Night's Omen

[Thread continued from Better Stand Tall and Dark of the Night.]

Being involved at all in this whole mess hadn't been Ben's idea, but he had way too many friends in the guilds still, not to mention his sister.  Currently, his brain was running itself in circles worrying about his cousin and hoping that he was still hidden, and he'd found himself at Frost after escorting a pile of civilians there.  Technically, he should have been at Crimson because of Isolde and his own past employment there, but everyone was so scattered about at this point that he figured it didn't matter, as long as he was helping somewhere.  There were still too many people who were unaccounted for, so until he'd gotten a call from Shannon telling him that Crimson was working on an offensive and she wanted him in there with her, he'd been planning on just joining in wherever someone needed him.  

An offensive sounded like his kind of deal.

The bad part about it all was that he really didn't know that he was much of a target at all.  Yes, he was related to Isolde, but she was a Therrayan, not exactly the most offensive of the bunch and not the sort to have a lot of enemies, but he wasn't a hunter anymore.  He worked with Jillian, protecting her and helping her with her tomb raiding and whatever other Lara Croft/Indiana Jones/Uncharted shit she had going on.  He shouldn't have been on the radar, as far as he was concerned, but there were other people who he wouldn't have expected to really be on the radar, and it just went to show how far Midnight was reaching and that they really just didn't care about anything related to 'rules'; women, children and medical personnel were still targets, as were former hunters (Victor Batten's MIA status was a disturbing reminder of that fact, being both medical personnel and a former hunter himself).  The only reason Ben was even by the doors when the car rolled up like it did was because he'd been headed out to his own vehicle to head over to Crimson, so why not join in and see what this mess was?

Haha, he should have known better.  

The car had apparently come to a screeching halt, horn blaring to draw everyone outside, and the driver had gotten out without trouble with his hands on the back of his head like he had police firearms pointed at him.  That in itself was a little amusing and disturbing at the same time, that the dark-haired guy did that without prompting, and then he'd stepped away from the vehicle, putting himself at a definite disadvantage.  Ben gave him credit immediately for balls, especially with how things were going that night and the fact that the dude was bleeding very obviously from a number of injuries that looked both painful and nearly incapacitating.  That meant that he was something supernatural, most likely a vampire given the torso wounds, but he couldn't have been very old if he was still in pain from them.

"Don't shoot, guys, I have a delivery for a dude named Christian.  He's in the front seat," he offered in a loud, non-shouting or aggressive voice.  See?  Jared could avoid being a complete asshole if he tried.

Of course, Veronica probably came very close to getting the man shot up when she busted out of the car like that, shrieking Ben's name and flinging herself at him.  She nearly got herself shot, except that Ben hadn't reacted badly when she threw her arms around him, then proceeded to drag him to the car.  The guy had tensed, eyes bugging a little before they narrowed in a very obvious death stare that was all for Veronica, but Ben took one look inside the car and cursed.  That was Ryan Shane, and he was bleeding.

"It's Ryan Shane, someone get him inside before something else happens," Ben shouted, and part of the reason why he didn't do it himself was because he still had Veronica attached to his hand and there was still the other guy hanging around.  "Who are you?"

"Jared, I'm Ryan's friend."

"What are you?"  Yeah, it was kind of rude sometimes to ask like that, but right then, that was important information.

"Vampire."

Jared's eyes had narrowed once more, though Ben wasn't sure if it was because of Veronica hanging on his hand and asking a zillion questions or because of his question, but Ben nodded.  "So, you're not dying, that's good.  You should probably stay with Ryan.  Thanks for getting him here, I'm sure his brother will be relieved," the former Crimson hunter offered, smiling just slightly, and Jared's surprise at the thanks made it all the more worth it.  Ben gestured with his head that Jared should go help with Ryan (he was probably the only one who could drag the dude out of the car without causing more of a scene, anyway), and then looked down to Veronica.

"Some crazy things are happening, so I stopped in to give everyone a hand," he told her simply, shrugging.  "You should probably be at Single Earth, or at home.  You don't want to be seen with hunters tonight, I promise."

Once it was obvious that they weren't going to pump Jared full of holes, which was accomplished by the one dude actually thanking him for getting his friend out of trouble without getting him killed.  It was shocking, especially since he expected the guy to be a douchebag once he'd seen Veronica go running for him, but the guy seemed as surprised by her appearance on the scene and her reactions as Jared was.  Obviously, they knew each other, but Jared got the feeling they weren't besties or anything gay like that.  It made him hate the guy just a little less.

Not that it mattered much.  Jared went around the car and essentially made it clear that everyone needed to be out of Ryan's face except for him (Ryan was making a fuss).  He reached in and plucked Ryan out of his seat and to his feet with one of Ryan's arms draped over his shoulders.  

"Puke on me, and I'm going to drop you on your ugly face, I swear it," he started, because that was important information.  "We're going to try this awesome thing called walking on our own with minimal bitching, and if that doesn't work, I'm going to carry your ass in like a fucking damsel in distress in front of all the badass vampire slayers.  Let's go."

Yeah, so Jared was cranky.  He was hurting from multiple gunshot wounds, being stared at like he might go crazy and start killing people at any second by all except for the guy who'd thanked him, and he was pretty sure there was puke on the door of his car from Ryan's earlier decision to lose whatever was in his stomach.  He was trying, and he had to get credit where it was due.

Veronica watched as Ben handled everything with ease, and she heaved a sigh of relief as Jared took Ryan inside, though she lingered back, unwilling to let go so easily. He was telling her that she didn't want to be seen with them. He was telling her that it was unsafe. Not only was the rejection in and of itself laughable (and it went to show how screwed up Ben was; wouldn't he rather her hide at a secure building than at that joke of an establishment called Single Earth?), but the fact that he'd just told Vincent Cross' daughter to run - well. She was smoldering with rage on the inside, so much so that she felt the prick of tears on her eyes. She looked away abruptly, unable to stop the few tears before they came.

"Do I have to?" she asked him, the most pathetically crushed expression on her face when she looked back up. "Do you think SE is going to be okay?"

Honestly, SE was one of the last places anyone should have been at that moment, because without a doubt, some morons were going to try and hide there, and they would make the entire buildings collateral damage waiting to happen. Veronica was a bird, and she could fly away, but how far could she expect to get? As far as Ben knew, she wasn't a fighter, and she certainly wasn't the type to appear imposing or make a villain think twice about attacking her. No, she was fair and pretty and delicate - she was something that someone in Midnight would break in half, if they had the chance.

Ironically, this exact thing had happened, though not in the sense that one would consider.

Ryan was abuzz with lights and sounds and vomit when they finally got to wherever they were going. "This isn't Single Earth," he slurred. He watched the girl shoot off like a rocket to some dude named Ben, and was relieved that he also was not an Ed Hardy, because two Eds in one night was just two damn Eds too many. "Stupid Jersey Shore fist-pumping faggot," he said as Jared helped him out of the car.

Jared almost dropped him until Ryan made a face that plainly said, 'Really?'. "Ed Hardy can suck my nuts," he squawked. Some of the hunters exchanged glances as they passed by, and Ryan stumbled enough that Jared had to stop. When he threatened to carry him like a princess, though, Ryan believed him. He would do something like that, in front of all these people. Asshole.

"Just gimmie a second," he instructed his friend, a finger held up as he wobbled around in place. He crouched over and threw up again on the sidewalk, that finger posted up the entire time, waving left and right as though he were using it to keep his balance. He straightened back up and wiped his nose, trailing mucus and snot along the back of his hand.

"No homo," was all he said. He then attempted to walk through the doors on his own, and ended up using Jared for support again after only four or five feet.

Jared and Ryan were making enough of a scene without having to deal with Veronica, which would be Ben's excuse for not considering more of the situation and Single Earth itself sooner; the vampire had made some threats and didn't seem to be handling Christian's younger brother (who was in bad shape) all that gently, but the kid wasn't exactly doing anything to deserve nicer treatment.  In fact, Ryan reacted better to Jared's aggressive 'help' than he had to a hunter's attempt to help him, and Ben didn't blame the others for just letting the vampire manhandle the kid into the building.  Besides, it was slightly hilarious.

He dragged his attention completely back to Veronica rather quickly, the sight of tears instantly prompting concern and just a little confusion, but her question about SE made his face turn to sudden horror.  "Single Earth...damn it!" he swore, the rest turning quiet under his breath as he took her by the hand so that he could be certain she wouldn't disappear on him while he was trying to handle things.

"No, you need to go home, not to Single Earth.  How close are you to any hunters?  Any family members, boyfriend, close friends, anything?" he asked quickly, because if she wasn't in close contact with hunters usually, he was guessing she would be alright as long as she went home and stayed there.  If she was in danger, he could set her up in Frost to keep her safe, but that was only going to put a target on her back in the coming days.  He hoped to christ that John was staying hidden, and that Isolde had done what he said and gotten to Crimson.  The rest of his family had also been warned, but he hadn't been there to supervise it, and he didn't like that.  In fact, he had to go to Isolde's before Crimson to make sure she was out and pick her up, if not.

He was on his phone suddenly, Veronica still in tow, and definitely multitasking; he was listening to her, but also trying to get someone from Onyx on the other line.  "Verde, where are you?"

"Hole in the Wall."

"What the hell are you doing there?!  Listen, call whoever's in charge of your operations at the guild, did anyone hear from Cobriana, yet?"

"Are you giving me shit, Haven?  I will make you eat my knife, especially tonight," Verde snarled, and Ben could imagine the look on his face matching the tone.  "Nobody's heard from Cobriana, to my knowledge."

"Shit.  Okay, we have to get Single Earth to evacuate immediately.  All it takes is one moron, and that whole place is just a mass of targets."

"Explain to me why I give a shit, Haven, and make it fucking fast.  The Boswell women are having breakdowns, and another magical shitfit seems imminent.  I have a massacre in the parking lot that nobody can explain, there are a pile of civilians at risk here, including the local alpha's son and a newly infected werewolf that were both shot up, and apparently, Christian Shane's brother was here, shot at, and disappeared."

"Shane's brother made it here just a few minutes ago, mark that off your list of problems.  I'm not saying you have to deal with it, just call whoever can."

"Of course, because I don't have any other problems.  I'll call," Verde snapped, and then the line went dead.  At least he was going to call.

Ben managed to attempt a smile for Veronica, shrugging once more and now she had his full attention again.  "Obviously, Single Earth isn't a good idea.  I would take you with me, but staying with me probably isn't good, either.  I have to make sure my sister made it somewhere safe immediately.  She was supposed to and call me, but she hasn't, yet."

"Of course this isn't Single Earth, jackass.  You're being shot at, you really wanna go hang out with the hippies?  Maybe they'll shoot peace signs at them, right?" he drawled, rolling his eyes.  He didn't have any sympathy for Ryan because he'd gotten himself that trashed, and wow, did he smell bad.  On top of the stumbling, Jared wasn't really sure what to do.  Really, he didn't want Ryan near him when he stunk like that, but Ryan didn't seem able to walk on his own.  It was a point in favor of not carrying him, though.

Then, Ryan wobbled about a foot or two away to throw up all over the place again, and Jared normally would have made fun of him for holding his liquor like a girl, except that he could see, smell and hear it in technicolor nastiness.  He was a vampire, and it was making him want to gag.  Then, Ryan wiped his nose with the back of his hand, and Jared may have stifled a short gag in the back of his throat.  He dutifully moved to help Ryan along again because the dude was NOT getting anywhere on his own, and it became apparent that he hadn't quite gotten the hang of not breathing since he died.

"Oh my fucking FUCK, dude, you fucking REEK!  I'm dumping your ass in a fucking shower as soon as we get inside, or I'm not going anywhere near you!  Fuck, man," he ranted, choking a little because ranting required air.  Ryan was pretty much the grossest thing he'd witnessed since being turned right about then.

By the time Christian had gotten to meet Ryan and Jared (who he didn't like), he was surrounded by a mill of people (which he also didn't like). It was too much shit going on, what with hunters asking him where to go and what they were supposed to be doing. He'd been able to separate Eva and Andrea from them and by now they were in his room (he hoped), because his wife was flipping her shit and he really didn't need to try and pull her and Melody and Shane apart. It had almost happened once, and he knew that at the rate shit was going if she bumped into them again, it wasn't going to be pretty. Usually she was level-headed, but he could understand her ire; what he didn't like was that she chose to direct it at the first people she saw. He blamed her snobby parents for that, and he'd have to straighten her out later because he didn't feel like hearing it from her, too. No doubt he'd get swept up in the blame if he didn't put her into check in time, which would end badly.

Christian didn't often blow up, but he was about to.

"STOP FUCKING ASKING ME QUESTIONS!" he finally bellowed. Christian never really yelled, but he'd had it. "Goddamnit, you and you, go find Church. You three, go with Patryk, and for fuck sake, where is Adam?"

The entire room just stopped. Then people start running in different directions, trying to get out of his way before he started cutting people loose. He was going to have to seriously re-evaluate the hunters in his guild when this was over. All of his Level 5 people were out or on their way out the door, some were MIA, and the trainees just didn't know what to do with themselves. When he'd finally spotted Jared and Ryan, he made a loud, frustrated noise and hurried over to them.

"The infirmary is this way," he said, reaching out to give someone standing around doing nothing a heavy shove. He sent a Level 2 face first into a door, but kept walking without even stopping to yell. "Tell me he didn't do this all by himself," he said to Jared as they headed towards the infirmary. He would rather hear that Midnight had tried to take a piece out of Ryan rather than find out that Ryan had gotten mixed up in one of his typical fights.

His phone began to ring, again, and he whipped out of his pocket and threw it so hard down the hallway that it shattered. Later, he'd regret it, but right now the motion felt so good that he just didn't give a shit. Yes, Christian was losing his temper.

"Single Earth...damn it!" She felt his hand tighten around hers as he muttered to himself, trying to keep her out of the way of people as they poured out of the building. Veronica side-stepped hunters running out of the building barely, squealing a little as one of them almost knocked her over. She was sick of playing this wounded bird routine, but if she could hold out, she was sure she'd get enough information to feed back to Midnight pertaining to plans as the hunters routed people out the door.

"No, you need to go home, not to Single Earth.  How close are you to any hunters?  Any family members, boyfriend, close friends, anything?"

"Home?" she repeated. Damnit. She quickly wiped her eyes, trying to "look brave". There was no way for her to argue this without coming off as suspicious. She went through a mental checklist of anyone she knew who could potentially be a target for Midnight, and stammered off an "I - I don't really know," before she could compose herself more fully.

When he offered her a small smile, she tried to steel her nerves a little. She couldn't help but find he had an attractive face, but it was a nauseating sensation to recognize that she was holding hands with the man that had brutally murdered her father. It made her own smile waver a little. She thought she could be prepared for this, but every time, she was always troubled by the thoughts that would creep into her head and spoil her game plans.

"Obviously, Single Earth isn't a good idea.  I would take you with me, but staying with me probably isn't good, either.  I have to make sure my sister made it somewhere safe immediately.  She was supposed to and call me, but she hasn't, yet."

She nodded, finding it novel that he was worried about his family when he didn't seem to give a shit about the families of anyone whose life he'd casually taken. "No, it's fine, I don't want to get in the way. I'll just fly home. I'm sure I'll be okay." She struggled to try and find a reason to keep him around, and ran across one. "There's a vampire that goes there, I'll find him. Damn, what's his name? Stefan? Steven?" she said this part to herself, but loud enough for Ben to hear. "He's really nice - I'm sure if I just tell him my house is being fumigated or something he'll let me hang out for the night."

She smiled. Inwardly, she knew Stefan was going to BEAT HER ASS when she told him she blew his cover, but whatever. That Nazi prick could kiss her lily white ass. It was all for a greater cause, anyways. She tugged on Ben's hand a little, as if to reassure him.

"I hope your sister is okay. I'll get out of here. It was... a really big relief to see you," she told him, feigning shyness over the words. She portrayed the idea that she could have had a crush on him, but then again, it also could have been the "My Hero" thing, especially since she fluttered her eyelashes, though that was more a testament to how "silly" she felt for showing up.

She let go of his hand and turned, counting slowly in her head. One... two..

Of course Christian didn't like Jared.  He'd never heard anything good about the guy (Jared was usually there when Ryan was being admitted to the hospital for doing something stupid), Jared had disappeared and likely inadvertently contributed to Ryan's even worse behavior, and then he'd reappeared as a vamp, returned Ryan to his usual levels of drunken idiocy and now he was the one dragging Ryan into Frost drunk, puking and bleeding.  Ryan looked like shit, and he smelled worse, Jared could agree, but this was definitely not his fault.  In fact, Ryan probably would have been dead or en route to Midnight if Jared hadn't been there to get him out of dodge, so Christian should have liked him a LOT right about then.  

"Dude, what the fuck is going on here?  Everyone's running around like there's a fucking fire," Jared observed, and then Christian was yelling and freaking out, so he shot the guy a pissy look and shut his own trap.  He knew he was a mouse walking into the viper's nest here (though it looked like a lot of these snakes were fucking morons right about now, so he didn't blame Christian for freaking out), so being a total asshole really wouldn't serve him all that well.  That, and just following Christian right about now was actually kind of amusing, as long as you were the sort of person to enjoy seeing other people being abused.  

Jared was that sort of person.

Some idiot hunter, obviously a low-level one, caught himself on his face against a door, and Jared snickered some, glancing down at Ryan to see if he'd noticed, but Ryan was kind of fucked up, so he didn't even bother commenting.  Christian wasn't likely to think he was funny, and Ryan wasn't very coherent.  As long as he wasn't puking all over, Jared could deal with that, but dude, this was getting old already.  

"Nah, the only part he did to himself was getting himself so trashed that he has to hurl every five minutes like a sorority chick.  His ex smashed his face, and some assholes started shooting in the parking lot, which is why I brought him here.  Didn't know what was going on, had a bad feeling it was big, and figured you'd rather kick him out if he wasn't wanted here than risk him disappearing if he was," Jared explained, hesitating a second when Christian chucked his phone down the hallway, but he wasn't really scared like some of the idiot hunters were.  He was just cautious and not interested in being on the receiving end of that rage.

It was why he was keeping his comments to himself, and why he hadn't given Christian shit, yet.

Ben really wasn't the sort to 'casually' kill anyone, but of course Veronica wouldn't have any reason to know that.  She didn't know him very well, and she had a very good reason to hold his killing habits against him.  Actually, he didn't kill much anymore at all, considering he wasn't an active hunter anymore.  Considering how he was worried about her safety now, he'd have been very interested in making sure she was taken care of if he'd known that she even existed when he took down the evil bastard that happened to be her father.  Vincent Cross hadn't deserved the quick death he'd gotten, but Ben was Crimson, not Frost; he didn't do the brutal, nasty kills that they were known for.

Her agreement to go home and be safe was a relief, but only for a moment or so while his brain shot ahead to his immediate plans once he knew she was okay.  Then, she mentioned her vampire friend, which he couldn't deny was a good idea, until she said 'Stefan'.  Steven was a common enough name, but Stefan?  No, he knew that name, and if he knew that vampire, he didn't want her anywhere near that bastard.  Could it be, though?

She regarded him almost shyly, all fluttering eyelashes and demure body language, and he tried to decide how likely it was that Stefan could have gotten into SE without anyone realizing who he was.  Was that crazy prick capable of playing the nice guy that well?  Not everyone at SE was a pushover, so surely one of them would have noticed?  Jesus Christ, he couldn't take that chance.

"Veronica, wait!" he called, coming up behind her and lightly grabbing her arm to halt her progress.  "This vampire you know, he's at Single Earth?  Blond, German?  If he's the guy I'm thinking, you're not his favorite kind of victim, but that doesn't always matter.  Just...damn it, stay with me for now, I'll figure something out."

Obviously, she didn't have to, but going to Stefan wasn't a good idea, especially if she was going to call him and draw his attention to her.  Ben could bet that Stefan was out causing havoc, but if someone put up a big neon sign like that, how could he not show up?  Exactly.  Pulling his phone out again, Ben called up Single Earth, and Eliza was much nicer to talk to than Verde had been.

"Eliza, this is Ben Haven.  Someone from Onyx should be getting in touch with all of you about the crazy that is going down tonight, but I need to know if you've seen a vampire by the name of Stefan or Steven tonight?"

"Veronica, wait!"

Veronica smiled a victorious smile, one so dark that it lit her eyes up in an unnatural way. She made herself stumble a little, surprised by his call. She turned around, tilting her head at his hand on her arm, and gave him an odd look. "What's up?"

"This vampire you know, he's at Single Earth?  Blond, German?  If he's the guy I'm thinking, you're not his favorite kind of victim, but that doesn't always matter.  Just...damn it, stay with me for now, I'll figure something out."

Veronica faked shock, opening her mouth and making a WUT face a him. "But, wait," she stammered, following him because he was practically yanking her along. "He's blonde, sure - actually, he's kind of cute," she trailed off, until he stopped in his tracks and gave her a Look. "Uh, but, very bad, yes," she nodded emphatically. "Wait, what do you mean by 'victim'? I - whoa!" she said, as he reeled her in before she got hit by a car as it came flying through the parking lot.

"You know, I can just go sit in a tree somewhere or something. Even though it is kind of cold," she added, a frown on her face. "On second thought, hanging out with you doesn't sound like a bad idea."

This level of multitasking wasn't good for Ben's sanity, but between Eliza NOT answering his question and Veronica calling Stefan 'cute', he wasn't sure how much he could process right about then.  That didn't include a pretty horrible rendition of 'In the Jungle' coming from the background on Eliza's end. 

"Are you people having a party over there?" he demanded, the idea so ridiculous that it actually didn't work in his brain.  People were dying, so why wouldn't SE be unaware and having a party?

At least Veronica seemed to have rethought her plans, mostly based on the looks he was giving her as she spouted more ridiculous all the time.  Cute.  Christ.

"Alright, listen to me, and listen quickly because there is no time.  Midnight is attacking the guilds and it's basically open season on whoever they want to attack at this point.  People are dying.  Onyx is supposed to contact both of your locations to try to arrange evacuation or defenses, so that's not my deal, but the vampire I'm talking about is a psychopath and a serial killer.  If he shows up there, you're all in danger, so I need to know now, have you heard from a blond vampire who goes by Stefan or some variation of that name?" he asked again, and really, he couldn't stress the importance anymore than that.  He didn't know Eliza personally, so he couldn't have told her that she was Stefan's type, but if he could have, he would have. 

Veronica's brow furrowed as Ben asked if there was a party going on at Single Earth. "Oh god," she said as he obviously got hung up on. "I know what's going on. You ever met a Lemur shapeshifter? Yeah, you don't want to. They're fucking crazy." She almost told him that Niall had forbade anyone from ever taking one into Midnight - ever. But she caught herself and just made a "Hmm," sound followed by a laugh.

She realized that she'd sworn, and that was a little out of character for her, but she blew it off because Ben would understand when he got to meet one. "Don't say I never warned you," was all she commented, finalizing her position on Lemurs. Otto was insane. He'd hung a hammock up in Single Earth and she'd seen him lay in it and strum a ukulele while singing some tribal shit at the top of his lungs. In his underwear.

She followed Ben to his car, all the while avoiding people as they rushed here and there. She stopped to behold a man she'd never seen before stalk by, an obviously emotion exchange with a short brunette in tow. She was crying, and he was yelling, and then suddenly a dark wave of... something passed over her. She shivered, and she didn't like it, standing closer to Ben as she felt very unsafe suddenly.

"But WHY, Rigel? I don't understand, I can help! You know what happens if you lose it!" she was shouting.

He turned, slowly, the dark pressing aura circling out like a shockwave. "Go inside!" he commanded. "I'm not doing this right now. INSIDE." He watched her throw her arms up with a cry and storm back towards the building, and then he realized he had an audience. He looked at Veronica, and then Ben, a brow raised. "Sisters," he said, as though it explained everything. He got into a dark vehicle and slammed the door, pulling out of the lot in a hurry.

The girl looked around like she was totally lost, kicked a random piece of trash, and then stalked back towards the building.

"Yeah, we should just go now and get your sister," she said, her voice trailing off as she spoke.

The entire events up until he actually reached the infirmary doors were a blur. He could hear Jared and Christian talking - well, Jared explaining while Christian no doubt blamed him for all of this. He wasn't really in the mood to deal, so he just hobbled along until a brunette woman came through and got him onto a bed. He watched through glassy eyes and shaky vision as Christian and Jared talked at the foot of the bed, the woman working her doctor skill.

"Of all the nights to pick to drink," he moaned, finally.

That was clearly the wrong comment for Christian to hear. "Really? So what night exactly is it that you reserve for not getting hammered and getting into a fight? Because it sure as fuck isn't one that ends in a 'y'," he snapped.

Ryan seemed to process this for a second, and then his face twisted into an indignant, angry expression. "Hey! I'll have you know I was sober for most of the morning." After a pause, and an 'Ow' muttered as the woman jabbed him with a needle, he considered what he said. "But I was hungover." He proceeded to laugh his Muttly laugh.

Christian turned to Jared. "Well, thank fuck he's got you," he said. The way he said it sounded more like an insult, but it was really hard to tell. Christian was blazing hot pissed, and it happened so rarely that nobody really knew how to react.

Colleen paused in the middle of what she was doing and gave Christian a warning glance. "If you're going to get him all riled up again, I'm going to need you to wait outside." She wasn't afraid to order him around, and her prissy British accent didn't really do anything to sweeten her tone.

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were in charge," Christian snarled.

"In this room I am," she countered evenly.

Christian paused, and then pointed at her. "You've been hanging out with Victor far too much for my liking," he accused. "He's rubbing off on you."

She smirked. "My son says the same thing. Now go somewhere else while I sew your brother up. You can yell at him later." She focused back down on what she was doing.

Ryan jerked. "Hey! No, I don't want to be yelled at later!" he yelled. He looked at Jared, like Jared was going to do something about it, but the vampire had clearly turned off his Asshole Switch while he was in the lion's den. Ryan sighed and slumped back down, muttering something to himself.

"This fucking sucks."

Ben's jaw tightened as he heard even more singing and odd sounds from the background, Eliza getting more upset and assuring him that she hadn't seen the vampire in question, but at least she confirmed that she knew who he was talking about.  He also didn't miss the wailing in the background that sounded distinctly different from the singing and 'party' sounds.  Eliza promptly excused herself in the middle of her former statement, which made him wonder if she was lying.  There wasn't much he could do about it, but now he had to decide if he was going to be selfish and go get Isolde first, or if going to Single Earth was priority.

"Fuck," he hissed, seeing the fight between Rigel and his sister and not finding it helpful.  Isolde, or Single Earth?  Was there really anything that one person could do to save those people?  If he showed up alone (or even worse, with Veronica in tow), was there really anything he could do?  Maybe he could push an evacuation?

Regardless, he had to get to his car, and definitely had to figure out what to do with Veronica that would both keep her safe from the problem at large and not shove her into a whole new problem.  It was why taking her with him upset him, knowing he was bound to end up in some kind of mess, but not taking her with him worried him that she'd find trouble, anyway.  He tried Isolde's phone again as he cut a swift path to his vehicle, and again there was no answer.  Either she was crazy busy at the guildhouse, or something was wrong.  He wanted to try Jillian's phone next, but would that just draw attention to her and put her at risk?  Was she already at risk?  He didn't want to drag her into all of this, to a guildhouse and a nightmare, for no reason.  If she wasn't on the hit list already, that would put her on it, just like John.  He wanted to call John just as much, but would that just reveal the missing kid's location?

Even Veronica, Single Earth and all that, didn't need to know anything about Jillian or John, just in case.  He didn't delude himself into thinking that if the two of them got overwhelmed he'd be able to keep her from being captured, and then if she knew anything she wasn't supposed to, they were all even more screwed than they had been.  "Alright, Veronica, I'm taking you with me only because I don't want you to go somewhere alone and get into trouble, but if we get attacked, you need to fly away immediately, understand?"

Ironically, running and flying was what he always told both Isolde and Jillian to do if things turned sketchy; it seemed to be a plan that he returned to whenever the situation was bad, and why not?  It hadn't blown up in his face yet. 

Jared really was, believe it or not, operating with his Asshole Switch off while he was dealing with Christian, and it was truly something to see the normally rude, aggressive guy lock down and behave himself.  He was no less himself, that force in his voice and body language certainly not gone just because he wasn't using it to support douchey behavior, but he didn't know any of these people and the situation was bad.  If only one of those factors were in place, he wouldn't have cared enough to change his behavior, but with both, he knew better.  Jared knew how to buckle down if he had to.

Christian being as pissed as he was really didn't hurt the situation, either, though Jared actually dealt with that admirably.  He could have made a nasty comment, complete with a pile of curses, a few insults and a good dose of truth, but he was even careful about that.  He let Ryan and Christian bitch at each other without adding his own commentary, just responding when the guild leader made a comment at him, and that included the insult, or whatever it was.

"Thank fuck is right.  If he didn't have me, you'd have a corpse or a ransom call by morning," Jared pointed out, and it was surprisingly without venom.  He knew it was true, and as little credit as people normally gave him, he was a smart guy.  He had no college degree, nothing that said he was a genius, but put him into a life or death situation and he was going to survive if there was even a chance for him. 

Whether Christian would bother paying him any mind or not, he wasn't going to play meek just because these people could kill him for being a vampire they weren't fond of, just like he wasn't going out of his way to antagonize the hunter.  He also wasn't getting in the way of the bitch with the needles, because that was NOT his deal.  That, and she told Christian off, which Jared thought the hunter both needed and deserved.  For a doctor, she wasn't half-bad, and whoever that Victor they were talking about was didn't sound all that horrible, either, even if he had a shitty name.