incident
forget
blade
trouble
threat
ex
organize
room
suspect
cemetery
“This is fucking unacceptable,†Justinian growled out, his anger washing out over his companion at the cell door in pulsing, disorienting waves that made Stefan feel unsteady in both stance and mind, but at the same time, there was a calming influence from within the cell itself - like a warm, safe place despite knowing that there was nothing safe about where they were. It made something inside Stefan's chest ache, and he thought of the home he'd once had, the people he'd once loved, with near crushing sadness as he looked upon the unicorn sheathed in a woman's body. He'd never seen one before, and he certainly made no claims to being familiar enough to have truly known what she was in an academic sense, but there was nothing academic in this for him.
This was a truth that he felt deep within whatever remained of his soul, deeper than the memories of that home that wasn't ever as comforting as the presence she had, and he knew what he was seeing. Justinian must have, as well, but whereas Stefan was moved nearly to tears at seeing her, and seeing her caged as she was, the older vampire was utterly furious at the fact that she'd been taken. Stefan moved almost imperceptively, but it put him closer to the bars, enough that he rested his hand against the cold iron. It didn't clear his head, because this wasn't a mind trick.
"What do we do?" he asked Justinian, because he knew what he wanted to do, but he was than a century as a vampire and while he was very powerful for his age, he was no match for the powerhouses in this building. Trying to break her out by force wasn't going to work out in his favor, or hers.
"Verity is already bragging about having her, so if I try to move her immediately, it will raise alarms. I was told there was a man involved, where is he?" Justinian demanded, obviously annoyed at feeling unable to just act, but Stefan had long ago noticed that the most ancient vampires cut a very weird balance between taking instantaneous, devastating action or laying out the perfect plan. Stefan hadn't known it was a chess match they were in, but apparently.
"This is him," Stefan informed him when they stopped in front of the wizard's cell. It had felt like a near physical pain to tear himself away from the unicorn, and it only increased the sense of loss already living inside of him. If Justinian was similarly affected, he didn't let on that he was.
"Get a car, Cerberus should be back from whatever inane errand he was on by now. I'll give you an address that he's to be dropped at," he instructed Stefan, the address appearing in his mind with a mental sensation almost like a slip of paper being flicked at him without a second thought. Stefan disappeared to go get Cerberus, but not without hearing the rest of Justinian's instructions as he slowed to take in one more long look at the unicorn herself. "Do you hear me, wizard? You will find a man named Gareth at the home I'm sending you to. Tell him that Verity has your unicorn friend and that I will open the doors. There is no time to waste."
It was true that Cerberus was back, though he was not exactly happy to be summoned from the kitchens, not that he did more than roll his eyes when Stefan told him to bring the car around. Fortunately, Justinian's name got him moving, so that Stefan met him near a back entrance with only just enough time to bring the wizard up from the dungeons. They'd moved fast to avoid being seen, but without looking like they were sneaking. Stefan was on Justinian's orders, after all, and he was himself intimidating enough to prevent most people from stopping him.
"What happened to the car?" he asked as they approached, Cerberus getting out to get the door for the bloodied wizard who actually would not shut up, even if Stefan wasn't doing a whole lot of talking to him and had actually told him to shut his trap a few times.
"Niall sent me to pick someone up, but he strongly suggested I treat the guy like a really old vamp," Cerberus said, shrugging. "So I hit him first. Not sure what he is, but he was trying to run his mouth and get up afterwards. Normal people just don't fucking do that. Where am I taking your guy?"
The big black SUV looked like Cerberus had creamed a deer, and if the bitching from the backseat was any indication, the injured party had been dumped unceremoniously back there to be carted off. Stefan gave the address, frowning at the damage. "Where did you take the one you hit? We haven't had anyone come in, especially not that injured."
"Niall said take him to Loic. Something about 'professional opinion' or some shit, I don't fucking know. Can I go, or are you gonna ask me what I had for breakfast and where I took a shit next? I got places to be."
Cerberus got a dry look in return, but no response otherwise as both men turned and went their separate ways. Where Justinian went, Stefan didn't know, but he wouldn't have been surprised if Verity's lounge-inspired 'office' was the man's target, except that...it wasn't Justinian there when he arrived, and the woman he did fine was screaming Niall's name in challenge.
He stopped short, frozen in place and expression closed off as he watched Corinne, pretty well covered in blood, dragging Verity's lifeless body along behind her with her fingers in the dead triste's eye sockets like a damn bowling ball. For all of the violent things he'd done, he wasn't actually sure that was an image he was prepared for. He also wasn't prepared for her to spit orders at him (it was apparently a theme for him today, to run into ancient vampires and be sent on errands), but she wanted him to free the unicorn, and that? That he could do.
He gave her a nod and was gone, headed for the dungeons and the prisoner that never should have been there. He had to get her out of there, before anything worse happened, because there was no way in hell that Corinne killing Verity wasn't going to blow up everything inside the building. The faster they got out, the better their chances of survival, but there was another quick stop that he had to make.
He found Ember on his way to the dungeons, actually, which was convenient. It was not preferred that she was violently murdering a member of her guard, or that another was trying to jump her from behind, which just wouldn't do. Stefan darted forward, plucking the raven out of midair and changing his trajectory to smash his face into the stone wall. It wasn't elegant and it left a pulpy mess on the stones, but it wasn't the only blood being splattered across them that day. He thought back to the literal trail that Corinne left behind, and didn't feel so bad.
"So, obviously, you've noticed that it's happening. Right fucking now," he told Ember, not out of breath, but not surprised when she was. He got the feeling that both had jumped her at once, and she'd just tossed the one he killed aside initially. It didn't matter, because they were both dead now, but it meant that shit was already hitting the ceiling. "Verity is dead, Corinne is dragging her body towards the atrium and screaming for Niall's attention. I don't know what Justinian is planning, but he's angry and they've both told me to get the unicorn out of the dungeon. Are your people ready?"
"We've been waiting for this, I'll give the word."
"Good. We need to evacuate this shithole. I wouldn't put it past Niall to bring it down on top of us all."
"We'll do what we can," she said, and he nodded. There had been enough lives lost already that they could try to save what they could, but he wasn't going to risk their own lives for it. He was practical, and he couldn't do anything else to help if he was dead.
"Happy hunting," he told his blood-sister, clasping her on the shoulder firmly and then darting off towards the dungeons. When he found Raphael in his path, he honestly expected the worst and he was ready to see it through, except that his eyes flicked over to the movement he caught in the cell in front of Raphael - the door was open and obviously damaged to do so, and the occupants were eyeing him fearfully. He locked eyes with Raphael again, but stepped aside to let them past. "You? You're helping?"
"Are you kidding me? Do you know what Katya would do if I told her I had the opportunity to save a unicorn and didn't?" the other vampire shot back, seemingly willing to assume that Stefan was on his side on this and kicking in another cell door. He was right, because Stefan just darted past him, looking for the unicorn's cell.
"That's fair, I suppose. She's here," he called out, stopping in front of her cell and glad that he at least had the keys. Victoria passed, seemingly ignoring all of them as she went for a cell they hadn't gotten anywhere near yet, and Stefan decided to worry about which key he needed instead of who she was talking to. One major problem at a time. "Where's Narkisa?"
"We were too late for her to go with Cerberus to get the monster hunter, so she's meeting him there. Hoping to instill in him how urgent the situation is, and hopefully give him a reason not to just start killing all of us."
"That would be nice," Stefan agreed grimly, pulling the cell door open and tossing the cell door open and drawing the unicorn's attention to him. "I'm sorry that you're here at all, but we're leaving. Can you walk on your own?"
"Yes," she said, standing and striding across the cell quickly to actually take the keys from his hands. "But if I'm understanding what's happening here, we can't leave anyone in these cells."
"I have to get you to safety--"
"Then help me, and we'll go," she said, her tone lowered and firm, and though he knew that it wasn't the smartest way to do it, he grit his teeth and left her with the keys so that she could open cells as she went while he went with Raphaels' method of just breaking the doors open.
"Go, go down the hall, get out," he was urging people, glad to see that some that were in better shape were stepping up to help those that struggled, because he couldn't actually stop long enough to move people, not if he was going to get the unicorn out safely. It was only when the dungeons rang only with the fading echoes of feet on the damp stones that he took stock, and his eyes landed on Raphael. "I have to get Desten, I left her upstairs in my quarters to keep her safe. Will you get a car ready?"
To the unicorn, who he dared not touch with his bloodied hands, he gave a short bow that was mostly just his head and shoulders, but it was heartfelt. "I'll return soon. This is Raphael, and I'm Stefan. We'll take you wherever you'd like."
"Layla," she said, and he smiled a little. "And thank you. Hurry back or we're gonna come looking for you."
It was a nice sentiment, that a unicorn would go looking for him rather than leave him behind, but little did he know, it was an entirely different sort of unfinished business that was going to draw her upstairs, in the end.