[center] [h2][u]Unlucky Streak[/u][/h2] [img] http://i.imgur.com/ZnOpQuF.png[/img] & [img]https://i.imgur.com/6it2Rjl.png[/img] Location: Just outside of the High School Time: Morning (2 am +) [/center] Ben started out of the window in the car, his hand supported his chin and let the vibrations rattle through him. For the length of the car drive he had been quiet and lost in his own thoughts over what he had learned. Depression pounded at his usually high resistance toward outside influence, but this was something else and seemed to rot him away at the core. It dealt with a situation he wasn’t ready to face right now or likely ever. Slowly, he inhaled then exhaled as the car grinded to a stop with a squeakiness in its breaks. The sound was harsh enough to cause him to flinch and his eyes flipped to glare at front a moment before he began to push the door open. He slammed it shut in his wake while he edged out into the early morning darkness, the dawn still hours away, and toward home. It wasn’t a long walk, but it was one he needed to clear his head. Street lamps were the only source of light, illuminating the dark sidewalks within Hudson Valley and guided him home. By this time the full moon had faded below the horizon and no longer could affect him. Something he was rather grateful for because he was frightened if he shifted, he might’ve just run off and never stop. Last thing he wanted was another bunch of individuals trying to find him while he was just trying to run away from his problems. In the darkness, all he could hear was the fleshy slap of his bare feet across the pavement. It followed an unhurried and steady pattern of dragging with each step, likely because he was drawing as much time as he could in order to straighten out his emotional toil within. Lost in thought, Ben didn’t seem to notice he was being followed until he caught the human groan of someone being nailed in the gut upon colliding with a dumpster somewhere behind the school he went to. Mentally he growled, not in the mood to deal with more bullshit, and turned about to face the culprits. Two young adults, about three or fours older than him, with clearly visible tattoos upon their right shoulders. They were apart of the Young Talents, a recent upstart group filled by meta humans. Both proud and arrogant, they were mostly drop outs thanks to the racist views some of the civilian populace held against them and loathed anything to do with politics. Considering Ben had been too distracted to cover his head with anything, the two likely easily identified him and felt it would up their reputation to beat the crap out of the DA’s kid. “Well, lookie h’re. Boy seems t’be lost, ain’t he Brook?” The taller of the boys sneered, his accent ill educated and snobbish in tone. He was blond, the hair slicked back and well kept despite the thuggish profession he chose. His lanky figure had a ripped and ‘pierced’ by clothespins shirt, the latter likely to add to his ‘ruthless’ appearance. His friend was short and a bit on the chunky side, with a simply jean and tank top. Both their eyes gleamed with something unpleasant in mind for Ben causing him to speak,[color=chocolate] “I have no patience for this, now just pretend you didn’t see me or you will regret it.”[/color] Both chuckled before the taller boy turned with a smirk, “Nah, Ah thinks it will be youse that regrets it.” [i]Tap, tap, tap, tap…[/i] The unmistakeable sound of a pair of high heels walking on a hard surface echoed through the streets. From behind the thugs, a tall shadow-wreathed figure walked out into the street, looking over in the direction of both them… and her prey. There he was, the American werewolf whose lifeforce she had picked up whilst at the museum, the object of her fascination, and now… she had finally caught him, right where she wanted him, by himself. It would be much easier to turn him to her side in this situation. But first, there were the thugs in front of them both. Katarina smiled, her fangs glinting in the dim street lighting, and she chuckled softly to herself - they were overconfident, weren’t they? They weren’t human, however, that much she could tell by their biological signs - from what she had read in Merlin’s fantastical little library, they were best described as ‘metahumans’ - people who had been granted superhuman powers of some description, though quite what they could do was still a mystery to her. She cleared her throat. “[color=921111]Well, well, well, what do we have here? Surely you gentlemen could do better than waylaying a poor soul on the streets of this city? Or are you so baseborn that you resort to this scum and villainy to get by in the world?[/color]” Katarina snickered and strode towards them, Thirst clearly visible at her side. Her shadow threads flickered and tendrils of raw magic snaked their way into the surrounding area, whilst she drew her rapier and smiled. “[color=921111]I’ll give you this one golden opportunity to retreat from this confrontation. I’d take it if I were you… though I doubt you have the intelligence to understand why. Run along, boys![/color]” The Lanky one glanced over his shoulder, his lips frowned and eyes darted over the young woman that appeared seemingly out of nowhere. It was obvious her little quip on Ben’s behalf didn’t settled well with him. Casually he turned on a single heel toward her and scuffed at her snobbiness, finding it amusing she seemed to think herself better than the Young Talented crew, as he thumbed his nose a bit in an unbothered tick. Her brandished weapon failed to intimidate him because of its outdatedness in his mind as he commented, “Oi, who youse aimin’ t’poke wit that little toothpick you wavin’ bout? Youse got all the fancy tricks but how well can youse use ‘em?” Without another word or warning, his hands balled into fists and smacked together. His muscles promptly bulged and grew into about four times their normal size as his height reached about twelve foot in a matter of moments. Compared to the petite vampire, he looked like Goliath about to crush David, the runt of the biblical stories. “Let’s see what youse got, ‘itch,” He roared right before he rushed, his voice tossed an order behind, “Take care of the DA brat, but keep ‘im alive. We could use the ransom.” Shorty, annoyed by his partner’s short fuse, turned to Ben and raised his arms disarmingly, “Nuthing personal kid, but the Young Talents need the cold cash.” [color=chocolate] “I’m sure… but I’m not making it easy,”[/color] Ben growled, his body already started to shift and crack. “[color=921111]Well then! Let us dance![/color]” The hulking brute was fast, but Katarina had seen his rush much earlier than he gave her credit for. Though he was fast by human standards, he was still nothing more than a big bag of flesh and blood, and he needed a damn good seeing-to. Katarina scoffed as she watched the brute charge towards her, before her eyes flashed bright red with magical energy as she surged forward with a horrifying scream and leapt high into the air. The brute’s charge was bound to be slow to stop, and also made him slower to react to sudden changes - Kat counted on this weakness and used it to her advantage as her leap brought her face-to-face with the brute’s ugly visage, which was about to get even uglier. Kat brought her shadow thread boot around with lightning speed and much of her strength, slamming her foot squarely into the side of the brute’s face, with her heel tearing through the skin and muscle and opening up a huge gash on the side of his face. Afterwards, Kat grabbed hold of one of the brute’s spikes and hurled herself on top of his neck, standing atop his broad shoulders, and then… she was in the perfect position, so long as she acted quickly. With another screech of effort, Katarina drove her elbow into the base of the brute’s head and spinal column, aiming to at least stun him and prompt him to fall to the floor, whereupon Katarina could then finish him off with spells. As it turned out, that wasn’t quite working to plan. The brute roared in pain as her boot opened up the gash on his face, and he could feel the vampire standing on the back of his neck. Katarina’s second strike stunned the brute, but not to the extent that he couldn’t think - out of nowhere, he brought a hand around in an attempt to slap her off his back, which Katarina only just about avoided by ducking at the last minute, and he brought his charge to a slow standstill, by now shaking frantically to dislodge Kat from on his back. Katarina decided to oblige his request before he actually caught her with a blow, which would likely not end well for her… Leaping once more from her position, Katarina jumped high into the air, and prepared a spell that she knew would likely tip the scales into her favour. From the sky, a green cloud coalesced into a roiling mass, and from it came a huge two-bladed axe, swinging forth with an awful howl from the blade. It impacted the brute in the chest, a shower of crimson droplets bursting forth and showering the street in front of him with blood. Unaware of Lanky’s predicament, Shorty’s eyes narrowed upon seeing Ben shift from human into werewolf. It took him off guard as he began to run his filthy mouth, “Oscar, look git. He’s a fucking wolf.” Not waiting for an answer, he then turned to a mostly transformed Benjamin, “I’m gonna to skin and hang your furry ass on a wall sumwhere.” His eyes glowed a dark purple as he narrowed his vision, his feet stepped to close the distance quickly. Meanwhile nearly done, the shift faster now than before, Benjamin’s blue eyes snapped toward the sound. His white teeth bared in a defensive growl before he rose to all fours and lunged. Immediately his figure hit the ground as if shoved down by some invisible force. A sudden, surprised yelp rose from his muzzle and echoed throughout the air. “[color=921111]No! Don’t you dare touch him![/color]” Katarina raged as she watched the werewolf impact squarely into some form of force field. He looked in pain, in dire need of assistance… as if the short fucker was trying to crush him with some kind of force field. “[color=921111]For this… you suffer. Die![/color]” Katarina took hold of her rapier as she fell towards the ground after her leap, and then, a second after landing, she surged forwards, a growl of anger and a snarl on her lips marring her features as she raised Thirst to strike. She, too, slammed into the gravity field, but her strength and speed were such that she burst through whatever gravitic anomaly was slowing her down… and drove her rapier squarely through the short one’s chest. Another fountain of crimson erupted from the source of the strike, as the short one gave a strangled cry of pain. The short one sank to his knees, looking down at the sword protruding from his chest and then, to compound his situation, he felt two searing needles of pain on his neck… The vampire’s bite. Katarina drank deeply, slaking her thirst on the short one’s lifeblood, sucking greedily with an almost animalistic passion. “[color=921111]Yes… yes… give unto me…[/color]” Withdrawing her sword with a satisfying slice, she spat out the last globule of blood from her fill onto the ground. “[color=921111]Liebfraumilch, out of season. Do any of you Americans actually take care of your bodies?[/color]” The hulking brute, meanwhile, had been able to work the axe free from his chest, and roared into the sky, bringing Katarina back from her high. “[color=921111]Ah. Right. You.[/color]” Ben whimpered as his figure rose, a few ribs cracked and bruised. Thankfully that it. The pressure released from his chest allowed him to inhale precious air and a sharp sting replaced the mass of muscle that was no longer collapsed. Already his regeneration was kicking in but it would take time for him to recover, time he didn’t have. Already his instinct was riled high enough to chase out the intruders from his territory and he was hell bent on doing that. A low growl rumbled through his throat just moments before he bolted toward Lanky. Just having tossed away the axe, the thug turned his attention on Kat and seemed considering to toss the weapon right at her. He didn’t get much of a chance when Ben’s large maw leapt up and chomped on his wielding arm, his weight dangled from it. His paws kicked out at the ribs with surprising force that Kat could easily hear bones cracking on impact. Ben’s fangs dug deeper into the muscle causing more blood to surface. Lanky began to grip the wolf’s neck scuff, trying to rip the beast off him. His legs darted from one side of the sidewalk as he began to curse. Each time failing to rip the beast off his arm. Katarina watched as the werewolf leapt onto the brute’s arm, tossing him about as his powerful jaws continued to clamp down on the thug’s arm that had attempted to take hold of the axe that Katarina had summoned to take a chunk out of his chest. Seeing that the werewolf clearly had had no problems with her killing previously, Katarina was now no longer hesitant to use lethal force - let the blood flow. Kat raised her arms into the air, channelling necromantic energy (though it was difficult to summon the quantity needed) and creating another large green cloud… only this began to blow high winds and crackle with barely-constrained lightning. A bolt shot out from the cloud and struck the brute in the back, shocking almost every nerve ending in the giant’s body, and - unfortunately for Ben- anything attached to said brute. However, the main manifestation of the spell began to unfold, a swirling morass of necrotic energy and dusts began to coalesce at the bottom of the cloud, quickly forming into a funnel, out of which one could see the gnashing and snapping shapes of human skulls as the funnel began to lower towards the ground, growing larger and larger as it did so. Katarina continued to channel energy towards the spell as it grew in size and strength, the high winds whipping through her hair and shadow thread clothing whilst around, windows and doors began to shake and rattle in their settings. Ben had smelt a negative and dark scent of magic, but inexperience caught with him. The electrical energy struck and erupted within the werewolf as he howled in pain. His cry rang through the skies before he was tossed from the brute in someone’s yard. He hit the dirt hard, his muscles twitching uncontrollably, and burnt hair filled his nostrils from where the magic struck. His throat whimpered in pain and panic, his nerves unable to reply to his instinctual need to flee. Gradually, his world went black against his will. Kat shouted to the werewolf, “[color=921111]Get out of there! Get over here![/color]” The reason why became all too apparent. Despite the giant’s stature, the storm began to drag him ever so slowly towards the funnel. To Katarina’s horror, however, the bolt of lightning had knocked the werewolf out cold - he was beginning to change back into his human form, and he was in imminent danger of being sucked into the funnel. Katarina instinctively stopped channeling any more energy into the spell and dashed over to the prone form of the werewolf on the ground, avoiding the stunned flailing of the giant in front of her. Katarina grimaced as she lifted the werewolf from his repose, running as quickly as she could away from both the giant and the funnel… which was dangerously close to the brute’s back. Katarina took cover behind a stairway to a porch on the street and looked back, just as the giant was dragged into the funnel. He screamed and howled and cried out in agony as hundreds of spectral skulls materialised around him, tearing chunks of bloody flesh from his body with their teeth, ripping through flesh, muscle, bone and blood vessels. Katarina looked away and back down to the werewolf, whose transformation back to human was beginning to really show. She shook her head and tried to ignore the screams… the horrible screams. Skullstorm was not a pleasant spell. They finally died down, as the giant was reduced to little more than a pile of bloodied charnel and giblets. Katarina looked at the werewolf, cradled as he was in her arms. “[color=921111]Are you… are you alright?[/color]” Katarina was rewarded with the rise and fall of the now human teenager’s chest. Through his hair was a bit singed from the experience, he was otherwise unharmed and breathing steadily. After several moments, his eyes crunched as he started to stir. His torso started to pull upright only to have the shift in position hit him with a rush of vertigo and immediately his body began to slip back into its former position. His eyes widened in surprise at the suddenness causing him to lift his head up to look at the woman above him. [color=chocolate] “What hit me? Considering I feel like someone just fried my insides, I’m going to say not likely. Who are you and besides the pieces I can put together, what happened?”[/color] “[color=921111]I think… the short one had some kind of force field, it looked like it was crushing you, he was probably going to try to kill you whilst I was distracted with the brutish fiend.[/color]” Katarina gently lowered the male down on to the ground now that he was fully transformed back into a human - and what a human. He looked young - perhaps no older than Katarina herself when she was first vampirised - and he had a very pleasing physique... Katarina’s eyes wandered absent-mindedly over the man’s torso, over his arms, his legs… he was quite the specimen. Focusing her attention away from the rest of him and onto his face, Katarina sat down on the concrete pavement, a wave of weariness now washing over her following her strenuous exertions during the brief fight. Necromantic energy was hard to come by in this city, and gathering together enough energy to manifest her spells had taken an awful lot out of her. Kat sighed heavily, looking up at the night sky, her breath heavy in her chest. Even though she was undead, oxygenation nevertheless improved her ability to recover from weariness such as powerful magic, and besides… it just felt natural to do. She didn’t overtly [i]need[/i] to breathe like mortals, but she liked the feeling of euphoria that oxygen often gave her. Like a drug. “[color=921111]My name… is Katarina. Katarina von Rysech. If you want to call me something short, call me Katrin or just Kat. You were at the museum a couple of days ago, right? I was there too - but I was sleeping. They had my coffin as an exhibit of Renaissance construction in Eastern Europe, and I suppose they didn’t know that I was inside. I felt your lifeforce, I could see you, even though I was yet to fully awaken… and then afterwards, I wanted to see what made you tick. Who you were, what kind of being you were.[/color]” Katarina blinked several times, trying to avoid the rising feeling of incredible awkwardness she was feeling. “[color=921111]I, er… I guess you fascinated me. I have never met your kind before, especially not in Europe, you know? In Germany, we didn’t have your kind, we, we uh... didn’t have anything like you, so, I... I was kind of interested in seeing you in the flesh, right?[/color]” This man… he was different than other humans. Something about him had struck home, something… alluring to her? Surely not? True, he wasn’t fully human, but he had a human form, he was… he was human [i]enough[/i] for it to matter. And that human form was [i]breathtaking[/i], for sure. “[color=921111]How do you feel?[/color]” [color=chocolate] “Like I got wrecked and left to put myself together,”[/color] Benjamin, choosing to overlook the sense of awestruck the girl his age admitted. Mostly because he wasn’t sure how to feel about. One half of him felt uncomfortable because it reminded him how some individuals idolized Daniel and he wanted nothing in common with that man. The other half enjoyed the attention a lot, puffing up his pride and confidence to an all time high compared to the recent couple of days. Digesting the information for several moments, Benjamin began to realized he wasn’t covered very well as his eyes darted to where he was and noticed the shredded remains of Otto’s borrowed outfit. He groaned in exhaustion, his hands pressed into his closed eyelids to drive away the frustration within his chest. The teen wolf inhaled deeply then exhaled before he spoke again,[color=chocolate] “Alright, so let me take a wild guess: you’re really old museum piece who recalls me and escaped, then I assume tracked me down. From your words and considering I recall only bits and pieces of things, I must’ve transformed earlier. The memories are still hazy but getting clearer gradually.”[/color] Benjamin paused as his nose flickered and he narrowed his eyes, his head instinctively leaned into her neck. He took a deep whiff,[color=chocolate] “You smell pretty good-shit… this werewolf instinct is becoming a pain in my ass.”[/color] “[color=921111][i]Was… Was machst du?[/i] What are you doing?[/color]” Katarina recoiled slightly, and then gave a soft smile. “[color=921111]I mean, I did put perfume on today, but… wait, is that my necromantic power you can smell?[/color]” She gasped, drawing back in amazement, her mouth open slightly in surprise. “[color=921111][i]Gott uber alles[/i], it’s true. You [i]can[/i] track magic down by scent… God, what an amazing power to have.[/color]” Kat, had she had a heartbeat, would likely have skipped a few upon the realisation of this revelation. So the man could track things down with magic? Could he track down her lost items? Could he be the key to her restoration, to the beginning of a new age for her? Even Franz Siegfried did not represent such an opportunity to her, and he was her closest confidant and advisor during her reign. If he still lived, Katarina would do well to seek his company out, that was for certain. “[color=921111]Hey, I’m not… [i]Ich bin nicht so alt![/i][/color]” Katarina pouted at him. [color=chocolate] “If it helps,”[/color] Benjamin pointed out, assuming she was insulted by his statement even though he didn’t know a bit of German and her pouting face,[color=chocolate] “you look better than most girls at my school for your age. They likely would kill for your secrets.”[/color] Katarina laughed and brushed her hair away from her face, shaking her head. “[color=921111]Mmm, they try looking this good at five hundred, [i]ja[/i]? As for how I keep myself, oh, it’s so easy. Trust me, it’s all about the diet. Sadly, if I shared my secret with them, I’d have to kill them.[/color]” She grinned, inadvertently flashing her fangs to the full to the man… he was probably no stranger to vampires, given his condition of lycanthropy - Katarina knew of the strife between vampire and werewolf, though she personally had never encountered hostility with one of his kind… and this man was most definitely bucking the trend. “[color=921111]If you want, or you feel a little exposed, I can give you some temporary clothing… similar to this.[/color]” She tugged at the collar of the short dress that she wore from shadow, which was still just as sturdy as before, despite her magic exhaustion, and several tendrils began reaching out in Ben’s direction, only for them to dissipate into the atmosphere. Katarina giggled as she watched them. “[color=921111]Don’t worry, they aren’t harmful… oh. I never caught your name, [i]Herr werwolf[/i]. What is it?[/color]” Benjamin jerked a bit when she revealed her teeth, the fangs drawing a sharp dislike from his instinct and oddly something about them made him tense around them. It seemed the fact she was a vampire had drawn his wolf into defensive mode after several bad encounters with Barron. For a moment, he paused to examine the reasons. A name flashed into his recollection: Barron Vanderbilt, an elder blood breed vampire. Benjamin blinked trying to understand how he knew that name or why it made the hairs on his neck rise on end. His expression relaxed back into a slightly confused one when he asked her a question,[color=chocolate] “I rather not get arrested for public indecency tonight so yes please, but first one question: do you know an Elder Blood Breed Vampire named Barron Vanderbilt by chance? I seem to have some nasty sensation of distrust when it comes to that name and I honestly feel it’s got a good reason behind it.”[/color] He held his breath to hear her answer, partly hoping she wasn’t. Katarina was slightly taken aback by his recoiling away from her. She put a hand to her mouth and silently cursed herself for accidentally revealing her identity with her careless attitude… She could see him tense slightly, hear his heartbeat begin to quicken, his pheromones start to drift towards fight-or-flight. The hairs began to rise on his body - hm, this was bad news. She hoped that her carelessness hadn’t accidentally made her an enemy in his eyes, he seemed to have a dislike for vampires, something which was not altogether uncommon amongst werewolves… only he had been so easy-going beforehand. A ruse to draw her in? Or was it simply a case of him not knowing? He was young - he might not have realised whom she was… and then he asked her something which also took her back slightly. An odd question. Did she know a... [i]Barron Vanderbilt[/i]? She dimly remembered reading something about a vampire of a similar name created by Vlad Tepes after an experiment gone wrong in some lab of his, but nothing actually concrete about the man. She’d heard something about a vampire running casinos and business ventures in some American city in the west of the country - exactly where it was she had no idea, for her knowledge of American geography could be described as abysmal at the very best - and she frowned, muttering in German as she thought. Finally, she shook her head. “[color=921111]No, I’ve never met this man. I’ve heard something of him, though? Something about him being made by Vlad Tepes? I don’t know, I have no idea about most of this planet’s history. I know it’s some time in the 21st century today, though…[/color]” She stopped for a moment. It really had been about four hundred years. “[color=921111][i]Mein Gott… vier hundert jahre seit mein sturz.[/i][/color]” Looking back to the man,, she raised her eyebrows briefly and then sank back against the wall of the large building that they were next to, before, creating a primitive form of loincloth from shadow thread to garb him about his loins. [color=chocolate] “I haven’t much idea [i]how[/i] I knew the name myself. I’m still blacking out but I do remember someone saying that young werewolves are impressionable, especially on first encounters, and that it can carry over onto any individual of that race. If I had to guess, Mr. Vanderbilt might be the reason I’m edgy around vampires,”[/color] Ben admitted, thinking it was pretty obvious, and added,”[color=chocolate] “I’m sure that will change being around other vampires.”[/color] At feeling the shadow swirl and cover his pelvic region, his head leaned up and glanced down. It wasn’t what he expected as most modern fashion had much more cloth causing him to raise an eyebrow at Katarina. Granted, he was impressed with the magic over all and how light it was. He thought a moment how to phrase his next few words over the fact it was too ‘little’ cover. [color=chocolate] “Ummm, in this age, I’m afraid to say this is still less than acceptable for cover. Could you fashion a simple shirt and pants? By the way, my name’s Benjamin Reeves and I appreciate your help in whatever happened. I get the feeling you were helpful in… a fight?”[/color] “[color=921111]I… see. Well met, Herr Reeves. Ah. Right, I will do what I can… I cannot promise anything, Herr Reeves… I am a vampire noblewoman, not a tailor...[/color]” [i]Shirt and pants? What on earth is he talking about? Maybe a doublet and leggings would suffice… but surely anything that covers[/i] that [i] area should have sufficed? Humans, so changeable in their standards.[/i] Katarina frowned and created a simple shirt-like structure that was more akin to a t-shirt than either a proper shirt or a doublet, which clung to his skin quite tightly - perhaps moreso than necessary, Katarina admitted to herself with an inwardly sly smile - and then she made a set of tight-hugging leggings which reached down to his ankles, both out of shadow thread. Smiling to herself, she sat back with a sigh and wiped at her forehead. “[color=921111]Right, I hope that should be sufficient… [i]Gott verbietet[/i] I have to do any more, I think I might faint.”[/color] [color=chocolate] “This could be me, but I’m getting the impression you like my shape an awful lot…”[/color] Benjamin teased, his lips curled into a cocky smirk then turned serious,[color=chocolate] “If I had known that, I wouldn’t have made the request. I’m not into making ladies faint after all. Too cliche. So…”[/color] He once more relapsed into silence before another question rose up,[color=chocolate] “Do you have a place to stay? I assume not since you likely just broke out of the museum and came wandering all over New York to find me.”[/color] Katarina’s throat dried as she tried to hide her increasing shyness from the more brazen and perhaps brash personality of Benjamin in front of her. She gave a half-laugh and looked away, slightly embarrassed that she’d once again been caught out. Still, it was obvious. And she respected him for calling her out on it, that was for sure. “[color=921111]You’re not into making ladies faint? With a physique like yours, [i]sterben nicht[/i]... You might have a career in that direction, Herr Reeves.[/color]” Katarina shook her head with a grin and looked around. However, she faltered at his next question. “[color=921111]N-No. I don’t.[/color]” Truth be told, she hadn’t thought much of habitation. Admittedly, her first few days were at Merlin’s expense in her own portal-dimension-pocket-thing, but she hadn’t actually found a place to stay, to call her own, to relax. “[color=921111]I didn’t just break out and then immediately come to find you… I had to stop off at the library first, you know, find out who and what I was dealing with. But no… I don’t have a, uh… a place to stay. I don’t sleep, of course… but it is always nice to have somewhere to come back to. Your own sanctuary, a place you can go to get away from it all.[/color]” She remembered her Sanctum in the Tower… the Reservoir, the Chalice at her side as she perused through more magical tomes than you could shake a stick at, and then… then she began her own work. The Liber Necronomica. They thought they were lost to time. And now, Katarina knew just the man to help her find everything she once owned. Perhaps the Red Countess ascendeth after all? Benjamin sighed then thought for a moment,[color=chocolate] “Well, that’s not going to do for me. I might regret this later, but I got my own ‘sanctuary’ upstairs and enough room for about two others without being cramped. You might have to help me sneak in as explaining you to those I live with, it's going to be complicated. Daniel won’t care but Lorrie will be all over my case and trying to get dirt on you. I much rather avoid that really. What do you say?”[/color] “[color=921111]Y-you’re willing to do this? For me?[/color]” Katarina’s eyes widened. “[color=921111]Thank you… thank you… That means a lot to me. And as for your parents, unless they can call upon powers of their own, I have my own ways of dealing with recalcitrant obstacles.[/color]” Katarina grinned and her eyes flashed bright red for a brief moment, but then she tempered her reaction, fearful that Ben might get the wrong impression. “[color=921111]Let’s just say I’m [i]very[/i] good at persuading people to do as I say.[/color]” [color=chocolate] “This I’m curious to see…”[/color] Benjamin chuckled softly, his tone held a hint of doubt but eagerness to see it. Feeling like he had laid on Kat’s lap far longer than he should’ve, his body started to rise upright and get to his feet. Dusting himself off, he was a bit surprised at the ‘shadow’ covering him slightly moving with him and having some solidness to it. He mumbled something about impressive then gestured for her to follow him back to his house.