Pins and Needles [Kiyoshi]

[Heather Greenfield]

[12:30 AM]

Heather had left her apartment late, therefore she wasn't paying much attention to her surroundings as she hurried along the streets to work. She wasn't as concerned with taking shortcuts as she had been in the past, mostly because she'd become comfortable with the idea of turning into a bird and flying away. What, would some crazy alley-dwelling mugger tell the papers that he tried to rob someone who turned into a bird? She thought not. So, Heather, doing exactly what Harvey had told her not to do, took a few narrow streets with bad lighting and not a lot of traffic so that she could make it to work on time. Ash wasn't really bad about punctuality, but she'd promised Darren that if he swapped a shift with her, she'd come in on his night so that he could go do something with Paris. She wasn't holding up her end of the bargain yet, and she didn't like to be made out to seem unreliable.

She was thankful that the weather was warm enough for her to have skipped her heavy jacket, and she hugged her light knitted duster to herself more tightly as she crossed the street. Warm wasn't the word she was looking for - maybe less cold would have been more appropriate. Had Heather any knowledge that Midnight had just green-lighted a salvo of attacks on the guilds, thus putting her in direct and immediate danger, she might have called in. Darren would have understood, too, since he was also on the radar. Since it was common knowledge that her husband was in Crimson, Heather figured she'd have gotten some sort of phonecall if an emergency ever did come up.

She continued to mind her own business and was well within a block of the Hollow now. She relaxed slightly, feeling warmer from moving. Even as an Avian, with an elevated heartbeat and body temperature, she couldn't deny that the air was frosty. She didn't care for it, and so she tried to scoot along. She could just barely see the back of Darren's car parked out front. She glanced down at her watch and made a triumphant noise. She had ten minutes to go. She wouldn't be late after all!

[Kiyoshi]

 Kiyoshi pushed the sunglasses back on his nose and glanced over at the man who'd accompanied him. It was some no-named vampire that Niall had sent along as backup - not that Kiyoshi needed it. Niall's word for backup was synonymous with "cannon fodder", and since this vampire was no more than a hundred, Kiyoshi was confident that he would definitely play the role up well.

"What do you think?" he asked, holding a folder loosely in his hand.

The man looked down at it, and then back up at the girl. "Oh, it's definitely her, he said, nodding.

Kiyoshi frowned. "Of course it's her," he snapped. "I meant, do you think we should grab her now, or do you think that we should wait until she gets closer?" He rolled his eyes. "Nevermind, I'm going to let her get closer. It'll be more fun." He fell into silence as he brought the file back up to his attention, letting it rest on the steering wheel of the black Cadillac Escalade. It wasn't an uncommon vehicle to be seen in the city, and Kiyoshi had implemented a massive cage to go where the back seats should have. It was perfect for transporting... luggage.

He scanned her file, lips twitching a little. She was an Avian, nothing but a Sparrow. She was pretty, though - and blonde. He knew a certain man who had a penchant for blonde birds. Would Stefan like this little songbird? he wondered to himself. He was willing to bet money that the German would. His pet hawk, however, might disagree. Jealousy was unbecoming in most women, but in Desten, it made her radiant. It was... adorable how much control she thought she had. Speaking of adorable - the Sparrow crossed the street in front of them, and then hurried around the corner.

Married only a few months to her high school sweetheart. The man had gone into Crimson, and had a strong knowledge of chemicals. He was their version of an explosives expert, except instead of TNT, he found ways to use science to make vampires heads explode. Kiyoshi wasn't terribly bothered by it overall, but Niall had said that this girl would certainly piss off that Triste, and if the Triste was mad, he'd make the guilds miserable for bringing the battle to his front steps. Kiyoshi could get on board with that idea any day of the week.

Her husband had been reported by their sources as "sincere, sweet, and almost a little goofy". Kiyoshi wondered what he could do to break that in half? He openly welcomed the idea of returning Heather unscathed to a raving mad lunatic of a husband who would do more damage than Kiyoshi could have ever hoped to, and this would be his concentrated thought process as he pulled away from the curb. She was in sight of the Hollow, and that was when he wanted to strike.

He pulled up alongside of her, and used his best Japanese fobulous sort of voice. "Hello, I am lost. Can you please to tell me how to get to address?" he asked. He waited for her to come close enough to see the piece of paper he had scribbled some inane address on, and when she did, he flexed his control over her animal form, meaning to freeze her in place.

"Let's see if she has a demi form, shall we?" he asked, leaning against the doorsill, not even bothering to open the door. He flicked his hands a little in an upward motion, ripping one wing from its origins. The job of the other vampire, at current, was to make sure that people walked right on by, and he was going to do just that until Kiyoshi said otherwise. No, the little bird could scream all she wanted - nobody would hear her. Yet.

[Heather Greenfield]

 Heather stopped, looking over to the Escalade as it pulled next to her on the street. When the man stuck his head out, something about the way he... was frightened her. She frowned though, because it was dumb to think that every little thing was out to attack her. He was only asking for directions - he didn't even get out of the vehicle. He could barely speak English, too. It didn't occur to Heather to process the worry any further, because it was still three hours before anyone in the guilds would even try to warn her about what had happened.

"Oh, where are you trying to get?" she asked, putting on a smile. Heather was pretty - conventionally gorgeous, actually, and when she smiled, she radiated, like the sunshine. She should have been a lot more careful about talking to strangers in vehicles at midnight, but really, he was only asking for directions. She looked down at the paper, and her smile froze.

"Huh, I don't think I know where that is," she said. She frowned. "Sorry, maybe you can stop at a gas station?" As she moved to back away from them and step up onto the curb again, she realized that she couldn't. She frowned more fully, and tried to turn away, but her body felt incredibly heavy, like it was frozen.

"W..?" was all she could manage. She couldn't even speak. Her mouth only opened partially before remaining there, stuck like someone had hit pause. If it was possible, her heart began to speed up, making her feel lightheaded with fear. When the man spoke plain English, she heard him say something about a demi-form, and then --

Pain.

It was excruciating. She screamed and tried to pull away, feeling like her flesh was being peeled off of her back in layers, but she still couldn't move. She could feel her eyes watering and all of the nerves in her body going absolutely crazy with sensory overload, but the more she tried to move, the more it hurt. She tried to fall - forward, backward, on her side - anything, anything to make it stop! One wing lifted, the right one, ripping through her shirt, sweater and duster and outstretching slowly. Mottled grey and brown and thrust colours marked her as a Sparrow, and her voice - so melodious, even when she was screeching out in bloody murder. Sparrows were songbirds, after all.

WHY ISN'T ANYONE STOPPING?! she thought/screamed into her head. She finally managed to close her eyes, and she tried to shift and fly away, but that was an even bigger mistake. As soon as she tried to let the natural magic of her form take over, it felt like the time she'd accidentally spilled some of Harvey's chemicals on herself - except all over her body. She screamed again, this time far, far louder, if that was even possible.

[Kiyoshi]

 Kiyoshi laughed out loud when he heard her mental cries of anguish. "They're not stopping, my dear, because we're vampires, and we can tell them to keep on moving," he explained. Smoothly, he stepped out of the vehicle and approached her, holding one hand up and making a closing motion with his fingers to his thumb. He clamped her mouth shut and turned her screams into a strange muffled whining. "Better," he said with a happy sigh. He slowly began to roll up the sleeves of his designer button-down shirt, and when he was done, he tilted his sunglasses down at her.

"This might hurt just a little," he advised. And then, with his hand, he made the same opening motion to the other side of her, as he'd done when her first wing came out. The process repeated, and he found he barely had to exhaust any energy at all in doing it. Was she that weak? He had found Avians, by nature, were easier to shift, but -- perhaps he had been expecting more, since the Arini was so much more difficult to rip apart. His smile vanished as he watched her, and he began to puppet the wings with his hands while he thought, calling sobs from her closed mouth as he did.

"Why are you making it so easy?" he asked, tilting her wings at an unnatural angle. When she released her power to try and fully shift, all it did was fed his voracious black hole of an appetite, and he laughed aloud, making a fun time by taking her hand, allowing her motion, and then breaking her hand in a clench as she tried to squeeze his own to output some of her pain.

"It's just like playing mercy!" he exclaimed, shaking her mangled fingers out of his grasp.

[Heather Greenfield]

 When Kiyoshi began to play with her wings, Heather thought she was going to pass out. She let her eyes roll back and felt herself slip away, but a pulling sensation brought her right back to the present. He was stopping her from losing consciousness. He wanted her to feel this! All of it! But why? What had she done? He'd given her motion of her hand and taken it to his, and she squeezed down instinctively, thinking that he was going to stop, to offer her comfort - only to find that he was toying with her. He broke all of her fingers, which caused her to scream again, only now it was caught in her throat, which hurt more. He practically threw her hand back at her, and her arm hung down, hand limp and useless, fingers angled in odd ways.

She had tears streaming down her face now, and none of what he said was making sense. She wasn't making anything easy! Was this supposed to be some sort of game? She knew that the Hollow couldn't have been far, but she had no sort of way to run. She tried to focus her eyes on the vampire in front of her as he made a fun time of playing with her wings, but with her mind, she was trying to reach out. Would Kiyoshi be able to hear her? She didn't know.

ASH, CAN YOU HEAR ME? IT'S HEATHER! I'M OUTSIDE, I'M NOT FAR, I'M BEING ATTACKED. PLEASE, HELP ME!

Had it worked?

[Kiyoshi]

 Kiyoshi heard her mental cries for help loud and clear, and he wasn't willing to take the chance that the stupid Triste had not. He reached out and slapped her; slapped her so hard he cut her face and knocked her down. He released the hold on her body long enough for her to curl up into a ball, and then dragged her to her knees by her hair.

"Did you honestly think that I wouldn't be able to pick up on your little psychic SOS, songbird? Please, you're even dumber than I'd hoped." He turned his head back into the window, and instructed the man inside to open up the back. With that done, he dragged her around to the rear of the SUV, and then lifted her up, hurling her inside the cage. Ferocious zapping noises started and she began to jump around and scream, and Kiyoshi made a surprised facial expression. He motioned to the man again, who flipped some sort of switch that was mounted on the dash. The zapping stopped.

"Be a good little bird and I won't electrocute you until you're crispy enough to eat," he hissed. His expression had darkened from the silly surprise to a malevolent sneer; it was a wonder that he hadn't been labeled schizophrenic, yet. He slammed the doors shut, and then walked around to the front of the vehicle and opened the passenger door.

"Drive," he ordered the other vampire. The other quickly dropped the illusion and moved to the driver's seat, turned the vehicle on, and headed right past the Hollow. Neither of them looked over to see if anyone had come outside; they weren't interested. From the front, Kiyoshi instead turned around and put his hand on the cage, shaking it harshly.

"HEY. Don't go to sleep back there. I've got some questions for you, little songbird," he snapped.

[Heather Greenfield]

 Heather screamed more as he dragged her to the back of the SUV, praying that the illusion would break long enough for someone to see her. She had no way of knowing, and so she struggled as he tossed her into the cage. She stopped struggling and began screaming and jolting around about the time she realized it was electrified, which was excruciating, to say the least. When he killed the switch, she lay very still, wings still out and one of them mangled at this point.

"I'm not.. supposed to have this form.." she begged. "Please, put it back, I'll tell you anything you want to know," she said. She curled up into a ball as far away from them as she could get, pinning herself nearly at the hatch where the cage closed. She cradled her hand to her chest, wishing that Harvey would come in and grab her and take her away. She knew he'd told her to fly - and she'd tried, but the vampire was stopping her somehow.

"Please, change me back and I'll tell you everything," she pleaded again, trying to hold back her sobs. It was hard to do, extremely so. She had a feeling she'd never see anyone she knew or loved ever again. She felt incredible waves of despair and pain, and it would surprise Kiyoshi, no doubt, how easily she could be on the brink of breaking when he'd done very little at all. To the Sparrow, though, he'd done quite a lot.

[Kiyoshi]

 Kiyoshi held his hands up and waved them. "Oh no, oh no, mister, my wings are out and they aren't supposed to be there! What's gonna happen to me, aieeeeee!" he screamed in an incredibly high-pitched voice while making faces at Heather's expense. Suddenly, his expression changed and he flipped the switch for a second, shocking the shit out of her again. He waited patiently until she was done screaming and bouncing around like a rubber ball with feathers sticking out of it before he continued.

"Rule number one, blondie - I ask the questions, I make the demands. You comply. That's it. No begging, no pleading, no crying, no whining, and no asking for mommy," he said. "Call out anyone's name other than my own and I'll start chopping off your fingers instead of breaking them."

When she seemed to understand this, he smiled sweetly and leaned against the center rest, putting his elbows up with his fingers folded together and placing his chin atop them. He batted his lashes at her. "Tell me about your husband. He's a hunter, yes?" When she didn't respond right away, he sighed and looked at the man driving. He nodded to the switch, but before the man reached over to it, the bird was talking.

"YES! Yes, he's a hunter! He hunts for -- "

Kiyoshi held his hand up. "I'll ask what I need. No need to orate a life story to me," he said with a roll of his eyes. He resumed his original position with his chin rested upon his hands. "So. What guild does he hunt for?" he asked with a sadistic smile.

[Laura Vida]

 [12:45 AM]

"That's fucking gross. How can you eat that?" Laura demanded of Trevor, who'd just stopped to get a hotdog from a street vendor. "Ugh, you are exactly like my brother," she complained. She went back to her triple scoop chocolate ice cream with another noise of disgust, completely ignoring both the looks of Trevor and the vendor as she did so. Laura had been craving ice cream for two weeks. Two weeks. She had been hunting her ass off, and she deserved to have it.

As they walked back to his car, Trevor held a hand up. "Oh, no. No food in the beast," he warned.

"I wasn't planning on it anyways. The way you drive, I'd end up wearing this," she snapped. She plopped down on the hood, actually taking care not to hit it with her belt and scratch any of the black paint, and enjoyed her ice cream. "Lance says I'm crazy for eating this when it's cold outside," she mused, fitting the smaller top scoop into her mouth. With triumph, she mashed it around, making small happy noises as she did so.

Trevor looked up from the edge of his hot dog. "Uh, you are," he confirmed.

"Don't be such a fucking queer," she shot back, gesturing angrily with one arm so that she didn't put her cone off balance. "I'm the opposite of most chicks. I'm always hot. I could have forgone the jacket except that I like it and it makes me look sexy," she argued, stopping to wipe sprinkles off of her face. She was glad she had brought one of those wet nappy things or whatever the hell they were called. She had chocolate all over her face, she was sure of it.

"How much longer do you want to run game on the street?" she asked. It sounded dirty, but it was just Laura's way of asking how much longer he wanted to patrol. "Lance had a date tonight. Is that why you're keeping me out? Did he pay you?" she demanded.

[Trevor Browning]

As long as she wasn't getting into the car with that ice cream, he was fine with it.  He was being pretty hypocritical about the food thing, since he ate in there all the time, but he was different.  Nobody other than Colt had ever been allowed that right, and he hadn't changed that rule for anyone.  Even though Laura was hot, especially eating the ice cream that had allowed them all to deem her insane.  It was nice out, but still too cold for ice cream, and he didn't understand how she did that.  She even said that the jacket was too much, which made her crazier.  He was just fine with his own jacket, thanks very much, but he wasn't going to argue that it looked sexy on her.  He wasn't going to admit it, either, since he'd seen the way she punched. 

"Hey, if I'm such a fucking queer to you, I guess I also don't have any response to your questions.  I'll just finish my hot dog in silence," he threatened, putting his focus back onto the delicious New York City hot dog in his hands.  Nothing beat a hot dog from a NYC street vendor, especially at night, when other hot dogs had been stewing in that water all day.  That just made them taste better.  That hot dog being so freakin' good also made it easier for him to uphold his threat to remain quiet, since when else was he going to? 

Given that she was asking about Lance and whether her brother had been involved in how long they patrolled that night, he didn't want to respond, but silence seemed as though it would have been more telling.  He indignantly returned fire with half of a mouthful of hot dog, eyebrows knitting up ALMOST angrily.  "What are you even talking about?  He's probably with your creepy neighbor, and if he's not, I don't owe him or you jack SHIT after nobody warned me she was going to cop a feel like she did.  Assholes."

[Laura Vida]

Laura almost spit her ice cream out when he referenced the old lady who liked to play grab-ass with her brother. "Yeah, I think he accepts that we hang out because he thinks if you come around more, she'll target you instead of him. Never gonna happen though. That lady's only thrill in life is getting her Avon glass miniatures and grabbing my brother's rump," she remarked, finally able to control her ice cream. She was down to one scoop, and she wasn't even close to being full. Usually after the cone would be when she felt all fucked up, but she didn't tell Trevor that. She felt like it'd be less... manly.

She glanced up as a black SUV rolled by, thinking about how much she wanted an Escalade. Sure, she had a bike, plus that black GTO she'd picked up when her brother decided he'd wanted a new Camaro, but the Escalade.. she could thug the living shit out of it and claim it was because it's how she wanted to "roll". Laura could be a gangster, right? Some movement next to it caught her attention, and she reached over and hit Trevor in the chest, hard. She forgot that he was a human sometimes, because he was so much like her brother, and so she might have actually made him choke on his food.

"Holy shit, Trevor, LOOK!" she said, pointing over to the vampires. They were having some sort of exchange with a shapeshifter who was in her demi-form, and she didn't sound happy. People who were around them completely ignored it though, and Laura felt the prick of power wash over her. For a moment, the visage faded, but she concentrated and it came right back to her.

"Oh my god," she whispered. She threw her ice cream in the trash and nudged him. "Let's go, partner," she said, pointing to the situation at hand. It didn't occur to her that Trevor couldn't see any of it.

[Kiyoshi]

Kiyoshi was having a ridiculous amount of fun with this bird. He had gotten a thorough amount of information from her over the course of a few moments, and despite the fact that he knew he could break her before he got her to Midnight, he knew that it was only half of the game. The other half would be watching other trainers have a go at her. Kiyoshi could control her animal form, which meant that he could puppeteer her however he wanted, and she would comply; he didn't even try to focus on any actual breaking techniques. She'd be in for a shock when she met the German.

Speaking of which, Kiyoshi had the phone up to his ear as he had fun scaring Heather. "Oh, hello, Stefan!" he exclaimed. He leaned into the back and whispered loudly to Heather. "This is the man I'll be selling you to. He's not as nice as I am," he informed her. To Stefan, he said, "I've got just the girl for you! Of course, your Hawk might be jealous, but it's nothing you can't overlook. She's a Sparrow, she's young, quite blonde, a delicious body, and she cries at the drop of a hat!" he cheered

To demonstrate, he reached for the switch that charged the cage, but before he hit it, Heather screamed.

"No, no, please, no more!" she begged, scuttling backwards across the cage like a cockroach. She grabbed for his arm, and yelped when he flexed his power on her animal. It wasn't something visible to the naked eye, but the way he twisted her inner bird made it feel like he had a firm hold on her intestines and was raking them with razors. She doubled over and fell backwards, smacking her head against the floor and curling into a crying ball.

"She's so much fun!" he squealed. "One second, I'll send you a photo!" To Heather, he snapped, "Sit up and look presentable!"

When she did as she was told, he snatched the other phone from the man driving, snapped a photo, and sent it to Stefan.

"Isn't she a doll?" he beamed.

[Desten DuPont]

Desten tried not to look when Stefan received a picture of the other bird, but she couldn't help herself. He hadn't told her not to, anyways, and so she peered over his shoulder in passing from her bath, fingers clutching the soft robe that she wore. It slid off her shoulders attractively, but since she knew that she was beautiful, because Stefan wouldn't have an unbeautiful pet, she didn't worry about trying to appeal to His desires. She could when she wanted to, but she felt it would be tacky when He was observing a new prospect. He did not praise her for jealousy, but neither did He punish it - yet. She knew that was not a line she should cross.

When she saw the photo of the pretty girl, though, she gasped, and looked at Him incredulously. Her golden eyes were wide with a flurry of emotion, but she shut her mouth with a snap and said nothing. The feeling was there, though, as Desten was as transparent to Stefan as glass. She rose back up, straightening out and rolling her shoulders back to correct her posture, and then practically sashayed to her quarters to put on suitable clothing.

[Stefan]

He had already been out terrorizing family members and low level hunters, dropping a few in the dungeons to play with later and then stopping back at home for Desten.  She'd expressed an interest in helping him, and though he normally would have been ridiculously against the idea of letting his prized hawk out of Midnight's walls, he couldn't deny that she could make herself useful and that she wasn't as frail as she let on.  Kiyoshi's call was just in time, and Stefan's lips quirked up some as the other trainer described the sparrow, then sent a picture.  She was beautiful, yes, but still only a sparrow and obviously ridiculously weak-willed if Kiyoshi had her so far gone so quickly.  Of course, one had to have some measure of sympathy for those poor creatures that the other trainer took his hand to.  He was certain that the man was somewhat...unhinged.  It was a delightful, unceasingly interesting way, but true nonetheless.  Stefan would take him up on this offer.

"You've already half-broken her, but I'll be along to collect her," he agreed smoothly, catching the jealousy that was positively rolling off of Desten in waves and deciding that this WAS the best time to take her out.  She would understand how important she was, and feel useful, while he took the sparrow off Kiyoshi's hands. 

When he'd gotten a fix on the location, he stood and collected his knives once more.  "My dear, we're going out.  Kiyoshi has a new toy for us," he informed her, as though she hadn't already noticed and expressed her distaste.  He would ignore it until it was a problem, and then he would deal with it.  He didn't foresee it becoming a problem.

As soon as she was ready, they were off.

[Trevor Browning]

She could say what she wanted about that old biddy being unwilling to cave to Lance's plan, but he sure as hell knew that she'd given his ass one hell of a squeeze when he wasn't expecting it, so he would withhold his opinion until they had a definitive answer.  For all he knew, she could have been giving him a test run, and decided she liked Lance better.  God, he hoped so.

Actually, between Laura and Lance, he decided right around the time that she nailed him in the chest that he liked Lance better, too.  How did she even hit him that hard?  She struck him right in the sternum, which shouldn't have been a big deal from a chick, but he choked on the last of his hot dog when she did it, nearly losing it in an attempt to breathe.  "Would you NOT do that?  What?  I don't see anything," he told her irritably, not understanding why she was so completely ready to run into some imagined fray. 

She'd even dumped her ice cream cone.  Either she meant srs bsns, or she was done with it and finding a weird way to get out of having to admit that she didn't want the rest.  Women were weird. 

He watched the direction she was headed in, still seeing nothing, and finally jumped forward the few steps to catch up with her, grabbing her arm and leaning into try to figure out what was happening.  "I'm serious, Laura, I don't see anything.  What the fuck?"