Discovery in the Bayou

[Caelitus]

Sitting at his usual table in a bar. Vincent sat with his feet on the table drinking a bottle of cheap beer. He scanned the patrons, no one really stood out.

'Good doesn't look like much trouble tonight,' he thought to himself.

He lit a cigarette and kept an eye on the door. The bar was generally quiet most nights, tonight was no different. The barmaid, a pretty young red head in short skirt, came by with another beer.

"Last call there Vincent, we'll be closing up soon. The Kindred have the place booked tonight for some ascension party or something." A glint in her eye of hatred sparked when mentioning the Vampires. He knew she didn't like their kind.

"Thanks, i'll be finishing my beer and taking off then." He knew the Vampires wouldn't have a problems with him staying, but the bar staff did. Too many problems of late, has caused everyone to be a little on edge. Word was their was a Hunter in town and no one wanted to get themselves caught by one of those nut-jobs.

He put out his smoke and downed the the new bottle quickly. Stood up and strode out the door into the cool night air. He decided he would take a stroll down by the river before heading home for the night.

Standing by the water he reached out his hand, and began whispering calmly to himself. The water began to get choppy and the wind began to pick up. He stopped whispering, and the wind stopped and the water calmed down. Decided that was enough for now and turned to head home.

[Liana]

Arianna was starting to second guess herself. Ever since that incident with the child she realized she was different. She knew she needed to find out who she was. But her distrust in others was putting her at bay. Others like her might not be so kind and this worried her. Her survival instinct was telling her to run as far from New Orleans as possible.

Baton Rogue like so many Katrina struck cities was devastated by the hurricane so money was scarce among the common folk. As many not only had to re build lives but homes. Upon arriving in town she realized she would need funds to help with this new venture of hers. She had asked around and found out who the richest men in town were. She had watched several and realized that most weren't her usual victims. She finally found one who lived alone and also kept to himself. She never killed anyone unless it was necessary and in this case it wasn't. Her plan was to rob him home invasion style. Often people in the south had a deep distrust for banks, which led to them often keeping the majority of money in safes in there homes.
After watching him for a few days she learned his schedule. He didn't necessarily do the same thing everyday but he usually ended up at the same place. It looked like the local bar, and this lead two options. The first was to sneak something into his drink while he was at the bar and so by the time he got home he would be to sick to know what was happening. Or the second was to wait until he got home and tie him up and tell him the safe number. The first option was the one she liked best because often the only pain that came to her victim was an upset stomach and a few thousand dollars less. Her mind however was telling her to stay a certain amount of distance away from him. Whenever she got to close to him her body got this sensation to run as far away as possible. This meant she would have surprise him which meant go through with plan number 2 after all and she didn't like it one bit.

So after making sure he entered the bar she started off towards his home. She knew she would have a couple of hours to prepare. And so she waited....

[Caelitus]

Walking towards his home, he got a feeling, magic! The mages in this part of Baton Rouge knew to stay away from his home unless previously invited. So this was either an emergency or a new mage who didn't know who he was.

Finally on his street, a mage was here on his block. This wasn't an emergency from a known mage, this was an intruder near his home. He could see his front door now. Nothing looked out of place but the whole street smelled like stale air. His porch light was on, just as he'd left it.

With a hand motion he cast a spell to direct the sound of his voice directly towards his house. Don't want to wake the poor unsuspecting neighbours after all.

"If You are on my property i would suggest you announce yourself," spoke firmly and announced clearly, any violent action now is their fault he thought.

With another whispered spell, the light on the porch blasted to full illumination, lighting up the whole front of the house and splashing into the street. He continued walking towards his house now. On guard and ready for any surprise.

[Liana]

She could sense something was wrong. Her plan wasn't suppose to go like this. She needed to think fast or this wouldn't end well. Arianna was big on always having two options. But the first made her sick to her stomach could she kill him if she had to? He Knew she was there so no element of surprise was going to do her any good. So it was down to her second option and for the first time in her life she didn't have one. Maybe she could jump out and say boogie woogie but had this feeling it wouldn't scare him off.
But then she realized she could understand his thoughts. This had happened several times before however most peoples thoughts were choppy to her. His thoughts were choppy but certain thoughts were making there way through loud and clear. She suddenly realized that he was like her odd. She was so excited she completely forgot the predicament she was in. And started to open the door so slowly that only a small opening was made. Through the small opening she could see him. He looked pretty normal to her so if he could act normal maybe there was hope for her too. So in touch with his thoughts she barely caught what he was saying. She realized then he wasn't exactly please with his house guest and this shot her back into reality. She slammed the door shut again and ran to the room on the left. After doing an intense search of the house earlier she had discovered this room was the library. Speaking out loud to herself "this is a great bind you got yourself into Arianna, there is not place to hide in the library." As she ran further into it books started falling off shelves. As she neared the centre she turned and faced what was coming.

[Caelitus]

During his light and sound show, he saw his front door crack just a bit. It was enough now he knew that this mage was in his house. Breathing a sigh of relief as this meant no one was sitting in wait for him between there and his door.

He started walking towards his front door. whispering under his breath again, dispelling the extended light from the porchlight. Reaching his front door he heard noise from inside.

'Sounds like someone is knocking over my books,' he thought to himself. While thinkign he felt something. It clicked: this mage was a mind mage. The magic wasnt too powerful and definitely not trained but the feeling was unmistakable. This mind mage was touching his thoughts, the smell of the magic was uncanny.

'I haven't come across a mind mage in years,' he mused. 'It's okay young one, I won't hurt you.' He couldnt use the magic but he knew the general concepts and in one so untrained flinging magic all about like fishing nets, he figured if he thought it, the mage inside would pick it up.

Reaching out and opening th door carefully so as not to alarm too much, he stepped into the front hallway.

[Liana]

She could feel him nearing her. She wasn't sure if she was prepared for this. She had been so focused on heading to New Orleans that she had set aside her intentions. Her plan was to gain a little money and then seek others like her out. Now that she was so close to someone like her she wasn't so sure she really wanted to meet them. He was sending her clear thoughts. He seemed genuinely nice. But many people who seemed nice often had a dark side. His dark side was one she didn't want to see. She was also improaching on his terrority and most people didn't take to well to that. She knew that by breaking into his house was not the way to gain his trust. Her plan was not suppose to go like this. She had backed herself into a corner. Looking around the room she noticed a small window. "That might work" saying out loud. She then grabbed the desk lamp and slammed it into the window. Glass exploded everywhere. She pushed the remaining glass away from the window and crawled through. She landed face forward in the rose bush. Slowly picking herself up she started to hobble away from the house. When she got to the sidewalk her head started to pound and the world started going dizzy. She fell to the ground and lost consciousness. And for the first time since she was 13 she was helpless. All her worries and planing drifted away and she went into a deeper and deeper sleep.

[Caelitus]

Entering the house slowly and projecting clear thoughts, didn't help the situation. Hearing the glass break he rushed into the room to see the library window smashed and her feet exiting the window.

Rushing back out the front door, he snapped his fingers as he picked up speed causing the porch light to illuminate to almost the brightness of the sun. 'I'm going to have to replace that bulb in the morning,' thought to himself. Exiting the house, just in time to see her collapse into the street.

"Damn it!" He exclaimed.

Rushing out into the street, he scooped her out of the street, and brought her inside. Taking her upstairs and laying her on the bed in his spare room.

He stepped into the other room and picked up the phone and dialed a number. "I've got a visitor, send the pack out and keep an eye out for the Hunter thats in Baton Rouge." Hanging up the phone he grabbed two glasses of water, put one beside the bed and sat in a chair watching his new guest waiting for dawn.

[Liana]

She dreamt of many things. Her dreams were endless never really making much sense. Just when they seemed to reach an end they tended to stretch out further then she ever wanted to go. Some of dreams reminded her of her shattered past while others were bright and friendly. She wanted to stay in the bright happy place but every time she tried to reach out for it she was dragged into the darkness. A darkness she only knew to well. Finally her dreams started to fade into a background. And just as she abruptly lost consciousness she regained it. She sensed them long before she could open eyes. She decided to pretend to sleep so she could hear what was going on. And what she gathered from the conversation was not good. Not good at all.

[Caelitus]

The sun rose over the city of Baton Rouge, with it came a knock on Vincent's door. He quietly left the room where his young guest was sleeping and answered it. standing on his porch was a rather large dark skinned woman. "Please, Candra come in," gesturing for her to come in.

"Why thank you Vincent, you are always a wonderful gentlemen." Turning her head outside she called to several more people sitting in a truck in front of the house. "Fix the window then secure the street, i want to make sure the Hunter hasn't been here."

Vincent closed the door as Candra walked in. "Tea?"

"No, thank you Vincent"

Vincent lead Candra up the stairs, Candra hunched over slightly in the house. They stopped outside of the room where the young woman was still lying. Vincent wanted to make sure she didn't try to run away again. New mages are usually quite frightened and it is part of any mage's duty to help new mages along.

"This is the visitor, Candra. I'm glad you came, although I assume you don't come with good news about this Hunter." Worry streaked his face, worry for this young mage and worry for his up till now quiet life in Baton Rouge.

"No I don't have good news. As you suspected there is a Hunter here, appears to be a Mage Hunter specifically. It appears he's been tracking your young friend here. On the bright side it seems he hasn't had much experience with werewolves, one of my boys scared him off the trail for now. I have a feeling he will be back and possibly with friends." Candra spoke with a no nonsense attitude.

Vincent put up a finger requesting Candra to stop. He felt the distinctive tingle of magic being flung out from the young woman lying in bed. He reached out with his own magic and felt the air she was breathing was not steady like a sleeping person would be.

He stepped back into the room, "How was your sleep? Don't rise too quickly and please drink some water its at the bedside for you."

[Liana]

Oh crap! busted Arianna thought. She slowly opened her eye and took a long gaze at both of the people standing in the room. She listened to there thoughts with her other sight. The man's thoughts had sorta become a lullaby to her calming her down from what the other person in the room was thinking. She didn't like this woman's thoughts one bit. Her emotions were raw and extreme and they worried her. She was nothing like the soothing mage or her for that matter. They had been discussing this hunter. Who was he and how could she be so stupid. She lead him straight to more of her kind. She had been use to being a nobody that no one paid attention to. So she never worried about anyone following her. Whenever she was little and she ran away from a foster home the cops would go looking for her. They often found her and returned her to the home. But the more desperate she was the better she was able to fit in and hid. After returning her countless times to the homes and her running away again the cops just gave up. It had been years since anyone cared and this had suited her fine until now. Now she brought danger to this kind gentlemen. She only realized now that he was really kind and not out to get her. So she must plot and figure out away to get rid of this "hunter". Even if this meant killing it alone. Maybe when they fell asleep she would sneak off and try and track him down. Maybe then this man would help her.

She slowly picked up the water from the bedside table and took a sip. She tried to say something but no words would reach her lips. Finally in a very inaudible voice she said the words "thanks." Then for the first time since she could remember she started to weep. "I'm sorry" as she gasped for breath. "I didn't mean to bring any trouble. I just wanted to know who and what I was."