Night's Omen

"You have an hour. I've business to attend to close by. Don't wander too far, Narkisa," the wickedly low, melodic voice told her. She would obey simply because she knew no other way - Raphael was her... everything. She couldn't even think of a word to describe what he was to her, aside from her entire universe.

She had been left to roam free before, but it was never for long. He didn't like to leave her alone, and while she always assumed it was because she was his property, it may have been the fact that she was the weak link in the equation whether she realized it or not. While the natural aura of fear that surrounded her, which had inevitably become part of her after these long decades had come and gone, it did not deter all who would seek to harm him through her - the local wolf pack, she was thankful, was in Ramsa. Raphael had picked a fight, there, one she knew would brew sooner or later and bubble over. Delia was nearly his now, and while she couldn't be bonded as Narkisa had learned with their kind before, she certainly was bent in just the right shape that she was irreversible.

She wore something he had chosen, as always. Black and red, the same two colours over and over again, colours she had come to respect and adore. Soft leather pants hugged her lithe form, making only the softest noise as she walked, boots pressing down against the gritty street with hardly a sound. She had spent years perfecting that trait alone, and after suffering many beatings for being too loud, had come to move as a ghost. A simple fitted maroon shirt was added, short-sleeved and crew-necked, a regular sort of thing, made of soft cotton and void of any logo. Her brown hair was freshly cut, and hung just passed her shoulders, hues of chocolate, mahogany and the finest highlights of amber among the tresses as the lights caught them. Narkisa was beautiful, and the blood Raphael had shared with her combined with her own lineage only made her radiate. It was the aura, the utter saturation of that evil that he left in his wake that kept creatures away from her.

Amber eyes flicked up beneath a fringe of thick lashes as she heard sounds - the beat of music, and commotion. She headed towards them, always up for trouble of her own. Narkisa was a trained killer, bound to the laws of none save Raphael's just and cruel temper, and the scent of blood on the air was a dangerous thing to her nose. She rounded the corner to see a scuffle outside of a club, and made her characteristic, languid stroll over, managing to go unnoticed for as long as possible by most of the patrons there.

Really, it wasn't good that Marius enjoyed fights as much as he did.  He came from a time period, and a way of life, that involved a lot of fighting, and he'd been good at it then.  He was better now.  What wasn't good about liking it was that he didn't mind handling situations at All Hallows violently if he had to. 

Amazingly, this one hadn't been one of those situations.  This was a few guys who'd gotten into it before even getting into the club, and Marius didn't want them clearing the area with their dumbassery.  Someone else came to the front when he called for back-up (to watch the door and keep people moving inside), and he jumped into the fray.

It didn't take long and he couldn't shift (which weren't his preferences), but he did his job and had the men separated.  Painfully.  There was blood in the air, but his control was better than that.  It piqued his thirst and senses, but so had the fight, and he ignored it.  He wasn't bad off, so it wasn't an issue.  The issue was keeping those losers out, and getting back inside.

"Next time, bring some common fucking sense with you," he snapped at them, pulling one to his feet and giving him a light (by Marius' standards) shove to get the guy away from the doors.  "We don't let drunken idiots in."

He hadn't even seen the girl approaching just yet.  She was just a girl as far as he knew, and the wind was blowing the scent of him, the humans and blood her way.  He hadn't gotten any of her yet.

Narkisa caught scent of wolf and man, all right. She actually paused to let the scent flood her nose - it was alien. Most wolves were to her now, though. She herself smelled only reminiscent of an animal. The sweet scent of her natural aroma had been laced with something that smelled of cinnamon and fire and smoke, if such a scent combination was possible. Narkisa, even to other wolves, appeared strange. To humans such as the men that the bouncer had sent right towards her, she was goddamn imposing.

And she liked that. Like Raphael, she had learned to feed on fear, though not in the same way. For her, it only fueled her anticipation, her desire to hunt, to kill. She was only still standing on two legs because the blood she had shared with Raphael refused to allow her to run completely feral, but if the bond should have ever been broken and she were to survive? She would disappear into the forests, never to be seen again. And she would have been just fine with that ending. She let her control slip slightly, and snarled at one as he got too close to her when he passed. The noise was guttural, something almost monstrous, and the man backed away so hard that he stumbled.  She would have smiled, but the animal at the door would prove to be a better fight than the two drunken men that ambled beyond her realm of visual perception.

She emerged from the shadowy area of the street, amber eyes nearly on fire with anticipation. Knuckles slowly cracked quietly behind her back as she strolled, hands clasping. She had the lazy walk of a cat, but it was all wolf in her expression. Everything about her, even the way she breathed, screamed predator. She decided, suddenly, that this alien wolf who had meddled in the petty fighting of mortals was in her territory, and she desired to oust him. She didn't know what All Hallows was, and she didn't care. More mortal dwellings, humans, other things she didn't give a flying fuck about.

"You let him draw your blood?" she asked incredulously, her voice breaking up even her own thoughts. She saw the finest line of blood on his arm, and her eyes widened in surprise. Had a mortal ever laid a hand on her and gotten that result... Raphael would have killed her for not destroying them. Her voice was somewhat empty, but still had a tone of curiosity to it - it was one of the only real feelings she had left. Narkisa either understood things or she did not, there was no between.

Once they were out of his immediate presence, he didn't care.  He glanced down at the cut on his arm, not really concerned with it, and wiped at it somewhat irritably.  It would heal up within moments, but it was still one of those situations where he wished he could beat the hell out of those guys for drawing blood.  That wasn't in the rules, though.

He didn't even turn around to look at Narkisa until he heard her voice, and even then, he didn't recognize it.  Time can do a funny thing to memories, and she sounded familiar, but this wasn't the same girl he'd lost his life trying to save.  Still, it was enough to make him pause, and glance once more at the wound on his arm.  It was already almost gone.

"I didn't have much choice.  There are rules," he explained simply.  That was that.  Marius could be impulsive and aggressive, but he wouldn't have made it even through his mortal life without an understanding of rules.  He'd been moving up to alpha male of two packs.  He knew a thing or two about rules. 

He turned finally to look at her, curious at where he could possibly remember her from.  It was something that made him think of home, and he didn't like that.  There weren't many people that gave him that impression.  Seeing her, though?

Dear God.

He just stared for a moment, keeping his expression perfectly blank.  He'd learned that trick just as any good vampire should, and it was incredibly useful now.  He wanted to express a million different emotions, but to do so would be far too much.  She shouldn't be alive.

With a feather light touch, he actually reached out with his mind to 'taste' at her, trying to figure out what she was.  She wasn't a vampire, that much he could tell, but there was so much around her that he knew a vampire was involved.  It didn't take a great leap of logic to guess who, especially with the stench of fear.  He remembered.

Who could forget?

"Autumn.  I..."  What?  What was there to SAY?  He stopped and his blank expression cracked, particularly where his eyes were concerned.  He hadn't needed to see her again.  Ever.  He was better not knowing.  This was...cruel.  "I'm sorry.  I tried."

The worst part was that he didn't even know if she was mentally together enough to know what he was talking about.  Probably not, and that would hurt even worse.  Perhaps it was better if she didn't have to live forever with any of those memories.

Had she ever even known that he came for her?  Probably not.  That bastard vampire...

"I did come for you.  I just...wasn't enough."

She wouldn't know what he meant, or who he was, and his heart was going to break again.

At the risk of sounding stupid, Narkisa just sort of stopped and... stared. "Huh?" she asked. Well, she hadn't said that in a long time. Words like 'What' and 'Huh' weren't in her normal vocabulary - it was more of a 'yes/no' sort of thing, as well as other choice phrases that she didn't even bother thinking outside of Midnight's gates. She felt.. threatened. She didn't know what else to feel, but he was suddenly speaking to her like he knew her, and she had no idea who the hell he was. She narrowed her golden, ardent eyes at him.

"What?" she said, more clearly. She tilted her head a little, scrutinizing him. His eyes -

Suddenly she felt her chest want to explode. She wrapped the blanket of Raphael's power around herself, the thin layer that she had against her own energy. The sensation went away for a moment, enough for her to exhale sharply. She didn't even know what to call it, but it felt like a harsh compression on her chest. It was so hard to breathe.

"I don't know who you are, but you need to watch your words, wolf," she said, her tone threatening and on purpose. Now she wanted to kick his ass. He'd made her chest hurt horribly, and she was ready to remedy the situation. She still didn't know he was a vampire, and that was Marius' advantage - if he had been all wolf, Narkisa might have had him, even if she was a great deal smaller. She had the upper hand. But even against her with a bloodbond, he would still have more contained power.

She'd find out soon enough, because she wasn't letting this go any further. She took a step forward. Narkisa had no problems attacking, but she wanted to close ground first, and provoke him if she could. She liked it when they were angry.

There it was.  She didn't remember, though there had definitely been something there for a moment.  Really, he wished he could just drop it all right here.  Just shake his head and walk away from her.  She was lost, wasn't she?  Just looking at her amber eyes and the way she attempted to threaten him, he didn't see any remains of the girl he knew.  This was a shell, and what he had valued was gone.

That didn't make walking away and leaving her a second time sound any better, but it was there.  He would try, and he could see his failure as the inevitable future.  He knew the torment Raphael could have, and probably had, put her through.  He wouldn't be getting her back.

"My name is Marius Gry, Autumn," he told her, using the slightly different last name she'd have known when he was alive.  "You were to be my wife, so we could lead our packs together.  When that monster stole you from us, I went after you."

He hadn't abandoned her.  Would the monster have told her that he had?  It seemed likely.  If she was trying to provoke him to anger, it wasn't something she'd ever accomplish.  More than likely, he'd end up provoking her to attack, and not even intentionally.  He wasn't going to fight her, though.

Narkisa jerked back as though she'd been slapped, and her eyes narrowed into little slits as she burned holes into him with the venomous glare she'd acquired over the ages. The energy was heat around her, coils of rage burning off in small amounts, something that would certainly draw others out. There was a sort of hatred that Narkisa had that those sensitive to the world around them could not simply ignore, and when she lost her grip on it, it roiled off of her and garnered what would be, in this situation, plenty of unwanted attention.

"You're a liar," she hissed, chin raised the way a noblewoman would regard a gypsy on the street. "My name is Narkisa, and you would do well to remember it," she snapped. "Though I guess in this instance, it won't matter for long. I have no family." Except Raphael, anyways. She didn't dare utter his name, for fear that it would bring him to her side. She didn't misplace that fear for herself, rather, for the fact that he would ultimately steal her kill.

It didn't take but a second for the wolf to reveal itself, fur as black as pitch. Golden eyes seered from beneath the brows of the animal, and all of her words were suddenly dissolved into an angry growl and a few more guttural snarls. She didn't have to take but two short steps before she threw herself at him, intending to relieve herself of this pest and the obviously false tales he tried to weave.

Somewhere, in the mind of the beast, the name - Gry. It sounded so... WHAT. WAS. THAT. SMELL? She'd made a grave mistake in her attack - in her new form, she realized suddenly that this wolf she faced was no wolf at all - it was a vampire. She was already too far into her attack to pull back, and any gesture of such would display weakness. She followed through, knowing that she was going to have more than she had prepared herself to handle. It was no matter. She had killed them before. This would be just another day.

Years ago, when he was mortal, a glare like that might have meant something to him.  Now, the only reason he cared at all was because of the face he was looking at.  His memories of her had been so much better than what he was seeing now.  Truly, it was punishment enough to have to look at her like this, and hear her  as she was.  The way she looked at him only served to bring memories of his human life and visits into larger towns and cities to mind.  That was how aristocracy looked down on him and his family.  He'd thought those people were stupid at the time, and his opinions hadn't changed.  How disgusting that she did it now. 

"Narkisa?  That monster does you no justice," he returned, though it wasn't more than a few seconds after the words left his mouth that she was shifting and jumping for him.  Damn it, she had to turn this violent.  That would put him at an instant disadvantage, since he didn't want to hurt her.

He didn't move, though he probably could have, but that wouldn't stop her from coming at him again.  The only way to stop this would be to stop her on the first leap, and so instead of trying to avoid her attack, he took it and twisted her around to smack her into the wall.  It would hurt, but it wasn't nearly as hard as he could have smashed her, given vampire strength.  He wanted her to stop, not to fall because she was severely damaged.

"This is ridiculous, I'm not going to fight with you," he told her sharply.

She hit the wall and bit back a yelp, but only because it had startled her. Goddamnit, he was a lot faster than he should have been. Fucking vampires. She shook herself off and jumped at him again, this time more prepared for what she was going against. She didn't even see the cheetah coming.

And she shouldn't have. Drake had been on his way out the door to get Marius for Nikolas when he'd watched him bounce a wolf off of the wall. He didn't know what was going on, but he wasn't going to ask questions. He immediately shifted and ran at her, hitting her in the side. Hard.

Narkisa hadn't anticipated the strike at all, and he hit her hard enough that she lost her grip. She was too angry, too emotional, and the tight hold she had on her form slipped. She slammed into the ground in human form, sliding a few feet back, sitting up to face a second man standing next to Marius.

Drake straightened his rumpled shirt angrily and wiped dirt off of himself from where he had fallen, now standing just a few feet more in the foreground than Marius. "What in the HELL!" he exclaimed, his heavily accented voice doing nothing to hide his growing temper at the situation.

If the attack had startled Narkisa, she wasn't the only one.  Marius had braced himself for a second impact, preparing to send her sailing into the wall or away from him again, when another form shot out and nailed her.  A cheetah.

"Drake, NO!" he called out, though it was FAR too late.  He wasn't going to explain right here and now, not in front of her, but Drake really didn't need to get into this mess.  Marius wasn't risking anyone else. 

She's not a vampire, but she's been alive as long as I have.  I'm thinking she's a bloodbond, and I know the vampire.  You do NOT want to tangle with him.

Even as he shot off a mental explanation, he was closing the distance between them and grabbing Drake by the arm.  Raphael was coming.  He could smell the other vampire's rotten stench, and it was getting stronger.  You may want to get inside.  Get Nikki, and have him call Elke.

This was going to get bad.

It didn't matter. There wasn't enough time. There was never enough time where Raphael was concerned. The sensation of him approaching, moving through time itself as he simply willed his form next to that of the fallen Narkisa - a water droplet fell from the rooftop, and it was as though time stood still when he appeared. His coming was like a pending sickness, a plague, a wretched feeling that everything you've ever known and loved was about to fall away into ash and there would be nothing remaining except the cockroaches. He was a neutron bomb, his very presence provoking that part of the brain that said, "RUN AWAY".

And he smiled where he stood, reaching down and literally picking Narkisa up by her arm, wrenching it out of socket as he did. "You've been bad, darling," he said to her, though his eyes, blacker than the foulest witch's heart, were focused specifically on one of the two shifters before him. Guess which.

He ignored the muffled sound the girl made as he stood her up, and with a quick gesture, he crushed her shoulder back into place. The look of emptiness awash in her eyes as she allowed herself to be torn and fixed like a ragdoll was something that no being should ever have to subject themselves to in a lifetime, and Raphael was nearly giddy at the thought of history repeating itself again. A brief sniff told him what he had to deal with, and his smile only grew.

"Welcome to my world, boy," he said. When the cheetah utterly ignored Marius' rushing to get him inside and away, he held up a hand. "Uh-uh," came the command. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." He felt Narkisa tense beneath his painful grip when he spoke, the power rolling off of him in cool, damp waves. It was like a mist, creeping towards them, literally saturated with all the madness and fear of centuries balled up and neatly tied with a pretty ribbon.. and given straight to the two men.

"And you do realize that if you kill me, you kill her, wolf, so I would greatly recommend thinking it through this time," he warned, his voice gravelly and low. He ignored the secondary as the Letotse dropped to his knees, gasping, scratching at things on his arms and face that weren't really there.

He moved Narkisa forward, so that she was in front of him, and gave her a hard shake. "Don't you recognize him, darling?"

Narkisa had felt his power many, many times, but it hadn't been directed at her in quite a while, so she wasn't ready for it. She felt her mind twisted and protest, reaching to the darkest corners for protection from this madness. That was, of course, when she realized who he was.

"Marius. MARIUS!" she screamed. She lurched forward, suddenly, momentarily free of the clouded mind Raphael kept her with. It was only a trick, of course, and instead of moving forward, she went backward, where her face, particularly her jaw, connected with something hard, and very cold. Brick. Blood burst from her mouth, and he would have knocked a tooth out if she hadn't have struggled, turning her head right before impact. She met the wall quite once again, and then felt her body drop beneath her, curling into a heap just behind her... Master.

Marius might have jumped at Raphael instantaneously if Drake hadn't been around, about to get completely ruled by the other vampire's power.  There was nothing that Marius could do to protect him, not if he wouldn't listen, and that hesitation may have cost them all dearly.  Raphael tossed 'Narkisa' around like a rag doll, something that was enough to infuriate Marius, but he had to remind himself that this wasn't his Autumn.  She was gone, lost under the Monster's touch. 

The familiar feel of the fear Raphael caused suddenly swept out, but he wasn't just a wolf anymore.  Sure, his eyes widened and he saw horrible, terrible things, but he wasn't completely powerless any longer.  He couldn't hope to stand before a vampire that much older than he was and strike the man down, not in a fight between two vampires.  He would lose, and badly.  That didn't mean that being a vampire didn't help him, though. 

He was trying to blot out the fact that he knew Drake was suffering just a few feet away, but at least he knew that the things he saw were all an illusion in his mind, this time.  The last time, he'd thought it was all real.  Now, he knew better, and perhaps that made it more tolerable.  Anger helped, as well.  It helped him to remember that he wasn't angry at the things he was seeing, but at Raphael, and he pulled the vampiric power he possessed up as something of a buffer between the other vampire's fear effects and himself.  He was still trembling, and flinched here and there when thoughts and images came through his imperfect defenses, but he could think past it. 

Just in time to hear Narkisa, no, Autumn, scream his name.

Shit. 

It was instantaneous from there.  He heard his name from the lips of the woman he'd died trying to save, and he saw the Monster dealing with her.  His friend Drake wasn't exactly forgotten, but Marius' thoughts had turned to saving her, even if it meant killing her in the process of killing the vampire.  Raphael had warned him of that, but surely death was better than eternity with the Monster before them, who may even have been lying.  Marius was no expert on bloodbonds, but the fact of the matter was that Raphael deserved to die.  Painfully.

"Autumn," he whispered, not quite as dramatic and frantic as her, but with no less feeling to it.  He shifted as soon as the words had left his mouth, right after she'd called for him, and he was after Raphael not even a second later.  If he'd been planning on keeping his cool before that vampire, that plan was destroyed the instant she remembered who he was.  If she could remember, then she wasn't gone.

Raphael was more amused than anything else by what was happening. He was particularly enjoying the fact that Marius definitely recognized him, and had a very clear memory of what had happened so long ago. He was less than impressed, however, with his display of power and obvious lack of planning as he lunged to attack.

He underestimated how tightly Raphael actually controlled the environment around him. Rather than risk sweeping the entire area in a sudden panic, he relied on the one thing he knew to be shaken, but not broken. Narkisa's loyalty. He merely stepped back as she jerked in front of him, blocking Marius' attack. In her wolf form, she was small, but she was big enough as a human to serve as more than enough of a shield, and she did so out of routine, and out of command.

He only laughed.

No, there really wasn't any planning in this attack, and why should there have been?  It wasn't as though he'd ever intended to see her again.  He'd thought that Autumn was dead, lost to the monster that had taken everything else from him.  Seeing her again had been enough to rattle him, but having Raphael in front of him after all these years?  He didn't have a plan, he wasn't prepared!  He'd thought over so many potential scenarios for killing the vampire over the years since their last meeting, but he'd never factored Autumn into the equation.  He could have functioned if she wasn't there, could have planned and remained calm.  He couldn't do any of that when he could see her being harmed, smell her blood and terror on the air.

She jumped in front of the vampire.

AUTUMN, NO!

He impacted her HARD because he'd been planning on impacting the other vampire hard, though he tried to hold back and prevent himself from harming her too badly.  There was no way he wouldn't smack into her, but he was off of her just as quickly and not nearly as gracefully as he'd planned where Raphael was concerned.  He wanted to check on her, to see if she was hurt, but he had to get at Raphael.  Bloodbonded to the vampire, it was useless to try to reason with her right then.  The vampire had to go.  This time, he was closer, but he wasn't about to pull the same stunt.  Instead, he turned his thoughts to projecting at Nikki inside the club.  It was loud in there and his concentration wasn't at its best right then, but he had to do it quickly and LOUD, which would probably make it sound like he was screaming in Nikki's head when the cat noticed.  Good.  Maybe that'd make him realize it was urgent.

NIKKI, CALL ELKE.  BIG TROUBLE OUT FRONT, DON'T COME OUT.

He didn't need anyone else getting into the mess that Drake was already in.  Now, he could attack Raphael, and he made sure he didn't go for the exact same maneuver.  That was the extent of his plans.  Get Elke there before Raphael could take off.

Narkisa let out a muffled yelp as she hit the ground again, all of the force Marius had thrown intended for Raphael impacting her. She felt ribs breaking, but they would mend themselves soon enough - Raphael's bloodbond combined with her own shifter blood was her only saving grace when situations like this occurred.

Raphael could only laugh as Marius sacked his beloved, and he let his power slip off of her mind long enough for her to babble, which he knew that she would do. She was such an amazingly talented marionette, and even when he'd first come across her he had enjoyed tormenting her with her own memories.

"Marius, please, if you kill him, I will die," she begged. She picked herself up off the ground, barely, and dragged herself to a standing position, using Raphael for support - what else did she have? Really, what other option was there? "Please, please, just go back inside," she pleaded.

Raphael snaked an arm around her, letting his power wash back over her, and the transition was terrifying. From protesting and tears came stillness and silence as liner smudged on her darkened eyes illuminated the fire within them. He ignored her stifled cries of despair as she slowly sank back into his dark, fearsome lullaby.

From inside the club, Nikki sat bolt upright. When Marius was screaming inside his head, things had gotten too heated for him to try and undertake on his own. He called Elke exactly as he commanded, and wasn't prepared for quite how quickly she would respond. With a literal -crack- of energy, she was at the bar, eyes black and wild.

"Where are they?" she demanded, only having to be directed to the door, out of which she fled. She stopped in her tracks when she saw Raphael, though - the creature from Marius' own memory, and unfortunately, hers. Had she been a human, her breath would have caught in her throat, but as it was, there was no time for it.

"Raphael," she said, almost confused, surprised, shocked. "You have no business here." Firmly, now. She was the timid of the two siblings, Sigried and she, but no less potent. It was unfortunate that Raphael was older, but Elke was only one off from Theron, and was every match for him and then some. It was thousand-year old vampires where she would throw her cards down, such as Diana had been.

She reached out to grab Marius' arm before he could do anything else rash, trying to calm him down. She knew that it would only get worse from here if she could not try to put herself in the middle of things, but she didn't know if her fledgeling would allow it.

"Adelaide," Raphael said, his sing-song voice not quite as surprised. "How... lovely. And how utterly unimpressive, Marius. Is this what you bring to your aid? The Mother Teresa of vampires? I've already dealt with her once," he said, his tone bored.

There was a history there that Elke perhaps had not mentioned to Marius, and for good reason. Raphael had beaten her before, but she had only been just turned, while he eclipsed her by nearly one-hundred years. It would, by his guess, take little effort to do it again. Of course, he had no idea how much power she'd amassed through the time, so he might have been sorely wrong.