Welcome to Gaia! ::

Victor saw light at the end of the now narrowing hallway, the mirrors beginning to give way to solid wall, the brightness coming onto his path.
He could feel the wind against his face and running through his hair.
With a sudden white hot flash, the vampire hunter dropped out of the air and fell hard to the floor of the castle, the same familiar carpeting of the alcove where he had been banished from.

His hand brushed over the floor, feeling the rough fabric against his ungloved skin. With a tired sigh, he lifted himself up, trying to re-orient himself.
Everything had returned with him from the trappings in his own mind, excluding the wound he had received prior to his departure.
There was something different though, Victor could sense it in the air. Namine was not here, the room was abandoned, however, the very atmosphere of the castle itself had changed. It was as if darkness had permeated the innermost sanctums within the mansion.

"An Elder..." he said aloud.

That never bode well. He had trained under the tutelage of Hugo Goldwater, the only human to have ever slain a vampire lord within recent memory.
He harkened back to his master's conversation when they had spoken of the horrific experience.

"Victor, pray that you never have to face an elder of that hellish group... Zaitan Uldereth was the second weakest amongst the five original vampiric lords and I lost my eye and most of the functioning ability of my leg during that battle..."
"No master! I want to destroy them! Remove their taint from this world completely and to its entirety!"
"Foolish boy. You do not seek a vampire lord, to do so is to beckon death itself. They are crafty bastards, every last one of them. Zaitan managed to lure me into a trap, he left a child, crying in the street, in the middle of a town plaza that he had butchered. As soon as I went to the young one, he appeared from the shadows and would have struck me down instantly if I had not sidestepped in time, his attack only taking my eye instead of my life. If you want to destroy the vampire elders... you have to wait for them to reveal themselves. It is unfortunately the one time that we, the hunters, become the hunted."
"Master! Then tell me! How will I know when one is near?"
"...Agh.... If you must know, the air will become deathly chilled, and the very light will grow dim in their presence. You will know an elder by their sheer power that generates from their body. They are immune to the standard methods of death. Their regeneration of body tissue is extraordinary. During my bout with Zaitan, my blade tore his flesh a dozen times, in often fatal areas, but it was not until I was bashed into the steeple of the town's church and was lucky enough to knock down its silver signet piece. As the elder neared me, thinking the kill nigh, he lowered his guard to gloat over his victory and I thrust the silver cross through his chest, ending him. Whatever you do, my protege.... do not underestimate them."

Victor knew exactly the truth of his master's words. Despite not even knowing where this elder was, he knew his power was great. He clutched at the silver cross around his neck and tucked it back under his tunic.
Namine... are you responsible for this...? Or is it something completely different..?
With a shake of his head, he slowly wandered out of the alcove, keeping to the shadows as he re-entered the ballroom.

Alexander yawned out of sheer boredom. This so-called party seemed to be dragging on like Mussolini after World War II. As if the party itself was not bad enough, the fact that both a kruznik and a hunter were present. The past kruzniks were easily killable and hunters, being mere humans, hardly seemed worth killing. Just the mortals trying to claw their way to the top of the food chain. Their constant struggle was sad, really. Such short lives and so much to do in this world. Perhaps it was human's jealousy that causes them to slay vampires. Jealous of the infinite lifespan possessed by the vampires, humans train themselves to commit mass genocide of a certain species. At this, Alexander sighed. "The more things change..." he whispered to himself, "...the more they stay the same." With that, he made his way outside of the ballroom and began to wander the hallways.

Raoul propped his companion over as many pillows as the bed could offer and tucked an extra blanket over his shoulder just to prevent against him catching any cold. He pressed the back of his palm over the boy's porcelain temples and was relieved to find he wasn't running a fever. In a matter of minutes, Raoul had reverted to his past knowledge of medicine more times than he had in the century and half he'd been a vampire and that unnecessary thought brought up another relevant point to his head. He frowned and shook his head though, as if telling himself that it was neither the time nor place to think such things, and forced himself to be busy. More shirts were ripped up, some to be used for cold compress to reduce any possible swelling from the head bump...once he could dare to leave his companion alone.

Eventually, after a few more minutes of fretting about the situation, he admitted that leaving the young man was inevitable and leaned close to murmur, "Poinsettia can you hear me? If you can, I have to leave for a few moments- just to get some water and ice. I will be shutting the door, don't let anyone in- not if they ask." He hastened out of the room and back into the rowdiness below, taking care not to return to the dance floor, instead he navigated through surrounding hallways until he got to a spread table and retrieved a bucket of ice. Raoul was in such a haste to get back upstairs that he lost track of how many turns he'd taken and ended up in unfamiliar places.

He swore harshly and quickened his pace, almost breaking into a trot as he rounded a corner and knocked into the figure coming from the other end. "I beg your pardon..." He began but the words trailed away as a sudden spike of apprehension shot through him. He took a half step back, gripping harder on the bucket as two facts became clear. Firstly, the figure he walked into was a vampire and secondly, he was old...older than anyone Raoul could ever recall encountering.

((I'll be signing off on this note...night and laters to all ^^))

"What have I done?" Alsvid thought, "How could I trust that that creature would leave my beautiful Skyler unharmed?" He stared at her and took in every inch. "So beautiful. A vampire would gladly turn her into a feast." He knew he had made a mistake. The hunter was here at the party, he would be delighted to put an end to this eternal fiend and more importantly he would never let any vampire harm a human, including Skyler. "I am a fool. Now this ancient will know who to kill eliminating any chance of the hunter surprising him. I must find the hunter and warn him. An elder would be powerful enough kill all of these unsuspecting humans." Alsvid resolved to find and warn the hunter, he would even help someone so loathsome if it meant safety for Skyler.

"I love you and I promise I shall return," he said after kissing her. "If it is possible for me to do so..." he thought. He had little concern for being noticed at this point and used all his might to jump high into the air. He spotted the hunter and glided silently behind him. He reached out a hand and placed it on the hunter's shoulder. "You are in danger," he whispered into the hunter's ear, "There is an elder here this very night and he is out for your blood."

Victor glanced down at the ballroom below, scanning the area for Namine amongst the crowd. Despite his efforts he could not find her in her beautiful attire.
With a deep sigh, he continued his search until he felt a dark presence apparate behind him, Victor remained motionless, though his hand was prepared to flip out his pistol at a moment's notice.
"There is an elder here this very night, and he is out for your blood."
The words had barely left the lips of the vampire when Victor spun about, grasped his collar with his left hand and slammed him against the wall, raising his silver pistol to beneath his chin.
Victor smiled toyingly with him.
"Is that right? Am I to assume that you are he? No. An elder would not have been caught unawares by that simple counter. If you are not here to strike me, then why inform me of an elder's presence?"
The vampire said nothing and Victor lowered his pistol, holstering it reluctantly, releasing his grip on the vampire's cloth vest.
"If you speak the truth then it only confirms my suspicion. However, my quarry is not in the elder you speak of, but rather a woman. She was wearing a fabulous dress and a pristine mask earlier... but she seems nowhere to be found."
The man snorted, thinking the slayer to be seeking pleasure over duty.
"It's no ordinary woman, I assure you," Victor smiled, almost to give a false hint towards knowing what he was thinking," a Cruznik. I believe the rest of your kind know of them? Heh. Well, she is the one I am after at the moment, the elder... will come to me... and when he does, he'll know he will have been in a fight."
With a wild-eyed grin, Victor patted the unknown vampire on the shoulder and began to turn and walk away, his crimson cloak spiraling in the air as he went.

Alsvid danced around the hunter smiling. He knew that he was faster than the human and if he kept moving he wouldn't be caught again. "Your arrogance is delightful, almost cute. Do you really believe that you can defeat an elder single handedly?" Alsvid stopped and stared into the hunters eyes. "Hahaha oh how adorable. You do believe it. How, pray tell, do you intend to defeat a creature who can read your thoughts? Hmmm? However, if two people were to fight him he would be unable to enter two minds. Perhaps that's how you can gain an advantage." Alsvid could see that he was confusing the hunter with talk of killing a vampire elder. "Haha let us just say that I do not approve of such power. He entered my mind without invitation. He is far too rude to be allowed live." he began to smile as Victor stared into his eyes, trying to see if he was telling the truth. Alsvid removed his mask. "Now hunter you know my face, when all this is done you can try and find me and put an end to me if you please." He walked away pushing his mask back over his face. "Oh and hunter, you may want to be quick in your pursuit, the elder is also lookig to kill a cruznick. Remember, I wish to help you tonight hunter and I recommend you take advantage of this."

"Your ignorance will cost you human. I was simply warning you because I want you to succeed. He is too powerful and poses a threat to my love. She is human and I know that creaure would kill her without a second thought." Alsvid screamed at the hunter. "Perhaps years spent as a glorified murderer has cost you your heart and soul. Is that it? Perhaps you are the real monster. Justify it any way you wish, but you are no better than the fiends you hunt. You, who kills so many without remorse, not even knowing if your prey is wicked or not. If you shall kill me so be it. You will age and die and then I will meet with you in Hell." Alsvid waited for a response and thought about Skyler and her beauty. Then he imagined the elder feeding from her and it made him feel weak. Alsvid jumped in front of the hunter. "If you don't want to take my help now then that is fine. Just know that by saying this to you I have endangered myself and my love. If you do happen to need help I'll be waiting." Victor was about to respond but Alsvid cut in. "I said 'if'."