Prelude: Life Begins at Night

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Eve cautions Akil as he tries to pull Rae off of Silas's torpid corpse. "Rae, enough,"  the vampire chastises her frenzied progeny  "Leave him, it's dangerous here. Too many eyes and there's werewolves outside. Let us seek refuge at Brasenose. Now ."

Liam meanwhile is taking advantage of the abandoned corpse of the elder vampire, sinking his fangs into Silas' neck and drawing out the vitae still clinging to his body. 

As Eve and Akil work to deescalate the carnage, Mehdi seems to be the only one still focused on the task at hand. He sniffs at the ground and once again picks up the trail despite the iron tang of blood that fills the room. With a great roar he tries to gain the attention of the others before dashing off after his quarry.

Khalid continued to work with his initial advantage as Rae continued to struggle.  The vampire was stronger than he initially anticipated, but he was more skilled.  He planted one leg as a pivot and used the fulcrum to pull Rae off of the unconscious Silas and pinned her on the ground next to him.  He desperately attempted to keep away from her fangs as he restrained the frenzied vampire. He looked towards Liam as he now drank from the unattended body, silently cursing to himself he attempted to barter with the pinned vampire.  "You gonna chill by any chance so we can get the fuck out of here?"

Eve glances at Liam, as though looking for help, before turning back to Akil. "Her beast is in control for now. Can you move her? We should leave."

Liam looks up, wiping vitae from his lips. "I am in control, I should eat again though and so should she."  He glances at Rae. "Such speed is draining. We should find a college dorm. We need to bring him too." He looks almost guiltily at Silas' body. 

Khalid grunts as Rae continues to struggle, "If someone can carry the old man I can maybe handle her."  

The sensations of the beast fade as Silas slips into unconsciousness. Lying there in torpor it feels as if he is floating in an empty void, unaware of the world around him. He feels a bit weaker in the void, almost anemic. It feels as tho hours have passed in his mind, when the void shifts into something more, something familiar. There standing in his ripped and bloodied suit and tie, Silas stands on the familiar battlefields of colonial America as he sees the barren field filled with dead soldiers, some faces he recognized. He walks through the field until he reaches the campsite base he stayed at when he fought in the war. He enters the medical tent and sees one of his comrades, he remembers him as Matthew a young boy who recently joined the battle and looked at Silas like his senior. His arm was being sawed off as the gunshot wound on his bicep would soon cause an infection. No anesthesia, no mercy, just a cloth in his mouth to clench on to and to hold back his screams of agony. Silas watches intensely, he can't look away, yet he feels nothing, no sadness for the boy he once knew suffering in front of him. He continues to watch the surgery in his own void.

Liam and Eve drag Silas's torpid corpse out of the Radcliffe and towards Brasenose college, while Akil applies all of his training and conditioning to keeping Rae under control. Another howl peals out through the night as they cross Radcliffe square to the porter's lodge, where Eve knocks hurriedly. After a few tense moments of urgently whispered conversation, they are granted entry to the college. Meanwhile, Mehdi follows his quarry's trail into Saint Mary's Church, where the trail abruptly ends.

After they find shelter inside, Liam takes a moment to update his mistress, informing her that there appears to be no evidence left in the library and of the strange beast and unfortunate temporary end to Silas.  "Now what? We should all get some food I think, plenty of dorms here to choose from, or we could head out for some unclaimed by a college. We should not risk a recurrence of those events though." 

"What's the game plan for my current situation?  Cause I figure if I just let her go she'll just shoot after me or the old man again."  While Khalid was experienced and magically enhanced he could only hold back someone of unnatural strength for so long.  And he was beginning to tire.

"Hold her still," Eve instructs Khalid calmly, rolling up one sleeve of her blouse to present her wrist. "Control her head and let me at her mouth - she needs to be fed."

Mehdi sniffs at the air and lets out a low, seething growl. He closes his eyes and his body suddenly shudders and lurches. In a similar fashion as before, parts of the panthers form swell and split to spill bloody pulp and nectar all over the floor. Humanoid once more, Mehdi runs his hands through his wet hair as he stands. He takes another glance around then pulls out his cellphone. Lacking much of a social circle, Liam is the first name in his recent calls and he quickly hits the contact to dial it. “I followed the trail to Saint Mary’s but it just disappears. Smells like they teleported. Where are you guys?”

"With the noses, I'll come let you in. We need to get moving though, everyone is hungry and I'd rather not spend the day here." 

Khalid restrains Rae such that Eve can reach her and carefully the senior Mekhet brings her wrist to the mouth of her childe. Her fangs bared, Rae immediately clamps down on the offered vitae and greedily drinks until she has had enough for her frenzy to eb. Eve quickly pulls away, looking around at their audience as she rearranges her clothing. "We should all feed and then seek shelter. The night grows short."

Khalid slowly eases off his grapple, carefully watching Rae.  After he is confident that he won't be devoured he looks to Eve and gestures at Silas, "What about the old man?  I figure you have a plan, but I'd like to be aware of it."

Rae is bound. She struggles, but she can't free herself. There is no sight, there is no sense. There is only anger. There is only hunger. Then she is forced to the ground, and a source of blood is brought before her. Mindlessly she bites, feeding till the Beast pulls away, satiated.  As if awakening from a nightmare, Rae comes back to herself. The first thing she feels is horrible pain, the aftermath of the exchange with Silas finally setting in. Silas. Radcliffe. That thing. Eve? She looks up to see Eve rolling her sleeve down, bite marks in her arm. "Eve, I'm so sorry. What did I do? I panicked, I thought that I would be able to control it. Are you ok?"

Eve stands over where Rae lies on the floor of Brasenose porter's lodge, looking down on her childe with tired eyes. "This is why I told you not to try that," Eve explains patiently as she rubs the bridge of her nose. "I trust that you'll remember this experience the next time that you're tempted to give in to wassail . It could have been a lot worse. Silas is in torpor, but you have Akil to thank for keeping you from bringing him the final death."

Rae stands with a low groan, the throbbing pain now limiting her movement. "Yes, it was impetuous." She looks to the ground in shame, before looking back to Akil. "Thank you for helping to control me. There are methods for some us to control their frenzy, and I thought that I would be able to employ them back in Radcliffe, but I was wrong. I'm sorry for any damage that I caused." 

Khalid shifts his gaze between Rae and Eve, giving each a strange look.  "Yeah, no problem.  Just don't let it happen again I guess."   He awkwardly shrugs as he once gain looks towards Silas, but this time remains silent.

Eve quickly snaps at the hovering porter: "This is clan business, you can return to your lodge." Turning to the others, she adds more quietly: "We need to feed and we can't drag him around. Shall we put him in one of the storage rooms downstairs and hope he's still there when we get back? I'm afraid I don't have a better idea."  She seems eager to get going, anxious even, and continues to eye the porter warily. 

"Keep him somewhere a few hours then we can leave him in my room, less questions there." Liam is tapping away on his phone as he speaks, firing up his rather popular instagram and twitter pages before hitting copy and paste on the band facebook fan page and direct messaging some groupies.  Still buzzing from that awesome exclusive gig. Night aint over though and you can all have some after party fun. Come find me ;) It's freshers week and 4am is early. Only squares and your nan are in bed before dawn. #nightlyfe #byobass #rockandrollallnight #brasenose #lowkeyawesome #travellingset #workhardpartyhard #dancetiludrop #nodeadgigs He steps into the corridor holds his phone up for a selfie to give away his loaction as he heads across towards a dorm where he can see a light on indicating an after party still happening in someones common area. It isn't long before the sound of his feet stamping and his voice singing can be heard echoing on a wooden floor through a window.

Rae looks to Eve apologetically, "Perhaps I can carry him to an adequate location? I can obscure our presence, so that no one looks twice at us. It is the least that I can do, at this point." She pauses, then her expression hardens. "Though, I've looked into his soul. He would drain every one of us dry if it brought him even a step closer to power."

“Hey Liam... Oh? Ah yeah I can grab Jetty. Tell them to hold tight.” Mehdi hangs up and  turns on his heel, redirecting towards the garage they’d used earlier. Of course no one had been by to fix the lock yet, and with the hedgeway he’d opened earlier still dormant there it’s effortless for the changeling to open up the portal again and call his beloved terror toad forth. Within twenty minutes Mehdi and his giant amphibian mount are outside Brasenose in the guise of a sporty red SUV. I’m outside . he texts.

"Let Liam take care of it," Eve mutters to Rae, "Silas was his acquaintance. I'm going to Baby Love to feed. I trust that you can find your own dinner? Get home safe." With that, the elegant librarian vanishes off into the night.

The text comes back through to Mehdi.  Starting a party, I need to eat. Will be out when it's over, be ready to go. Inside the music intensifies Stamp stamp clap stamp stamp clap "Buddy you're a boy..."

Not long afterwards Silas is safely secured to Jetty who is 'parked' nearby and Mehdi, Rae, and Akil stroll into the party. Liam catches his assistant's eye just as he begins another song. 'Hungry' he mouths while rubbing his stomach. While Rae slips off to feed and Akil goes to do whatever it is young magi do at college parties, Mehdi steps onto the dance floor. It was often the easiest place to harvest glamour here where the mortals tossed their emotions to and fro, spurred on by the ecstatic beat. It's odd to engage in such a frivolous activity after experiencing the horrors they've seen so far, but the cathartic release proves necessary, and successful. A girl in a tight tank top with dyed black hair catches Mehdi's eye with a coy smile. She looks like the type to go for the rugged and weary bad boy that Mehdi is often mistaken for, and he happily takes the bait. He presses up against her from behind, taking her hips in his hands and rocking along with the beat. Curious fingers begin slipping up beneath the thin material of her top and down to play just below the waistline of her jeans. And there it is, a rush of sumptuous lust practically gushing from the girl. The changeling soaks it in greedily. But as her head tilts back against him and her eyes close in surrender, Mehdi is already scanning the space for his next harvest.

Mehdi's eyes are drawn to a blonde in a light skirt. It flies around her as she twirls and dances, lost in the music. Joy flows off of her as she moves amongst the other students.

Mehdi smiles as the hint of joyous abandon warms his periphery like sunshine creeping in through a window. He wants that, but how to get away from his current partner? She might get angry, or jealous. He stifles a chuckle as he realizes the delicious opportunity he has. "Want a drink?" he half shouts, half whispers to the first girl. She nods eagerly then allows Mehdi to detangle himself from her and slip off towards the kitchen.

As Rae follows Mehdi and Akil into the party, she pauses to look back at the path taken by Eve. Rae had made mistakes before, like any neonate, but trying to control wassail is something that would not soon be forgotten. Still very hungry, she tries to put her mentor's disappointment out of her mind and focus on hunting. Moving towards the sweating and swaying crowd, she spies a meal suitable for her voracious appetite. A large man, likely an athlete by his muscular frame, wearing a blue t-shirt that purposefully accentuates his build. Noticing that he's trying and failing to get the attention of a blonde dancing in his vicinity, Rae takes the opening and steps into his space, eyeing him with unwavering intensity. He is a full head taller than her, and no sooner has he noticed her than he has his hands on her waist, doing what he would likely label as dancing. Wasting no time, she pulls his body against hers, trailing her lips up his neck. Seemingly grateful for the attention, he whispers in her ear enthusiastically. "Well aren't you a tasty little thing."  Rae smiles an inhuman smirk, baring her fangs in the darkness. "You too." The words are a low growl as the fangs sink into the man's neck, draining him of precious blood.

The young man gasps as Rae sinks her fangs into his jugular and moments later collapses into her arms. She's barely consumed a single vitae and... he feels cold.

As the man goes cold and still in her arms, a dread descends upon Rae as she cradles a corpse in a room full of humans. As quickly as she can, she turns her predatory nature inward, shielding her from the perception of others. In a state of panic, she heaves the man over her shoulder and strides out of the room, attracting nothing more than a few uninterested glances as she escapes with the body. Once outside, she finds a dense grouping of bushes, and drops the man into it. But as she turns to go, she remembers the Masquerade. "...Fuck." Turning back to the body, she begins pummeling it, covering it in open wounds and bruises. Eventually coming to be content with her work, she stands, but can't bring herself to walk away just yet.  That was a person. A person with a family. With friends. A partner, even. Come tomorrow morning, their lives will be shattered...all because I.... If she could still feel sick, she imagined that she would be doubled over and vomiting into the grass. This was a horrible thing that she had done, a monstrous thing. But...it was an accident...I don't want to hurt people. This won't happen again. I'll be sure to be more careful. Doing her best to convince herself that things would be alright, she returns to the party.

Liam meanwhile brings the party into full swing.  Not bad for the small hours I have to say He starts a new song, he misses his bass but his voice is surprisingly pleasant too and he leads the crowd of students in a sing along, a few have brought guitars as per his request and he teaches them the basic chords before missing into the crowd to dance, his aura attracting those present towards him and rendering them incapable of denying his will as he dances close to one student then another, feeling their warm body against him in the pulsing of the carotid artery barely concealed beneath a thin layer of skin as he gently sinks his fangs in to one reveller after another, drawing a small amount of the sweet life sustaining nectar in exchange for a brief moment of ecstasy.

Mehdi slips back into the fray, towards the giddy blonde. He begins matching her moves with a smile which she returns and a momentary dance-off is initiated. He begins to sense the glowing warmth she emits like sunshine, but Mehdi has plans for more. He steps closer and takes her hand, then flings her out in a grand spin. Then he reverses her momentum to twirl her in against him where he plants a kiss on the girl’s lips. Its then that he glances over to his first dance partner, hoping to catch her eye and set off a delicious chain reaction of emotions.

The girl in the tank top spots Mehdi kissing the blonde and he can feel the expected wave of  anger and jealousy wash over him. It blends and contrasts with the joy and lust of his new partner to form an  intoxicating emotional cocktail that makes the glamour well up within him. The other girl turns and walks away into the crowd, her night obviously spoiled by the apparently callous display. A few moments later the night air is split by a piercing scream. Somebody has stumbled upon Rae's mangled vessel.