She liked to be prepared, so the blonde left her apartment early that day in search of things to decorate with. Not that she had anyone to impress, or anything. She just.. wanted to do something with her time that was constructive. Oh, and she had to buy another fish to keep Satan the Fifth company.
She wore a red coat, black slim-fit pants, and a white Oxford underneath. It was a light coat, but warm enough. She reminded herself of Little Red Riding Hood, and she laughed as she left her apartment, glancing in the mirror by the door.
As she walked down the street, she noticed the department stores had begun the overhaul for the winter season. She really wasn't sure what she needed to buy at this point. She had a ratty Christmas tree stuffed in her tiny crawlspace of a hall closet, but she didn't think she actually had any ornaments and stuff for it. She muttered to herself and stopped by a cafe to get a bottle of water briefly before pressing on.
A figure wearing a long coat and a fur-lined woolen cap was, at that time, sitting in that selfsame cafe, sipping a cup of coffee. Even for someone who had spent much of the past few years in some of the harshest weather on the planet, Mikhail was still quite prone to being cold.
He was far from inattentive as he sat in the corner he'd chosen, a spot where he could see the windows and door without giving anyone a clear shot at his back. Old habits die hard.
Thus it was that, when the young lady came in looking for a bottle of water, that Mikhail was watching. Most would dismiss her as just another person, perhaps a bit flashily dressed (Mikhail was reminded rather comically of Little Red Riding Hood, and hoped there weren't any shapeshifters about to make that scene any more surreal). But, to Mikhail, she was more. Much, much more.
Though he knew her for what she was, Mik did not approach. It wasn't really any of his business, after all; she wasn't a vampire, and he didn't know she was family (if estranged). In all likelihood, she was just as aware of him as he was of her, and just as unconcerned...
Danielle wasn't unconcerned, though. On the contrary, she was very concerned.
"That shit is going to catch up with you, Danielle," Sarah had told her once before. "You think it's bad now? I have to move every few months just to prolong my undead existance. Just wait. They never stop."
Of course, Danielle had passed it off. Sarah was vampire now; not Vida. Not witch. Not anything. Undead. Powerful, if she wanted, but.. Undead all the same. She, in some fashion, deserved to be hunted down.
She pretended to hold her hand up, looking at her nails while letting her perephrial vision catch the scenes around her. She didn't source it right away - didn't want to reach out too much without bringing something back in. Ah. She let her eyes focus past her nails, to the man in the chair to her right. Mustn't run. Her first instinct was to bolt. But in this day and age, it was too obvious, and it would attract entirely too much attention. She willed something to happen. Anything. Anything at all.
-Bleeep-
Her cell phone rang.
The voice at the other end was nobody important, and pertained to nothing about her day, but she engrossed herself in the call, slowly making her away out of the cafe's area and down the street.
The waves of mingled fear and agitation the woman was throwing off would've made even a novice take notice, despite her show of being unconcerned. This, in turn, made Mikhail pay closer attention to her. As she left, the look of relief clear enough on her face for Mik to read, he made a decision. He would follow her, unobtrusively. Try to figure out what her game was, and why she was playing it.
And, he didn't dare think, take her down if she were working for them.
Danielle knew the measured steps behind her as she talked on the phone were meant for her, and only her. She used what was retained of her Vida training to calm herself and return to the happy-bubble-world that humans seemed to exist in.
She closed the phone shortly before 'rounding a corner, and stopped abruptly in front of the pet store. It'd probably be a better idea to wait and get the fish last, or she'd have them dead before she even got back to her apartment. She frowned and looked to the side, watching a car go by. She had to stop killing these fish. It was really bad showmanship on her part. Her last name practically meant life, and here she was, spending money on angelfish and tang just to make herself feel better for killing the last few.
She stepped into it again, continuing towards the Hallmark store. She knew she could find all sorts of lame and festive ornaments in here.
Mik didn't have much trouble following Danielle. It was almost as if she -wanted- to be followed. He began to wonder if it was some sort of elaborate trap, then decided it couldn't be.
Could it?
At any rate, she stopped in front of the pet store for a moment then moved on, wandering toward a Hallmark store. Maybe she really was just out shopping, and he'd given her a bad case of the heebie jeebies? No, that wasn't quite right. He hadn't been aggressive in any way.
Lost in thought as he was, Mikhail somehow managed to lose Danielle in the bustle. Taking her last known heading into account, he wandered into the Hallmark, hoping to pick up on her trail again...
Some hunter I am... Losing someone in a wide open area, he thought to himself sourly as he started making his way through the store like a man on a mission, looking for just the right thing.
Danielle was busy looking at little mouse ornaments, trying to gauge whether or not Ash would attack them. She glanced up as she heard the door open, and she felt the room seem to dampen with the man's entrance. She muttered inwardly. Now came the hard part. Did she just full on our spread her, "I am Vida, hear me roar" aura all over the place or did she back it off and play meek witch with absolutely no ties to anything remotely interesting?
She glanced up as a pair of men walked by, noting them looking to her form. She loathed this. People just liked being around her. As much as she tried to think bad things, she couldn't shake her natural purpose.
Well. May as well just go on ahead and announce herself. She stopped holding herself back and let the natural essence bleed out around her. She may as well have been wearing a nametag that said, "Descended of Vida, How May I Help You?"
Mikhail blinked as the waves of Danielle's aura washed over him. There was something about them, something familiar... Something very distinctly Vida.
It took him a moment to place the sort of signature; he'd only felt it twice, after all, in individuals other than himself. His uncle had never gotten around to introducing him to the rest of the family.
His own aura pulsed in response, and Mik let it flow out, touching the woman's, basically introducing himself.
I wonder why she ran? he thought to himself, the look on his face betraying a small bit of consternation. A true Vida wouldn't run from another witch...
Admittedly, Mikhail was probably a bit wrong there. After all, he only had one example to go by...
What should have been a beautiful, touching family reuinion, wherin ideally Danielle would have greeted her relative with much happiness and excitement, there was only a strong sucking sensation in her chest as she realized that Dominique had finally done her in.
That bitch.
Danielle's silvery-grey eyes seemed to darken to a hematite hue, and she made for the door post haste, skillfully tossing the ornament back onto the display shelf without breaking it, or the others on the case.
Beeline wasn't even the word. Danielle couldn't even describe how fast she was moving at the moment. She only remembered moving that fast once before, and it was when she'd had three sodas and there were -no- bathrooms within immediate walking distance. Once outside, she broke out into a full run, and thank GOD for physical training, because good LORD could that girl run. She took off across the street and ran down the stairs to the subway, bobbing in and out of masses of people, all the while to herself thinking, "Shit, shit, shit!"
The quick flash of panic and then the fact that she bolted made Mik very suspicious, to say the least. He ran after her, a long-legged lope that would keep her in sight. Damn she's fast... he thought to himself, pushing himself to match her speed.
She was down the subway stairs before Mik had reached the top of them. Cursing his luck, he took the first dozen at a leap, skidding a bit on the mid-way landing and then taking the next in much the same manner. People screamed as he flashed by them, taking him for some kind of animal (and, in a few ironic cases, a vampire), but Mik paid them no mind. The chase was on, and if his worst fears were realized, it would end in blood.
Danielle was almost home free. She was about 100 feet from the subway car, and as she started to close in, a random person stuck their arm out simultaniously to stretch, catching Danielle in one hell of a clothesline. For as fast as she'd been running, the person she plowed into fell over too, but for Danielle it was so much worse.
She ended up sprawled out on her back, choking in oxygen as she struggled to force her windpipe to work properly. Well! That hadn't happened since the third grade when Beverly Kingfield thought it would be a good idea to play aggressive Red Rover.
At least she was down on the ground, in a mass of people. She was hidden from plain site for a few seconds, long enough to catch her bearings. Problem was, the subway car doors had shut and it was starting to move. "Shit, shit, shit," came that thought again.
She scrambled to her feet in the parting crowd, realizing that the tunnel was starting to clear out rather quickly and she was going to get thrown into one of those creepy empty subway scenes. She slid behind the nearest pillar to catch her breath while upright.
Mikhail watched the girl go down, and thanked his lucky stars that someone had stopped her. However inadvertently.
People were quickly milling past; quickly enough that despite his strength and speed, Mik was trapped for a moment in a sea of humanity. Quickly, though, the human fog cleared, leaving the place empty but for a few bums and one witch, who was working very hard to conceal herself. Hard enough that Mik could not sense her location.
One hand inside his coat, Mikhail began checking, quietly, behind each of the pillars, his soft-soled boots making little to no noise on the concrete floor.
Finally, he found her, and to his fortune, she was facing away from him. Quickly, he reached out and grabbed the back of her neck, pinching down on a couple of nerves there. It was a cheap trick, but effective; she would be paralyzed for as long as he held his grip.
Long enough to answer a few questions.
Danielle had just caught her breath and begun to turn her head back when her perephrial vision was filled with black, and then suddenly she felt her knees lock and she half-fell against the pillar, arms flinging backwards to hold herself up. Her arms didn't work quite right though, and she made some sort of duck-like noise, sliding against the pillar into a sort-of-slump.
"It's not supposed to happen like this," she said, voice breathy and light, as though she were on the verge of passing out. Her heart rate was through the roof, and she honestly didn't know if she were going to be able to keep this strange position up, what without use of her limbs.
She looked over to one of the bums, trying to signal him to get help, but the wino was more interested in his own alcoholic indulgances than the woman being assaulted in the subway. Hey, if a human girl can get raped in broad daylight, why can't two witches beat the shit out of eachother in public? It was only fair.
"If you hadn't bolted in the gift store, I would have let you be. Who are you working for?" asked Mikhail, his tone accusing.
The bums were gathering into a knot, and passing their bottle back and forth. Something wasn't quite right about them, but Mik wasn't paying them too much attention.
"Answer me, Vida. Or should I just assume you've been turned, and put you down here and now?"
Using his grip on her neck as leverage, Mikhail forced her into a sitting position. "I really don't want to kill you, whoever you are. Hell, I'd like nothing more than to be able to give you a hug and take you out to a nice dinner, and discuss the family. But unless you can give me some good reasons for why you ran, that isn't going to happen."
Mikhail was overstepping his bounds a bit, and he knew it. But it was high time he had some information about the family, damnit, and this was the first relative aside from Uncle Julian he'd managed to collar...
Turned? Was he on drugs? "Do I FEEL turned to you?" she spat, insulted by his comment. Was he just trying to ruin her day? "All I wanted to do was buy some fucking ornaments for my damn Christmas tree, but NOOOO."
It was pretty obvious that nothing about Danielle was going to be simple.
"And what do you mean, 'Who am I working for?'" she asked indignantly with an umph as he pushed her to the floor. God, she was sitting on a half-chewed lollipop. She thought her head might actually explode. "I'm not working for anyone at the moment, damnit," she snapped, eyes flighting between him and the bums.
Man, there were more bums than before. Back to coat-boy, though. She'd worry about the winos later. "If I hadn't bolted? You seem a little too eager for my DNA sample to let me buy into that."
No, she definitely hadn't been raised in a way that suggested social grace and dignity. Danielle was pretty damn rude, actually. But you would be, too!
"And I certainly don't want a damn hug. I'd rather stab myself in the face. With a fork. A rusty fork." Danielle had a thing about physical contact. As contemptuous as the aforementioned statement was, she wasn't really disgusted by HIM hugging her rather than just by a hug in general. The only person doing any hugging around here was the Triste, and he was busy doing.. whatever he did.
"If Dominique sent you to delete me, you need to go on ahead and get it over with, because I'm pretty sure I'm sitting on a half-eaten piece of candy and it's stuck to my ASS right now," she yelled, voice bouncing against the empty subway tunnel.
"I didn't think you were. But I had to make sure."
The fact that she wasn't working for anyone spoke a few different things about her. First, that she did work for others, occassionally. Second, that she wasn't permanantly bound to anyone. Good; things would've gotten complicated, if she had been.
"If you hadn't bolted in the store. You know I'm a Vida just as well as I know you are. And that was just a little bit harsh, all things considered, though I'd think a few dozen times before hugging a complete stranger too, in this day and age."
The bums were now conferring amongst themselves, looking eagerly from one another to the two witches apparently fighting in the middle of the empty subway station.
Her next statement confused him, though.
"Why would Dominique want you erased? If you're not working for them and haven't been turned, I should think she'd be glad to know there are more Vidas out there."
She didn't even pay attention to what the man was saying at this point, her concentration having left him to follow the onslaught of bums suddenly closer than they were before.
The stench washed over her senses like a wave of nausea when you find week-old milk sitting on the counter. Vampires. And here she was, paralyzed, arguing with a cousin, or whatever he was, pretty much like a sitting duck.
"Shut up," she said. "Shut up, and listen."
If she could see them.. they could see her. Or that was her theory. Right about now she wasn't exactly hiding who she was. She could think of how many would love to say they'd killed a Vida. Today wasn't going to be that day, not if she could help it.
Mikhail released the nerves without moving his arm - better not to let them think they'd been spotted - and nodded ever so slightly to Dani. His voice a couple levels quieter, he said, "You'll be able to move again in a second. Don't do anything till I tell you to."
Mik's other hand, still inside his coat, grasped the hilt of his sword. One of the bums made another step closer, and then started running toward them, teeth bared. "Now!" he said, stepping around Dani to meet the vampire's charge, his blade drawn and flashing around in a silver-edged black arc.
The vampire saw the blade about a tenth of a second before it passed through its neck; he never felt another thing. The others hung back, ready to leap at the first hint of weakness.
Mik could only hope Dani was armed... otherwise, this was going to get ugly, fast.
She only had fifteen bullets in her clip, and if she didn't plan it right, she'd just run out. She'd absently grabbed a chain as she'd left her apartment. It was long and slender, and it doubled as a necklace when looped. It appeared golden, but the inlay was a reddish-amber colour. Firestone. She kept it on her neck, though. She'd only pull it off if she got a good chance to strangle someone.
It was cool that she had backup, though. With her left hand, she drew her Baby Eagle, shooting one square in the face just as he began to move forward. Predictable. She didn't know if she'd get that chance again.
"You boys going to stand there all day?" she asked, a slight drawl to her voice as she channeled John Wayne. An ol' fashioned standoff in a damn subway tunnel. Could this be any more clich??
Mik had big stabby, and she had kaboom. The question was, were they smart enough to just fuck off or were they going to stay 'til the Vidas killed them all?
Mik felt it before he could do anything about it, the probing lash of a vampire's mind seeking to roll his own. With a sneer of contempt, he doubled the lash back over on itself, and watched as one of the remaining vampires snarled with rage. There were five of them left, now, in a kind of staggered 'W' formation. The one who'd just tried to roll him formed the back left vertex of that W. By the way the others were acting, he was something of a leader; a leader who'd just shown weakness.
Mik smirked as he watched them. Two looked ready to charge; two more looked ready to run away. The leader looked like he didn't really know what to do, and was just kinda standing there.
It was fairly obvious none of them had been even remotely prepared to be confronted by a hunter and a mercenary, even when they'd noted that the two of them were witches. The leader, perhaps regaining some semblance of his composure, barked an order. The others turned toward him, then scattered and ran for it. Mik considered giving chase, then decided against it. Better to have someone to spread the word that the Vidas were still at the top of their game, no matter what was going on in the family.
Mik turned back to Dani, who still had her weapon drawn and aimed in his general direction. In a gesture of good faith, Mik lowered his own weapon, but didn't put it away. That strange tension was back, somewhat amplified by the pressence of drawn weapons...
Danielle shot one of them in the back of the head for good measure. She made it a point not to draw that gun unless she wanted to use it. The others didn't even notice, they were so busy running.
She slowly put it back from whence it came, walking to and fro across the subway platform, making sure there weren't any more lurking baddies waiting for them. She walked back in Mik's general direction when the tunnel began to shake on the announcement of an approaching train.
"Well, what now?" she asked, nearly having to yell over the subway cars as they began to whizz by.