Strange Angels 4
Lili St. Crow
Christophe has decided that Dru is ready for a simple seek and destroy mission with him instructing her through a earpiece. She finds herself at a rave on the dance floor. When she senses a vampire, she starts moving towards the exit. Her first option is blocked, so she keeps moving. She senses more vampire at the second exit and knows she will have to improvise. She makes the mistake of stopping and they see her.
Dru jumps behind the bar for cover and pulls the fire alarm. When the vampires are distracted, she takes off running to the storage room in the basement. She breaks through the loading door that leads to the street and keeps going. The vampires start to close in on her in front and back, so she follows her owl down into the subway. She makes it onto a train alone, but the vampires catch up and rip their way inside. She jumps off at the next platform and starts running again. Wulfen start to appear and Ash goes after the sucker. Shanks is there and drops a pair of malaika by her. Dru uses them to get her first kill.
Back at the Schola Prima, Dru goes to the Council for debriefing. They are upset that she was in so much danger when she is their only svetocha. Christophe arrives and checks her over. He is clearly upset that everything didn’t go according to plan and tells her he was on the roof the whole time. When he says she won’t be bait again, she protests that she is ready. he calms her down and says they will train in the morning. He sends her away to leave the Council to argue over the night’s events.
Back in her room, Nathalie, a wulf, is there to help her. Dru has started to trust her and they talk about what happened. There is a knock at the door and Nathalie pulls her gun before going to answer.
Nathalie opens the door and lets Christophe in. the wulf leaves them alone after she cleans up. Dru asks if there is any news about Graves and is frustrated that no one knows where he is. Once again, Christophe convinces her they have a better chance of finding him after she is fully trained. Dru calms down and wonders if Christophe smells different from other djamphir because he is a “glutter” (drinks other djamphir’s blood) or some other reason. She kicks him out at the end of the night so she can hug Graves’ coat while she sleeps.
Nathalie wakes Dru up early by throwing rocks at her window. Dru leaps out the window and they take off to meet up with some other wulfen. Shanks explains that Dibs will be the “rabbit” they hunt on their run. THey catch him before he reaches the turn-around mark and they all go for pizza. Nathalie and Dru play air hockey and talk. Dru notices Shanks checking out Nathalie before her locket alerts her to trouble. The girls rush out the back door and onto the roof in time to see Christophe not making any attempt to hide his arrival.
Christophe makes Dru go through extra drills during training. She hits him a few times while they spar, but he still lays her flat with a hit to the head. He kisses her and helps her calm down from the blood-hunger. He points out that she still has about six months of training left and she protests. He refuses to let her cut corners and points out that she needs to stop running with the wulfen during the day. They spar once more and when she looses quickly, Dru storms off.
Dru bathes in the healing water and then showers it off. As she is about to get ready to leave, a red mist starts filling up the locker room and coming at her. She grabs her switchblade and heads for the shower stall to put running water between her and it. SHe slashes at the forming tentacles with her knife as she throws a hex at its center. The thing falls apart and she crouches in the shower.
Christophe coaxes Dru out of the show and she finally gets dressed. Hiro points out that the creature was probably planted a month ago and this is the tenth attempt on Dru’s life since Anna’s. She is upset that no one told her and asks Christophe why everyone started to know about her when he showed up. She is even more furious when he apologizes falsely with an attitude. She storms out.
Dru asks Benjamin why they didn’t tell her about the attacks. He points out that she has been sneaking out during the day. She keeps thinking about Graves and decides to go to her room. As she walks away from Benjamin, she lets Leon know she can see him (even though he is mostly invisible). He notices her bad mood and guesses she is thinking about Graves. Dru yells out her frustration and in the process admitting that she doesn’t know if anyone is looking for him like they say they are. Leon suggests she charge him with finding out. She agrees.
Leon goes with Dru to visit Ash. She isn’t there long before Christophe is there telling her it isn’t a good idea to take him for a walk. He also tells her there is a Council meeting; they have found some information about Anna. She doesn’t want to go at first, but Christophe promises she can take Ash out the next night instead of malaika practice. She doesn’t want to skip training because she is already upset about how long it will take to compete. She leaves Ash with encouraging words about changing back into human form.
The Council is tense when they arrive. Hiro gives Dru a sealed envelope. She opens it and finds a note from Anna telling her to meet her alone. Graves’ earring is also enclosed. Christophe tries to take it from her. She screams and Hiro goes after him. Bruce holds back Hiro and August holds Christophe while they try to go after each other. Dru steps in between at Alton’s suggestion to calm them down. Hiro backs down, but Christophe does not. She slaps him.
Dru decides to start taking control of the Council since she heads it. She will take Ash, Shanks, and Hiro with her to meet Anna. Christophe will head the backup teams. They all start to protest, but Dru puts her foot down and leaves the meeting before they can argue. She runs as soon as she is out the door.
Back in her room, Dru pulls Graves’ coat out from under the blankets and puts it on. She put the earring in and goes to the window. She needs to escape, so she opens it and jumps out
Dru starts to sneak away and tries to concentrate on Graves and the path he took when he left the Schola. Suddenly Christophe is there. He realizes that she is trying to look for Graves and she finally tells him what happened before he disappeared. He explains that her mother was his first real friend, but Dru is his whole world. He asks to be considered as an option and for her to keep him near no matter what she chooses. For the first time, she kisses him.
Nathalie wakes up Dru in the middle of the night. Shanks is with her and they take her to see Ash. Without thinking, Dru goes into his cell while he tries to change back. Dru’s head is filled with evil images. She fights them off and there is a ripping tear in her brain. She falls into Shanks. When she gets up, Ash is back in human form. She rushes over to him and hugs him while he cries.
Benjamin comes along to find Nathalie, Dibs, Shanks, Dru and Ash. They all struggle to get to Dru’s room where Ash hides in the bathroom. Dru can feel the tear in her head widening, but has to make sure Ash is okay. She calms him down enough for Dibs to check him out. Dru collapses as soon as she knows he is safe and unlikely to shift back into wolf form.
Leon comes along with news, but Dru passes out before he can tell her what it is. When she wakes up, he tells her Christophe and the rest of the Council left for the day. Leon had gone through security footage and shows Dru a recording showing Christophe being the last one to see Graves. He also shows her papers showing that Christophe knows where Graves is. Dru kicks everyone out of her room and gets ready to leave before the Council returns.
Dru leaves the Schola and goes to August’s apartment. She finds his secret cache of weapons and money under the bedroom floor and takes as much as she can. The phone rings and Christophe’s voice comes over the answering machine. He begs her to let him explain, but she ignores the phone and goes out the bedroom window.
Wondering around the city all night, Dru finally perfects her plan. She calls the Schola from a pay phone and August answers. He wants to explain, but she doesn’t give him the chance. She tells him she is going into the mansion from Christophe’s papers to get Graves, and they can send backup if they want. She hangs up and gets ready to attack at dawn.
Dru sneaks over the wall and towards the mansion. Suckers appear and start coming after her, but she has become toxic to them and they aren’t much of a struggle for her. SHe makes her way inside and starts heading to where Graves was said to be kept on the map. The door explodes and Dru is knocked back. Sergej appears.
After briefly fighting Sergej, Dru ends up in a dark room with Graves and Anna. Dru is stuck on what Anna did to her, but Graves points out they need to work together to get out. Dru Tells her story. Anna tells her that Leon was bonded with a svetocha that was killed by an ephialtes Christophe had trained.
The three prisoners hear something coming down the hall and grab whatever they can to arm themselves. THey agree to go down fighting and Sergej appears in the room. Anna attacks, but Sergej throws her aside and she lays motionless on the ground. Leon shows up to make sure Sergej holds up his end of the deal, which he doesn’t intend to keep. Sergej starts choking and Leon mentions getting even with Christophe before attacking Dru.
Dru knocks Leon aside with the lamp. She heads for Sergej as everything except Anna moves in slow motion. She throws a hex at the other svetocha to get a good shot at her real target. Dru drives the lamp through Sergej’s chest and he goes down. Dru and Graves help Anna, but decide to leave Leon because he smells dead. She finds their things, including her malaika just outside the door. Anna leads them to her guard who are more than willing to help. The vampires start to arrive and attack.
They are able to take the vampires down, but Dru can sense more coming. Everyone is in bad shape and they still haven’t found an exit. Anna knows she is dying and tells Dru to drink from her; she wants Dru to save her guards. They hear a commotion above and Dru realizes the Order has come to save them.
Everyone is in bad shape and Dru doesn’t know if the Order will reach them in time. She decides to give Anna some of her blood so her guard can get her out. When she approaches Anna, the older svetocha puts Dru’s face in her neck. The blood hunger takes over.
Dru sees Anna’s memories of Christophe as she drinks her blood. Anna tried to pursue Christophe, but he never showed any interest in her. When Elizabeth arrived, he seemed infatuated with her. She is able to pull away and Anna is barely alive. Swarms of vampires are close and explosions getting closer as well. Dru tells them all to get out.
As they arrive, Dru easily kills five suckers. She looks at Graves afterwords and he looks disgusted with her. Sergej attacks her from behind while she is distracted.
Sergej throws Dru so that he is between her and the exit. The flames are getting closer and he is afraid of her. Graves ends up behind the ancient vampire and shoots him. As Sergej goes after Graves, Dru takes her shot. He sends her flying and the fire finds them.
Dru and Graves fight their way out of the fire and outside the building. Ash finds them. Dru realizes they have to keep moving. She decides they will get away from the Order and then eat to get their strength back. She lets Ash lead them to transportation.
The three runaways head to a hotel with armloads of fast food. Dru doesn’t want to go back to the Order. She goes to get cleaned up and realizes she has fully bloomed.