He'd promised he'd come visit. He just hadn't gotten around to doing so yet. He couldn't place exactly why he hadn't gone but he hadn't. That was the simple truth. Maybe he wasn't a brave soul after all. In the end, he'd only finally called to let Mimi know he was on his way after Cherry said she'd go with him.

What a coward.

He wasn't really but there were things that he didn't want to face just like everyone else had things they didn't exactly want to face. For some reason, he didn't want to face Mihaela and her new posse without someone by his side. Okay, so he felt outnumbered and he wasn't sure about things. Well, that felt strange to actually admit. Even harder to admit was that he wanted her to be there. He was liking this Cerise lady more and more and it was a certain sense of relief when she agreed to go with him.

So that's how he ended up walking along this path with Cerise. The night was cold but not unjustly so. He had, a while back, actually taken the bull by the horns and taken her hand as they walked. It felt nice.

It felt real nice. Her hand was warm. Her voice was gentle. He loved the way she smelled and felt when they were a bundle of arms and legs between soft sheets. And she was so bloody smart. He was in awe of the things she knew. And he was learning how to make her giggle, how to relax her when she seemed melancholy. He loved the way she nestled in next to him when they were on the couch at that bookshop place. That's when she smelled like cider and vanilla and spiced cookies.

He'd had girlfriends before and it had been a while since his last one. She'd left him just before the accident that'd landed him in the hospital just after Mihaela's incident. He didn't hold it against her and they even had pizza on occasion after he'd gotten out of the hospital. Serious relationships? Hell no. That's why she'd left him. She wanted something more 'stable' and found that somewhere else.

So what did he call Cerise? What would Mihaela call Cerise? He glanced over at her as she walked with him, their hands together and fingers entwined. He had a pretty good idea what Mimi would call Cherry. And it wouldn't be bad. At least, he didn't think so. He hoped she wouldn't think it was wrong or bad either.

He looked ahead again and hid a smile. Okay, so he had a girlfriend.

Usually when one is not expecting trouble is when Trouble appears. In this case, it did so in the form of a rather large beastie that flew from the shadows with a lunging growl and inhuman speed. Body larger than the average human, it was furry and bore animalistic features. It had one single intent.

Kill.

Things moved so fast, though time itself seemed to slow to a crawl. She did not have time to react to the growling form that lounged at them. She did not have time to react as Viktor put himself between her and their assailant. And she barely had time to register the sound of Viktor firing his weapon.

Viktor's actions though did register in her heart. That he would instinctively try to protect her without hesitating had her heart tightening. Her mind raced to find the magic to end this immediately, she was not not prepared.

All these things happened in the blink of an eye, though she did not scream in fear. She gasped when Viktor moved in front of her, then steadied herself. Just a couple of moments. That's all she needed...

A couple of minutes too long...

Akiko sensed there was something amiss as she excused herself from the party and went into her room and quickly changed into a jumpsuit and her gear and headed out into the woods, there was fear, and rage in the air. She sniffed the wind and scented a human and... an elf? She quickly headed in their direction when the shots fired. She arrived in time to see a large beast heading for them with malicious intent, as he lept she threw out three shiriken on target for the beast, as she ran toward the melee.

Rage blinding hot fueled her now. She was not some fragile flower that wilted at the first sign of trouble. The rage fueled her grasp on the Mana Flows. Her eyes blazed with a fire that matched the rage she felt.

The Shuriken had bought her the time she needed. Her hands lifted pulling the forming the mana in to a move violent expression of the rage within. She did not have to shout her words, the spirits would understand them no matter how it was said.

"(vqw) Pelekta yassen runya*."

As the words were whispered, a jet of flame shot down from the skies from seemingly no where to strike at their attacker. The Flames were the physical manifestation of her rage and the anguish that is now mingling with the realization that Viktor was hurt and could be dead because of her and the trouble her family faced.

(*Flamestrike)

She shed her jumpsuit on the run as she allowed her beast to flow over her in the form of a snow leopard and took off on an and intercept course for the now flambe-ed beastie. It was at the point where it lunged that Akiko hit him from the side... full force, biting and slashing with claws and teeth.

The rage flowed out of her as the blood flowed out of their attacker. She ignored the body to drop down next to Viktor's prone form. Tears were running down her cheeks as she tried to find a pulse.

It was there, weak though. She looked over to the Snow leopard. Her mind registered that this was a friend and had helped them.

"Please help him!"

His wounds were too extensive for her meager healing abilities.

She had to do something or she would lose him for sure. She murmured softly pulling upon the mana flow. Her healing was by far her weakest ability. She placed her hands over his wounds focusing the energy on his chest and lungs. She knew she had to repair enough of the damage on her own to keep him alive.

She felt herself wavering as she was drained dangerously close to the edge of unconsciousness herself. She would not lose him now.

Even from inside the house, Lucas heard the roar from outside that was Akiko in charge and, with eyes wide, hurried to comply without thought. He opened the door and stood back, eyes peering around the dor to see what Akiko was so in a hurry for. He inhaled and caught the scent of predator, his fingers tightened on the door as he slunk back further behind it. His voice was a mere whimper. "Get Miha!"

He prowled in after Akiko's raised voice echoed through the house (and probably through the glade too for as loud as she yelled), a frown on his face. He scented the air, a pause to glare at Luc to shut the door. Something wasn't right. There were a lot scents to sort through. His step picked up, nose leading him to where Akiko had a whole lot of blood and a little bit of a sliced and diced Viktor. Damon's lip curled slightly as a growl started deep in his chest.

"What the hell happened?"

Sure. He recognized the guy but that didn't mean he liked him. Pitiful human in his book who had no business here or confusing Mihaela. He leaned on the couch back, fingers digging into the cushions. "Where did you find this road-kill?"

People were gathering and curiousity could not be contained. Aret drifted like a shadow down the hall, unheard. At the door she peered in, watching the confusion. She could smell things too. Strange things. Scarey things. Familiar things.

She knew the man's scent from it being on Mihaela. She knew the scent of danger that clung to Akiko and the bleeding man. She also knew the scent of a certain friendly red-head that drifted in and around the strange woman. Aret bit her lip and stayed out of the way but continued to watch to see what would happen next.

Lucas had hung back, watching from about the same distance as Aret. When Mihaela told him to get the kit, he jumped to comply. He darted through the house to the bathroom and, after looking through two drawers, found it. He hurried back and offered it to Mihaela. A curious look landed on the other woman who'd followed Akiko into the house. After a moment of studying her, Lucas moved out of the room again. He was gone for several moments before returning with a glass.

He shyly held it out to Cerise, the rich malt flavor strong and inviting. He'd heard sometimes that in a crisis, a good stiff drink could work wonders to help people. Other than Chas' absinthe, he couldn't think of anything stronger than the scotch they had in the kitchen.

He was just trying to help.

She arched a brow "A shifter?" She shook her head, "Why did he attack though? Something doesn't seem right."

She nodded her thanks to Lucas when he brought the kit. She set to work on cleaning up Viktor's chest wounds first. "Damnit, he got clawed bad." She did not like the wounds one bit. The fact that they were from another were did not set well at all.

She approved of Lucas' forethought at bringing their guest a drink. She had been expecting both of them, just not like this.

"What the hell provoked this?"

Akiko got a little bit of almost friendly sign language, his eyes flickering between her and Mihaela. He didn't like this chaos one bit. Not at all. He listened though, instead of retorting with the first thing that came to mind.

"I was the target..." Her voice was unsteady and worried, "It was after me and Viktor got in his way."

"So he played Were-critter Speed Bump to protect you, huh? Nice." He looked to Mihaela and voiced what others were thinking. "If it was a were, you know he's probably infected by the look of that wound. Considering his cracked state of mind with the whole of RhyDin, would probably be better to just put him down."

Damon's brows went up in a 'what can you do' manner as he took a step back away from the couch. "No mercy for the wicked I guess." He flicked a glance at the woman then gave Cerise a more open look. "And you would be ... who?"

So what if he had an idea of who she was? So what if he even knew her name from somewhere. So what if she happened to appear to be in shock of some sort. Maybe focusing on the mundane would be a help.

"You want to sit down before you fall down?"

She allowed herself to be lead to the nearest chair before answering the questions. She was trying to find the best answers without giving much away. In reality, all she could do with give the most basic information.

She also had to damp down the resurgence of anger at Red's suggestion that they put Viktor down. That tore into her worse than anything else. She did not drain herself healing him only to have him killed by those he was a guest of.

Mihaela's hesitance did not bode well until she told the other no. She watched as the lady was working on bandaging Viktor.

Once she was sitting and had a fair amount of the scotch in her system before she answered.

"The best I can give you is that my name is Cerise Nha?slal and that I am with the Bloods of Onyx House. We have our share of enemies and this is the result."

She would not give them more than that. She was sure that some of the ones in this group were quite young and did not need to be exposed to this mess quite yet...

She did not know about her student yet, though.

There was an audible gasp from the other side of the door when her name was called. Aret slowly moved, poking her face around the corner a little bit at a time. She took in the scene with a wide-eyed fascination that contained a fair bit of fear and uncertainty. If it had not been for the urging, she would have faded back to go hide somewhere.

"You are welcome to stay here, Cerise. Would probably be safer at this point."

She had to agree with that estimation. She turned to look at Viktor laying wounded on the couch. Her heart ached badly for him. Her hands shook as she drank the rest of the scotch. The alcohol had little effect on her though the act itself helped her center and focus.

The realization that she fell in love with a human hit her hard in those moments. That coupled with the realization that he would be lucky to live and, if he did survive, his life could be altered forever by the attack.

She blamed herself for this. The attack was meant for her and Viktor was hurt protecting her. She knew she had to talk to Belial about getting him some protection as well... or getting him on the list of protectors. Either way he would be close to her within the protection of Onyx House.

She watched their hostess stride off. Her gaze fell on the red-head that had made the comments. They seemed to know what was going on and the way they talked, you would think she ended up in a house of Were's.

Come to think of it...

Damon rolled his eyes and prowled out of the room since Mihaela had seen fit to depart. He had things to do and dealing with emotional females was not high on his list of preferred distractions. If Mihaela thought it an okay idea to open the house to the elf and her chum, who was he to complain? Damon let himself outside, lifting his head to scent the wind.

Was there anything else out and about this night? Dissatisfied with what he gathered from the wind, he shifted forms from man to feline. He padded off the porch and slunk into the shadows. He would patrol for a good long while before going back into the house.

Cerise shook her head to Akiko, "I would rather stay with Viktor." She was rather firm in her desire not to be separated from him at this point.

She shrugged from her jacket and draped it over the arm of the chair. The movements revealed the insignia on the back. The insignia supported her claim as to who she was associated with.

She would definitely have to talk to Bel and Lucius. They had new friends and she didn't want to see them hurt. This had shaped into a lousy night.

Her eyes glanced over to the young girl in the room.

Her eyes got wide when she realized that she was being studied. Aret's posture shifted slightly, one foot to the other and then back. She offered a little smile toward the elf and was visibly torn between going forward and fleeing.