Taking a Plunge {Niall}

[Sarah Ross]

Sarah had done some stupid things in her life/career, but this was probably the most idiotic. She was crouched in some foliage, with a pair of binoculars she had inherited from her Father. She was watching the apparent "new" Master of Midnight meet with what appeared to be slavers, she wasn't sure.

A few days earlier she had been doing mundane errands for Frost after getting her ass chewed yet again for causing a stir during a hunt...who knew knifing down a vamp on the streets of New York was that big of a deal, the chance presented itself and she took it. However, the Guild felt the resulting attention and having to pull strings with the Cops was a problem. So in order to get back in the good graces of the Guild she was doing bitch work. But that visit to Onyx snapped something in her. Sarah ended up talking to several of the hunters after noticing the obvious disturbed nature of the Onyx house. After she heard about Ortega, she had nightmares....and it brought back the memories of her mother disappearing there or at their hands. She knew what she had to do...kill Niall before he became fully secure in Midnight.

Through careful observation she had found out that Niall was still visiting Pyrige to meet with various people that evidently weren't good enough to visit Midnight itself. She was plotting how to best kill him, and had decided to take a shot at him from a safe-ish distance. Sarah began getting ready to take the shot as the Vampires exited the building they were meeting in. Contrary to her Frost nature, she was using a gun. It was her inherited .308, and she still had the shooting skills her Father had taught her. She saw the Master of Midnight as he walked out of the building. Her sights settled on his chest, she found her spot weld on the stock and slowed her breathing. Her trigger finger slowly began drawing slack from the precision trigger....only ounces of pressure kept the trigger from breaking. Finally the trigger pulled and the hammer dropped. Sarah used every ounce of shifter strength she had to keep the rifle steady as it recoiled and the heavy round streaked toward's Niall's heart...

[Verity Celestino]

It was unfortunate for Sarah that Niall's very essence created a strange... aura of madness. Things didn't always appear as they were, and it had been beneficial to Niall in his lifetime, as well as those around him. When the chest of the man they'd gone to meet exploded, Verity could only guess what had happened. Instead of panicking, she knelt down with the body as it fell, in case someone was watching them from a distance. She motioned Kronos over, careful to hide her speech with her hair so that someone watching could not read her lips.

"We definitely need to get out of here before they realize what's happened," she said. "Take the body and go, and I will escort him out through the back. I'm willing to bet anything they were aiming for Niall and not this fellow," she added. She nodded to him and stood, feigning shock as she held her arms up to the real Niall.

"It seems, darling, that the guilds are more foolish than you anticipated," she pointed out to him, reaching to his arm to lead him back into the house where they'd met. From binoculars, she seemed composed and cool, every bit the portrait of the cold bitch that rumours had painted. Her partner had just collapsed and she was all business, how typical. Once she led him inside the house, her steps became less flighty and more ferocious. The smile on her face melted away to anger and she stopped Niall in the hallway, teeth near-bared behind curled lips.

"That was close," she snarled. "I dislike having to rely on that ability when we could have taken her out hours prior as she tried to set up that meager post of hers. What exactly are you looking to do, besides give me a heart attack?" she demanded. She studied Niall, who seemed very... pleasant over the ordeal. His ease made her gruff, which wasn't very usual, but Verity disliked greatly the idea of dangling him out to hunters like bait. The issue that he could definitely take care of himself wasn't even part of that equation.

[Niall]

He was, personally, of the opinion that the guilds had lost their collective minds.  He'd guessed that, however, and planned appropriately.  He'd even leaked the fact that he was meeting this particular vampire, nobody of importance, and ensured that the aura of illusion he always wore in a group was flawless.  It was such a subtle thing, so carefully maintained, that nobody ever noticed.  Even when they were within it, they only knew if they were in the loop, which meant that Kronos and Verity were.  Niall had 'traded' places with the vampire they were meeting with, displaying his own visage on the other man's and taking the other's face as they left the building, even so far as to duck away like he was panicked when the 'Master of Midnight' went down with a gaping hole where his heart should have been.  It might have shaken someone else to see such an attack and know it was meant for them, but Niall?  No.  He watched Verity bend over her fallen 'partner', holding the illusion in place enough to make the face he was wearing look slack-jawed and horrified, then allowed the silver-eyed witch to lead him inside.  There, he dropped the illusion over himself, but kept the other.  He wanted as much time as was possible before the guilds realized their hit had failed, and he only had to maintain it until Kronos removed the body from sight.

Cerberus, the shooter is yours.  Bring her alive.

He shot the thought off even as Verity was getting him inside, and he felt the mental acknowledgment as the big man made his move.  He wouldn't have been surprised if Cerberus had already been on the move the instant the stupid woman took her shot.  They'd known she was there, but Niall had wanted a reason to retaliate.  "Sadly, I did anticipate this, but I didn't honestly believe they were so stupid.  The leaders seemed slightly more rational than this," he told her mildly, rolling his shoulders back like he was brushing the whole ordeal off.

Except, it was only just beginning.  "Besides giving you a heart attack, my love, I was looking for exactly what they've given us: cause for retaliation.  Once again, we are merely reacting to a blatant attack, and this one is made more desirable for the warning we've already issued.  Now, when I release the hounds, the rabbits will scatter," he explained, smiling rather darkly over the pleasant warmth the very thought gave him.  It had been a very long time since he'd been able to participate in such a hunt.

"We need to get back to Midnight and put out the word.  All hunters are open season.  Who do we have good information on?  I'm thinking working at the edges of extended families and forcing our way inward towards the actual hunter would be entertaining.  I want them to dread each waking moment, for fear that someone else will be lost."  If the guilds survived this, it would be because Niall showed them mercy.

[Cerberus]

They'd had him watching this bitch for hours.  The instant they'd known that Niall would be in this location, he'd been stalking the position and any potential posts for an attack, and he hadn't missed Sarah setting up her shot.  It had been too simple, honestly, and he'd wanted so much to nab her before she even took her shot.  He'd thought as much as she had that Niall had gone down when she fired, and he was on the move as soon as the shot rang out.  Having Niall's order ring through his mind an instant later only made him grin, proof that his boss was a badass.  He was on all fours, bounding the short distance from his hidden spot to hers and leaping.

It was surprisingly fluid for such a big dog and massive man, that rush from animal to human, and made even more so by the fact that he was armed and fired in the seconds afterwards.  The bitch couldn't run fast enough to outpace a doberman, she couldn't outfight the man, so he saw no course of action that didn't include nastiness for her.

Niall would get his idiot hunter, Cerberus would make sure of it.  Frankly, he hadn't even fathomed the kind of horror the consequences of this would be, not truly.  He just knew this was bad.  You didn't fuck with Cerberus' boss.  Neither of them.

[Verity Celestino]

Verity looked like she might actually explode as he brushed off her concerns. She put an arm up, facing him fully and stopping him from proceeding any further. "You got your reason but you did nearly give me a heart attack," she said firmly. Once that moment had passed, she sighed a little. She could feel the madness radiating off of him; if she hadn't been a Triste, her psychic ability would have made her so open to it that she might have committed suicide. As it stood, it was like a comfortable buzzing sensation under her skin, a humming in the air she'd come to enjoy from her companion.
 
 "As for the information we have on them... I believe I've got lists of extended families inward, plus family, friends, places of employment... One of our scouts has accessed all of Single Earth's data at one point or another as well, though I don't know how much good that will do us besides to find old slaves and pets in rehabilitation to take back." She frowned. She could demand Xavier use Kimber as a source, but she knew that wouldn't bode well for any of them, and she didn't want to lose her unique tiger so soon. She left it alone.

"Kiyoshi would be of great use in this endeavor, one way or the other. As for the rest of the trainers, I can only imagine what sort of response knowing they're allowed a field day will warrant. I imagine Victoria will be a very busy little bee," she said with a smile. "And if we take more than our share, Rajz I'm sure will be happy to step in and borrow some extra bodies."

[Sarah Ross]

Sarah watched through the scope as her target took the round to the chest and saw the nice explosion of gore from his chest.

"Fuck You", she murmured as she turned her attention toward breaking down her sniper nest and moving out of the area. As she was tearing down the massive rifle she heard a crashing in the bushes around her. Her senses flared as she felt...no tasted something on the air that wasn't quite right. The next thing she knew a giant doberman was right on top of her.

She looked back up as the monster dog shifted into a man. "The fuck?" To Sarah's knowledge there weren't any canine shifters that weren't wolves. As she was trying to pivot the massive rifle towards him to cut him in half she felt a searing pain through her shoulder that knocker her back....she knew from experience it was a gunshot, and as she tried to regroup she felt another round hit her. She started to try and shift and slither away, but the pain was so intense it broke her concentration and she resumed her struggle to move the rifle but she had been hit good and knew she wasn't going to be awake long...as she managed to pivot the gun and squeeze the trigger everything went black.