Isabeau & Lucie

Isabeau had been fighting off the fear as moved.  She knew something was out there, something following her, and it was not her creation.  Stories were told among pesants, stories of things that came lurking in the night, and Isabeau was almost to the point of believing them.  

She had stopped running, she was getting nowhere fast, and instead moving as quickly as she could without tripping, smacking into bushes, and still keeping mostly to the shadows.  

She used her own talent to suppress the speed of her heart, control her breathing, but despite her psychic command over her own body battling her mind was a different story.  She kept thinking of her private terror, the Penanggalan.  She had never even seen one but in her research into the keys to immortality she studied alot of undead folklore and there were some island natives who had this truely terrifying myth of a woman that could detach her head and fly off at night to feed on the living. 

From the bushes beside the road a deer bolted, straight at her.  Isabeau barely stiefled a shriek as she dodged the terrified animal.  That start did not help her mood at all.  Still her pursuer gained on her and she had no idea what was stalking her.   

 No idea that is until the human voice carried through the dark.  Isabeau worked with life and death, understood it as few others in this world.  She knew what could be done and what couldn't and she knew this was a living voice.  If it was living it could be killed, barring that delayed until she could escape. 

Isabeau stopped at the voice and stood still, drawing herself up and burring her fear deep inside.  She was a powerful woman, a master of her art, brilliant, cunning, and dangerous.  She held onto that as she strained her eyes in the dark, not seeing anything.  

The sound behind her caused her to turn and she thought she caught a glimpse of movement but it was gone rather quickly.  The voice spoke again from behind her and this time when Isabeau turned the woman remained visible.  The shadows hid most of her body and for a brief second all Isabeau saw was her head; the flash of fear returned before logic, and the sight of the woman's body just hidden in the shadow, drove it out.  

Isabeau's assessment was quick and efficient, her fear banished in the wake of cold confidence.   The woman was fairly tall, and 'felt' healthy and strong and Isabeau didn't want it to come to a hand to hand fight for survival.  She doubted she would win.  She had to have been sent by Adam; random coincidence just made no sense.  That also meant she was clever and likely Talented in someway.  

Even as she evaluated the girl with her eyes, she reached out with her Talent probing her.  Just a tiny bit to see if she spotted any obvious weaknesses; injuries or the like; but there seemed to be nothing so simple.  

Meeting Lucie's eyes, a challenge in the wonky darkness, Isabeau smiled a cold smile.  It was nearly as chilling as Lucie's own. 

“Guess what?  I can see you now” she said in a slightly sing-song voice.  

Those were the only words Isabeau said before leveling the force of her psychic Talent against Lucie's own psychic nature.  Isabeau had no idea precisely how her abilities would affect the other woman, knew only that she had to try and cripple her in mind and body, enough so that Isabeau could escape un-hindered.  It hit Lucie like a drug, worming its way into her body, trying to alter her mental capacity.


******
Lily & Ren

Ren had been holding Lily quite gingerly, he had this crazy fear that he might break her.  She had seemed somehow diminished when she left her body.  He didn't even really know what happened, only that something was drastically different.  In much the same way he didn't actually see what happened to the monstrous creature to cause the myriad of tiny wounds to blossom all over it.  He put the two things together however and knew that Lily had done something and now she was back to her usual self again. 

“Master Adam ordered me to keep you safe” said Ren with a dull finality allowing no argument.  “Take my revolver” he said pressing the metal hard into her hand.  He was shaking too much to use it accurately anyway and he had other ways of fighting.  He was not weak, and he had Adam's training.  “If we can get away from the fighting here maybe you can do...whatever it was you just did again.  This time shooting the kokot thing in the face.” 

He helped her to her feat, not so much helped as picked her up and placed her carefully down on her feet, before looking around to find a place they could get out of the fight.  A wall, piece of old machinery, or tree to shelter them, something so they could go unnoticed.  He knew instinctively if Lily was going to do her here-but-also-there trick they would need a safer place.  

"There" he said pointing to an old rusted piece of equipment.  It was so badly rusted out he couldn't tell what it was, but it was overgrown with weeds and made a nice mix of metal and vegetation they could hide behind.