Night's Omen

Valerie had never really been to Hellcat's Hollow before. For one, it was too often frequented by Hunters. That right there was incentive enough for a vampire like himself who preferred the shadows, killed on occasion, and had little to no power to stay far, far away.

He nearly broke the speed limit getting there. He would have floored it, no longer concerned with keeping the Ferarri intact, but getting pulled over by a cop would not be a good thing right now. Not only was there blood and a dent the size of Texas on his bumper, but there was a bloody, occasionally groaning body in his back seat. Valerie himself was covered in drying crimson. No, better not to attract the authorities. Especially not with Heather here. She was innocent, this was Valerie's mess. He had to keep her out of this as much as possible.

Arriving at the Hollow, he pulled into the employee parking lot out back, got Darren out of the backseat and approached the rear door. Heather followed closely since he couldn't leave her in the car; this wasn't the safest part of town, and Val was damned if he would trust his girlfriend's safety to a carlock. Hands full of bloody shifter, he kicked the door until it opened.

((Continued from here.))

Really, Valerie shouldn't have been afraid of the Hollow, considering its vow of neutrality, as he should have been safe in there.  Any fights between customers had to be handled outside of the establishment, which usually calmed down anything serious.  That should have been Darren's job from the moment he entered the place to relieve Dave of his shift, but he wasn't quite able to.  In fact, it was Dave who showed up to the door about ready to bitch Darren out for forgetting his key, and found Val standing there with a barely conscious bartender in his arms.  Darren had regained consciousness somewhat when Val moved him, though that was only because his pain level had shot up when he was shifted into the man's grasp.

"Shit!  Get him inside, quick," Dave snarled, glancing out the door in case someone had followed.  He had no idea what had happened to the boy, and his thoughts went immediately to Jeshickah, Morfeus or Celeste.  Those were the three big ones they were having trouble with, because of Ash, and he wouldn't have put it past them to do something to Ash's friends.  Seeing the dent in the front of that Ferrari made him suspicious, though.

"Get him in that room," he directed Val, pointing to a back room that had a couch and sort of lounge area inside.  The couch was black leather, for slightly easier clean-up of messes, such as blood.  "What happened to him?"

The man at the door had seen Val's car. Well, there went making something up about finding him in the road. "I hit him with my car," Valerie said truthfully, taking Darren to the directed area and setting him down carefully. Heather found a wall and stood by it. "He was walking strangely, as though drunk, but I can't smell any alcohol in his blood. He was thinking about a vampire. I believe he was under her control and she sent him into the street." The coat was falling off of Darren, so Val pulled it over him more completely and arranged the boy's body into a manner that would put less strain on his injuries.

Finished, he turned to the man who had let him in. "I take it you know him. He was thinking of this place, so I brought him here. Who is he?"

The sharp look from the werewolf shouldn't have been at all surprised when Val said that he'd hit the boy, but the explanation had Dave wondering again.  He needed to know who this vampire was, and what exactly had happened to Darren.  "He's not drunk," Dave said firmly, knowing immediately.  First, the boy had been on his way to work, and he'd never show up drunk, and second, they'd both be able to smell it on him.

"His name's Darren, and he works here.  I was starting to wonder why he was running late," he answered, pulling the coat up somewhat to get a look at the injuries before cursing.  The kid was messed up.  "How fucking fast were you driving, dipshit?  Do you know how difficult it is to cause this kind of damage to a shifter?"

He pointed across the room to a case with first aid supplies in it, but he wasn't really betting on being able to do much.  The cat had some serious roadrash where he must have gone skidding a few feet after impact, and there were broken bones and plenty of bleeding gashes.  Dave didn't know if there were any internal injuries, but he was willing to bet on it.  "I can't do much for him with a dinky little first aid kit.  He needs more than that.  The number for Crimson is on the wall next to that phone over there.  Dial it and ask for Batten.  He'll get a doctor over here fast.  Just tell him it's Darren."

Valerie would have been offended at being called dipshit were he not distracted with worry for Darren. "I was driving no faster than normal," he replied. "He stepped in front of me suddenly, and I didn't have time to- Heather, don't."

The human girl looked up from where she had been about to brush some bloody hair from Darren's face. She glared at him. "Why?"
"Just don't." He felt her anger as he ignored her in favor of listening to Dave, and hearing the last thing he wanted to hear. Big, heavy sigh. Connor. If the Guild Leader only had to hear the boy's name to make him come running, Darren had to be either a really good friend, or family. Terrific. Valerie was feeling horrible enough from both his own guilt and Connor's worry through association. He didn't need the real Connor right here in front of him to tell him further how bad a situation this was.

Valerie went to the phone and dialed the number, although sadly he could have used his cell. "Connor Batten, please. Thank you." Some waiting. He needed to talk to Connor about Crimson's choice of hold music. "Hello, Connor. It's Val. I-" He ground his teeth, and sighed. "I'm at Hellcat's Hollow with someone named Darren. He has been badly injured, and needs a doctor." Once he said that, the conversation didn't last very long. He called Adrian next, mainly because he was feeling wretched and wanted both of them here. He wouldn't go as far as to hug them, but it might come close.

After hanging up, Valerie found a chair and sat in it, leaning his arms on his knees and watching Darren. Heather had gone back to the wall and was glaring at him still. God, she had heard far too much just now. What was he going to tell her? Why did he even care? This would be so much easier if he just didn't care. His master never had. Valerie could hardly tell which of this hurt was Connor's and which of it was his. He wished Adrian were here. The wolf's mental vibes were soothing. Valerie could use the calm.

Elke had finally gotten ahold of Ash, and she told him she'd be in the area that day and would swing by. She said she'd give him a ring when she got to the Hollow and she had just pulled out her phone to do so when she heard Dave's angry voice. It wasn't that the wolf was yelling, or that he was right by the door - it was that Elke noticed things like his raised voice, because when he raised his voice, it meant trouble.

She hurried inside, raising her shields quickly as she did so. She was 'arming' herself, so to speak, for potential danger. She worried silently that the cougar she'd gotten would be okay at the apartment by himself, but she figured if he hadn't chewed through her tables by now, he wouldn't.

She arrived to a relatively empty room, and reached out, trying to source out where Dave was. What she felt was Dave and Co, not just a singular beast. There was a cat, too, from what she could tell. She ran to the noise, popping around the doorway like a jack-in-the-box.

What she saw made her gasp. "Oh my god, isn't that Darren?" she exclaimed, pushing her way in. She was the Cat Whisperer, remember? She placed her hands on his lightly, and sighed. "I hope this doesn't count as a gross display of power, " she said into a furrowed brow and a nervous expression.

With that, she let her energy flow over the wounded cat, trying to... sedate him, she supposed. He wasn't calm, he was in shock. When he came out of it, things were going to get very dangerous, especially if someone wasn't there to temper him.

Connor cursed violently when he got that particular call, grabbing his keys and flying out the door in search of Doctor Mitchell.  This was interesting, considering he hadn't been moving around all that quickly outside of training since he'd been blinded.  He didn't have time to play around if Darren was injured badly enough that he needed a doctor, though it did occur to him that it didn't make any sense that Valerie had called.  He'd have to figure out what the hell was going on with that when he got there.  He had to get Mitchell first, though there was something else on his list of things to do.  As he took off down the halls of Crimson, he called Mars and told her to meet him at Hellcat's Hollow.

Dave didn't react much at all when Elke showed up, except to make room for her.  If there was a single vampire he trusted implicitly, it was her.  Especially with Ash or Darren, considering her ability with cats.  "If it keeps him from hurting himself, there ain't nothing gross about it," Dave pointed out gruffly, pushing the coat out of the way to see as much of the damage as they could.  With Connor on his way with a doctor, Dave only needed to keep the bloodflow down to a minimum until either Ash or Connor arrived.  He was no doctor, so he couldn't do much else.

It probably was for the best that Elke showed up, since Darren wasn't guaranteed to stay this calm for long.  As badly injured as he was, he was extremely likely to lose full control of exactly who was in control, cat or man, and that wouldn't have been safe for anyone in the room, particularly Heather and himself.  His eyes had already started getting a little too wide and feline with Dave and his wolfy scent so close, though his eyes slid back to a more normal state with Elke devoting attention to keeping him from freaking out.  What parts of the human brain that were in control were pretty much in shock as well, though slightly better off for the calming she was doing.  He could think a little more clearly, though not much.

He was awfully low on blood.

"She...fed," he forced out, his voice sounding a little strained.  It hurt just to breathe, nevermind talk.  He must have broken a few ribs.  He needed to let them know that she'd taken all that blood, though.  "A lot."

Connor was on his way, Mitchell in tow, in less than five minutes.

"Sshhh-shhh, kitten," she said softly. She glanced up, and then back down. She? Oh god, why does this look like Sigried's handywork? Elke felt herself panic for a moment, and her power ebbed off of Darren. When he made a pained noise, she yelped a little, and swung her foot around a chair, scooting it underneath herself and sitting down all in one motion.

"Just lay still," she instructed, her voice laden with that good kittyfeeling stuff that she did. She closed her eyes, and went to see for herself just what Sigried had done. She was surprised to learn it hadn't been Sigried, but that was about all she could pull. His mind was far too feline right now, and some of that was to be thanked by her power. Still, she'd rather be doing this than prying his claws out of Dave while they were sooner unattached to his paws.

"Where's his girlfriend?" she asked.

Right on cue....

She snapped her cellphone shut with a loud SNAP!, all agitation and anxiety in her subsequent cursing as she scrambled downstairs into the garage of her Grenwich apartment and into the black leather seat of her Mercedes-Benz SLR500 series, a recent gift from her parents for landing the internship at SmithBarney. All that, however, was far from her mind as Connor's words haunted her brain, and she managed to shove it from her thoughts enough to brave the fifteen-minute commute to the Hollows.

As soon as the jingle of keys went back into the pocket of her slim dark jeans, all bets were off. The girl practically ran into the Hollow, past the counter and through the threshold of where she knew they'd all be gathered, uncertain of her own reaction when she saw Darren. Frankly, she wasn't sure she wanted to face the possibility of his mangled form any more than she wanted to face all of Midnight's Trainers, but with gritted teeth, she strode in, the slender, lithe form clothed in little more than what she had worn back in their apartment. She had only the time to throw a khaki blazer over her lacy camisole before sliding into her vehicle.

Her mind glanced over the figures assembled - three familiar, three unfamiliar. Without bothering with introductions, and with a somewhat suspicious glance tossed at the woman who was nearest to Darren, her almond eyes glanced over Darren's torn and bloody form, fury and despair seeping into her psyche. She clenched her fist and forced her tone into calmness.

"What. Happened?" she asked very clearly, eyes searching the faces of each of the figures assembled.

He did calm down when she told him to, just the sound of her voice with all of that power thrumming through it making him want to stay where he was and just...listen.  He didn't realize that they were waiting on a doctor, so as far as he knew, he only had to relax and just ride this out.  The theory was that his body would eventually catch up enough to start healing itself, but it was definitely taking its sweet time.

When her power slipped away a bit, it was as though a haze had left his consciousness, and that was BAD.  The first thing that hit him was immense pain, like everything that was happening had been dulled down to a more manageable level by the vampire's soothing energy.  He had a bloodied hand and claws attached to that leather sofa in an instant, but at least it wasn't someone's skin he'd caught.  Elke had quickly turned her power up again, and that arm relaxed back into place where it had been, without claws.  At least she knew what she was doing, even if the likelihood of Mars being alright with this vampire calling him 'kitten' wasn't all that high.  Hopefully, she hadn't heard.

Dave took notice of Darren's little 'twitch' and glanced at Elke, wondering what the hell that had been about.  She'd had it under control again quickly though, so he didn't bother asking.  His concern right then was where Connor was, and trying to figure out what to tell Mars when he called her later.  He was hoping they'd have good news.

He was NOT, however, expecting to see her come busting in on them, though.  He was on his feet and approaching her immediately, leaving Elke to keep pressure on the worst of the kid's wounds.  "Car accident, Mars, he got hit.  Connor's supposed to be on his way with a doctor 'cause Ash isn't in yet, and when he's better, we can find out the details," he explained swiftly, leaving out the bits about Val being the one who hit him, and the mention of some female vampire.  Until they had the full details, he didn't want to point fingers where Mars was concerned.  Elke wouldn't kill someone, but he wasn't so sure of the same regarding Mars.  

Connor chose about a minute later as his time of arrival, dragging Mitchell bodily through the Hollow to the only open door he noticed.  That was his first place to check, and his last, as it turned out.  He stepped into the room and was greeted by a load of people and a body on the sofa.  He stopped dead, just standing there and staring at his little cousin.  Darren wasn't moving much, so it was fairly obvious to Connor's messed up eyes that he wasn't well.  

"Oh, shit."

"Darren," she whispered softly. "Darren, Mars is here to see you," she said. She hadn't needed to pull her name from his head; she'd heard it mentioned several times around the room, and could only guess that when the Witch came through the door, she had been the aforementioned. The way the vampire spoke, and the way Dave reguarded her, it was pretty obvious that her intentions weren't ill; and if it wasn't, well... Darren couldn't afford for her to drop her power off of him again.

She applied pressure to some of the worst areas, wishing there was a way to just tell him to stop bleeding. Iloquil could, but Elke, she just didn't know how to do that. His mind, she could handle. She frowned, deeply.

"Where is Ash?" she asked, puzzled. She glanced to the man they called Connor, but he didn't seem familiar. Of course, as luck would have it, HE would probably recognize her name thanks to her bizarro sister.

This evening was shaping up to be fabulous.

~~~

Derrrrp.

She listened to Dave almost impassively, giving the shifter an appreciative sort of grin when he had explained the situation, though she learned more from what he left out than what he actually had said. The other two figures - one human, the other vampire, from what her gifts told her - hadn't explained their roles yet; Mars doubted that they were there merely for spectator sport. When she picked up on Connor's presence, she awaited his entrance through the portal and was exceedingly glad to see Dr. Mitchell following closely behind.

Mars had retreated back to Darren's side, resisting the urge to run gentle fingers across his wounds and allowing instead for the female vampire to channel her energy and keep him passive and out of shock. For the moment, anyway - she only wanted the best for Darren, so any other motivations would have to take a backseat.

She didn't need to open her mouth to utter words for Connor to sense the urgency in the way her features were arranged, and placed her palm gently on his matted hair, thickly interwoven with dried blood and sweat.

Adrian didn't arrive long after Connor. He'd had a bad feeling about stuff even before Valerie called, and when he did get that phone call, he knew from where it'd come.

He wasn't surprised to see Connor at the Hollow, but he didn't quite expect the scene he walked in on. Sure, he'd smelled the blood, and he'd somehow known that someone was injured -- but he'd known that even before he came over anyway, don't ask him how.

He didn't know Liten as well as the others, even if he did know him enough to recognize him -- despite his state -- as Connor's cousin, so while the rest flocked around the cat, he went to Valerie's side.

(What happened?) he thought at the vampire, more or less expecting him to hear it. He was a vampire for crying out loud. If he couldn't hear someone thinking loudly next to him...

Valerie had kept himself quiet and hopefully therefore forgotten in his chair. It was Valerie's coat on Darren and Darren's blood on Valerie's shirt, and it wouldn't take a genius to realize the vampire was involved. He knew he was in a bad situation, even if it was completely coincidental. The girlfriend, Mars, looked mad enough to take a limb off the first person to raise their hand and claim direct involvement. Amid the slow clogging of the room with people and various voices moving around him, he was grateful for two things: one, that Dave hadn't pointed to him when explaining things to Mars, and two, that it was Adrian who finally decided to take an interest in him. The wolf was Connor's friend and therefore on everyone else's side, but he was also one of the only people in the room who knew Valerie presonally and might actually vouch for him when accusations started flying.

(What happened?)

Thank God for small favors. Ade was even keeping the conversation silent. Valerie breathed a mental sigh. From what I understand, a female vampire drank him nearly dry and forced him into the street. I... hit him with my car. I'm trying to stay out of sight until everyone calms down. There was a pause, during which Adrian would certainly sense his confliction. Could you... put your hand on my shoulder? Or somewhere? For about five seconds. He glanced at Heather. She looked so small standing by herself. Small, lost, human... fragile. He really needed to get her out of here.

Darren tilted his head some, painfully, when Elke told him that Mars was there and he felt his girlfriend's hand on his head.  Having both Mars and Elke there was just about all he wanted right then, but he also ended up getting a muttering doctor.  He didn't even realize Connor was there, mostly because the man had only said two words and there were too many people for him to pay attention to them all.  He'd already forgotten Dave by this point, as well as Valerie and Heather.  He hadn't ever even noticed Adrian.  His world consisted only of the people directly affecting him right then, and that was fine with him.  Mars, Elke and the doctor were enough to keep him busy.

"...sorry," he told Mars suddenly, remembering his promise to be careful.  Apparently, he hadn't been at all careful.  

Well, things were getting pretty crowded back there, and the bar wasn't currently being tended, so Dave really needed to get back to it.  He washed his hands at a sink on the other side of the room, left Darren to the doctor's care, and was sure to squeeze Mars' shoulder in reassurance.  He was confident that the kid would be fine.  It was hard to kill a shifter, and if he wasn't dead yet, or in any danger of being further damaged, he'd most likely be fine if they could stop him from bleeding out.  That was what the doctor was for.

Dave and Darren may have been calm, but there was nothing mellow about Connor right then.  He just stood there as Dave passed him, but his thoughts were running a mile a minute.  Why was Val here?  Covered in a dark substance that he could only guess was Darren's blood?  How had this happened?  

drank him...forced...street. I...hit him...car...

Connor's mind hadn't picked up the full statement through that bond of theirs, but that was probably because he was both inexperienced with it and not trying.  He just caught flashes, possibly due to Val's emotions as well, and that was enough for him to misunderstand beautifully.

He moved suddenly, like a rubberband being released, and grabbed Val by the shirt to drag him out of the room and slam him against the wall outside.  It was almost similar to what Val had done to him the first time they'd interacted, except Connor's mouth was nowhere near the vampire's throat, and instead just inches away from his face.

"You WHAT?"

No need for an audience here, but he knew Adrian was coming even before the man left the room.  "Shut the door, Adrian."