Let’s Keep On Not Talking About It

*at Marius’ office in Romanus Manor*

I called Armand to talk about the events that occurred in Paris that had Armand so fumed with anger. Locking him and Va’lis in the gun cellar when Maharet announced they had taken his wife in addition to Carrie had been a wise move on my part, but perhaps my execution of it all was not.  There is too much history between Armand and I that lingers and interjects in our relationship. Where as with Va’lis, we have more of a clean slate.  I knew this conversation was not going to go well when he walked in and immediately said, “I can’t expect an apology from you now can I?” To which I replied, “I had to keep you from going after them on your own.”

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The Aftermath, Pt. 1

learjet-85-pandora-skybird-intI loaded our car up; Merida changed to the back seat, she was holding Astoria’s head in her lap trying to soothe her. Astoria had been beaten and then nearly drained. We had our medic trying to infuse her with transfusions of human blood but nothing was working. Her mortal body was just too weak. She was hemorrhaging internally from her injuries. Merida was now caressing her face and hair while she let out a tear or two. She loved Astoria for her kids loved her just the same.

I got into the car on the other side in the back and closed the door. The car was now moving. “We can’t let her die, not like this. this is our fault. Mine really, they took her to get me to talk. Had I not been so stubborn—” Merida broke down. Watching my wife’s sad heart was too much for me, I pulled Astoria to me without a word, carefully holding her on my lap. “This is not your fault, let it be me she hates for condemning her to this life,” I told my wife before I bit into Astoria’s neck and drained what little she still had. I ripped into my wrist and pulled it up to Astoria’s lips, letting my blood spill into her mouth. Astoria roused a bit, just enough to latch on and drink fully from me. Merida watched, crying still feeling so guilty for it all. 

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Getting Back What Belongs to Us, Pt. 2

london-england-tower-site-mapMarius had given us both clear instructions.  We are to wait for the rest of the family before attempting to start our recon mission.  Yeah, right? Like Va’lis was going to wait. Him and I had formulated a great plan to confirm that Carrie was being held in that old familiar place. The Tower of London is a historic place having held many Queens prisoner before their beheadings took place in the famous courtyard.  More notably the death of Queen Anne Boleyn, second wife to Henry VIII.  The tourism to the place was a great cloak to what really was held behind closed walls.  The Draconians had effectively purchased the rights to the tower through various entities and ghost corporations, as they did with much of the territory they held. It is heavily guarded of course, but it does have nooks and crannies that modern day prisons do not. Luckily, we had a full map of the place. 

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Getting Back What Belongs to Us, Pt. 1

marius-lab-catacombsMarius sits in his lab under the Lair, the Catacombs.  Armand walks up and Marius stops what he’s doing. “Word?” Marius asks. “Yes, and you are not going to like this. Not one bit,” Armand responded.  Marius turned to face his eldest childe, crossing his arms. “Well?” He asked inpatiently. “They are holding her in the Tower, right in the middle of London proper,” Armand said.  Marius rubbed his chin a few times. “So they do have control of the Tower as we suspected before. It is there they help Pandora captive,” Marius said. Armand nodded. There was a moment of silence between the two men.  They knew they couldn’t let Pandora near the place.  “I’ll keep Pandora here, leave Bianca with her,” Marius said, “and we need to summon all our elders for an emergency meeting.”  Armand nodded and was off to gather the elders of the family.

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