Pins and Needles [Kiyoshi]

[Laura Vida]

 Laura looked at Trevor like he was crazy. "WHAT?" she blurted out. She rose her arm, hand curled into a fist as she made to hammer him again, but he took a wise step back and she stopped short. "They're - but - OH," she groaned. She turned back and watched the scene unfold. A vampire was torturing this woman on the street, and people literally walked between them without noticing. It had to be a glamour, and a damn good one. He was fucking with her wings, however that worked - probably had control of her mind. Laura wasn't aware there was a vampire who could control shapeshifters like that, and it was probably for the best at the moment.

The glamour dropped suddenly as the other vampire struggled to open the doors and shove the girl inside, and that was when she heard Trevor make a choking noise. She looked back at him, pointing to the scene as it unfolded. "Do you believe me now?" she demanded. She didn't wait for an answer, but instead ran around to the passenger side of his car and dove in, slamming the door behind her.

"I have a feeling we're about to be in for a wild night," she said under her breath as the motor growled to life. She called Lance and told him their location, but he was at least a half hour out, even if he left right then and drove hard. She looked back at Trevor. "It's just you and me, buddy. I hope you brought your vampire killin' gear with you," she said, a weak attempt at a joke. She felt sick to her stomach, but rushed at the same time. She always felt like this before a fight.

[Trevor Browning]

She was looking at him like he was crazy when SHE was the one talking about things that he couldn't see.  Did that make any sense whatsoever?  That she curled her arm back like she was going to nail him again caused him to take a cautious step back, in just case, and she hesitated before dissolving into a frustrated groan and looking back in that direction.  He followed her gaze, looking suspiciously from the spot she was focused on to her for a moment or so before the scene suddenly changed.  It was like a movie flickering between frames, a normal street and a winged girl being shoved into the Escalade that was parked there.

He almost choked for the second time in just a few minutes, dropping his trash into the bin and jumping into the driver's seat of the car with a good bit less grace than she did.  It didn't hurt his ego.

Car started, he tossed Laura a smirk over her mention of a wild night, then the vampire killin' gear.  "Always.  It's what we live for, right?" he asked, but damn, he had NO clue what they were walking into.  He didn't know what kind of horrors were hitting the city that night.  Wait until they understood.

[Desten DuPont]

 Desten had stock mostly in dresses, for that was what Stefan had preferred her to wear. The prospect of going out and helping, though, made her curious as to what clothing would be appropriate. She was instructed only to fly overhead and to keep a watchful eye on things, reporting back to Him as events unfolded. That she could do in any clothing, because she would be in her final form. She didn't tarry, knowing that He did not like to be made late, and chose quickly the only pair of slacks and a white blouse that she could find; things she would not mind dirtying if she needed to. She shifted into her hawk form immediately after securing her hair into a low ponytail, and nestled on his arm, head turning this way and that as she re-established her mental connection with Him. In her animal form, it was not hard to do, but merely different than how they normally communicated.

By the time Stefan had drawn near enough to the situation for it to matter, Desten left the comfort of her Master and rose to the night sky, soaring up, up, until she could get a good fix on everything. Her eyes were keen, and she drank in the scenery as she saw it, feeding it back to Stefan almost like a mental video camera of the area beneath her. It certainly would give Him the advantage, and as much as she did not relish the idea of sharing Him, He had made it clear to her that her purpose was to keep Him happy. She certainly would do that. Once she spotted the SUV, she let out a loud shriek, and dove down for a better feel.

By that time, Kiyoshi had stepped out, leaving the driver inside to maintain control of the girl. She didn't dare get close enough to them for Kiyoshi to do more than feel her presence, because she did not like the man. Desten didn't really like anyone unless Stefan told her to, and since her Master was as selective as she was, it had never become an issue. She didn't intend for it to become one now.

I've found them, she said, relaying her exact location to Him. She perched on a large sign suspended overhead until He was within her view, and then lifted back into flight, circling like a buzzard and keeping a careful watch. She studied traffic patterns to ensure that they had not been followed, and focused her gaze on any bodies coming within the same block location as the group.

[Lance Vida]

 Lance couldn't believe that his sister was doing this to him. He set his glass of water down carefully on the table, giving his date a tight-lipped smile. His phone was ringing again. He'd ignored it the first two times, but it was Laura's ringtone, and it was loud. He'd been quick enough to silence it the first time, but when he'd gotten up to use the bathroom, she'd called again and his date had endured the full-volume serenade of Creature Feature's "Aim for the Head". As he sat back down and took a drink, it started up again.

"Er, yeah, it rang while you were in the bathroom, too," she said, gesturing to the pocket of his motorcycle jacket thrown over the back of the chair.

CAN I POSE A QUESTION, HOW DO YOU KILL WHAT IS DEAD? I JUST SHOOT FROM THE HIP, AND I AIM FOR THE HEAD!

"Excuse me, I need to take this," he said through clenched teeth. He ripped through his pocket, found his phone, and turned away from his companion, a gruff, "WHAT?!" Laura's greeting.

"No time to explain, I need you to get on your bike and get your ass out here. I'll text you an address once we stop, but right now we're headed north on 67th, passing the 2500 block. Just get to this side of the city. We've got big vampire trouble," she said, speaking loudly over the sound of Trevor's motor.

"Are you sure this isn't your way of trying to interrupt my night?" he asked, tone stern. The waiter had just dropped off the main courses, and Lance was starving.

"Seriously? Lance, I mean it! I have that bad feeling in my stomach. I need you to get here, now!

Lance stood up and motioned for the girl to start eating, ducking away from the main eating area and into the hall where the bathrooms were. "I thought you were with Trevor?" he asked, hissing as someone walked by him to the men's area.

"I AM, but I don't think it'll hurt to have backup. I can call Andrew if you won't come, but - "

"NO, god, I'll get my shit and head out there. With traffic it's going to take me at least a half hour though, maybe less. Bonne Chance is slammed, and I can't just leave this girl here while I run off," he argued.

"Fine, I'm calling Andrew."

Click.

Lance put his head against the wall and groaned, then took a deep breath and walked as slowly as he could manage back to the table.

"Is... everything okay?" she asked, setting her chopsticks down. Damnit, and Lance had really been looking forward to sushi, too.

"Uh, family emergency. I need to go, now," he explained briskly. He yanked his wallet out of his pocket and set a fifty down in front of her. "I'm really sorry. This should cover everything, plus a cab for you to get back home. I'd like to say I had a great evening, but evidently my sister refuses to not be at the nucleus of my day. I hate to see how she treats her kids, when she ever has them," he added, grabbing a piece of sushi and shoving it into his mouth as he struggled to pull his other glove on.

"It's okay, really. I work here - well, not this level, but I mean, I can catch a ride home with a friend. Zahra gets off in an hour or so, so I'll just hang around. Don't worry about it. I'll see you in class? she asked, unable to hide her frown.

"Yes, you will. I'm really sorry Wren," he said with an apologetic smile. He leaned forward and dropped a kiss onto her hand, and then scooped his helmet up and headed for the elevator.

"I'll just call Andrew," he mocked, his voice high and scratchy. He moved his head back and forth like Laura did. ""I'm Laura, I want to control your life." When he got downstairs, he started his bike and took off for the last known location of his sister. He hoped she really hadn't called Andrew and was just growing more effective at threatening him. His brother was the last person he wanted to see at the moment.

Meanwhile, in the restaurant, Wren picked up her phone. "Zahra, are you on break? Good, then could you come to the sushi bar and sit with me? I just got ditched for a 'family emergency'. I know, lame. Guess it wasn't meant to be," she said, rolling her eyes. What a dick.

[Laura Vida]

 Laura didn't call Andrew like she'd threatened to, knowing that had been enough to kick her brother into gear. She looked over at Trevor as he drove, keeping just far enough back from the SUV so that they didn't know they were being followed - yet. It wasn't until they stopped that Laura held up her hand. "Keep with the flow of traffic and drive by. We'll park in the old garage around the corner and run through the alley." She was basing this on the pretense that the people in the SUV were aware the glamour had faltered, which they weren't - or even if Kiyoshi was, he wasn't really about to dedicate caring to the cause when he could obliterate most competition he had. He also didn't anticipate a real Vida rolling up with someone who got a little too much out of killing monsters, though.

As they drove by, Laura glanced out the window, watching as the story unfolded. Sure enough, one vampire was exiting the vehicle while the other stayed inside. No sign of the girl, since the back was unopened. The building they'd stopped in front of was abandoned - were they taking her there? Laura had no way of knowing if they were Midnight or not, and it didn't occur to her that they might be. Not much occurred to her at the moment except that she wanted to get them out on the street instead of in the confines of a building, regardless of the collateral damage. She would face off in the open much more happily than in a dark and unsturdy piece of New York's condemned lots.

As they pulled into the garage, Laura did a quick inventory of herself, patting where her knives were. Two in her boots, one at her spine, and one up the sleeve of her jacket. She didn't prefer to use a gun; as effective as they could be, she was trained with weapons that were, when wielded properly, every bit as dangerous, or perhaps even more. On top of that, she liked being able to switch into primal rage mode: go and wipe the floor with her vampire opponents.

[Trevor Browning]

Trevor knew bits and pieces about their family and the names he heard, though it was only because he was smart enough to pick up details when he heard them.  Here, he confirmed that Andrew wasn't ridiculously popular with them, especially Lance.  Naturally, he had no clue they were all witches and probably didn't even have a good idea as to what a witch WAS.  If you asked him, he was likely to define something a little more like a triste, or a gypsy.  His father hadn't had much contact (that he knew of) with witches, and he hadn't ever mentioned much about them.  Of course, if you were to ask Trevor if he'd had any contact with witches, he'd have said no, sitting right next to one in his beloved car. 

Sure, it was kind of weird that she'd seen what was going on when all he saw was a normal street, but he wasn't about to argue with her about that when there was a hunt underway.  Maybe later, when it had time to eat at him, but for now, he had his mind on the job.

God, he loved his job.

He still wasn't back to normal, back to the way he'd been when Colt was around all the time, hunting with him and needing him, but he was better off around Laura and Lance.  They didn't need him, which didn't help his more reckless streak, but he HAD been sorely in need of some non-violent socialization.  Vamps and shifters that you were planning on killing, then drunks in the bar, were not good friends or conversation.  His quality of life had gone up by a LOT when he'd started spending time with the two of them, so it wasn't as though he was in a huge rush to psychoanalyze the situation.  Why fix what isn't broken?  Until it was bothering him, a problem wasn't getting touched. 

Anyone who said that Trev was difficult to work with was an idiot.  See that unwillingness to make waves?  He could follow instructions, too, which he went and displayed when Laura told him to drive right past the people in the SUV so they could park in the garage.  He even did it nice and casual, glancing over at her and smiling, like he was completely uninterested in the vehicle.  He'd had way too much practice pretending; every day of his life.

"So, is there a plan other than busting out there and killing it?" he asked as they parked and he took the opportunity to arm himself.  Unlike her, he kept firearms and knives on his person whenever he could manage it, and he'd use whatever worked best at the moment.  The difference, which he didn't realize was an issue, was that he was only human where she wasn't; he didn't get so up close and personal because if he got smashed by a vampire's fist, he wasn't getting back up so fast.  Laura and Lance had influenced his fighting style enough that he was giving into that aggressive, in-your-face attitude where his fighting was concerned.  He'd always preferred to get up close and personal, but caution had weighed out so much more with Colt.  He figured that if Laura could do it, so could he, and he'd had a decent track record of it.  If he'd been hurt, he walked it off without complaining too hard.  That probably wasn't helping her thinking that he and her brother were similar, or supporting the rather important fact that he couldn't take a hit like her brother could.  Eventually, they'd all learn, but hopefully not for awhile.  It was bound to be a painful lesson.

[Laura Vida]

 "Plan?" she asked, turning her head to him with a brow arched. Why would Laura ever need one of those? She grinned a little at Trevor, a flicker of something dark in her eyes. "Let's just roll with it," she said. She'd played rough with Trevor before, and she was confident he made a good fighting partner - she wasn't sure how he'd feel knowing that she was a lot harder to injure than her. She was going to hope that it didn't come down to it, though.

As they stopped, far enough to be unnoticed but close enough to make his vehicle a comfortable sprint, she put her hand on the handle, and then looked back at him. "Watch your back," she said, voice nearly above a whisper. "I have a feeling they won't be too happy about us showing up," she added. What she meant was her showing up - when they realized she was a Vida, it was going to be twice as much of a fight. She jerked out of the vehicle, a knife only a brush of her fingertips away.

Trevor hadn't seen Laura fight - he hadn't seen her really fight, but he was about to.

[Trevor Browning]

Trevor THOUGHT he'd seen Laura fight before, and he also wasn't exactly sure what they were walking into, so he was going to be a little off-balance here.  Did he really care?  Nope.

He lived for this shit anymore.  Gone were the days where he and Colt had spent their days researching and being careful.  Now?  No plan was the plan consistently, and if Trevor took more beatings than he ever had in his life, that was okay with him.  It suited him right about then, which was probably a 'sign' if someone was paying attention, but nobody seemed to be.

"Rolling with it," he agreed, checking his weapons as he jumped from the car after her, keeping pace and grinning when she said that they wouldn't be happy about them showing up.  When were vampires ever happy with the two of them showing up?  Hah, never, that was when.  "I'll try not to let it hurt my feelings," he cracked, grinning at her for a second before his attention returned to the front and where the expected enemies would be.  He was literally watching his back, mostly because he wasn't sure if the only threats would be in front of them, but they KNEW there was trouble in front.  That was important.  He was also wired.  He was in the mood for a good fight.

[Laura Vida]

 Laura could sneak up on one of the vampires, but the other one was older. The closer she got, the more she could tell. It washed over her, like a slime, clogging up her lungs and eyes and ears. She pushed through it, not ignoring it but placing it carefully aside, and managed to get close enough to the first vampire to say something.

"Hey!" she shouted. He turned around, a plain-looking man, obviously not someone who ran in the same social circles as the second, and looked at her with his black eyes. His expression was near-glazed, something to which she did react, told by a smile sliding upward on the corner of her lips. She tossed the first thing she could think of at him, which ended up being a handful of gum wrappers that had amassed into a ball in the pocket of her jacket. As soon as he reached to catch it, she punched him right in the face. It could have easily been the hit heard 'round the world for all of the impact she had; the vampire stumbled back into the SUV, denting it, and then slid down to the ground. He was obviously not unconscious, but that didn't mean he wasn't dazed. Laura didn't stop. She drew back her leg and kicked him in the face, twice, before he was able to get up. He grabbed her leg and rushed at her, folding her limb up at the knee and pinning it to her chest.

It probably made him think he had the advantage, but in reality all it did was put her knife closer to her grasp. She let him pin her down, putting up a falsehood of a fight for a brief moment, and then she smiled broadly at him as he swore and cursed her, and plunged the knife into the side of his head. He fell over in a heap, and she withdrew the blade, thrusting it down into his heart. She righted herself, wiping her knife on his jacket, and was caught by surprise by a firm hand wrapping around her long, blonde hair.

"Ooh, do you condition?" Kiyoshi exclaimed. She swung behind her, but he'd already pushed forward, planting her face into the glass of the SUV. She was going to have her hands full for a minute. "Trevor, get the - UNH - girl!" she screamed as Kiyoshi twisted her arm into an uncomfortable position.

"You taste all sparkly and powerful," he teased, dislocating her shoulder with a simple gesture of his hands. "Are you a good witch, or a bad witch?"

[Trevor Browning]

Trevor wasn't stupid, nor was he lacking in experience in working with a partner, so this was all pretty instinctual for him.  He actually regarded Laura in the same mental space as Colt where hunting was concerned (protect above all else), but he could complement whatever moves she made just as he would his brother.  When she went for the vampire, he went for the back of the SUV and the girl.  He and Colt had focused quite a bit of effort on saving people, so that was a definite priority as soon as they hit the scene.  He didn't need to be told, and the girl's cage was actually already opened by the time Laura told him to do it.  He gestured quickly for the girl inside to get the hell out, and even reached in to grab her arm.  Laura needed a hand, so this had to be fast.

"Run for the parking garage, there's a muscle car that's unlocked, you'll see it immediately.  Jump in the backseat and get down," he told her, confident that they'd be following her in just a moment.  "GO!"

He gave her a bit of a push in that direction, hoping that she could make herself run without help, since his help was going to Laura in the form of a bullet meant for her vampire opponent.

[Laura Vida]

Heather, still in her half-bird half-girl state, a form she wasn't supposed to have, was pulled to her feet, but didn't run. "I can't!" she said, still sobbing. "He has to change me back. I can't be stuck like this!" Trevor may not have understood, but Heather wasn't supposed to have a demi-form. It was one way or the other, and she didn't know how to make it change back. Honestly, even if she had, Kiyoshi had MADE her one way, and she couldn't just change it herself. She'd need someone to undo what he'd done, and there were very few who could besides the vampire himself.

Laura, meanwhile, had other things to tend to. "A bad witch," she advised. "A very, very bad witch." And with that, she placed one foot up on the tire of the SUV and pushed off, using all of her momentum to throw herself at Kiyoshi. With that came the tumult of her magic, a burning thing, which the vampire did feel indeed. Kiyoshi had encountered her type before, but not so trained, and it caught him just off guard enough that he almost didn't catch her blow gracefully.

Almost.

He had tricks of his own, and he pushed with his magic right back, causing her to cry out. He caught her by the arms and literally flung her away, into the figure of Trevor. He'd gotten some distance on her, that was for sure.

He was wondering right about now where the HELL Stefan was. He caught sight of Heather trying to flee, and raised his right hand, clamping it down. With the gesture, Heather buckled at the knees and fell against the pavement, hands down at the palms while she cowered over and screamed in agony. He had told him he wouldn't damage her terribly, but he was losing his fucking patience.

[Trevor Browning]

Trevor had tried to get the girl to get her ass out of there, and then she went and did something as stupid as that?  They're about to get their asses kicked, and she's going to object to being saved?  Trevor might bash her in the face just for risking their lives if she didn't want to move.  "If you don't want to die, you need to go!" he shouted, not exactly caring about her issues with the vampire.  They could deal with that later, after they were certain they were all going to live through this.  Priorities, seriously.

He was going to snatch her arm and try to force her forward movement, knowing that he had seconds (if that) to deal with her before Laura would get to a point that she absolutely required his help, and then he suddenly had a blonde body smashing into him.  He went down HARD beneath her deceptively solid frame, and was trying to push her up and manage something in the way of defense almost as soon as he hit the sidewalk.  'Almost' because those first instances had been spent wondering just how much of his body was busted up with that crash-landing.  Fucking ow.

That was when Stefan showed up, stepping onto the scene with a quiet sort of grace so that he could snatch the blonde woman up by the arm.  He twisted it in his grip, aware of the problem she presented just from the short time he'd spent watching.  He didn't mind observing before arriving on the scene.  "Why, hello."  Now, wasn't she a charming girl?

[Laura Vida]

 The only thought in Laura's mind as she sailed at Trevor at a speed about as regular as what she used to ride out of her neighborhood on her motorcycle was Well, now he'll know what it feels like to get hit by a Laura-sized bag of bricks. She was trying to pick herself up as much as he was trying to shove her off of him; Stefan, thankfully, was right there for the assist. She couldn't say that she was thrilled by his introduction, but at the very least, he'd disentangled she and Trevor. Laura didn't fight him on the way up, because he'd twisted her arm easily enough that she could slide her shoulder right out of place. The bad thing about being a Vida was that you healed within hours; she didn't have any joints that she could pop in and out of place because of old injuries. It would hurt every time.

Laura didn't really feel like small talk, but she knew the vampire couldn't hear her thoughts. She didn't know about Trevor, though. All she could do was direct her thoughts to Lance, begging him to hurry. 'til then, she had to handle this at half-power. She opened her mouth to tell Trevor to get the other vampire, but when she did, he made a formal bow and disappeared. Stefan had a way of directing her attention back to him though, doing it with a tightening motion around her arm. She looked at him, not startled by his eyes because they were so bright of a blue, but because she could sense that he wasn't old at all. The other vampire was at least four times his senior, but he was... a baby, by vampire years. She made a face at him that only reflected her thoughts, a You Have to Be Kidding Me sort of look.

"Let go, and I'll make it quick for you," she said with a smile. "I promise, it won't hurt a bit."

"That's funny," he hissed, but with less humour and slightly more conviction. "I couldn't really say the same for you." And he yanked before Laura had a chance to react.

Laura had come across countless vampires who had fast reflexes, but Stefan really surprised her. She calculated his accent German, even if he spoke deliberately without it. There was something about his pride that probably wouldn't let him loose it so quickly, even if he had the ability to. Laura went back into reality as she felt her shoulder slip out of place, and followed through as she turned with the momentum. She went right for one of his knee joints, and they went down to the ground. She ended up on top first, and then they went into a roll.

There was a lot of scraping about against the asphalt, and it probably would have sounded like a bag of cats if it hadn't have been for the fact that both of them were fighting with every ounce of control not to give the other one an inch of room to fight back. Stefan found himself on the winning end of the equation eventually as Laura's head rolled right up near the curb. He took the opportunity to go in for a kill shot right away, but only because he wasn't arrogant and stupid enough to not do the job - especially when he didn't really care if she was to become a new pet for him or sewer food. He raised her upper body by grabbing onto her shirt, slamming her back down. Her head made a strange cracking sensation against the pavement, and she let out a loud choking cry before falling silent.

It may as well have been the hit heard 'round the world. Trevor stopped from finally directing Heather out of the line of fire, looking up at the sudden cry and then lack of sound from Laura's end. "Laura?" he called, tentative - he didn't want to believe it. There was a pause, and Trevor as a hunter knew it had gone too long. "LAURA?" he screamed. He ran-scrambled-crawled and dove at Stefan, just as he was sitting up on Laura's limp body. He didn't know what to do, or what to think. He just knew that Laura wasn't moving, and she was some sort of super-girl, so this was twice as bad.

He caught Stefan off guard, but only because the vampire had been trying to determine if she were dead or not. He was having trouble reading through her energy; she must've been some sort of Witch, but Stefan hadn't actually considered the prospect of her being a Vida. The boy she was with was definitely human, which didn't threaten him any. Trevor had him by the shoulders, and managed to sling him off of her body, which rolled to one side listlessly. The idea that she was just suddenly dead was not a foreign concept to Trevor, but the burning sensation in his chest when he thought of her, of what he was going to have to tell her brother (no, brothers), was almost overwhelming. It translated into rage, and part of that was because Trevor was setting himself up to be at fault yet again. Who else would Andrew and Lance blame? He didn't have any idea that Vida tradition was how it was, and that it would probably be much different than how normal humans handled bad news, but it was probably better at the moment, because it made him hit that much harder.

Trevor got him good. He drove his knee right up into Stefan's jaw, satisfied with the pop that it made. He began hitting him, a blitzkrieg of fists and elbows and knees and shins - anything he could to smash the vampire's face in. There was blood - his, the vampire's - he was losing track of which. There was still a lack of conversation, and it seemed as though the time for quick-witted remarks was over. Stefan managed to take an upper hand after a lengthy time of struggle and gave Trevor a few good satisfactory blows to his face and upper body that would be sure to leave more than a few marks.

The problem was always the same, though. Human versus vampire - strength would win in the end. Trevor was tossed down, and Stefan rose, striding to him at leisure. As he walked past Laura's body, her hand snaked up and grabbed him by the ankle. Laura sprang into life,  whipping the knife she kept at her spine out as she rolled. She yanked on him to pull herself up just as much as she did to bring him down, the other hand wielding the blade fused with Vida magic. She looked ghastly, like a freshly risen corpse. A human would have been dead from the blow Stefan had delivered to her moments prior, but the Vida lifeblood was stronger still, and her body mended itself before she'd been given a chance to bleed out. She was weak, but she wasn't dead. She was far from dead.

She drove the knife downward, her eyes as primed as Stefan's very own perhaps before he fed from a very wanted donor. Before she made the contact that she'd been hoping for, there was a flash of gold and a scream of utter horror. The form of a bird fell and tumbled, rolling just as they had moments before. As it rolled, it turned into a woman with gilded wings and long blonde hair, and there were moments where it was nothing but crimson and feathers as the wound Laura had intended for Stefan opened more against the disgusting, dirty New York street.

Everyone seemed to stop for that moment as Desten laid flat on her back, wings twisted at awkward angles. She lay with her mouth agape for a moment, eyes wide in a silent scream. She inhaled sharply, and then she began to yell. The knife burned! Laura wanted to use Stefan's moment of shock to her advantage, but she'd be damned if she was throwing one of her knives. She wished she'd had the necklace that Danielle had been rumoured to use, it would have worked like piano wire for her, but at the moment all she had was just what she had on her. That being said, she flattened her scraped-up palms out and opened the vault of a mind she had. She could feel her energy, melted and caustic, like titanium heated to 3560° Kelvin. She welled it up until she felt like her eyes would bleed, and then she just released it. Andrew had showed her how to do it; the equivalent was something akin to an H-bomb. Even Trevor would have felt it, and for that Laura was sorry, but at the moment, she was more than pissed off and didn't feel like squabbling anymore.

When the dust had settled, so to speak, Laura dropped to the ground. She could hear the sound of Lance's bike a few streets over, and Trevor's angry grunting from the injuries he'd sustained. The bird-girl that they'd rescued was in the corner of her blurring vision, head in her hands as she cried her eyes out. No doubt that Laura's energy EMP had caused her more than a bit of grief. Laura didn't have time to check and see if the other bird-girl and the vampire were still there. She was feeling as though she were walking in and out of the idea of consciousness, and felt herself hit the ground next to Trevor with a groan just as Lance had arrived.

[Lance Vida]

 Lance had been swearing his entire way out to the random address Laura had rattled off. He went as fast as he physically could, but traffic wouldn't let up. It was like the universe was working against him, and he didn't like it. The closer he got, the more he felt his nerves began to spark, as though Laura hadn't been fooling around to begin with. He knew that she was with Trevor, and they usually ended up hunting, and that they usually got into trouble, but it had never escalated to the level that it just had minutes before. He could feel that something was different on the air; the way that the lights glinted off of the street, the way that all of the red in the street lights seem to blend together in one constant halo of blood.

He almost laid the bike down on its side when Laura let go of her energy like that. He managed to keep it upright, but he fogged his own visor up with his cursing as he struggled to do so. He caught a blonde man scooping up a blonde woman - Golden Hawk, judging by her wings - and didn't place them at first. Not until he saw Heather curled up against the ground, hands over her ears like she could stop the residual that Laura's energy had left. Lance whipped off his helmet just in time for Laura to yell for him to stop the duo trying to depart. It was too late - they had gone already. Lance wanted to throw his helmet at them, but his helmet was expensive, so he managed not to let go of it. He hurried over to where his duo lay, kneeling down next to his sister. From what he could gather, they were both hurt. Trevor's condition was worse, but only because he was a human. Laura was bad. After the energy expulsion, she was bad, even for a Vida - but not in mortal danger.

He dialed out the only number he could think of, turning his back from Laura as he got the phone up. "Andrew? We have a little situation."

At his brother's command, he'd stayed with the two of them while their brother called the only person who was closer to them that he trusted not to get any of them killed. It took maybe six or seven minutes before Danielle pulled up, in a black Chevy Avalanche that looked almost like an unmarked police car. She had a way of acquiring vehicles that had certain perks that civilian vehicles they did not. She got out, motioning for Lance as she walked at a brisk pace to him.

"Get them up and into the SUV. Get the bird in the back, lay her out and try not to jerk her."

Lance was seriously stalled out for a split second. He'd never seen Danielle in person before - she looked... so much like Laura that it made him hesitate. She looked so much like Laura to Lance that it was eerie. But she was a Vida, so Lance shouldn't have been surprised. He had wished that Andrew had warned him a little, but then again, it was Andrew.

"Come ON," she commanded, crouched down by Trevor to check for a concussion. She spoke softly to him, nodding when he responded and holding up fingers. "Just a few minutes, I promise," she said, using her strength to help support him as she propped him up. Lance took a cue and grabbed Laura, scooping her up just as Stefan had to clear out Desten. Once he was sure his sister was settled, he went back for the malformed Sparrow.

"Just a few more minutes, honey," he promised. She cried in his arms, the pain of him moving her around almost unbearable. He whispered to her, trying to calm her as he climbed into the back to lay her down properly. He climbed back out and jumped on his bike, leading the way to the Hollow. He parked directly in the front and went right through the front door, trying to find Ash. He didn't have to look hard; when Danielle had said that Andrew was calling her, Ash was already aware that something was going on. That, paired up with the phonecall Darren would leave and the fact that Heather was missing, definitely told the Triste this would be a long, long night.

[Trevor Browning]

Yeah, so Trevor definitely got the gist of what a Laura-sized bag of bricks would have felt like, and despite the way they were both scrambling to disentangle themselves and get back to the fight, he was willing to consider the idea that he might have some kind of internal bleeding going on from the impact.  If he'd been asked, he never would have thought that it'd be possible  for her to hit him that hard, so she definitely had some added badass points thrown in there.  Having the new vampire pull her off of him had been even less awesome, except that she was obviously not impressed.  Trevor should have just taken the opportunity right then to jump in with her and gank the guy, but they'd been so focused on trying to get the civilian out of dodge that he jumped back into it.  He had to practically carry her to move her along at this point, and he did it without complaint.  He just made sure that he had a sense of urgency about him that was befitting of the situation, regardless of his attempts to avoid jarring her injuries.  She needed to be out of the line of fire, and fast, so that he could get back to Laura.

He was in the process of doing exactly that, settling Heather down far enough away to hopefully offer her some safety if things got even worse and actually running back towards the vampire and Laura when it became obvious that she wasn't getting back up.  There was that moment of horror, that understanding that he'd just lost another friend in the field, that it was his fault, and then that panic rocketed up into rage.  There was no denying that it was still there, that utter panic and the sick cold spot in the pit of his stomach, but there was also a heat.  He hit Stefan with a speed and force that he hadn't even known he could manage, and from there it was just fists, elbows, knees and blood.  He knew better, on a conscious level, than to take on a vampire hand to hand; any human did.  It was stupid to even try, but he found himself taking hits from that vampire that should have put him down right then and there, only to throw his own a second later.  The abuse he took before Stefan finally threw him aside was enough that when he struck the pavement, there was no way in hell that he was getting up.  He could see (barely) the bloodied vampire approaching him, and frankly?  He knew this was it.  Laura was dead by Stefan's hand, he'd failed to keep her safe, and now he was going to follow after.  Hell, it was fitting.  This time, he wouldn't be walking away from a situation that friends hadn't made it out of.  It was over.

Except...not.

Everything was swimming in his head, but he could have sworn that he saw Laura's dead body rise up with a knife in hand, grab at the vampire, and stab at him.  Then, the world got even more unbelievable, as blood and feathers exploded in front of the vampire and what had to be an angel rolled away from the vampire with Laura.  He didn't know where the hell she'd come from, the angel with the blonde hair and golden wings, but he thought in that moment that it was a damn shame that she was in so much pain.  Of course, he didn't understand why she'd have dropped from the sky to save a vampire, either, but the man rushed in to grab her and disappeared.  Yeah, because that made total sense!

Actually, when Lance's voice rang out on the air, it made a little more sense.  With the angel down and having taken abuse from both Laura and Trevor, it wasn't hard to believe that the vampire wouldn't want to play ball with Lance, too.  Trevor wouldn't have, in his position.  Trevor really didn't want to play ball with anyone right then, and he definitely slipped in and out of consciousness over the course of Lance's conversation and Danielle's arrival.  In fact, the most aware he could claim to be after Stefan had dropped him was when Danielle (Laura?) approached him, checking for injuries and holding up fingers.  He must have satisfied something for her when he answered (either for good or bad), because other than yelling towards Lance, she was talking softly and hefted him up off the pavement.  It made even less sense, because he definitely thought she'd died, but here she was scraping him off the sidewalk.  Had he died?  That would suck, but why would he hurt like he did if he was already dead?  How was that fair?

Nobody had said that life (or death) was fair, but he wasn't in any condition to really contemplate any of it.  By the time Laura got him into the SUV, he was out.