Welcome to Gaia! ::

Duellist suddenly appeared in the lair, a serene expression on his face. "Hello, dear..." He said, smiling quite peacefully. "I got your message." A small muscle under his eye twitched, but his expression remained quite controlled.

Taryn looked vaguely worried, but let it pass. "Um... don't worry... I managed to get the protective shields back up..." If only he would shout. Or something.

"That's good." Duellist nodded. "Protective shields. Good. Right? I've always said that the lair needs a giant monster living underneath it!" His face started to elongate, and his last words were snarled.

Taryn backed up, against the wall. "I'm sorry, Duellist... I... it was an accident... I'll dea..."

The vampire clasped his head with both hands, almost throttling his anger back in place. "No! No, no... I'll... I'll deal with it... it's okay..." It happened so suddenly that even he was probably surprised. The assassin's hand darted out, and it was only the bodily interposition of Bertram that prevented Taryn from receiving a fairly solid slap.

The wraith was sent flying, crashing into the wall and crumpling up. Duellist stared at his clawed hands in surprise and fear, and shook it, only feeling safe to speak when they were completely human. He coughed, and looked more miserable then he had at any time since after he had tried to sacrifice Midori. "Oh my gods..." the vampiric assassin just collapsed himself, burying his face in his hands.

Taryn moved towards him, but he waved her away. Instead, she went over to Bertram and helped the boy up. A nasty bruise lay over his eye, and she almost gasped. Then she looked back at the vampire, and her eyes narrowed. "Bertram? I think you should go someplace else for the night..."

Bertram looked between his master and mistress, not daring to speak. Clutching at his eye, he just faded out of sight, reappearing at the entrance to the hotel. He only hoped he could avoid Ikue.

~~

Down below, Taryn and Duellist faced each other. She was almost beside herself with fury. "How dare you..." she hissed, her fangs curling out.

Duellist had lost all his own anger, just sitting there shaking his head. "I...I don't know what came over me... it...I..."

Taryn snarled at him, an almost animal sound. No, it was an animal sound. From an animal throat... before she realised what was happening, she had completely transformed. And a single clawed hand slammed the still human assassin back.

After the young medium had stood there like and idiot for what seemed to be five minutes, she backed away from the thing that she had just frozed and broke into a run. Finally making it to the fifth floor and over to her room, she leaned against the door, still outside her room, panting. Some spirits would stare at the girl as they passed by her. Right after she had turned that thing to ice, she could've used the opportunity to practice using her exorcist abilities.. But no, she didn't. Instead, she simply ran away like a coward.

Sighing, she pulled out her key and unlocked the door, opening it with a turn of the knob. Flicking the light switch on, the girl closed the door behind her and collapsed onto her bed. Ikue burried her face into a pillow, thinking to herself, listening to silence's song. "Bah.. that was stupid."

Ikue then began to wonder what Bertram was up to, already forgetting about what happened down there in the stair way.

(( its because its slow, that's why. -nods, staring at the clock.-))

((Where is everyone?))

It was half-an-hour later, and Taryn was reasonably calm once more. Again in human shape, she sighed. "Dear..." She murmured, drained. "Are you okay?"

Duellist shook his head, depressed. "I can't believe I almost attacked you... and that I hurt Bertram..." he closed his eyes. "I just got so... so angry..."

Taryn reached out to him. "You've been overworking yourself..." she rubbed her hand against his neck. Even after what had just happened, she still trusted and loved him. Because she knew that now that he was aware of the risk, he'd do everything in his power to avoid a repeat. "Why don't you cancel all your appointments for the next few days, and just rest in the lair...?" She stroked his pearl-white hair, and almost smiled when he finally reached up and took her hand. "Perhaps you can help me work through the spellbook so we won't get a repeat of the mishap?"

Duellist sighed, and looked up at her. "What will we do about Bertram...?"

Taryn looked downwards. "I'll talk to him tomorrow..." her eyes steeled. "But you're sleeping in the spare coffin today."

"But..."

"And tomorrow."

"I'm sorry..."

"And the day after that. And we'll see about the weekend. There was no excuse for what you did to him, and you know it." She sighed and kissed the back of his head. "We'll talk about this later... right now Mimi really wanted to see you."

Duellist nodded, looking downwards. He faded out of sight, and Taryn just collapsed against the wall, all her energy gone. That inner voice tried to assert itself then, tried to make her leave. But she clamped it back down in its prison. 'I know he'll never do it again...'

~~

Bertram sighed, and looked around. He changed his mind. He did want to speak to someone, to anyone.

((Maybe he fell asleep. Jouji, that is.

I'm staring at Gackt. xd ))

][Nee..x.x I'm back everyone, Mom decided to hog the computer again.. Very sorry.

Care to fill me in on what's happened?][

(( How should we? We weren't "there" .. and.. um.. s**t happens. xd She still has the whip, woo!!))

-Mimi had been busy staring at the object in her hands so when Duellist's voice seemed to pop out of nowhere she couldn't help but scream. And boy was it a loud, vibrant, blood-curdling scream that erupted from her throat. It was loud enough for anyone out there to hear, it had been that loud.

It was as if she were making up for the yelling she had failed to do out there... for all the screams she'd never screamed. Hell, she looked a mess too. Those pupils had narrowed to long slits, face pale, fur on end...even a pair of sharp fangs had appeared.

After a moment or two she had calmed down, a hand shoving the object in her hand back where it had been. One could blame it on stress.- By the Gods above and below I believe I could have soiled myself just then!!

-Again she took a deep breath, a trembling hand running through her hair.- And the ghoul back there was your doing? For a moment there I thought I was about to become Kitty Chow.

-She silenced herself, chewing on her lip a faint frown on her face.- What's wrong?