bead of sweat was forming on his brow, and it was obvious that the screaming and the scent of blood was grinding on his nerves. "I need you to get someone who isn't human up here to help me. There's too much blood, and I don't want you getting infected. Rook, GET BACK!" he commanded, as the brunette tried to creep in for a status report. He closed his eyes and exhaled slowly.

"Go sit with Claire. Call her father," he said. He didn't apologize for yelling, because he really wasn't sorry for trying to keep her from becoming furry. "Get Melissa and Clarissa," he told Daniel. "Kieran is stabilized but he needs those wounds wrapped, and I can't let you do that because you're at risk. Go." The way he spoke didn't bode for arguing, and he stepped in front of him, effectively bumping him out of the way. He grabbed Camille's flailing arms with one hand and pinned them down to her chest. In the other hand, he wielded a syringe with enough sedatives to knock down an elephant - or himself, if he needed it. He jammed it into her abdomen while she cried and screamed jibberish, and then slowly released her hands as she mellowed out.

As he hit her with the needle, Camille remembered only that everything began to blur and spin, and the lights became suddenly bright, and then extinguished. The last thing she heard was the man saying, "She's turning."

Frankly, Coop deserved credit just for rushing out there with those shadow things tearing people apart.  Fortunately for him and Nathaniel, they weren't targeted (which had Daniel seriously wondering what the hell they were and where they'd come from), so the two of them could drag the injured pair apart and work to get them inside.  He didn't do the macho thing and make any indication that he cared about the fact that Nathaniel deliberately grabbed Kieran because the wolf was heavier than Camille.  That was because he didn't care, and he knew it was true.  Kieran was a hell of a lot heavier than a human girl, and Nathaniel was a hell of a lot stronger than a human man, even if Daniel wasn't weak.  He could be pretty tough, but he was still only human, which was going to leave him at a disadvantage in this case.  He was literally kneeling in a pool of blood as he slid his firearm into his waistband (he hadn't thought to grab the holster before rushing out) and tried to ease Camille up into his arms without hurting her worse.  Since she was wiggling around and whining that she was burning, he wasn't sure that he could really do all that much to keep her from hurting, but he was trying his best.  That was when Frank called out, and Coop nearly dropped her initially.  He was temporarily unarmed, and the first thought was that they were under attack again, but Frank's quick identification of himself helped a good bit.  It meant that he just lifted Camille and started toward the bar again right behind Nathaniel.

"Frank?  Watch our backs going in!" he called out, aware that Nathaniel was just as preoccupied with the body in his arms as he was; neither of them were going to manage any fast attacks.  Frank just had great timing like that, it seemed.  As soon as they hit the place and Nathaniel shouted for everyone to shut it down, Coop laid Camille out on another table (he didn't care about the blood right then, so the cleaning crew wasn't all that important until later) and glanced up at Frank.  "No idea what's going on, man, the shooting started out of nowhere.  You showed up just in time, and I'm not even going to question that coincidence right now.  Can you just keep any surprises from busting in on us and get these people out of here?"

He also flicked his eyes in Claire and Rook's direction when Nathaniel gave them orders, grabbing for some towels himself to press to Camille's wound.  He had to tilt her to press some to her back, then lay her back down to put more pressure on the front.  He could absolutely understand Claire's panic and screaming, seeing Kieran's wide eyes as Nathaniel warned him how much the bullet removal was going to hurt, but Daniel knew it was a good thing that the young wolf had regained consciousness while they were moving him.  With all that blood, the number of holes in the kid and the fact that he was down like that, Daniel had worried for a few instants there.  Now, he was much more worried about Camille and the one bullet she'd taken, though there was also the infection thing with her.  That would save her life, but Nathaniel was right in thinking she might not be quite as thrilled as she should be.  Funny, he had blood all over his legs, chest and all up his arms, but potentially becoming infected himself hadn't even occurred to him.  Camille was actually clawing at him while he tried to hold her still on the table, screaming about not letting something take her, and all he did was try to talk calmly to her and keep her down so that she couldn't hurt herself worse.  He really would have thought that she was completely hallucinating if he hadn't seen the shadows moving around outside and she wasn't still shrieking about the burning. 

He was grabbing at her wrists finally, trying to stop her from attacking him, when Nathaniel took him by the shoulder and spun him around, barking orders at Rook and warning him about infection.  It was then that it dawned on him fully, and he glanced down at himself with that sick kind of realization; he might not have freaked out if he did become infected, but from something like this?  In the middle of all this chaos?  No, thanks. 

If he'd had any arguments on the way, he snapped his mouth shut and gave a stiff nod.  He hated being pushed out when it was his own bar and Claire's brother bleeding all over, but he could see the rationality in the decision.  He turned and helped chase Rook and Claire off to a booth (without touching Rook, since now he was hyper-aware of the wolf blood he was coated in), and busted into the kitchen with a bloodied handprint on the swinging door.

"Melissa, Clarissa, we've got a serious issue," he called in, though how necessary was that really?  As soon as they saw him coated in blood like he was, they were up and coming at him.  "None of it's mine, those gunshots in the parking lot took out a young girl and Claire's brother.  Nathaniel kicked me out because the girl was flailing and there's wolf blood everywhere."

That was that, then.  Melissa made a small sound and rushed right past him with Clarissa right on her heels, and Daniel was left to his own devices.  He definitely wanted to go see to Claire, but something told him that if he went to her coated in her brother's blood, she might freak out a little, and there was no way he wanted to get close to Rook with the blood all over him.  She was as at risk as he was, and she was impulsive enough not to think about it until it was too late.  He went to the huge sinks they had and tore his shirt off first, scrubbing at his chest and arms to try to get it off.  It was a good thing he hadn't changed his shirt like Clarissa told him to, since it meant he had a spare in his office still.  He wasn't so sure he had pants that he could replace these with, but he sure as hell needed to try to get the blood out.  All he had to do was nick himself somewhere that could come in contact with the blood, and he could be infected.  Not part of the plan.

Poor Rook knew that this was above her pay grade as soon as they heard the gunshots outside, which was why she instantly grabbed Claire and dragged her back towards the bar.  She didn't know much about guns and getting shot at, but she knew how to get out of dodge when something bad was happening.  Guns were 'something bad' in this situation, though Rook was in the dark about Kieran's whereabouts at that point.  It was doubtful that she'd have known what to do about it if she'd known what was going on, but checking her phone would have been a start.  She didn't know it because she'd been busy, but her sister had been trying to get in touch with her because of the Midnight problem.  She probably could have checked it once Coop disappeared outside with Nathaniel, but by that point she was much more interested in keeping Claire calm; her best friend had taken to freaking out as soon as she couldn't find her brother, and Rook couldn't deny that she'd seen him go outside.  She just hadn't been paying attention enough to know if he came back in.

It wasn't like they were in doubt for long, since Coop and Nathaniel came rushing back in with two bloodied bodies in their arms and a bearded man who was armed and looked a little worse for wear in their wake, and Rook thought she recognized the girl Coop was carrying, even through Camille's hysterics.  It was seeing Kieran's dark eyes wide in his blood-spattered face, then taking in the blood that covered the rest of him that really scared Rook and threw Claire over the edge.  Rook couldn't do anything more than just follow her friend up until Nathaniel started barking orders, and then she just did as she was told.  Really, she was shocked that Nathaniel sent her out to his car after everything going on outside (and secretly hoped that the bearded man who seemed to have taken up guard duty was going to watch her walk out and back), but she forgot about all that as she hurried across the parking lot to Nathaniel's car.

It felt bad.  She was Chumomisto and her talent was with curses, so her magic never felt particularly light and happy, but this was different.  She could almost hear laughter, voicing chittering at each other and at her from the periphery of her mind, and her eyes inevitably fell upon the pool of blood that had spilled from Kieran and Camille's bodies.  She couldn't help watching the blood, almost like she thought something would happen, and it was as she surfaced from Nathaniel's trunk with the first aid kit he needed in hand that she saw a dark form flit through the reflection on the wet blood.  That was it.

Rook managed to choke down the fear long enough to slam the trunk and dash for the bar, Nathaniel's keys held in her hand so tightly that she could feel the metal biting into her hand, but she didn't care.  She wanted to be inside, away from whatever had happened out on that asphalt, and she didn't care if she looked spooked when she handed the kit off to the big wolf that had taken charge.  She wasn't going to argue with anything that man said, if only because there was something bad going on and she didn't want anything to do with it.  Let him take charge.

She even did as she was told in getting the now panicking Claire away from Kieran, though she conceded and went to check on his status after a few minutes of Claire worrying herself into a fit.  Nathaniel screamed for her to get back (which made sense, but didn't help her nerves, or give her the chance to tell him that something was very wrong about it all), and she darted back to Claire with his instructions about calling her father.  She even snatched up her friend's phone, well aware of how unlikely it would be that Claire would get any of the necessary information across to her dad, and hit the speed dial for his number.

"Nathaniel said to call your dad, Claire.  Don't worry, everything will be alright," she promised, hoping to whoever would listen that it was true even as she glanced around for her cards.  They were scattered across the floor, tossed aside when everyone had started rushing around.  She could see two cards face up and overlapping each other from where she sat with Claire, the Knight of Wands and the Hanged Man, and she pursed her lips while the phone rang.  She had the feeling she suddenly knew what was so very wrong outside, and she didn't want to know.

Naturally, Thane was confused to find Rook instead of Claire on the other end of the line, but it wasn't nearly as odd as it might have been with someone else.  Rook and Claire spent a lot of time together, so until Rook blurted that Kieran was hurt and something bad was happening, he wasn't all that upset.  Once he had that information, he demanded more.

"Hurt?  How badly?  Is Claire alright?"

"Claire's fine, just upset.  I have her here, I'll put her on in a sec, just don't think she'd have been very clear."

"And Kieran?"  It was so sad, Rook could hear the note of panic threatening, but Thane kept it together.  This was only his heir they were talking about.

"He was shot, it looked like a couple of times.  Nathaniel and Coop are with him," she responded quickly, right before seeing Daniel disappear into the kitchen covered in blood, with Melissa and Clarissa rushing out a second later.  "A girl was shot, too."

"And you're alright?"

"Yes, Mr. O'Riley, I'm okay.  Claire and I were inside when it happened, but..."  There was the hesitation, the knowledge that something wasn't right working at her.

"What?"

"There was something, something bad, outside."

"Of course there was, it's--"

"No, I mean, something dark.  Some kind of magic, something that wasn't good."  Yeah, because that was nice and clear, very informative.  The hesitation on the other end made her think that she must sound like an idiot, but Thane didn't call her one.

"It'll be okay, Rook.  I'm coming down there, let me talk to Claire for a second."

With that said, she said her goodbye and offered the phone to Claire, who'd heard the whole conversation with that awesome wolf hearing, anyway.  There was an edge to the air that made Rook feel the slightest bit nauseous, but it wasn't quite enough to be a problem.  She just really didn't like it. 

Claire had stopped screaming and howling and carrying on about the time Rook shook her so hard she thought her teeth would fall out of her head. She needed it, though, and they stood, arms locked for a moment before Claire just nodded to her best friend. They had an understanding that Claire was not to scream anymore, from that point on, unless they were in danger again. She sat down in a booth at the corner with no windows, watching in a daze, it seemed, as the two cougars ran in to tend to the wounded. Nathaniel began commanding people around, Daniel went to wash up and change, the rest of the staff was armed or helping wounded, and a man with long hair was at the door taking a very mountain man approach to anyone who saw fit to come through the other side.

And then of course there were the things Kieran had summoned.

Claire had known better than to ever pull some shit like that. Their mother had taught them in secrecy - she wagered if she told their father, he'd be in some sort of serious trouble. If he lived, that was. The thought made her bite her lip to choke back a sob. If was an ugly word. And who was the blonde he was with? He wasn't dating anyone, so how did they end up so close? Her brother, the protector. She covered her face for a moment to try and bring herself into reality, but she felt like she was wandering through a fog. It was all making her head hurt, and it seemed like it was happening in slow motion. Rook was holding the phone to her suddenly, and Claire took it with a numbness in her fingers that followed her arms through.

"Dad?" she asked, weakly. "No, no, I'm fine. I was inside when it happened. Well, I don't know what happened, exactly. No, he's hurt pretty badly. They won't let us near because they don't want Rook to get infected. No, Nathaniel dug the bullets out. An old police friend of Daniel's. Cooper. Yes, Mr. Cooper. Dad... I think.. I think the blonde girl who got shot was with Kieran. I think she's infected. They had to knock her out. I don't know what with. No. No, I'm sitting down. I don't know if it's safe. Someone is guarding the door and he's not fucking around. Sorry, but I think just this once it's okay to say that word. Okay, I'll tell him to look for you. Love you."

She looked at Rook, who was intently texting someone. "I don't know if my dad has a weird sense of priority or if he thinks asking me 20 questions will keep me from stalling out and falling on my face with shock," she said with a frown.

"Well?" Rook said, looking up.

"Well, I'm not in shock anymore," she said. It was mostly true, anyways. Her father could annoy her into feeling normal, even if she was scared. "He said he's coming. I have to tell the guy in front not to shoot him. Who is that?"

"Raven. She's coming with one of the hunters to get me and anyone else who wants to go."

  Claire nodded and pushed away from the booth, taking shaky step and giving Nathaniel a wide berth as she crept to the door. "Excuse me, mister?" she asked to Frank, eyes large and wide. "My dad is coming to get me. Could you make sure not to blow a hole through him?" And how could Frank refuse that adorable face and those massive doe eyes.

Contacting to her sister really didn't do much to reassure Rook, not when Raven told her that it was bigger than just some shooting at Hole in the Wall and that she was bringing some hunters to pick her up.  Talking to Raven should have made her feel better, just like taking a second while Claire spoke to the guy at the door to collect up her cards should have.  Neither did, especially since she got a cold, heavy feeling in her chest when she scooped up one card in particular.  She turned it over in her hands to see that it was the Empress, and the cold sweat that broke out over her skin only increased the touch of nausea she'd been suffering before.  She sat down hard, right there on the floor with the rest of the cards scattered around her, her fingers tracing the image of the fruitful, lively woman on the front of the card.  She wanted to call, but didn't even know if she dared.  What if her mother didn't answer?  What if the call only distracted her from what she needed to do?  She hadn't pulled the card in a layout, so she had no way of knowing if it was past, present or future.

This was all too damn much for her.  There was Kieran and Camille bleeding everywhere, the obvious dark magic that felt so familiar while still being utterly foreign, the worry from Raven, and then the cards.  She was certain that the Knight of Wands and the Hanged Man had both been for Kieran, protective and sacrificial, poised to gain power or enlightenment through his sacrifice, and Rook was afraid of what that power was.  She was afraid the dark magic had been his, but how?  How was that even possible?  Just as positive as she was of Kieran's place in the cards was she of the Empress.  That was her mother, absolutely, and it had been lifted in reverse.  Her mother was in danger, or already dead.  Would she have known it if her mother died?  Would she have felt it?  She had to tell herself that, and actually jumped up from the floor to rush for her phone with a sudden desperation to her movements.  Consequences be damned, she had to call.

"Claire," she breathed, hanging up and ringing the number again as her best friend crept back to their booth after talking to the bearded man.  "My mom's not answering.  I pulled the Empress, and it's bad, and she's not answering."

Frank was already in survival mode, and watching casualties getting scooped up out of the parking lot just intensified his resolve. As the other two men picked up the bloodied bodies and headed to the door Frank knelt beside a car and got a good prop across its hood, he aimed off into the darkness where the gunshots had come from. He heard the door to the bar open, then bang back shut as everyone went in. He leaned back over to finish dragging his giant duffel bag inside.

Frank kicked the door open when he came to it and with a strained effort and a loud grunt/groan he tossed the bag in before slamming the door and flipping over a table to obstruct it. The big ass bag landed with a slightly unsettling metallic racket. Frank was glad he had hauled the heavy fucker all this way, because he knew the "Thumper" grenade launcher would come in handy again if there was another attack and he was really, really fucking pissed and wanted to bust out the SAW that was also in the bag. He looked at the mirror behind the bar and for the first time saw the condition he was in. His hair and beard had come untied during the scuffle on the ground, and he was covered in blood, some his, most of it belong to his curb stomping victim. Frank also noticed several jagged scratches on his arm and a couple on his face where the last vampire must have gotten him during their fight.

He headed over to the bar and reached behind it grabbing a bottle of high proof grain alcohol, a towel and a bottle of Wild Turkey. He uncorked the Turkey and turned it up, taking enough of a slug to dull his broken ribs, but not enough to fuck up his shooting. Then he dumped some of the grain alcohol on the towel and with a wince and groan, cleaned his wounds. With his medical issues handled as best he could he turned to his equipment. One shoulder pauldron was dented and scraped, but it was still holding, the real concern was the shattered trauma plate. Frank unhooked his tactical vest and reached into the plate holder and dumped out the 6 pieces his once solid plate had been reduced to. He reached to the back of the vest and swapped that plate to the front since he had no intention of getting hit in the back while running away.

Satisfied his gear was squared away he began taking stock of the situation in the bar, the wounded were over across the room being tended too, and people were running back and forth. Frank knew his basic battle field medical skills weren't going to be of much help, so he he continued surveying the room. There were still a few civilians it looked like. Plus Coop and the other employees that were there when the shooting started. Frank reloaded his rifle and headed back towards the front door to stand guard like Coop had asked.

Frank whipped out his cell as he took up his guard post near the front window. He mashed the speed dial for Mike's number, knowing that Mike would have seen the GPS beacon on his car not moving after the crash. The phone had barely begun to ring when Mike answered.

"Holy shit Frank are you ok?"
"Yeah Mike, I'm good, I got out just in time and they ran me off the road...killed all four of them but I'm a little banged up, nothing serious just a couple fucking broke ribs...listen, I'm hemmed up at Hole in The Wall and there are civilians and wounded here, those sons of bitches hit this place too...I'm gonna need you to check the area out, I'm gonna try and evac them to Crimson if I can, and when we move we're gonna need some intel...you got it?"
"....You got jumped by Vampires...broke some ribs...and you're at the BAR? Aight man, I'll see what I can find out, I'm broadcasting what I can to all the Guilds to try and help out so I'm a little swamped with this shit, but I got your back...be careful out there, I think I'm getting reports of the Vamps bombing a hospital or something, so take the wounded to a Guild House, doesn't matter which one!"
"10-4, I'll call back when we get ready to move."
Frank hung up the phone and resumed his vigil at the window, if all the Guilds were involved, this was serious shit...very serious shit. He almost tried Skye and Connor again, but knew that if he, a relatively new face on the scene, had been hit, they undoubtedly had been too, and it was best to not distract them.

He was staring intently out the window when the girl spoke to him, something about not blowing a hole in her Dad. Well that might prove to be a problem, Frank was ready to blow multiple holes in just about anything that came near that door. First things first....

"Names Frank...what does your Pop look like? I'm lighting up anyone I don't recognize that tries to come through this door. I think these same bastards already tried to kill me once tonight and I'm not giving them another free shot."

Frank really didn't want to plug a civvie, especially considering this girl already looked half scared shitless, but he also needed to know who to free fire on and who to be looking out for.

 Camille was in some sort of place in her head she'd never been before. The events of the night kept flashing back and forth in rewind and fast-forward, as though she were in some sort of infinite loop that she'd never escape. She kept hearing the whispering on the air, like it was wafting in and out of her ear-shot on a breeze. Chitter chatter, the voices said. Chitter chatter. She could see figures slowly stretching from the natural shadows cast by the fray of people, the limbs becoming elongated and the mouths opening, displaying rows of teeth.

  She started to scream, and they all turned to look at her. Tasty, tasty? they said curiously. The flowed across the ground like water, long slender things with long slender fingers outstretched to her. She turned and ran, but it was like trying to outrun an airborne virus. They swirled around her in a tornado and began grabbing at her, biting her. When she opened her mouth to scream, they swooped up and grabbed her mouth, wrenching her bottom jaw open so far that they nearly broke it. She fell backwards into the dirt, watching the world go sideways and black as one forced itself inside her mouth.

When she awoke it was with a yelp. There was a blonde woman standing over her, taking her pulse.

"What the fuck happened?" she asked.

She could still hear commotion from the other rooms, and she became unclear as to where she was. There were booming male voices and several female voices as well, but nothing she could make out.

"I think it's better if you rest more," the blonde said.

Camille closed her eyes. She thought the woman smelled like a cat, but she didn't know how she could determine that. Unnoticed, a shadow crept beneath them on the floor.

Claire sat with Rook, her hands tapping nervously at the table. "We can get out of here and go find her," Claire offered. Shit, she would get into so much trouble if she left right now, but Rook was her best friend. "We can wait for Raven or we can go ourselves." She didn't know if Raven would even go to the house. Raven worked for the Guilds, and as nice as Raven was, she was still a very Guild-minded woman, and may not have had that on her schedule. Of course, Claire didn't know that Raven was dragging other hunters with her on her little mission because she would have otherwise gone solo.

"We're not that far away," she added. "I don't know if dad would take us or not." She looked up at Kieran and sighed. "They won't let me get close enough to see him," she said lamely. "I still don't even know what happened! Did someone out there just start shooting, or was there a fight?"

Nathaniel suddenly appeared by where the girls were standing. "You two aren't leaving until your father or sister come to retrieve you," he said, his voice firm. Such an alpha. "Just stay here and sit tight." He had his hand on the table as he turned, watching Clarissa scoop Camille up and take her to a back room. He watched them like he could see something strange, and he looked back down at Claire, who looked up at him with an open-mouthed innocence.

"I hope you told your dad to take any blood pressure medication he has before he headed here," he told her, head dipped down with his brows raised.

Well, that had gone somewhat like a meteor hurtling itself at Earth at a bazillion miles per hour. One minute, he and Camille were trying to kill eachother, and the next, Ryan was bleeding a generous amount into the sweater of the brunette who was half-crawled over his seat while his best friend piloted the blue rocket the fuck out of dodge.

"MY FUCKING ARM!" was all he said, looking up at Jared with an expression of -- annoyance, actually. Further examination by Veronica provided evidence that he'd merely been scraped by a bullet, which was incredibly lucky considering what could have happened - what had happened to the others. He was gushing blood because he'd had so much to drink, which was problematic, but he hadn't had any major veins or arteries severed by the chunk of lead he'd encountered, so at least that was good.

Ideally, had Midnight called for Ryan's head, Veronica would have taken this opportunity to poison him, but as it was, Yvette had instructed her to bring him alive. It was terribly annoying - well, not it, but rather they. Veronica, however, was smart enough to keep her act up.

"If you can get to Single Earth, I have medical supplies," she offered Jared. "City or county, I don't care which one." They were undoubtedly closer to Ramsa's Single Earth center than New York City's, but Veronica wasn't about to start tossing orders. She felt it was important for Jared to think he was in control. If he refused, she could come up with another plan, but it'd probably be more violent. Never mind Yvette was tracking them with ease courtesy of Veronica's phone.

"I'm really feeling kinda dizzy," Ryan slurred. He rested his head on the seat, closing his eyes and trying to take a shaky breath. He felt dizzy, but moreover, he felt like hammered shit. He regretted getting so drunk, because the whole car was spinning, and the world outside was spinning, but in a different direction. He thought he was going to hurl, and sprang to his window, hanging his head out of the car as they came to a red light.

Classy.

Nathaniel hadn't been kidding when he said that getting the bullets out was going to hurt, and Kieran had done his best not to scream and cause a fuss, but having someone digging around inside of you for some little pieces of lead was ridiculously painful.  He managed to stay mostly still, his muscles tightening with the effort and probably making it hurt worse, but keeping quiet was harder than one might have thought it would be.  He bit down hard to try to keep from yelling, but that really wasn't a good idea if he didn't want to mess up his teeth (which was perfectly possible).  At some point in there, Nathaniel stopped what he was doing to shove something into Kieran's mouth for him to bite down on, which helped, but he still couldn't keep from screaming and yelling some.

When Nathaniel seemed to have gotten them all and Kieran could finally catch his breath, he fell still on the table-top, eyes heavy-lidded and his breathing still harsh from the yelling.  His voice was also rough and all he really wanted to do was sleep, but there was part of him that didn't want to, like there was some part of him that dreaded it.

"If you missed any, leave them.  I'm done," he murmured, not really meaning it, but he hoped to God that Nathaniel hadn't missed any.  He knew he'd taken a few shots, but he was pretty sure that he hadn't taken more than the other wolf had dug out.  Of course, he'd been distracted, and he was distracted once more when he saw a shadow flit across the floor.  Nathaniel didn't seem to notice, but he did, and he knew he wasn't imagining things.

SHIT!  He'd called them, and he'd broken the spell when he passed out before he'd put them BACK.  He wasn't even sure if he could now.  Fuckfuckfuck.  He was going to have to talk to his grandmother and great-grandmother to see if they knew anything to do with it, and hope his father didn't hear about it.  There was no doubt that Thane would, and in turn Kieran would hear about it, but he wasn't sure how much he cared.  The extent of his ability to care right then was being expended on the fact that he hadn't put the shadow things back, that Camille was hurt, and that he didn't know where his sister was.  His father being upset with him just didn't factor in there.  He was all out of care after that.

 Because Raven had not let Domingos or Olena drive, she put their lives in greater danger than she realized. Rook may have known through signs and horrible feelings that their mother was in trouble, but because Raven was older and more fine-tuned for the use of the Guilds, she'd left the airwaves open for her any signs of trouble. It had been a stupid move, but not one she told them about, because it gave her a heightened sense of perception. That was, until the killing blow struck.

Raven let out a loud, surprise noise and jerked the wheel without meaning to. She took the SUV into oncoming traffic without meaning to, wrapped up in the sensation of, well, dying. Domingos had the good sense to jerk the wheel, narrowly avoiding a head-on collision with a large semi, and ran them too far to the right as he over-corrected. He jerked it left again to get them back on the road, and by now Olena was trying to get Dom to stop the vehicle. When they finally did pull over, Domingos turned to yell at Raven. She sat as still as a mouse, eyes wide and transfixed ahead, mouth opened in a silent scream.

Against Olena's better judgment, she grabbed her by the arm to shake her, and got a full dose of the 'vision'. She shrieked and let go, then tried to explain what had happened to Dom, who "didn't care if she saw a vision of Jesus, she shouldn't have driven if she was going to get blasted like that". When they finally had her into the back seat and Dom driving, Olena tried to talk to her, but Raven just shook her head.

"Can't change it. Just have to keep going," she said. "I had no idea I was even a spot on Midnight's map." She looked at Olena and frowned. "We need to get to my sister as quickly as possible."

"Of course you're on their map," Olena said. "I hate to contradict you, but Therreyans are the most important part of the guilds."

From the front seat, Dom snorted.

Olena ignored him. "And right now, we need you to focus. Can you focus?" she asked.

Raven nodded, a shaking sigh leaving her body. "Let's just do this."

By the time they arrived at the bar, it was already under duress. Olena and Raven got out and managed to show ID before Frank opened fire on them. Thank God he could recognize them as Guild Members. Raven ran up the stairs and burst through the door while Olena and Dom rolled out the welcome wagon of guns they brought.

"ROOK!" she screamed. So many fucking people. So many fucking people. She used her magic to PUSH people out of the way, unable to find her sister. Finally, a large man stepped in front of her, and held out his hand.

"She's over there," he said.

Raven hesitated; something about him was... familiar. But she didn't wait long, and ran past him to where her sister and Claire sat. She felt so out of breath as she sat down, and for a few seconds, couldn't speak at all.

Thane didn't actually HAVE any blood pressure medicine, though after tonight, it might be something he should look into.  Getting the call from Rook that his son had been shot up and his daughter was a wreck was NOT about to go over well, but from the sound of things, Kieran had infected a girl in the mess, there was some kind of nasty magic, and there was a hell of a lot more going on than any of them really knew.  That last bit he got from Diarmid, who was in touch with a LOT of people, and frankly, he was pretty glad that they didn't have much in the way of Guild associations in their pack.  No family, nothing that would stand out and get the whole pack targeted, but there was Claire's job at the Hole in the Wall that was making things both interesting and dangerous.  Diarmid had been standing there when Thane spoke to Kieran, and he'd heard his nephew offer to go wait around for his little sister to get off of work even before they'd even known anything was happening.  He'd also been with his brother when Thane had gotten the call from Claire's phone about what had happened, making it clear that thinking the danger posed to the two O'Riley kids was minimal was a bad move. 

They should have had more people with them, both of the wolves knew that, but Thane didn't want to wait around once he heard that his son was down and his daughter was freaking out.  Frankly, it was hard to tell which one upset him more, considering his faith in Kieran's strength and the 'daddy's girl' thing Claire had going on, but he was obviously a wreck over the situation.  Still, he opted to drive even after Diarmid offered, and though he broke some speeding laws, he was pretty focused.  He deserved credit for that. 

It was pulling into the lot for the Hole in the Wall that shook him up.  It felt like something nasty had gone down, and Thane's mouth went dry, his thoughts turning to memories of Midnight, specifically the night he'd gotten out.  The air had possessed a feeling much like this, one that was thick and heavy, imposing, and though he didn't have the time to pay attention to every little shadow, he kept getting the feeling that they were moving.  It was distracting and put him even more on edge than the stench of blood (Kieran's blood) did, to the point that he'd stood a chance of being shot by the guy at the door if Diarmid hadn't taken a few quick steps and raised both his hands (one with a gun in it) to show good intent, or something.

"Diarmid and Thane O'Riley, we're on your side!  You have some of ours!" he called out as they approached, and the fact that they hadn't been shot must have meant that it worked.  Thane knew that, but he hardly bothered with the bearded man when they entered, instead zeroing in on Claire just a moment after Raven busted in for Rook.  He was relieved, actually, that Rook's sister had shown up so quickly, but he would have been insisting on taking Rook with them if she hadn't.  As far as he was concerned, she was one of theirs until her own family stepped in.  Hell, she was at his house often enough.

"Claire?  CLAIRE!" he called over the conversation and noise already in the room, and he had no way of knowing that Kieran's consciousness piqued some at the sound of his father's voice because he couldn't see his son, but he'd be headed that way soon enough.

He agreed with Raven that there were 'so many people', but he ignored the others just as completely as Raven had when he sidestepped the hunters and shot the massive male wolf in the room with Cooper at his side a look that was nothing more than acknowledgment at the moment.  He was going to have to talk to those men in a moment to see what they'd done for his son, but first, he had to tend to Claire.  Seeing her made him feel better already, the panic that he'd been trying like hell to swallow rising up suddenly and releasing some.  She was tear-streaked and pale, obviously very upset, but she was safe and unharmed, and that was the important part.  Rook jumped out of the booth to let Claire out (a good move on her part, because Claire probably would have shoved her out in her attempt to get free, that or climbed onto the table), and Thane scooped his daughter up into his arms even as she threw herself at him.  Diarmid stepped up silently behind his brother, watching the room and paying slightly closer attention to the wolf at Daniel Cooper's side.  He was quite obviously glad to see his niece safe (and had a hug waiting for her when she was ready to let go of her father), but one of his roles in Thane's pack was security and that mattered tonight.

Okay, this whole situation was BULLSHIT, and Ryan screaming at him about his arm when Jared had holes in him and was bleeding all over the driver's seat was pissing the Akkan off.  He understood that he'd heal up nice and quick while Ryan didn't, but seriously.  "Whoop de fucking doo, princess, as long as you're not bleeding out.  OR PUKING!  FUCK, MAN!" he snapped, jerking the wheel some just because he HAD drank a drunk bimbo before they'd gone to Hole in the Wall, he was bleeding pretty nicely himself and Ryan was THROWING UP.

"Unnnggggh, it REEKS!  Dude, you get that shit in this car and I might kill you myself," he warned, but Ryan seemed to have made it out the window for now.  Jared couldn't deal with that stench in the car.  Gross.

Actually, there was another thing in the car that he wasn't so sure he could deal with, and that was the fucking bird that had landed in there with Ryan and seemed to take it upon herself to take care of him.  Seriously, Jared wasn't stupid; Ryan was an asshole and there was no reason this chick should want to help him this badly.  Yeah, he knew the Single Earth shit meant that those people were all helpful and peace-loving, but Ed and Camille had both just gotten shot up with no sign of medical care anywhere, yet this bitch had followed the two drunken assholes who ditched the rest of the group?

Bullshit.  Something was wrong.

Jared was a young vampire and everything he'd learned so far about being one was basically self-taught, and that included mind-reading.  He had a few things in his favor, mostly his own ingenuity and ability to pick things up fast as a survival instinct, plus the fact that Akkan vampires seemed to have been designed to deal with the fact that they had some pretty retarded weaknesses.  He wasn't fantastic at all the shapeshifting stuff they could do, but they weren't exactly weak in the mind-reading department and general vampire abilities, probably because they self-destructed so quickly and had to learn fast.  Jared wasn't going to be left in the dust. 

As a result, he managed to fling his own brain waves off in the bird's direction, trying to get a grip on her and her intentions.  Whatever her deal was, he was too drunk and inexperienced to get actual thoughts, but he heard 'Yvette' (which meant nothing to him except that she had a friend with a stupid name) and got an impression of impending violence.  Yeah, Single Earth was not their destination.

"Of course I can get to Single Earth!" he snapped, not giving any indication that he'd made up his mind not to go there, and he was only glad that Frost and one of the Single Earth locations was in the same direction.  He was still watching her in case she pulled a fast one, because he COULD teleport himself and Ryan the fuck out of there if he had to.  He'd be REALLY pissed if he had to, since that would wreck the car, but he could do it.

Veronica could tell that something was up, but she didn't say anything. She kept her thoughts focused carefully on the situation at hand, and would occasionally drift to some mundane thing from her cover story - her cat, her bird, whether her apartment was going to be safe to go home to, where her friends were, and the like. She avoided getting splattered with any of Ryan's vomit, thank god, and leaned forward to survey their damage more closely. Jared - she wasn't sure what sort of vampire he was, but he was young still. He wasn't healing as quickly as the ones she knew - Kronos, for example, would have been settled within ten minutes. He was also a shifter, too, so that could have had something to do with it.

"We have blood there, too, if you need to feed," she said. She leaned back in the seat and looked out the window, closing her eyes for a brief moment as they traveled in silence. When they passed the road to Single Earth, Veronica blinked her large blue eyes a few times. She could see Jared in the rearview mirror, and he was boring holes right into her head with his eyes.

"Where are we going?" she asked, her voice small. She had such a girlish voice, really. It made her sound terrified, which she wasn't, but she did intend to betray a little apprehension. When he looked ahead and didn't answer her, she shifted uncomfortably and hugged her arms to herself. That fucker was taking them to Frost! So, he didn't trust her, did he?

When they finally pulled up, Jared was beeping the horn to try and attract attention. Veronica practically scrambled out of the car, and as dark figures began to swarm them - silhouettes of hunters, no doubt - she looked back at Jared with a nervous expression on her face. And then, she hit the jackpot.

"Ben!" she shrieked. She went running past Jared to one of the figures, and as the man stepped into the light, she practically leaped upon him, wrapping her arms around him in a hug. "I thought he was taking us to Single Earth, but instead he came here. Look," she said, grabbing his hand and dragging him to the car.

"His friend got shot. We were at a bar," she said, ignoring the look on his face, "and it just happened. It was awful," she added. (Shit, goddamnit, Yvette, I'm at Frost. Abort.) As she projected the thought to her vampire contact, she stepped aside to allow Ben to survey the damage. "They just showed up and sprayed the crowd. I don't know why... Why are you here, anyways? And where... is here?" She tilted her head, unwilling to let go of his hand, and looked incredibly confused. She bit her lip in that way she always did, big blue eyes flitting nervously around the people she didn't know.

God, she was good.

---

(Ryan, Jared, and Veronica are continued HERE (http://angdar.com/nightsomen/index.php?topic=1841.msg31097#msg31097).)

This was too much goddamned shit happening at once. Frank began escorting people out of the bar - civilians, mostly. All that remained now were Coop, the cats, her brother and the blonde, Rook, Raven, the two hunters, Nathaniel, two other vampires and a human who were speaking to Coop suddenly (why had she not seen that?) and now her father and her uncle.

"Claire?  CLAIRE!"

Raven emerged from the departing sea of people as Rook stood to let Claire stand up. Claire turned to see the older woman had grabbed her sister into a hug and told her something Claire could not hear, she watched her best friend literally crumble in Raven's arms. She could hear a muffled, "No, no," but when she reached to touch her, she heard her father calling out for her again. She whipped around and saw Thane literally shoving someone out the door to Frank, while another man came up the steps to help him - presumably another hunter.

She ran to him, confused tears in her eyes and a yell of panic and sudden delight at his presence on the tip of her tongue. "Daddy!" she cried, jumping on him. She always forgot how small she was, and how big he was, until situations such as this, where he could scoop her up whole and shield her from the world. She tried to speak and explain what was happening, but she just started to cry - not a little bit of crying, a lot of crying, like the time Kieran had stolen her favourite Barbie as a child and then accidentally left it in the hotel they were staying at on vacation.

Nathaniel, meanwhile, was trying to keep control of everything that he possibly could. He left Daniel speaking with the human, Chris, while the two vampires who accompanied him (who didn't hardly even rate as vampires on his aura-of-evil scale, by the way) followed Melissa (or Clarissa?) into the back to help tend to the two wounded wolves more with the changing of bandages and fetching of water and whatever else they needed. He walked straight for Diarmid, actually, and though he didn't precisely hold his hand out for a shake and a hug, he didn't radiate HOSTILE OVERTHROWING MANIAC either.

"Kieran and the girl are back here, if you'd like to see them. The girls are checking on them, and then I can take you." He didn't want to try and fit everyone into the back room, at the moment. The cougars were already getting testy - Melissa had almost taken the face off of a drunk patron who wouldn't leave her alone earlier, and Nathaniel didn't feel like throwing more testosterone at her for the moment. The two girls - Ella and Posey? - were Single Earth, so they knew her. He suspected it was the only reason she'd called them into the back.

He looked over Diarmid's shoulder to Rook and Raven, his eyes curious over the exchange. He couldn't hear what they were saying just yet due to the amount of din still in the room, but it didn't look good. He turned abruptly to the two who had come with Raven. He was unsure if they were hunters or just friends of Ravens, at least not until he saw the gun tucked under the man's jacket.

Damn, there were a lot of hunters in this room.

So, the night had gone from tolerable and actually fun (hanging with Posey and Ella was still surreal to him, but he was using denial to his advantage so that he could actually enjoy it), even if he was the only one who could get drunk, to outright crazy in no time.  He'd been unsure if he even wanted to BE at the Hole in the Wall, considering how busy it started to get, but everywhere they'd considered stopping had been mobbed, so this seemed to be the best choice if they were actually going to go out.  Then, it had gotten BEYOND mobbed, which had suggested they should stay put.  He could only imagine what the traffic would be like, seriously.

The gunshots would have just been the icing on the cake, and they'd made him gesture to Ella and Posey to sit tight while he rested his hand at the gun in the shoulder holster under his coat, but Coop and the big guy who liked to hang with him lately were out the door, and that was fine with Chris.  He'd wait and see just how bad it got before running in blind.  It was probably a good thing, too, since there was horrific screaming before they even reached the door, then they were dragging injured people in just a few minutes later, with no additional gunfire.  Chris really didn't need that kind of mess, and these guys didn't need him sticking his nose into the situation while they were struggling to handle it. 

The fact that he got a call from Angela during that whole mess didn't hurt his decision.  From the sound of things, the vamps were freaking out and attacking everywhere, and wasn't that just beautiful?  He waited until Nathaniel and Daniel were standing back to observe everything that was happening to approach them, and by then Ella and Posey were already rushing to Melissa's aid.

"Hey, guys," he started as he walked up, not really sure why he really felt any need to offer them information, especially considering how many shifters and whatever-the-fuck everyone else was were in this room (Nathaniel included), but he knew Coop was human and he liked the guy, so he had to try.  "I just heard from one of my hunting buddies, and she said that Midnight has it out for the hunting guilds and anyone related to them.  From what I gather, they're just running buck-wild, so if there's anyone you need to secure, either because they're related to a hunter or because they're a tempting target, that needs to be done fast, before this whole place is under fire.  I'll help if you want me to."

Yes, he'd actually offered his help, imagine that.  Maybe Posey was rubbing off on him.  WEIRD.

Frank grunted as he pushed the one non-barricaded door of the bar open. The injuries he had sustained during his encounter with the Midnight kill team were starting to strain even his pain tolerance. He had taken the last group of civilians across the parking lot and made sure they got to their vehicles and got the hell out of the place. The amount of weaponry he was currently carrying probably didn't help matters very much. Frank slung the big SAW onto a table, and laid his Thumper grenade launcher down beside it. He had looked like some absurd 80s action movie hero in his improvised armor, lugging a full blown machine gun, and with a grenade launcher dangling under one arm and a shotgun on his back.

Frank had made it back just in time to hear Chris's little speech about Midnight attacking hunters and their families. No shit sherlock, he thought. This shit was going on City wide, according to Mike the Police and EMS scanners were going nuts, and several senior hunters were MIA and most of the houses were in chaos. As he scanned the room he noticed some new faces, some serious fucking faces. Good...maybe they had a chance of getting the fuck out of there and to the relative safety of a Guild House, at this point he didn't give a shit which one it was, just as long as it had an infirmary. He waited a minute for the scattered conversations to die down before he spoke.

"So, all the civilians are out of here, I didn't see any weird shit outside...but we all know that don't mean shit. I say we load up and head to the nearest Guild House and figure this shit out there...we aren't in any shape here to repeal a full force kill team assault if those bastards hit us again..anybody got any ideas on how we're gonna get out of here, and get these wounded to a better location?"