Checkov knew he was running low on time from the way people were entering the ballroom, but he couldn't help it. He wanted to at least see the first of the guests arrive, and he had been hoping he would be able to catch a few others in the in between. However, once Issack and Isabella got over to him, he couldn't help but to want to half groan and smile. Issack had definitely become more insufferable over the last few weeks, but he had to keep the peace. Too much could go wrong if he didn't, but Isabella was definitely a delight, as always. He smiled at her curtsey, and gave a small bow to her. "Thank you. She was very happy with herself and is very excited to see how everyone else likes it." he answered her, but soon Issack was talking again. He couldn't lie about the fact that he did need to find an out soon, but when he brought up Izzy inviting people to the party, even though she wasn't hosting it, he shook his head. He had been trying to ask Izzy if she had seen Helena at all, as he hadn't seen her since much earlier, but of course Issack was brown nosing. "It's not a problem. I appreciate the enthusiasm." He told Izzy before Issack basically shooed her off. When she mentioned him saving a dance for her, he smiled. "Of course, and if you see Helena tell her I'll find her later, please." Now he was alone with Issack, and he looked up to the clock. He needed to go change into his other suit before long, and though Issack was in the middle of a tangent, he sighed. "I do apologize, Issack, I need to go finish getting ready. I will be back in a bit." he said, excusing himself to his chambers. Luckily, he had managed to make it out of the hall with little trouble, but when he began heading up towards his quarters, he noticed one of the Southern witches. He could remember her name being Mercy, and she looked very nice with her hair curled and down to one side. She was wearing a silver dress that was both formfitting and organic. He stopped and she smiled at him. "Mercy, right?" "Yes sir, sorry, I was just showing a couple of the girls around when I realized I forgot something." she said. She waved waved her small bag a little and chuckled. "I told Oaklen I'd help him with Palsea, so I brought some stuff for her." "Good thinking. Have you seen Cass?" he asked her, and she nodded. "She just went into her chambers to finish getting ready. The rest of us should be cleared out soon." she said. He nodded a bit and smiled to her. "Thank you. If any of you need anything, please don't hesitate to ask." he said. "Actually sir, I do have a question." she said, and he nodded. "Niko doesn't seem worried, but should he worry at all?" Checkov shook his head. "Not at all. Cass seemed to think that he won't have any problems at all, especially when she said he knew a guest or two here already. She's a little cryptic, but he has no worries." Mercy gave a dazzling smile. "Thank you, it's always good to have it confirmed." she walked off with that and Checkov went into his chambers and quickly changed. He left his chambers and found his way outside to see if Lia and Kat had made it yet, and it appeared they had. He walked over to them, a small smile coming to his face when he saw the way Mitch was looking at Lia. He let them know about the "unexpected" guests, and soon he headed back into the ballroom. He sighed and grabbed a glass of wine. This would go well. This would. -- Cass was glad to get out of the ballroom before Issack came in. She loathed that man more and more by the passing day. She sighed a bit as she headed down the hall, and soon she caught sight of Mitch. "Hey sug!" she called, and she caught up to him. "Awww, thanks sug. Simple an' elegant. Y'know how I am." she chuckled. "An' look at you in your suit! Defini'ely an eye catcher." she smiled, but she noticed his tie and raised a brow. "Thought Check insisted on silk ties, sug?" When he gave his answer, she gave a nod. "Well, you defini'ely knocked that choice outta the park." she said. She smiled when they stopped at her room, and she gave a gentle wave. "Thanks for walkin' with me, sug." She entered her room soon after, and when she saw Niko she smiled. "My, my, ain't you a looker in a suit." She walked over to him, and once he complained about his tie, she slapped his hands away and fixed it for him. "There ya go, sug." she said. "Now, if you'll 'scuse me for just a sec, I gotta get into my dress." She headed off to get into her dress, and once she was in it, she fixed her hair and make up a little before joining Niko. "Ready, sug?" They headed out and when he brought up not being as worried about Check as the other two, she kind of smiled. "Don' worry 'bout them, Niko. Issack is always a dick, and Lucas is alrigh'. Helena wouldn't've 'greed to marry 'im otherwise. Plus, I thin' you'll be pleasantly s'prised to see you know a guest." It wasn't long after she said that that she noticed Atticus, and soon she was off to look for Helena. This party was definitely bustling now, and Cass noticed everyone seeming to enjoy the pleasantries. She smiled when she saw Dana talking to a woman and what appeared to be a child. The "child" was named Alina, but she was older than most of the vampires here, and she certainly acted it too. In fact, the only person she wasn't really grumpy with was Palsea, and that was because it was Palsea. She smiled a bit when she caught sight of Helena and Izzy at the end of a hall talking to two men. She recognized one as Lucas, but not the other. She decided she'd catch them later on and soon she caught sight of Niko again. "Sorry 'bout runnin' off like that." she apologized. "Been lookin' for Helena all day, but she's havin' her own lit'le reunion with her best friend." She soon noticed Mitch and Atticus walk in with Lia and Kat, and she smiled. "'ey, why don' ya turn 'round an' go say hi?" Once Niko turned around, she saw Lia happen to look over and stop for a moment. She waved a little and smiled, and she patted Niko's shoulder before whispering to him. "Fig'red do ya both some good to see each other." she said before she walked over to them. "Mitch, sug, can I steal ya for a second?" she asked before she took his arm. "Don' mind them. Niko is an ol' friend of Lia's, an' I need a wine opinion 'cause if I ask Dana we'll be in the cellars." she laughed. -- Helena smiled as she walked down the hall. She was wearing a flowing light blue gown with some small sleeves, and she smiled when she caught sight of the men at the end of the hall. One was a dirty blonde in a very nice black suit, but with a shirt that matched the color of her dress, and he was fiddling with his tie. The other was a dark haired man with tattoos still visible even though he was wearing a dark suit with a dark grey shirt. "I don't understand why he insists on these silk ties." the blonde said, and soon Helena stepped in and took over tying his tie. "Because they look nice, Lucas." she smiled. The other man laughed. "I don't see why silk gives you such a hard time, Luke." "Because, Cade, I'm not used to this fancy of an event anymore. Even so, we always used polyester back West." he said, and Cade nodded. "That's fair." he said, and once Helena got his tie fixed, she smiled and kissed his cheek. "What took you so long, Helena?" "That's the thing, Cade." she said, turning to him. "Your brother is here." Lucas and Cade both exchanged a look before looking to Helena. "Which brother?" Cade asked, and Helena gave a slightly sad frown. "Atty." she answered. "He barely recognized me, but here he's only seen me in passing, I don't think he remembers anything anymore." Cade sighed and ran a hand over his face, "Thanks, Helena." "How do you want to go with this?" Lucas asked, and before Cade could answer, a brunette woman came over and hugged Helena. Helena smiled and hugged her back. "Izzy!" she held her out at arms length and smiled. "Thank you. You look amazing too!" She looked over when Izzy did at Lucas and Cade, and they both kind of chuckled. "It's alright. I've actually been looking forward to meeting you, Helena talks about you a lot." Lucas said, "I'm Lucas, and this is my best friend Cade." Cade smiled. "Pleasure to meet you." Lucas gently bowed to Izzy, but Cade took her hand and placed a kiss to the back of it. Lucas just sort of smiled, and he looked to Helena when he noticed the halls were beginning to clear out. "I'm guessing things are going to get started soon." he said, and Cade nodded. "I'm going to go get a drink, anyone want anything?" he asked. "Some wine, please." Helena asked. "I'll get you some." Lucas said, and soon he and Cade headed off. Helena smiled and took Izzy's arm. "Hi, Eve!" Helena smiled. "You look amazing! How have you been? I so miss when we all get to hang out." While, yes, Helena knew that Eve was Izzy's bodyguard, she also saw her like a friend. It wasn't often that Izzy went somewhere without Eve, if ever, and so they bonded quickly too. "I wish you guys could see all we've done back West. It's starting to really come together, and I'm hoping while we're here, Luke can work on strengthening the alliances." She was speaking in hushed tones. Very few people knew that the West coven was rebuilding and that Lucas was the coven leader, but those who did were very strategically chosen, in fact, Lucas had made a point of it to loop Issack out and loop Izzy in. Hence why all of their talks were done through Helena. Lucas had the advantage of Helena at his side, who knew [i]all[/i] of the inner workings of the coven life and councils. She was her father's daughter after all. "So catch me up, how have you been?" -- Lia couldn't help but smile when Kat had complimented her, and she smiled. "You look beautiful too." Soon they were off to the main coven. She heard Kat voice her nervousness about stepping on Atticus's feet and chuckled. "You'll do fine." Once the door to the carriage opened, and she saw Mitch, she couldn't help but to smile. He said that she looked beautiful, and it was a high that would soon go away."You look pretty good, yourself." she said to him, softly. She carefully looked at him out of the corner of her eye. He definitely looked good in a suit, and she really enjoyed that she got to see it. Checkov had stopped them on the way in, and soon they were heading in themselves, and she just looked around a bit. There were still people out in the halls, talking and getting acquainted with one another. She noticed some witches that she was certain were from the South, and soon her eyes saw Cass talking to a man. When he turned, she stopped in her tracks. "Oh, she's sneaky." she mumbled to herself, and she looked to Mitch. "Excuse me, I would like to go say-" before she could finish, Cass had cut her off. She smiled at her before catching the smile Cass sent to her. She could feel them watching as she walked over to Niko and she crossed her arms a little. "Now this, this is a very pleasant surprise." she smiled to him before giving him a hug. "How have you been? I haven't seen you in ages." she looked around a bit before asking softly, "Have you seen or heard from Ally at all? I just..." she looked down for a moment before she felt eyes on them. It was some of the other witches and she gave a gentle wave to them before seeing them look away. She was glad she came to this ball, very glad now. Niko was someone from her past she would never be mad at seeing. They had a lot of respect for each other, especially after everything with her family and her going to Sanctuary. She knew she dropped off after that, but she had run into him a time or two before she got to Checkov's coven. She wasn't at all surprised when it came up how long she had been here. "I've been here for about 45 years now." she said, gently fiddling with her necklace again. "Checkov himself found me with a lot of hunters on my ass. He didn't even hesitate to take me in either, even knowing the reputation I built." she rolled her eyes at the thought. "But, I've been here, and working for him since. The vampires here don't like me much, but that's fine. I don't care. I'm not here for them to like me, but Checkov has assigned me a body guard. The man I came in with, his name is Mitch. He's been really good at his job, no matter how difficult I've made it." She sort of chuckled at the thought before she felt a drink in her hand and she saw Mitch and Cass had joined them. "Now that y'all've gotten re'quainted, I fig'red we could swoop in." Cass chuckled. "Sneaky as ever, I see." Lia said to her, and she saw Cass give a dazzling smile. "Niko this is Mitch, Mitch this is Niko." Lia said, and soon her attention moved when she heard Dana laughing loudly. She couldn't help the half laugh she gave as she sipped her wine and turned her head away. "I see Dana is happy to see Alina and Penelope." Cass raised a brow. "You 'member them?" "They're pretty hard to forget, Cass." Lia said. -- Standing there with Mitch, he could tell that Mitch could sense his nervousness. He chuckled when Mitch asked about the dancing. "A bit of both. Afraid I'm going to make a fool of myself." he admitted, but soon the girls were there and they were heading in. He and Kat just kept on heading into the hall, and he couldn't believe how beautiful it looked. He nodded in agreement to her saying she didn't know it could look that pretty in the main hall. He didn't know it could either. "It's amazing. Can't even tell this place is usually dark and dreary." he agreed. When she brought up finding drinks, he nodded. "I think I saw the drink table over there." he motioned to a small crowd of people. He took her arm and they got to the drink table. There were a few people there he recognized, but some he didn't. There was a woman in a silver dress with dark hair that looked at him and Kat, and she smiled a bit and made her way over. "Hey there! I'm Mercy, I'm part of Cass's group. You must be one of the witches Cass was talking about. Wait, let me guess..." she paused a moment and took them in. "I'm gonna guess that you're Kathleen. She said you would look so amazing in the colors you chose. I guess she got a sneak peak at your dress." Atticus nodded a bit. Something about her felt familiar, but he couldn't place his finger on it. He shook his head when he felt a nudge and he smiled. "Sorry, right. I'm Atticus." he said. "You guys looking for drinks, I'm guessing. Give it a second, the table should clear in a second. They've already had to replenish the table a second time. Apparently the wine choice was absolutely divine." she said. She noticed the crowd clearing off and she handed them each a glass. "This wine is absolutely amazing. It's sweet, but not overly sweet, and if you go hit the food table, it matches perfectly with the cakes they have out." "We get spoiled on baked goods." Atticus kind of chuckled, and soon he saw two men approach the drink table and he studied them. He let things drown out a little and when the dark haired one with tattoos looked at him, he felt his head get a little light and he looked away as a memory came through. He gently grabbed Kat's shoulder and whispered to her before it started, "Hey, just stand with me here a second." [i]There was a lot of snow on the ground in the coven, and Atty saw a man approaching him from across the courtyard. "Is everything okay?" he asked. It was the man he just saw at the party. "Yeah. No movement or anything, but that feels concerning. Usually there is all sorts of activity." Atty answered and they both went up into the watch tower. "I haven't seen Warren come back with ...." the name came out as inaudible, even in his memory. "I'm worried they got caught up in the blizzard." "They'll be okay." he said. "But we'll keep watching. We have a plan to get out if there is an attack." Atty nodded a bit, and soon the memory faded. [/i] Atticus shook his head a little as his vision came back, and he smiled to Kat. He was trying to reassure her, but when he looked back the men were gone. Who was that? He would have to find out before the night was over if he had a chance. Mercy, the woman they had been talking to, smiled a bit. "Oh, hey I've got to go. My friend and his little girl are here and it looks like she got away from him again. It was nice talking to you." she smiled as she headed off. When they were alone again, Atty looked to Kat. "I'm sorry about that. You want to go check out the food table too?" he asked her with a smile. He knew that soon everything would be in full swing, so getting there to scope it now and get a small snack might be a good idea.