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((Zomg! Then I'll post too! ZOMG! I'd post to the other thing... but J hasn't posted to it... *scratches head* So, I'll wait... or something of the sort!))

Fish whimpered pathetically over his tongue, and wagged his tail feebly as Zabe attempted to soothe him with a rub around his ears. Crooks drifted over Declan's frozen form in an agitated manner, little bits of shadow molting from his form like rotten feathers.

"Get that bloody mutt offa him!" He cawed, obviously very distressed. "Stupid MUTT!" He barked in the canine's ear, which earned the spirit a vicious snarl.

Fish gave a little leap as he was freed from his odd position, but stuck still very close to his master's side, whimpering every so often, and nudging him with his large nose. Crooks drifted about as well, in a far less worried manner. At Zabe's remark he was quick to repsond, settling in a place above one of his shoulders.

"The lad IS beyond dead! Haven't you taken a good look at him?" The creature spat out. "When he got in trouble all those years ago, death lured him into limbo to trap him, but oh... being the bloody clever lad he was, he managed to escape even though no oridnary mortal would have been able to escape. Not impossible, but certainly never done." Crooks flapped his shadowy wings and snapped his beak, drifting along behind Zabe to keep up as he went along. Fish trotted almost on his heels to keep an eye an Declan. "But, he didn't escape with his life, however. Strings of fate." He explained without an explanation. "Either way. He's not alive, but he's not dead and being that only the living can be master of the dead, his body couldn't take it."

Crooks then hovered about Zabe's head as he set up the make-shift bed upon the kitchen floor and laid the frozen boy down. "What are you doing?" He asked in an irratated, and somewhat urgent voice. "Don't use any of your strange magic on him!" He cawed and flew in an angry circle, a flurry of shadow raining off his form.

Zabe paid the crow-esque creature little mind, however, and went on about his work. Fish settled in a sit beside the fallen, and watched closely his every move.

"Not pleasant!? What do you MEAN, not pleasant?!" Crooks acclaimed at the top of his rough voice, his shadowy form suddenly losing all shape as it went wild with agitation and frustration. "I don't care about the boy, I'm just worried about ME!" He shouted, but Zabe had already begun what he had intended to do and the boy began to seemingly thaw out.

Declan, as the light from Zabe's hands spread over his body, slowly began to lose his blue-ish tint from his fingers, nose, and face. The frost that had been on every inch of his body melted into nothing, leaving the young man with damp hair and drops of warm water clinging to his clothes and face. Crooks, whose loud squawking had been a constant during the start of the process, had fallen completely silent, and out of sight entirely.

Once Zaberiel drew back, Fish did not move forward, because in an instant the boy sat up coughing into his hands like someone who had gotten their first breath of air after having just been drowning. Declan continued this coughing and gasping until it finally subsided and he sat back with a rather shocked expression on his face... a face that was suddenly tinged with colour.

".... Bloody Hell I feel warm." Was his first remark, placing a warm hand over his heart. He then smoothed his damp hair away from his face and fixed his lively green eyes onto Zabe. "What did you DO? I feel... er..."

"Alive?" Crooks crowed from the kitchen floor as a very irratated and full bodied crow. He narrowed his beady eyes at Zabe. "I hope you're PROUD of yourself." He stated hatefully and flapped his wings so that he landed on a cluttered kitchen counter. "I was much happier in my true form... now I'm STUCK like this."

Declan grinned, obviously very pleased and hardly able to contain himself at all. "ALIVE." He repeated with a broad smile. Fish leapt at him and licked him all over his face. "I haven't been ALIVE in years!" He gave a half crazed bit of laughter, but sobered up pretty quick and fixed his attention on Zabe, pressing his dog away from himself with a hand to his large head.

"What sort of things must we speak of, my good man?"

((MWAHAHAH! Declan LIVES! Hahaha, which is good... cos otherwise... yeah... ummm... YEAH! He wouldn't be able to do necromancy very well XD; ))

((I POST AGAIN! HOMG WHAT?))

"Strings of fate?" Zabe raised an eyebrow, but gave a shrug. "Never heard of it. That was about all he said to Crooks, as he'd been particularly busy trying to ignore the loudmouthed bird. Though, he did catch tidbits of what he had been saying, and had to admit that it was quite interesting... He'd have to ask Declan about it when he had the chance. If he got the chance.

Zabriel wasn't quite sure what to expect with the magic he'd used, but it was a good reaction if he did say so himself. "Don't choke on the air now, Declan... Though, I'm not sure how you could DO that..." He flashed a grin that made his eyes light up. "Just a little magic is all..."

He then gave the crow a smug look. "I told you you wouldn't like it." He waggled a finger at the irked crow, his other hand wandering toward Fish's ears again.

Though, Zabe's happy demeanor fell a bit at just how happy Declan was. "Er, well, first off... I'm not so sure how long that's going to last, Declan..." He tapped the tips of his indext fingers together, "It was hard enough casting that as it was..."

But he waved a hand, hoping not to crush Declan's hopes too much. "Anyway, one of my attackers was able to tell me a few things... So I'll run those by you and take my leave. After all, I've done what I came to do... I'm sure Eryk can fill you in on what it was he wanted." The fallen gave a bit of a shrug.

"Anyway, remember that war? Well, things have changed up a bit... He mentioned something about... I don't know, the 'dark forces' gathering or something stupid. Whatever it was he meant, he was scared. I think that something's shifted with the entire situation... And somehow, that's the reason we were attacked. This was supposed to be a warning... But whatever it is, I think they're trying to blindside us. If nothing else, they want you and me out of the picture... And every other 'neutral' as I was called." The angel gave a sigh, and made a motion that might have been fluttering wings, had he had any.

A few moments of silence later, he hopped to his feet. "Enjoy that little bit of life you've got, eh? And tell Eryk I said hey, and he owes me. I probably won't be seeing you any time soon though." And he made to leave the house. After all, he'd done what he'd came for... There was no other reason for him to say. He'd always been a loner, at least since being fallen, and wasn't about to change that now.

((haha, erm, sorry, this kinda really sucked... *squints* BUT YOU CAN GET DECLAN TO TRY AND KEEP HIM THERE! Or something...))

((Okay. I got part of it done last night before passing out but I kind of pushed myself today and became a bit more sick... I'm not making any promises. All I can say is that I'll try... I'M WATCHING MYSELF THIS TIME! haha... heart ))

((Yeah...so..I need to post, lol))

The apartment was barely half clean when the woman stopped cleaning, eyes scanning the room for something that wasn't visible. Standing, she melted into the shadows that filled the room, slipping from the living room to the bedroom. In the closet where the shoes should be kept were two daggers. These were removed silently as she disappeared into the shadows again.

It wasn't long before the reasoning behind her actions became apparent as the apartment door was opened, and three figures stepped inside. Two women, and a man. All of them resembled each other, and even in a strange way, the hidden woman herself.

One of the women called softly, "Come out, come out where ever you are Rianna." The man grunted, shooting a glare at the woman who had spoken. "This isn't a game."

She didn't know what they wanted, but apparently, it wasn't good. Concentrating, Rianna's violet eyes narrowed, and the shadow of the curtain flapped, as though someone was hiding. The only one who hadn't spoken lunged at the shadow, quite violently. She blinked in sympathy for the shadow, but stayed motionless and silent. Three on one was not good. They would use the shadows to find her soon, and when they did, she wasn't sure if she could hide from all three of them. There were only a few choices left.

As the woman who had spoken drew near the kitchen, probing the shadows as she went, Rianna forced a jolt of elemental power into her dagger. Really, she hated imbuing anything, but a dagger powered by light would be one of her more dangerous tools.

Finally she released the cocoon of shadows that had hid her, and Rianna leaped, dagger plunging into the females chest and ripping out as she kept moving, her target the other woman. A scream of pain told her that she had hit her target well. The man's shadow grasped at her feet, tripping her, and Rianna stumbled, rolling, and she felt metal pierce her arm, then numbing pain.

Stillness was asking to be killed however, and silver hair whipped in the air like a flag as Rianna righted herself, spinning to face the man and woman, her own shadows reporting their location to her. The two closed in on her, confident their prey was cornered. For a moment she stood still, poised, and then all three moved at once, a blur of motion.

Rianna's only target at the moment was the man, and she moved swiftly, ducking under his reaching arm as the woman's dagger scored her collarbone. The woman had no time to do more than score, as Rianna buried her second dagger in the male's leg, the other dagger nearly severing his upper arm from lower as it bit through muscle, tendon and bone, and Rianna used her own momentum along with the man's pain from her dagger to shove him into his companion, and she dove for the door, the shadows on the table swallowing the keys that lay on the table as an afterthought.

The door slammed shut behind her, and she began a three story descent on the stairs, leaping down where she could. Her whole body felt the impact when she did jump, but she continued running, even as the shadow that had swallowed the keys gently deposited them in her pocket. Reaching the outdoors, where snow fell softly in the darkened sky, the woman stopped, stuffing her hands into her pockets. With a glance up at the third story she had just exited, she shuffled off into the shadows.

((Bah...yes...bad...sorry ^^; ))

((Haha, okay, I POST TO THJS! YAYS!))

"You may be right about the dangerous part... The problem is, they probably don't know who most of the neutrals ARE. That's the thing, if none of us are active in the war either way, we'll be difficult to find... They're probably just trying to cover their asses." He flashed a grin at Crooks' words as well, "Well said, Polly."

Either way though, he didn't feel much more like discussing it. He just wanted to get out of there... Go about his normal business. He had other things he'd planned on doing...

But, he was stopped by a strong grip on his sleeve, by a hand that was attached to Declan. "Whaaaaat?" Zabe half-whined. "I'm LEAVING. I told you I was only here to convince you to bring Eryk back. And since that's been done, I have no more need to be here..." He trailed off, listening to Declan's 'alone' explination.

The angel gave a sigh, tugging his sleeve out of Declan's grip. "I don't want to have ANYTHING to do with this stupid war. And if I stick around here, I sure as hell will be right in the middle of it. We both were attacked, and by people from the same group. You know that, and I do too. I removed myself from either side of things CENTURIES ago. I don't want to build an army, and I don't want to fight. They send people at me? Fine. I can handle that." His face had fallen into a very set expression, his thin lips pursed so tight they nearly disappeared.

He looked at Declan's outstretched hand for a moment, then back to the young man himself. "I've already done far more than my share of helping people. That's just not something I DO. And now you're asking me to join a war I've avoided for ages? To join together with an army of people who don't care either way, and have them fight? One, that would be too much work... And none of it would immediately benefit me. I don't care what you do, but I look out for myself, and only myself. The only thing interfering with that war and those sides in general got me was fallen, HARD. I don't need anything like that happening again."

The fallen shook his head in an almost sad way, and walked through the front door again. "Stay inside, your life might last longer that way." He murmured, shoving his hands in his pockets. He then pulled his hood over his dark hair and scrunched his shoulders against the rapidly increasing gale of wind and snow. The angels he'd dragged outside were long gone, as were most of the effects of the fights that had happened there.

As he left Declan behind, there was a bit of remorse in his heavy steps. He hadn't properly talked to someone in a long time, and the young man seemed quite the interesting fellow... But then again, he'd isolated himself from people for a reason...

Zabriel gave a heavy sigh and simply stopped walking, tilting his head so he could stare blankly at the grey-white sky. He'd already been pulled into it, hadn't he? Ever since talking to Eryk... Once more, his wings appeared on his back, drooping and looking as pitiful as a broken bird. A few feathers drifted to the ground, an ugly dead-grey against the white of the snow. "What the hell am I supposed to do now, hmm?" The fallen angel gave a snort, "As if asking YOU would help." He shook his head and kicked at the snow with a heavy boot. What WAS he supposed to do?

((Haha, GO DECLAN! GO SET HIM RIGHT IN HIS WAYS! *cheers the little necromancer on*))

“Now, Renae, why don’t you go get ready for that little meeting.” Avis smiled and dismissed Renae to his quarters to choose a better outfit although his outfit was formal enough. “You may want to dress in something with a little more comfort to it.”

“But this is comfortable to me.” Renae replied with a grin, making Avis, himself, grin. He obeyed anyway, walking back towards his room. The people in the ballroom parted for him. He didn’t have to make an effort to squeeze by at all. “Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.” It wasn’t long before he reached the door and headed towards the stairs and up them.

Avis seemed to be speaking to Mr. Frederick before Renae left. “You do realize, Avis, that he is in danger here. There are… how should I put this… people who wish him harm roaming around here.” He spoke uncertain of Avis’ judgment call.

“Oh don’t worry, dear friend. I already knew. Our little golden boy will be fine.” Avis took a moment to pause glancing about the room. “It will give him a good reality check as well as make explaining things easier. Not to mention a nice workout.” The vampire master let out a hearty laugh giving another glance around the room.

Renae reached the second floor, passing paintings of masters before Avis. The corridor was a little dim but lit well enough to see fine. The carpets were a royal blue, the walls were a lighter version of the floor. He sighed wondering why Avis would send him off when he seemed ready to go to his first formal meeting. No one was in the hall or in the foyer for that matter. He was off on his own, or so he thought.

The further he went down the hall, the more he felt as if someone was there. He gave a smirk and just kept walking. Whoever they were gave a threatening feeling towards him. It did not matter to him. He just kept walking. He was planning on making them attack him first, thinking he was unaware of them but the young man was quickly approaching his room.

“You know, I would really hate to mess up my room. I could just kill you out here though, that is if you want.” Renae turned around to see three people appear from the shadows. Two were women, one was a man. The man was in the center and was tall, almost as tall as Renae. He had short, straight red hair. The woman on the right seemed young. She was the smallest of the group but the most beautiful with her long, golden, wavy hair. The woman on the left seemed older than the other two, in appearance at least. She had shorter black hair. The looked to be slightly put off by his statement but when wasn’t it common for a vampire to be confident?

“I don’t think we will be the one to have our blood spilt. It would be a shame to taint this carpet but, you must understand, we have a job to do.” The man spoke grinning letting his arrogance shine over Renae’s confidence. “Now, young one, I don’t think you’ll be lucky enough to even hurt us.”

“Hmm… big words for an insignificant insect. I wonder if I should even waste my energy on you fools. I suppose I could have a little fun.” Renae was not going to make the first move. He had to evaluate their attack pattern and movement, strengths and weaknesses. “Now, who will be the first to die?”

The older female stepped forward, eyes turning blood red. “You’ll regret that statement… I’ll drain you dry.” Renae did nothing but laugh. He didn’t even throw off any scare games. She charged at him with amazing speed but he didn’t seem to be impressed. She struck at him with her claws but missed. He didn’t even look as if he moved but she definitely missed.

“You’ll have to do better than that, hag.” His name calling was only to throw her off and make her angry. “I bet you couldn’t even hit me.” Renae kept his eyes on her but never took his full attention off the other two. He took his right hand from his pocket and three what appeared to be throwing knives fell into his hand. “Did you want me to go now?” Before she could answer, he appeared behind her. “Too late…” He stabbed straight into her back making her let out a shriek. He let a round-house kick send her out the window. “So… that was not very entertaining. Have you any better?”

The man looked at him with anger himself. That wasn’t nearly enough to kill a vampire but normal blades wouldn’t do that much damage to a vampire. “What are your little toys made out of? Silver?” The man was pretty perceptive but not enough.

“Close… an alloy made by our team here. Really fascinating little things, aren’t they? I’ve built up a bit of immunity to them… silver I couldn’t quite handle.” Renae smiled. “Would you like feel what she did? I can arrange a meeting between you and my friends here if you wish?”

“You’re overconfidence will be your undoing, boy.” Both of them charged at him now, the male obviously faster than the rest. Renae found it a bit hard to keep up with his movements. So much so he was able to dodge him but the other lady vampire made a strike across his cheek. It was made clear that Renae was annoyed that she actually hit him. “What? Can’t keep up?”

“Oh but I can! You seem to provide somewhat of challenge.” Renae began to summon up his shadow. As soon as he did, so did they. “Oh my, it seems as though we have a bit more of challenge, don’t we, dear Shadow?” The shadow seemed to have it’s own though process and movements now, as it picked itself up from the floor. The oppositions did the same. Renae and his Shadow lunged at the girl and her shadow companion first. The shadow seemed to be taking hers done quite easily, as he was taking her down. He delivered a few slashes to her but resorted to punching and kicking her unconscious.

The man made another charge but Renae just stood still. When the man was within a close enough proximity, Shadow came in and shoved him away. “Good boy.” Renae complimented his shadow companion but before he could iterate another sentence he was laid flat by the man’s shadow. He was sent far back enough to smack firmly against the wall. The young vampire did not seem to be moving and his shadow retreated away from them. The other shadow retreated to it’s normal positioning after the man got up.

“Aww, looks like you lose.” The man prepared a strike but felt three, sharp, excruciating pains in his back. They were not attached to Renae though. “How… could you have… hit me?” The man was surprised but right before his eyes he realized something. “You… don’t have a… shadow! You’re… not real…” The illusion had faded and the real Renae fell from the ceiling but landed softly.

“You are absolutely correct. Unfortunately, you noticed too late also…” He paused as he pulled the daggers out of the man’s back. “I don’t miss. I’m not able to create expansive illusions and I couldn’t make him have a shadow…”

“But how’d… you?”

“Get up there without you noticing? What, you can’t keep up?” Renae laughed as he picked up him and the other girl and tossed them out the window. “Consider this a gift. Don’t disturb me again or you’ll lose more than just your pride next time. Have a lovely night.” By the time Renae had opened his door, he realized the mess he made. “I guess I’ll have to get someone else to do it.” Renae entered his room and took a nice shower, cleaning himself up. He put on a new outfit. This time he put on a crimson red button-up and a pair of nice, black pants.

Avis entered his room. “You sure made a mess out there. I’ll get the servants to clean it up. There is much you have to find out about. Come with me.” Without a second though Renae followed Avis out the door.

---
((Here’s the plot post part))

Renae had followed Avis to a large building in the center of the city. It was lit up all the way to the top. It seemed to be a corporation of some kind. Everyone greeted Avis as he entered the building with Reane trailing him. The lobby was expansive and looked quite elegant. “Avis, may I ask what this place is?”

“Now, now! Let’s not ruin the surprise!” Avis chuckled to himself as they entered the glass elevator. Avis pressed the button that led to the top floor. “Now, Renae… you’re going to learn of a lot of things that are… unsettling. It seems that even you are in danger now. I can’t speak of too much else. You’ll find out more as we get there.” Renae complied and just went on to the top floor.

Inside there was a large, round table. There were eight chairs. Avis took one and there were obviously others around. “Sorry I’m late. I decided to wait for Renae.” They all seemed to nod.

“It’ good to have you here, Avis.” A woman with long, lime green hair and almost glowing dark blue eyes spoke softly to Avis. She seemed to be a human, looking to be in her earlier thirties. She had a slender build to her but did have curve to her as well but did not have much tone. She wore a sleeveless black dress that draped rather beautifully downward. She had three piercings in each ear. Moons seemed to decorate her and her outfit as well. She was obviously the witch of the group.

“Ah, if you aren’t growing even more beautiful, Jada.” Avis kissed her hand in courtesy.

“Yes, it is.” A more masculine and firm voice shown through. The voice belonged to a man with obvious tone and muscle. Not too much that it was scary but to show he had strength to him. He was very tall, standing at about 6’4” in height. He had shaggy dark brown hair and light brown eyes. He seemed to be the werewolf of the group.

“Cathal, dear friend, you haven’t changed a bit.”

“It seems you were a bit tied up as well, eh, Avis?” A man with shoulder length black hair spoke. He also appeared to be human but he seemed to be a few years younger than the other. He had a thin mustache as well. He possessed dark looking eyes. He wore dark robes made of velvet and crimson red cords. He was the necromancer.

“Tamal! I still remember when you were young necromancer! I don’t believe we’ve seen you in a while.” Avis commented on the old friend.

“We’ve had meetings before but he said he’d been… busy, is that right?” A blonde, older looking woman spoke, almost questioning him like lawyer to defendant. Her hair was long, very long and she had silver eyes with some green in them. She was very slender, almost frail looking, that was shown through a rather heavenly looking dress. She was the angel of the group.

“Yeah, I believe that’s what he said, Solstice.” A smile came to the dark elf’s face. She had some tone to her body. She also had long, dark blue hair and purple mixed with blue eyes. She wore a goth-like outfit as well.

“Now, Visola!” Chuckled the werecat. She had long, sleek, black hair with golden eyes. Like her hair, she was sleek and lean, like she would be a runner. She appeared to be in her late thirties but was still younger looking than the angel. She wore a lovely kimono showing her heritage.

“You are certainly dressed lovely, Namir.” Avis’ compliments never seemed to end for his friends.

“Heh, holding on to tradition as always huh?” The younger girl wore black band shirts and such. She had blood red hair, emo-styled. Like all of the other women, she was slender as well. Her eyes were two different colors. One was silver and the other was gold. She was obviously the kitsune of the group.

Not long after the blonde succubus master came in, “I’m sorry I’m late! I had a rather creative way of getting my little Zeal here.” She smirked.

“Welcome Lilith!” Avis welcomed her in. “So where are we?”

“We each sent a messenger… except you and Lilith… to get the others here.” Answered Jada. A messenger of each was sent to retrieve each of the other “to be masters”. One per each.

((So you get it. You each have a messenger. They will reveal nothing until you get to the building and up to the top floor. They can reveal that your master has sent for you. Just get there. There is one for each one of you so go at it biggrin ))

((Haha, butthead! I'm off to school. Now you guys can rejoice. I have art projects to do today so I may not even get the chance to be on much today sad Anyway, talk to you guys later))