Samantha nodded silently without a word. Concentrating her attention on her hand she quickly started channeling the Lef from the soil to her body to a near-physical presence in her hands. Her fingers seemed to bleed out a translucent liquid that was then combined as she joined her fingers to form small beads resembling water. Pulling her fingers and the spheres apart created five shiny strings that she then started weaving around her fingers as if life and death was a mere game of strings. Bending a body to her will was indeed like child’s game, as long as she had enough energy to spare, but this time, she noticed, the situation was slightly different. For one, she didn’t have physical contact with the deceased, which always helped to attach the strings. Secondly, the abundance of Lef both inside and around her, made it difficult to make the Lef invisible. Checking the results out critically she merely twisted her index finger a millimeter and could see the image of the ground below distort by the Lef fibers like a ray penetrating through thin glass. Under normal circumstances such a small imperfection wouldn’t mean much. Under normal circumstances she wouldn’t find herself under siege. And Sam knew better than to underestimate the risk. It was going to take a few precious seconds longer but everything had to be done perfectly.
 
Carefully transferring the web from both hands to just one, she used the other to carefully remove the ruby around her neck and the bracelet featuring two other shiny gems. Instantly the web seemed to vanish in her hand – an optical illusion treacherous as the night. Gently she settled the jewellery in the warm dirt and pushed them away from herself. She glanced at Simeon. “Can you take those? They’re full of Lef.” She wouldn’t have spoken if it wasn’t a valid and important question. He was a dark elf, and as such he might well have a higher sensitivity to the magical essence than herself. Still, she hoped he could take them for now – they were more precious as gold and she could only control the body as long as she was linked to it and giving out Lef towards moving it. Simeon held the rubies in open hands, loosely cupping them with a drawn scowl. If she wasn't distracted, she might thing he was in afraid of the thing, even in pain.

Leaving the matter to the side she directed her gaze to the alley where she knew the body had been placed not so long ago. Her fingers extended and she sent out the Lef to soundlessly slither to the body, coil around it, trap it, imprison it in her will and make it alive again. However… there was some resistance met. Something stood up against the threads, pulling them away, pulling them.. back. Sam’s lips parted letting out a silent curse but a smile prayed at them non the less. The resistance wasn’t strong enough to completely reject her access but it was strong enough to fragment her control. Once again she glanced at her companion, her expression as vexed as it was amused. “Next time if you want them moved, leave them clean. That body would have been empty if it weren’t for you linking yourself to it. Now your proximity alters my control over it. Move a bit, please, as far away as you can manage.” 

As the man did so, Sam cast both her hands out like a puppeteer, sending out an impulse of Lef strong enough to jerk the body upright. Her strings were still being pulled back by the dark elf and it took more of her own energy than it should to control the dead woman onto the main street and a few uncertain steps closer to her master. As it seemed, the rising was nothing short of a clumsy improvisation, bad enough to be called an excuse, where it should have been mere child’s play. It was fragile and it took too long – she could already hear the danger looming over them in the rustle of cloth and clicking of metal. Furthermore, the body had to be moved at least a hundred steps to actually serve any real purpose, and the energy required for that might well render Sam unable to run at full speed, even if she managed. Things looked quite grim… or did they…?

“Be ready to dash.” She warned with a crooked smile. Then, she took a deep breath and held her mouth open as if to scream… But.. no sound came out of her throat. Instead, it came out of another. 

A loud wail was heard from the raised, inhuman in its volume and pitch, enhanced by the Lef and distorted by death. I boomed up and washed over the town startling animals and stunning humans. The sound preyed on their fundamental fears, reminded their very souls of their own mortality and they couldn’t defend themselves against the horror of it. Samantha held on to her control for a few seconds longer, injecting the fear deeper into anyone who heard this, anyone who didn’t know death as intimately as the Night Kiss did, anyone who feared it more than they did and revered it less. Then, with a sudden twist of her hand she broke off the strings, setting both the body and herself free. With no more than a glance at Simeon she knew that he’d follow and she dashed. She could only hope that this excuse of a distraction would serve long enough for the bullets fired to miss their targets.