The Lurkers' Domain

Marnie cuts out to the right, trying to keep the bonfire as a spatial reference and trying to discern any obvious traps on the ground on her way. She is also trying to keep as quiet as possible so the the three men busting into camp will create a good general distraction for her freeing Charles.

The rumbles under their feet got every ones attention, as if the earth exhaled. Every ones eyes went to James. It was certainly enough to create cover noise for Marnie rescuing Charles. If she can, Marnie will run faster to get to Charles, keeping a close eye on the closest guard.

Nico looks up and sees Marnie success at reaching Charles safely, he hopes for her that there will be enough distraction that no one will notice her.

Marnie holsters her gun and draws the knives from both of her ankle sheaths. Cutting his wrist bonds, she hands him one of the knives, so he can cut his ankle bonds.

Rex has no doubt that he will be confronting Marco tonight. There's obviously tension between them that goes beyond his little club, and their uneasy peace. Corey's running out of Willpower on controlling his synesthesia is obvious while demanding where Rose is, his primary concern.

Almost on cue, Dominic pulls up in his van. Coming out of the van, he's surprised to see everyone there; Olivia, Rex, Marco's bunch, and seemingly everyone in between.

"Olivia, we have a problem" Olivia rushes over to Dominic. "You DIDN'T TELL ME she knew Rex!" He pulled her out of the van, like a rag doll. Dropped her to the ground and stepped on her hard, pushing her face into the sand. There is an audible cracking noise under his boot. Dominic insists that since she knows Rex it will go against his code, but with a doubled fee he would make an exception. Olivia sees Rose and is appalled. She knew he was hired to kill Rose, but there was such a line crossed by this act of butchery.

Olivia asks Marco clearly for all to hear "Would you do this to me?" Marco steps into the light of the bonfire "I would not only say yes, but pay him more to do whatever he pleased." Her lips curled in disgust.

Rex says, "You'll kill no one tonight, Dominic."

Now both Nico and Rex are holding Corey back who is screaming incoherently.

Marnie will draw her gun with her right hand, aim for the man who pulled Rose out of the van and pull the trigger. *click*

"Well, fuck," Marnie mutters.

Charles looks at the gun disappointed. Sliding the safety back on, she holsters the gun and then looks at Charles.

"How much do you like being free?" she says with a grin and draws the knife from her left wrist sheath, so she now is holding two knives again, and starts sneaking up on one of the guards.

Charles says, "I'm rather attached to this life, yes."

She hopes that since her gun didn't work, neither will any of theirs if they are carrying one. "clever girl" Charles thought to himself while watching Marnie.

Marco walks over to James, whispering "The ummm spell is going to work, yes? I really need it to work right about now, cause I ummm.....kind of have people here I want killed."

Rex yells over to Marco, "Have you ever seen a Malkie go f'n berserk? You're going to tell me what James is doing and why you are helping him, or I let Corey loose!"

Marnie cheers in her head, 'let him loose!' as she closes in behind the guard. Marnie slides the knife home, and with a quick left-right sweep, he silently gurgles as she lowers him to the ground.

Marco snaps his fingers and motions Olivia over desperately. He Whispers to her, then quickly she rushes, nearly tripping over in her heels over to the pickup truck, gathering several LARGE explosives in her arms. Lighting them as she runs back, she quickly tosses one at Rex and Cory's and Nico's feet. Another split second three were in the exact spot where Marco and James directed. BBBOOOOMMMM

When the explosion happens, Marnie looks to where the girl was dragged out of the van, counting how many of the enemies are between Rose and herself.

Then she looks at Charles and says, "Follow the outer curve of the site, you'll see the cars we arrived in. Get in one. Now."

James motions a few guards and Marco to follow him into the freshly exposed mosuleum, thanks to the dynamite blast.

Corey propelled away from Rex by the explosion, gets up and runs over to Dominic. Dominic pulls out his gun and shoots at Cory, the gun fails of course.

Pulling his 12" blade out, still with Roses blood on it, they both lunge at each other with equal force.

Olivia for good measure unleashed the Rotweilers. The dogs head right for Cory and Dominic, leading them from the fresh scent of blood.

Dodging him, Cory gets knocked over by one of the Rotweilers, as he keeps screaming, "Save Rose! More money, save Rose!"

Kicking the dog away, only to be confronted by Dominic again. Wasting no time, he lunges at Cory, intending to kill the boy quickly. Grabbing Cory by the arm, he twists it and pops it out of its socket. Cory cradles his arm, and with a flick of the knife Dominic slices his thigh. Recoiling from the slash, and popping his arm back into the socket, Cory grabs Dominics arm and forces the knife out of his hand.

"Stop fighting, or bleed mad, Dom." Nico rushes to help Cory, Rex right behind.

As James, flanked by guards, proceeds into the mausolem he directs them to start searching the coffins. After about 5 or 6 of the them are opened they hear a low roar from deep within the chamber. James shouts to the people outside to hurry and get down there now!!! After a few minutes when no one comes, James goes back up to the surface to find them fighting.

James shouts "All of you, if you want to live past tonight, help me now!"

Marco, Olivia, and three guards rush to assist James.

After Marco joins James, he asks Marco "Why did you bring cory here? You should have known it would only lead to trouble."

Marco grumbles his response, becoming beat red with rage, as he helps James with his task. Rex was the one Marco wanted, by coming here. Cory, unfortunately, would no doubt be close behind.

Dominic punches Cory square in the face, unaffected by the strike he bites Dominic in the neck. Nico jumps back from Corys lunge, completely surprised, he nearly trips over one of the other guards who is dead on the ground. With one last fling of Dominics arm, he finds Rex's chest, luckily only grazing him.

Rex only stares at the blade and says, "Is that the best you can do?"

Meanwhile Nico holds Dominic down, as he continues fighting and thrashing. Corey, nearly oblivious to Dominics curses continues drinking. Finally Dominics body begins to shudder, at first Nico tries to coax Cory off of him. Realizing cory has a death grip on Dominic he tries more forcefully, his arms holding his friend tighter,

"Corey! Hey! Let GO"

Rex taps Nico and says, "He's frenzied, Nic. We'll deal with Corey later."

"But......." Nico tries to argue, but Rex's dimeaner is not one to fight with.

As they decended back down into the cave, James holding the bowl of water, watching the needle spin slowly in the water the needle begins to point steadily in one direction.

James warned; "They are this way. Dont let them sneek up on you. Remember, they know where we are, as well."

With that warning Olvia clutches her magic bag, while pulling out her hand gun. Marco heeds the advice as well, and pulls his own hand gun out, along with his blade. Cautiously they walk through the mausoleum reaching the main chamber.

"NOW we have to worry about them attacking us? ON TOP OF REX!!??" Marco grumbles, his voice echoing a bit too loudly.

Nico runs down the stairs, while Rex stays behind with Cory, to look after him. What seems like forever, finally Corey drops Dominic like a sack of mashed potatoes. Cleaning up Corey as best he can, releaved Rex sees the rage in Corey's eyes finally gone. Together they watch the van drive away, and Rex assures Corey that Marnie and Charles will take excellent care of Rose. Looking around Rex asked, "Where's Gregory?"

James sets down the bowl of water, and pulls out his black ironwood stake. Just as he motions for 2 guards to move into the room, instantly they are devoured by a methusalah. Marco and Olivia jump back when the guards are grabbed by the ancient monster. Marco tried to fire his gun but the 'fire arms' spell was still in effect. Turning to Olivia, shoving her into the wall he yelled "Drop the bag bitch!" Olivia drops the bag and instantly everyone feels the spell lifted.

With quick reflexes James lunges out with his stake aiming for its heart with a sure strike. As the stake penitrates the methusalas heart, James felt a slight tug on it, and knew his plan had worked. Oliva and Marco go over to the 2 unopened vaults, slaying the remaining methuslas inside before they too awaken. "You guards help them." James says, then bends down and begins to feed on one of the methuslas.

Nico quietly comes down the stairs, standing behind Olivia. Startled by his quiet entrence, Muttering to himself "I don't hit women." Olivia tried to shoot, but the spell was still in effect, so she kicked him in the balls with her pointed toe shoes. Nico grabbed his balls, doubled over, and sees Gregory pass him. Marco sees Gregory and his companions closing in. Excitedly his eyes lit up when his plans were finally coming together. Reaching down he grabbed the sack on the floor and brought out the special stone, by this time it was softly glowing purple.

Gregory looks over the scene and says, "Oh fuck. Good thing I brought friends." As Akabar and Serena run in armed with cool magical toys, Akabar sees the stone and immediately recognizes it.

Marco asks Olivia casually "You didn't poison Charles did you? You saved him, didn't you?" A bit confused she quietly admitted to it, not sure of his reaction "Yes? why?" Marco pulls out his knife, with one quick slit, he cuts Olivias throat, blood sprayed everything, everywhere. With a confused look she girgled "why?" before dropping to the floor bleeding to death. with that the stone glowed more intensely to the point that nothing else was visible. It was as if the stone was awakening, absorbing everything.

Nico instantly started to feel tired, he was't sure about the others. James gets up seeing and feeling the power that Marco is gathering to himself. He whispers the word of release of his staff, pulling it from the methusala.

"Marco what are you doing?" James asks.

Marco, nearly giddy, turns running upstairs, Gregory and the others allow him to pass. Akabar turns to follow him, he knew exactly what he was going to do with the stone. Running outside, he sees Rex standing beside Cory nearby. So intense was the strength of the stone Marco wasn't sure if he could control it much longer. Akabar casts a spell and attempts to deflect the power. With one push, he directs all its power to destroy Rex. James runs deftly up the stairs to get Marco and he sees, finally, what he is doing. In an instant the energy bounces off Rex, reflecting directly back to Marco. BOOOOMMMM In a blinding instant, the only thing left of Marco was his shoes, still running in Rex's direction.

James yells out "Quickly everyone! We must stop the other methuslas from awakening!" At that they all hear another roar from deep within the mosuleum below their feet.

Rex looks at James "You started this, what can be done to stop them?"

Gregory, Nico, and Cory stand beside Rex, relieved he was unharmed by Marco's attack. Carefully eyeing Corey, while placing a quick hand on his shoulder, he asks "You ok bud?" Corey stares blankly at the smoldering shoes.

"Come on! I have already killed one. We might be able to kill this one before the others awakens."

Gregory gives James a look, asking "Can we put them back to sleep?"

James deftely grabs the scorched shoes of Marcos with his feet still in them, and runs down the stairs into the mausolium. Nico stares in disbelief. James once again yells out from below "Hurry up! damn it! come down here! I'm going to use them to distract the other methusla, you know, shock value and all."

Gregory waves Akabar down, but Serena is not sure about following. At the base of the stairs, James ties the pair of shoes together with their strings. Slowly he walks into the main chamber, seeing the methusla trying to open the seal to the outer chamber.

Nico whispers, "This had better be good."

Once Serena joins Gregori, she asks quietly "Is there anything else useful in that bag of tricks down here?" Gregory answers in a hushed whisper "Knowing Olivia, she had a lot of tricks up her sleeve." Then Gregory sees Olivia's dead body and stops. "Poor Charles", he mumbles.

Finally the ancient creature broke through the chamber door. He the other beings in his ancient mausaleum and approaches them intent on destroying them. James sneaks up behind the methusala, maybe 10 feet away. Throwing the shoes to the other side of the room, for a moment it stops to turn its head in the direction of the fallen shoes.

At that, James lunges out toward the methusala. Trying to get him in the heart as he did the last one, he felt the stake pierce as before, and then slightly pull.

James felt a slight tug on it, and knew his plan had worked. Oliva and Marco go over to the 2 unopened vaults, slaying the remaining methuslas inside before they too awaken. "You guards help them." James says, then bends down and begins to feed on one of the methuslas.

Nico quietly comes down the stairs, standing behind Olivia. Startled by his quiet entrence, Muttering to himself "I don't hit women." Olivia tried to shoot, but the spell was still in effect, so she kicked him in the balls with her pointed toe shoes. Nico grabbed his balls, doubled over, and sees Gregory pass him. Marco sees Gregory and his companions closing in. Excitedly his eyes lit up when his plans were finally coming together. Reaching down he grabbed the sack on the floor and brought out the special stone, by this time it was softly glowing purple.

Gregory looks over the scene and says, "Oh fuck. Good thing I brought friends." As Akabar and Serena run in armed with cool magical toys, Akabar sees the stone and immediately recognizes it.

Marco asks Olivia casually "You didn't poison Charles did you? You saved him, didn't you?" A bit confused she quietly admitted to it, not sure of his reaction "Yes? why?" Marco pulls out his knife, with one quick slit, he cuts Olivias throat, blood sprayed everything, everywhere. With a confused look she girgled "why?" before dropping to the floor bleeding to death. with that the stone glowed more intensely to the point that nothing else was visible. It was as if the stone was awakening, absorbing everything.

Nico instantly started to feel tired, he was't sure about the others. James gets up seeing and feeling the power that Marco is gathering to himself. He whispers the word of release of his staff, pulling it from the methusala.

"Marco what are you doing?" James asks.

Marco, nearly giddy, turns running upstairs, Gregory and the others allow him to pass. Akabar turns to follow him, he knew exactly what he was going to do with the stone. Running outside, he sees Rex standing beside Cory nearby. So intense was the strength of the stone Marco wasn't sure if he could control it much longer. Akabar casts a spell and attempts to deflect the power. With one push, he directs all its power to destroy Rex. James runs deftly up the stairs to get Marco and he sees, finally, what he is doing. In an instant the energy bounces off Rex, reflecting directly back to Marco. BOOOOMMMM In a blinding instant, the only thing left of Marco was his shoes, still running in Rex's direction.

James yells out "Quickly everyone! We must stop the other methuslas from awakening!" At that they all hear another roar from deep within the mosuleum below their feet.

Rex looks at James "You started this, what can be done to stop them?"

Gregory, Nico, and Cory stand beside Rex, relieved he was unharmed by Marco's attack. Carefully eyeing Corey, while placing a quick hand on his shoulder, he asks "You ok bud?" Corey stares blankly at the smoldering shoes.

"Come on! I have already killed one. We might be able to kill this one before the others awakens."

Gregory gives James a look, asking "Can we put them back to sleep?"

James deftely grabs the scorched shoes of Marcos with his feet still in them, and runs down the stairs into the mausolium. Nico stares in disbelief. James once again yells out from below "Hurry up! damn it! come down here! I'm going to use them to distract the other methusla, you know, shock value and all."

Gregory waves Akabar down, but Serena is not sure about following. At the base of the stairs, James ties the pair of shoes together with their strings. Slowly he walks into the main chamber, seeing the methusla trying to open the seal to the outer chamber.

Nico whispers, "This had better be good."

Once Serena joins Gregori, she asks quietly "Is there anything else useful in that bag of tricks down here?" Gregory answers in a hushed whisper "Knowing Olivia, she had a lot of tricks up her sleeve." Then Gregory sees Olivia's dead body and stops. "Poor Charles", he mumbles.

Finally the ancient creature broke through the chamber door. He then, like the other beings in his ancient mausaleum and approaches them intent on destroying them. James sneaks up behind the methusala, maybe 10 feet away. Throwing the shoes to the other side of the room, for a moment it stops to turn its head in the direction of the fallen shoes.

With that, James runs out of the chamber waiting just out of sight in the entry hall.

"I recomend you all come to, and grab the feet on your way out."

Nico shrugs and runs in. Gregory follow. Looking around he finds a torch on the wall. Pulling out his lighter he lights it, illuminating the room.

"This is the leader of the other two. He is of the 4 generation, the others were his childer. He will be slightly agitated when he gets up, I suggest you hurry." James instructs in a hushed tone.

"Explain to me again, why you do this?" Nico asked

"I do it because I like blood and because I like to live." He answered, while picking up the shoes himself, in a mocking tone

Nico retorts, "If you like to live, you should let them sleep."

Gregory remarks, "Too late for that."

"They were going to wake up anyway." James continued

Nico grimaced "Those are Marco's feet, do you have ANY idea where they've been?

we got here just in time, they were the inspiration for the human sacrifices among the azects

"His shoes?" Nico scrunching his nose "I can smell them from here."

Rex sneers, "I guess he's doing us a favor."

hury damn it i can here himn undoing the lock the lock on his door, he's coming out.

Serena gets a bit closer to Gregory, cluthing the bag

"Ok, give me the shoes." James waves his hand

Nico tosses them to James. A strange green cloud permiates the air.

"Now anyone here who is good at ranged fighting get behind me, and stop making the shoes smoke."

Nico pulls out his guns, two desert eagle 50 calliber, aiming at the door. The moment James blows away the smoke from the shoes, the door opens. As the door opens the methusla walks out and looks straight at them.

James curses "Ahh crap he sees us. Why did you have to light that torch?"

"To see the target" Nico yells

"I could see just fine!" James retorted.

Rex yells "Not the heart!"

"Hit his head!" James agrees

Nico fires at the Methuselahs head. There's not much left.

"Then it won't make a difference" Nico playfully winks, nearly enjoying his arguement with James.

Gregory yells at James, "Use the stake!"

Serena pulls out a small stick of dynamite. "Does this help?"

Akabar says, "It's couldn't hurt, if we need it."

At that James runs quickly into the room plunging the stake deep into the vampires heart. Giving the stake a mighty tug and lets out a roar pulling out not only the vampires heart but part of his lings to

Nico remains in his stance, waiting for any movement it makes. Finally Nico lowers the guns.

Serena turns to Gregory and says, "So this is what you guys do for fun, huh? Cool."

"Any more?" He asks James

Panting, "No. There are no more."

Finally Nico pointed the gun directly at James

"Give me ONE good reason why I shouldn't kill you right now?!"

"Because I just saved all your lives."

Rex adds, "That's a good reason. But we must still deal with all of this."

"You put us all in danger! You worked with Marco! Try again!"

James still not losing an ounce of confidence "If I hadn't have come and told you of these methuslas they would have started a summoninig, and summond some monsters from the deap umbra. That would have made them look like pets in comparison."

Akabar says, "Oh no, not again."

"Your not convincing me!"

"Fine don't be convinced." At that James attempts a dominate skill, somthing just to make him put the gun down. James locked his eyes with Nicos, he began to force his will on him.

Nico shoots one off into the wall next to James' head. Rex places his hand on Nico's shoulder after the shot. No one spoke.

Gregory finally asks, "James, what are you going to do with the heart?"

Nico's eyes flashed, he was not going to allow Marnie to come in harms way that easily again, and his friend Corey suffered too much.

"What will you do with the heart, friend?" Nico asked again for Gregory, while cocking the gun.

"The heart? Nothing. I don't need the heart itself, just enough of his to use for a ritual."

With that James pulls out a small jar and begins catching some of the still flowing blood.

Nico formally asks, without lowering the gun "My Prince, what will you do with him?"

Gregory then says, "You don't mind if we destroy it then?"

Still kneeling down he invites "After I collect its blood by all means, destroy it."

With that, Nico slowly lowers the guns to his sides.

James offers to Nico "I did not intend to harm any of you, but I knew I must get here as soon as possible to stop these creatures. I did not even know that your friend charles was here till Marco had him bound outside." Looking at Rex "Marco had his own motives for what he did."

Nico turns, and looks at Rex, putting the guns in their holster, "All I ask is that he keeps his distance................................from me."

Rex said, "And he paid the ultimate price for those deeds."

Rex laughed uneasily, "I'm sure he already has that in mind."

James sealed the jar of blood and stood up, saying, "I have gotten all the reward I want for doing this. Now all I want is to live in the waking world for a while."

Nico sneered, "You are welcome to the waking world. James. Thank you for helping us, but I want to destroy the heart and the stake," Nico pointed to them. "Lay them down and I will destroy them, with Rex's approval."

James nodded, throwing them over towards a corner. Rex looked to Gregory who nodded, and Rex agreed. Before they landed on the floor, they were both blown into a thousand pieces by two shots from Nico's gun, which was unholstered, fired, and reholstered in the blink of an eye.

James asked, "Now may I stay in this fair city with you?"

Rex hesitated then suggested, "That is something we shall have to discuss. But, I think if you steer clear of Nico, then for now, you may stay."

With an honorable but cautious nod to James, he extended his hand to shake. "This will make an unusual friendship."

James walked over to Nico and shook his hand. "Yes," he said,"yes it will."

Nico added, "If you excuse me, my first priority NOW, is Marnie." Nico put his hand on Cory's shoulder "Care to join me?"

As they all slowly, somberly began walking out of the cavernous tomb, James asked, "May I take over Marco's business? I figure you won't be able to tell his customers that he died in a huge energy explosion. I could run the business in his stead."

Rex cautioned, "Well, Marco, Olivia, and Dominic are dead, but it's still a family business. You'll have to see who'll fight you for it. But you could say that was your business with him. They'll probably fall for it."

As they walked past Marco's shoes, Nico looked down at them, still smoldering slightly, and said, "You're fired!"

Reaching the mouth of the cave, Rex's cell phone rang, and recognized the number. He carried his conversation with Marnie away from the others.

When he was done, Rex put his phone away and joined Nico, Gregory and Corey. "What a night, huh? What 'til Morgan hears what he missed."

Nico spoke first, "So, what are we going to do about the Giovanni. They aren't going to like three of their family disappearing."

Rex nodded, "I know. If anyone has a better suggestion, I'll agree to James running Kitty's Place and let him deal with family business." With that, they walked up to Dominic's cold, dead body. Rex shot Corey a look of sympathetic disapproval.

Corey shrugged slightly, wincing at the pain of his injuries.

Rex decided, "We should use that fire over there to cremate the bodies. Giovanni necromancy has a tendency to bring old problems back from the dead. Gregory, find out from Akabar if he knows what that spell was that backfired on Marco."

Gregory nodded and added, "Who's going to tell Charles that Olivia is dead?"

With that, a horrible shriek came from within the mausoleum. Everyone heard the cries and turned to look down inside with shock and a look of fear about what could still be alive down there. Rex, Gregory, Corey, and Nico ran down, while Akabar held Serena back.

Pitch blackness.
Complete silence.

The wind blows a soft song, much like the song of a flute, moving the sand over hills, dunes and the mausoleum. Inside a stray mouse wonders about wearily, sensing danger, but unknown from where. The stench of blood is overwhelming as it dries in the desert night air. The mouse freezes from a distance noise, ears perked up, nothing is heard or detected. A second later it was gone, consumed by Olivia, draining it dry as it feebly fights for its last breath.

She crawls a little further across the floor, still choking on what little blood remains inside of her. Her hand stretched out before her, she sees her lovingly manicured nails grow sickeningly long. One word came to mind as she watches "hideous." Rolling over to her back, she convulses uncontrollably. Thrashing, clawing for anything that will be an anchor in this cloud of unspeakable pain.

A roar of a shriek leaves her lips, exhaling her lungs completely, to not be able to inhale again. The walls were her only silent witness, they shook with the reverberated power of her scream. Moments turned into seemingly hours, her lungs burned to inhale. Her stomach pitched, burned, twisted from the inside out.

Writhing in agony, she finally inhaled, blessed air finally! She heard her own private pleas for death, sobbing for mercy. No one had told her of the horrors that awaited her when she was offered potentially the gift. She knelt in a praying position, and considered begging for mercy, for redemption, for forgiveness! Almost in an answer, as if God Himself threw the spear into her stomach, she threw up, over and over again onto the mausoleum floor. If that wasn't bad enough her bowels gave on her, and every liquid inside her body left with urgency.

Olivia tore at her all-too-binding clothes, praying for the slightest relief. The fabric under her fingertips seemed to bruise them, not even the softest of fabric would be gentle to her skin now. Clawing with her new nails, she heard growls of a beast, 'was there something else in here besides me?' she contemplated seriously, if she were in danger of something else.

Lying on the stone floor, naked, filthy, and covered with dried blood, her cheek and chin rested still upon the cool floor. She only breathed, and that was a labor which took nearly all her attention. Blurred vision, weakened body, fingers bruised, she knew now how a new born kitten felt, thank hell her hearing worked at least. She listened to her own lonely muttered whimpers, pathetic sobs, and tearless cries for seemingly hours. Then she heard something else. Wrinkling her nose in disbelief, she pushes her ear on the floor harder, "Is that water running?" asking to herself in a half mad state of mind.

Digging her claws into the hard floor, she began to drag her exhausted body to the source of the noise. Through one of the many enormous entrances, a pool of natural desert spring water, bubbling from the ground, awaits her. This must've been one of the sacred chambers used by the Aztec Priests or Priestess'. The pool was surrounded with stones as steps, leading in and out of the pool. Through Olivia's clouded eyes, it looked more like a jacuzzi from Caesar's Palace.

Steps from the pool, her body once again pitched violently. She cried out, falling to the floor hard, crying with tearless eyes. As if it were the last thing she wanted to accomplish before her death, Olivia crawls to the pool, slipping into its hot watery arms. Submerging her head completely, it was as if the water were cradling her, telling her it would be all right, then again it could be madness setting in. Breaking the water, she inhales deeply, the first thing she thought of clearly was of Charles.

With that, a horrible shriek came from within the mausoleum. Everyone heard the cries and turned to look down inside with shock and a look of fear about what could still be alive down there. Rex, Gregory, Corey, and Nico ran down, while Akabar held Serena back.

Nico lead the pack, gun drawn and ready. Rex and Corey were right behind him, and Gregory brought up the rear. Gregory sensed magic he didn't recognize before, but couldn't tell what it was. Maybe it was just his hackles raised.

Corey for the first time in a long while and took Rex by surprise, "I don't think I could... stomach much more surprises."

Rex consoled him, "Neither could I, old friend." Abruptly, Nico shouted, "Rex, over here!"

Nico bent down and picked up Olivia's bloodied clothes. "They were torn off," Nico sniffed. "She's alive."

Gregory laughed uneasily, "What was that you were saying about the Giovanni coming back from the dead?"

Rex added, "Indeed. She was a ghoul. It seems she's finally gotten her wish to be Kindred in her clan."

Corey observed nervously, "I don't think she's enjoying the benefits. Rex, chocolate falls?"

Nico was going to ask what the hell that meant when he heard it too. It sounded like running water. He stopped, picked up the gun cautiously and turned another corner, waving everyone else to wait.

What he saw when he turned the corner completely amazed him. It seemed to be an ancient hot spring chamber carved into the cavernous tombs. Floating in the pool of natural desert spring water was Olivia. Naked, bloody, and alive.

What he saw when he turned the corner completely amazed him. It seemed to be an ancient hot spring chamber carved into the cavernous tombs. Floating in the pool of natural desert spring water was Olivia. Naked, bloody, and alive.

Olivia savored the feeling of floating in the pool. Her senses still uncontrolled, she remained passive with her eyes closed. For now, thankfully, her body had finished its horrible spasms, and wrenching. Her eyes didn't focus, opening her eyes she saw a kaleidoscopic of light, despite her dark surroundings. She thought the best way to describe it, was as if fragments of light, prisms, were crashing into her skull like glass shards. Unfortunately her hearing was no better. Her ears under water only seemed to be amplified ten fold, perhaps more. She laid there, feeling the warm water lap over her, while her ears picked up the waters motion. It was the closest semblence of peace she could find.

The suddenly a scents caught her by surprise. The smell of blood, fresh blood. Her eyes opened immediately and shards of grey light burst splintered her mind. Slipping under the water silently, she felt the floor of the pool, then the sides, listening for anything, something. Something wasn't right.

Nico saw her eyes open for a second, it was a site he would soon hope to forget. Her eyes were, he swore, were electric blue, almost morphed blue.

"Yes she was definately going through major changes, but how much does she have control?" he wondered. Immediately he was aware of the noise Rex, Gregory, and Corey were making, though none seemed to have been made. Seeing Corey, Nico's heart dropped to his feet when he realized he was covered with Dominics blood. He nearly slipped up and whispered "Oh God" but caught himself just in time.

Coming back to them Nico says to Rex "She's changed, at least it looks like in the last stages of it. What do you want to?" Rex looked stern "We're NOT leaving her." Gregory made a hesitant sound, as if he were going to advice something, but thought best not to.

With Nico still in the front with gun drawn, Corey next to Rex, and Gregory behind they made their way into the sacred bathing room.

Gregory took off his coat, laying it onto the side of the pool gently. The four sat down several feet from the spring on the floor, allowing plenty of privacy for Olivia, being without clothing, should she desire any.

Rex started "Olivia. Olivia Giovanni." His voice echoed, reverberating throughout the chamber, breaking the blessed silence.

Bright blue eyes peeked over the side of the pool onto them, with an unblinking stare. Rex's voice became softer "Olivia, do you know who we are? Do you know where you are?"

With the softest and most musical of voice she merely whispered "Yes." That single word could wrap men up around her finger for eternity. Even she was fascinated by the sound. It was somehow uniquely different, hardly her voice at all.

"What's my name, Olivia?" Rex continued softer this time. He had forgotten maybe her ears were more intensely accute, or even could cause her pain.

The eyes danced to each one of them, still sitting quite still, non threatening. "Rex, Corey, Ni...Nico, Gregory"

"Are you aware of what happened to you?"

Her mind whirled, twisted, felt splintered for a second, then finally her eyes got bigger with anger. "Marco" A whisper of death, venemous. "Where?" Her eyes lingered around the empty chamber, expecting him to appear, as she would gladly destroy him.

"He's dead Olivia. Dead and gone. You're free of him."

For a moment she slipped under the water. No air bubbles, no waves. The four sat patiantly.

She came up, looked over to Rex painfully with bleeding tears in her eyes she whispers "Charles?"

"He's alive and well. We rescued him, nothing happened to him. He's not here, but in a safe place. Would you like to come with us to see him tonight?"

Pale fingers wrapped themselves around Gregories coat he offered. She raised herself up enough to show her lips, she was smiling. "Please"

While the others were down in the mausoleum James turns to Akabar.
“Akabar I presume. I am James Morolin and I have another order to place with your shop.

Rex motioned that he would lead the way. Nico raised an eyebrow indicating his concern. Rex nodded that he could follow close behind Olivia but he wanted to lead to show Olivia there was no reason to fear any of them. All of this passed silently between the old friends. Corey followed Nico and Gregory again brought up the rear. The posse seemed to know their positions of protection all too well.

They walked in silence until they had left the mouth of the cavernous mausoleum in the desert. There they found James and Akabar talking, with Serena nearby.

Akabar took out a business card, and replied, "Here's my card. Please feel free to call in your order or come by the shop. However, given the events of this evening, perhaps you should handle your purchases directly."

A look of disgusted frustration scowled Serena's face as she watched Akabar hand James the card, but she did not dare say anything out loud. She made no attempt to disguise her thoughts, however, and Gregory smiled as he at least picked up on them.

Everyone was weary and had places to go. Rex opened the passenger side door of his car for Olivia.

Corey and Nico both made their way to let themselves into the back seats, but Rex stopped them both. "Nico, bring your car and follow us. Corey, ride with Nico."

The two protested in unison, but Rex stiffened and said, "She is new, she is no danger to me."

Corey pointed out his wounds and Rex's and stammered out an upset, "Her family did this to us. You are wounded, Rex. May, maybe not thinking clearly."

"Corey, my friend," Rex continued," I'm fine. Go with Nico and follow me to the Hospice. We'll all find out what they can do there to help us both out. But, truly, I'm fine. She won't trust me with you both in the car."

Nico grunted but agreed, and tugged Corey to follow him. Rex finally sat in his seat and closed his door. He smiled to Olivia, making sure she was alright. She had already had her seatbelt on, an old habit, one which Rex also kept.

Corey and Nico got into Nico's car, and Nico had the engine started and lights on even before Rex had his running. The two cars drove off to find this mysterious hospital in the desert. The second amazing thing secreted away in Rex's desert. Under his nose. One ancient and one quite new. Neither were acceptable discoveries to say the least.

Gregory offered to give James a lift back to town along with Akabar and Serena. Akabar looked at the Giovanni's car that remained and did not think it should stay out here. Gregory agreed, but wondered if James knew how to drive. If not, he looked to Akabar, but Serena's eyes looked bright at the opportunity to drive it.

"Well James," Greg asked, "want to drive that swank ride back to Kitty's Place? You can follow us if you don't know the way."

Oh, no friend I must say that I am far to inexperienced with the contraptions to drive it on a good road let alone out here in the desert. So I suppose ether Akabar or this girl here will have to drive it.”

"This girl?", Serena blurted out, unable to control her emotions any longer. "You nearly got all of our friends killed so you could drink some ancient blood."

Akabar attempted to calm her down, and then noticed her amulet was beginning to glow. "Serena," he started, but she gave him no opportunity to continue.

"No, Akabar, this lick comes out of the earth, gets his way, buys our deadliest hidden stash, putting us all in danger, and you are all acting like he's doing us a favor!"

Akabar's legs gave out now and stumbled to the ground, his strength being drained by Serena unintentionally. Gregory yelled with a booming voice beyond his natural capacity, "Cease Serena!"

The amulet changed color and Serena's expression immediately changed from anger to shock as she realized with horror what she had done. With tears in her eyes, she bent down to pick her uncle up, slowly retransferreing his quintessence back to him. By the time he stood up, he was feeling fine, no worse for wear. Only the troubled expression of realizing how strong Serena was becoming even with the amulet's protection showed his concern.

"Serena," Akabar began, "Mr. Morolin has done us a favor, and taken on great risk himself. Leave his judgement to Rex in the matters of how he's jeopardized the city. All you need concern yourself with is removing that car from here."

With that Gregory chimed in, "Have you found the keys anywhere? I didn't see them near the charred shoes back there."

Serena smiled, only just now allowing herself to no longer be concerned about her uncle, "Don't worry, Greg, I can hotwire anything on wheels."

"It's settled then," Gregory added, "drop it off at Kitty's Place and we'll pick you up there. I'll give Morgan a call, catch him up on tonight's escapade, and have him send out some folks to clean up the rest of this mess." Then he motioned to James to take the passenger seat of his car. Akabar decided he would sit behind both vampires, in the middle spot, so he could talk to both.

Serena did indeed have the limousine hotwired effortlessly, and had the local rock station blaring on the radio, rolling the windows down, and waved to the "boys" as she drove off.

"That girl is going to be the death of me," Akabar mumbled as Greg started his Caddy.

After James had gotten into the car James looked back at Akabar.

“Akabar I meant no disrespect to Serena by hastily referring to her as “this girl” I merely did not know her name or her relation to you. I relies in retrospect that I should have stated myself differently. I do hope that she dose not hold grudges well.”

Akabar laughed to himself and Gregory also smiled as he drove back towards the glow of Las Vegas.

Akabar started, "No, she doesn't hold grudges. She ends them rather swiftly. The fact that you're here shows she's past this incident. Truly, the one person who you need to worry about holding a grudge is Olivia Giovanni."

Gregory added, "Indeed, and don't forget about Rex. Some serious shit hit a very well-oiled fan tonight. But for now, let's just worry about getting into town and making sure everything is OK there."

With that Greg floored his Caddy, which did not hesitate at all to accomdate the extra speed.

James looks to Akabar in the back seat with relief and says
"That is verey good to know Akabar, who knows maby after a while we might even be able to become friends."