[b]**Warning: Language, Violence & Domestic Abuse**.[/b]

"Abby!" Lucas shouted, drunkenly slurring Adelaide's current pseudonym as he slammed his fists against the glass door front to Exquisite Ink, Adelaide's tattoo shop. "Abby, let me in, I know you're in there!" It was just before first light the morning after the first night of the Emergence, and even the most hard core of partiers had turned in for the night, or at the very least passed out for the night. The only people who were left awake at this hour were the hardcore alcoholics, the junkies, and the criminals... and, of course, Lucas and Adelaide. Lucas standing outside the shop with his half full forty and his week old black eye, and Adelaide curled up behind the counter with a tipped over bottle of cheap whisky and a glass with nothing but a slowly melting ice cube. Mascara ran down her face and her arms were wrapped tightly around her, the thin blanket she held covering her own week old bruises. By her side Bacchus was curled silently, watching the door with his hackles raised.
"Abby, c'mon," Lucas continued, his voice softening as he slumped drunkenly against the door. "I'm sorry baby. It was a mistake, It won't happen again... I promise." After that, silence. Adelaide was about to let out a sigh of relief when his voice returned, this time with an edge of anger. "So, you're just going to sit there and ignore me?! Answer me, Abby... I know you can hear me! Answer me, you fucking bitch!" Another silent moment passed, then Abby sobbed, Bacchus growled, and there was the sound of breaking glass.
The next moments were a blur of action. A growl. A lunge. A yelp... and screaming... screaming and pain. Lucas crossed the room in seconds, pushing Adelaide against the wall by slashing at her with his now broken bottle. He was yelling something as his hand moved to her throat, but none of it seemed to make any sense to Adelaide. She clawed at his arm as she struggled to breath, then suddenly she could. Bacchus had latched himself on to Lucas' leg and caused him to drop his weapon. 
Adelaide gaped for a moment as her dog attacked her boyfriend. Bacchus wasn't normally a violent dog, but he was big and he would have likely killed Lucas if Lucas hadn't managed to grab a utility knife from one of the tables.
"No!" Adelaide heard someone with her voice shout. "Don't fucking touch my dog!" The world was a blur again, and when it ended Bacchus was licking her hand. On the floor lay Lucas in an slowly growing pool of blood. Next to him lay a utility knife stained in paint and blood.
In the background a phone rang, but to Adelaide it seemed like an echo as she stood staring at the sun slowly rising over the horizon through the shattered glass of her broken storefront. Adelaide's skin tingled, and then it crawled. She looked down and laughed weakly... Lucas' corpse was rapidly disappearing under a swarm of insects.
---
"Adelaide, it's your mother." Belladonna Ruine had been on her cell phone the moment her private jet had landed, and she was more than a little exasperated that her daughter had not bothered to answer the phone. "I really wish you didn't ignore my calls, I really do try to give you your space..." she sighs audibly. "You know I [i]could[/i] [b]make[/b] you answer if I wanted." She stepped from the plane and onto the tarmac, shielding her eyes from the sun for a moment before putting on a pair of designer sunglasses. 
Another sigh "As it happens, Mr. Oliander has decided that we're going to crash a little party that some [i]'friends'[/i] are having in town. He will be in town tomorrow, and has sent your uncle and I ahead of him. I'd be happy to treat you to a real meal if you're not to busy pretending to be better than the rest of your family... you know how to contact me." She hung up, and looked around finding a suitable looking young man and reaching her spirit out to envelope his. It wasn't hard... like so many mundanes, his aura was so dim that it barely existed at all.
"You," she said with a casual wave of the hand. "Carry my bags."
"Yes ma'am," her new toy responded, leaving his own luggage laying on the ground.