Chronicles of The Omniverse Archived Lutetia City: Saint Lemeux

While the rest of station was entering a state of full panic a single detective sat on the front steps, cigarette in hand. He lift it to his mouth as he stared forward with glassy eyes. A scrambled mess of imagery fluttering around in his head as he imagined the terror his city was experiencing. Several minutes passed before his reflection was interrupted by an unusually harsh pull for his cigarette. He coughed as he tossed away the butt that had burned down to the filter. Momentarily snapped away from the harsh visions of the devastation being wrought upon the city he pulled another cigarette from the pack in his shirt pocket.

As he went to light it he noticed that the street and sidewalk around the police station was now covered in blue runes. He furrowed his brow as his stress addled brain slowly processed what he was seeing in front of him. When it finally struck him his eyes became wide and he scrambled up the stairs so hastily that he tripped and sent the remainder of his cigarettes bouncing down the stairs. He nearly smashed the door in as he rushed into the building and desperately tried to get the attention of the bustling occupants.
 
"I will not." Aurelie's many years as a burglar, spook and generally deniable asset for the church had prepared her for much greater dangers than the occasional floating hazard. She could feel the harsh wintry bite of the runes even from her position some odd meters away, and likely would have shuddered in another life. As if by the worst timing, someone had stepped from the building to smoke and noticed Harik's handiwork. "Should we block other exits? Force them to empty into the streets?" Lacroix hissed at the Caer. This man was likely to try to interfere, whether or not he was successful was another question.

"Did you bring the rifle, by chance? It'd be oh so easy to catch them as they tried to leave, maybe enough bodies would pile to trap them inside.."
 
Rage filled the young vampire's eyes for the briefest of seconds, freedom mere steps away. Her cold blue eyes turned towards the woman, her arms visibly shaking at the effort to keep her composure. Why must her 'father' make everything so difficult?!

"Commandant Marshall, change of plans. Kill this woman by whatever means it takes." She said, forcing her will upon the man again before turning towards the door, hoping she had time before her words had time to sink in. She would need to hurry now, no doubt whatever she unleashed would cause a commotion, and she made a dash for the door.
 
"Excuse me?" Ericka's expression turned incredulous and alarmed. Instincts took charge over her confusion, a combination of the cold fury in Noemi's eyes and her forceful words triggering all of her alarm bells. When Marshall blankly reached for his gun holster, the detective reacted in time to grab his wrist before he could raise it, shouting out a warning to the rest of the station in the same instant that the other man burst through the door yelling about rune magic.

Several people moved to try and stop Noemi, but the vampire was fast, and nobody had been on alert for a woman under the escort of a Commandant to be a sudden security risk. As several other officers moved in to help Munroe restrain the struggling Marshall, Noemi was left free to dash across the room to the exit, breaking past the people who had moved to see what the detective was warning them about.
 
The vampire did not dilly-dally. Jumping and dodging the hands that grabbed at her seemed like child's play now, and she probably would have been amazed at how slow everyone seemed now if she hadn't been so focused at getting out. She bashed open the doors in her haste, only to screech to a halt when the blue runes caught her attention. Not knowing who had cast them, she made the snap decision to attempt to jump and dodge around them, aiming to retreat down the alley way she had originated from.
 
The trio of Noemi, Harik and Aurelie made it clear of the scene at the police station with ease, as chaos began to consume it. The sound of Noemi's planted bomb detonating in the centre of the station echoed through the air in their wake, and it wasn't long before sirens were blaring in all directions as emergency services sped towards the scene. Occasionally, a smaller detonation would sound in the background as one of the explosive runes was disturbed, but one thing was certain: they would not be pursued.

At least, not by the police.

The group were making their way down an alleyway a fair few blocks away from the station when their keen vampiric eyes would likely pick up on the shadows there lengthening, growing darker. A pair of ravens flapped down to perch on the edge of one of the buildings overhead, looking down at them with piercing glares. One gave a baleful caw, as though in challenge.

Blackness began to rise up the walls of the alleyway on all sides, the shadows coming loose from the floor and the walls to form a thick carpet over the stone. As they did, an oppressive presence loomed. Unseen eyes lurked, watched, and waited.
 
Harik had been in high spirits upon their exit from the plaza. When Noemi had come bursting through the door without a soul trailing behind her, he'd been overjoyed! And then, when the explosion had sounded behind them moments later, he had even begun to laugh! To think, that just minutes before, he had considered letting Winter take his mind again, so he could just stroll into the police station and unleash every ounce of frustration and anger that had been boiling up inside him since the night before.

Since running into *him* again...and almost killing him...

It was a thought that had to be cleared from his mind. He couldn't keep secrets from his Uncle, and he didn't want that monster to get his mitts on another bargaining token, another soul to extort him with. No. He wanted no harm to come to that young man...

Fate was kind, for once. No sooner had the three of them turned his corner had he begun to noticed strange, umbral disturbances. Crying birds, dozens of them, maybe even hundreds. Shadows that clung coyly to the hem of his pants legs, the laces of his shoes, the edge of his vision. They were spreading, rapidly, and it wasn't long before Harik halted his two companions, making sure to put Aurelia between himself and his illegitimate niece. Blue flames would surround the crown of his head, and fill his quickly devolving hands, licking at his flesh and hair with an eagerness to burn. "Be on guard you two...Somethings coming..."
 
The vampire consort nodded and drew her firearm, her focus drifting to the ravens that surrounded them. She wasn't sure why, but the birds exuded a malevolent air, but she hesitated to actually open fire on them to not draw attention to herself.

The child within her stirred.
 
Noemi stopped too as the birds flew over head. Normally birds flew away from the chaos. Not towards it.

Unless something more chaotic was at the other end.

She did as she was warned, her eyes scouring for the signs of the upcoming storm.
 
The shadows continued to shift, and shapes began to form out of them. Humanoid figures, distorted and warped, coalescing one after another as though a person were about to step forth, only to dissipate away moments later, as if teasing the three of them with their near-presence. A dark chuckle echoed through the alleyway, coming from every angle at once. "And so the predators become the prey," the voice called. It was a man's voice, soft, and as musical as it was malicious.

"A bombing is hardly the place for a child, don't you think?"

A flicker of movement was all the warning the group would get as a tendril of inky black shadow speared out of the ground in front of Aurelie, spiking straight towards her midsection with cold and brutal efficiency. Necrotic energy crawled along its insubstantial length, carrying with it the touch of decay and death.
 
Without a second's hesitation, Harik would launch himself in front of the magic aimed for Aurelie, calling forth a wall of frigid flame to shed its light and encircle their little band.

He could only hope that the flickering blue fire would ward off the shadows, at least enough for them to gather their wits. Something that the demon-touched pyromancer was already on top of. This was a being of power. Something that obviously knew who they were, what they were, and yet it was still coming after them. As a group, no less. No trying to pick anyone off, one by one, through some trickery or subtle trap. No quick, unannounced strike designed to destroy them without nary a chance to retaliate. All of that meant one of two things.

Either this...entity was powerful and arrogant, or overconfident and stupid. Harik truly hoped that it was the latter. With the trio hopefully protected for the moment, the Caldonian fire mage couldn't resist throwing a barb back at the shadow mage's (assuming thats what it really was) face.

"You certainly seem the type to care about the welfare of children, aren't you? Maybe once hes born, my Uncle will let you give him a hug."

It was weak, hardly his best work but...better than nothing?
 
If not for the chaperone's speed, Aurelie would have easily been struck by the surprise attack. She still jerked back and drew her sidearm but the barrier kept her from pulling the trigger just yet. The vampire's knuckles tightened around the chilled steel, she had no mind for jokes at the moment. Risking the loss of this child was no laughing matter, for her own safety more than anything. Her free hand drifted towards a holstered knife, a piece that accompanied her on many a hunt of beast, man and everything in between.

"Picking fights with our family is a terrible mistake," the matron gave her best attempt at being intimidating. Too much was at stake for her act to be genuine.
 
Noemi felt frozen in time as she saw what happened, unable to move as fast as her adoptive uncle as he protected her father's whore. She gritted her teeth together in frustration. Why was she constantly getting into situations like this? There was very little she understood yet about the supernatural abilities she had gained from all this. And yet, she was expected to learn on the spot.

But she at least understood shadows. Well sort of. Something tickled the back of her mind, almost like a bygone memory. The nearest building's shadow was cast in her direction, although somewhat distorted by her uncle's flames. Still she had to try right? She reached for her powers and reached forward. The shadows wavered for a moment before being drawn towards her arm, casting itself into a shape of what looked to be a shadow of a very large shield. "Well, better than nothing.." She muttered under her breath.
 
The flash of fire dispersed the shadowy spike before it met its mark, and it faded into nothingness, leaving Aurelie unscathed. A dark chuckle echoed around the alleyway over the crackle of the flickering flames, the shadows dancing in their light. "Bold words indeed from a foolhardy harlot," the voice murmured, sounding so close as to raise the hairs on the back of the listeners' necks, whilst its true source remained unseen. "But are you family to him, or merely a vessel, to be cast aside once your purpose is served?"

At each of their feet, their own shadows - though flickering to and fro within the circle of flames - began to crawl up their legs like a clinging sludge, carrying with it a dull numbness, and a cold that was distinct from the one they called their own. It was the chill of absence - of the grave.

Around the ring of fire, the darkness beyond continued to build, creeping further up the walls. The light overhead seemed to be growing fainter, and more distant, by the second.
 
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