<span style="font-size: 150%; line-height: 116%;"><span style="color: #4080FF"><div style="text-align: center;">ATHANASE</div></span></span><br/><br/>It was moments like this that Athan treasured more than anything else in this new life. Evenings spent at home with just Aly and himself. The meal was cooked to perfection and for a bit of added fun, the Thralls had agreed to play as the wait staff that night. One of the rare moments when they would get an evening off and the city was not on the verge of some drastic end.<br/><br/>His glass of champagne was raised in a toast, as he smiled over to her, “To an evening at home.”<br/><br/>It was perfect; everything was perfect, even the sound of the glass as it clinked together was for all intents and purposes, perfect.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">BOOM!</span><br/><br/>Then their front door was blown open and that perfection was shattered into so many pieces, much like the glasses they still held in their hands. A canister was thrown into the room, the metal sound as it bounced into the otherwise silent room drew the attention of all who had still yet to move from their spots. Smoke began to pour into the room from the canister and Athan flipped up the dinner table with a snarl while he growled to the thralls.<br/><br/>“GET TO THE BEDROOM!” in just enough time to avoid a spray of bullets.<br/><br/>“FOR THE ORDER!” a man who wielded an MP5 shouted as he stepped within the room, to let loose another volley of bullets. Behind the table Athan crouched with Aly, both rather annoyed with the fact that their evening had been interrupted.<br/><br/>Without much said between them, he used his celerity to get behind the one who had announced himself. A hand at the back of his neck used to lift him easily from the ground and toss him threw one of the windows. Movement from behind him caused him to move closer to the now shattered window, a fanged smirk on his face as he watched the others file into the room. The equivalent of a lion’s roar left his lips before he charged into the fray, a few bullets hit him here and there, but the wounds were insignificant in the heat of the moment. Territorial to the point of being near insane, the man and the lion wanted to protect their mates and thus ignored what would have been a more reasonable approach to the moment.<br/><br/>In the fray of the men who attacked, Athan tossed two like rag dolls a satisfied look of blood lust had taken over his features, which only grew as he snatched up a third. This one’s head was yanked to the side which allowed him to feed uninhibited. The taste of the hot blood as it rolled across his tongue caused him to lose focus for a moment, which afforded the last one to set the tile he had carried in with him. Once Athan was done, he shoved the lifeless body to the side and rushed to get the last one in sight, though the moment his foot touched down on that tile he found himself….not at home anymore.<br/><br/>He snarled for a moment in frustration, his eyes frenzied while he looked about for Aly. “Where the…” the question was not even finished before he snarled yet again as just a final moment of annoyance before he stalked over to one of the windows. A white kerchief was taken from his suit pocket and used to wipe the blood free from his face. “Now, she gets to have fun without me…” he grumbled with a look over his shoulder at the others in the room. “And I get to be part of the lamest dick standoff…” another huff before he pressed his back against the window and looked back into the room. “Anyone know where we are?”<br/><br/><br/><div><hr style="height:2px; width:100%; border:0; color: lightblue;background:lightblue;"/></div><br/><br/><br/><span style="font-size: 150%; line-height: 116%;"><span style="color: #BF40BF"><div style="text-align: center;">ALY</div></span></span><br/><br/>To say that she was excited to get off of work was an understatement. Today was one of the days that<a class="postlink" href="https://photos-a.ak.instagram.com/hphotos-ak-xaf1/t51.2885-15/1390228_225966827580800_1375449115_n.jpg">Aly</a>had more to look forward to than usual, because Athan had taken care of everything for dinner to the point that all she had to do was show up and be ready to be wined and dined. On the way home, she’d stopped off at one of the shops in the mall, picked up a dress and gotten her hair done. New shoes, new makeup, no expense was spared in making herself look presentable for Athan for their dinner date.<br/><br/>The moment she crossed the threshold into their apartment, the smile on her lips broadened and she swore her heart started up all over again with excitement. Aeri came in and ushered her to her seat, Athan pushing it in behind her as Dominic came over with wine, pouring it into their glasses while Athan prepared a toast. Her thrall slid her a look, the grin one she’d have readily returned if she’d not been so entranced by what Athan had to say, her own glass lifted, clinking together with his.<br/><br/>But, all good things must come to an end. In their case, it came to an end sooner than it should have as the Order made themselves known, a smoke bomb filling the room to the point of near blindness. The table was flipped, the glasses thrown and, after a shared look, they parted. Though she lacked the enhancement of celerity, her speed was enough to get to the back as Aeri and Dominic disappeared into the back room, leaving her free to bolt for her arsenal.<span style="font-style: italic">And people thought I was paranoid for no reason,</span>the woman thought, lip curled up in a snarl of annoyance as she took up the first knives she reached (some being tucked into her dress and one in her mouth while the rest remained in her hands), her figure skirting the perimeter.<br/><br/>Like a shadow, she hugged the walls, her hand snaking out through the smoke to grab paladin after paladin, slicing their throats without so much as a batted eyelash. This wasn’t the neutral Aly, the Aly that everyone got on a daily basis. No, this was angry Aly, calculated Aly, the Aly that most didn’t see as she kept it in check. These paladins had brought it out, and there wasn’t an ounce of regret to be felt as body after body hit the floor.<br/><br/>A stinging sensation resounded at her side, spreading out as she realized she was being shot at. Whirling around, she charged, her fangs extending as she let out a near feral sound, claws extending as her body collided with theirs. There were more shots ringing out, but she ignored them, fangs sinking into his neck and ripping his trachea free of its muscular prison. Throwing it to the side, she turned, blood coating the entirety of her chin, dripping down her neck and her chest, but it was the furthest thing from her mind.<br/><br/>Something else had taken its place.<br/><br/>Athan was gone. She couldn’t feel him anymore, her mind going on the alert as she scanned for the next available target. Spotting it some feet off, she grabbed up the gun the paladin beneath her had been shooting and charged him, only to find his clip was empty so she collided with him a second time.<br/><br/>And everything went sideways.<br/><br/>Their bodies collided with the floor and the sounds of gunfire, tactical calls and furniture being broken vanished. No longer could she hear Aerilyn in the back, rifling through her collection and screaming obscenities as she tried to help out while Dominic hunkered down. No longer was she in Harper Rock.<br/><br/>With the Paladin hit hard by the butt of her elbow, disorienting him enough so that she could stand and take in her surroundings, her eyes found Athan and she let out a heavy sigh. “…We left Harper…and wound up in another standoff…Wonderful,” came an exasperated remark, as she felt the unlucky portal-jumper start to get up and try to take her down with him. Her foot kicked out, colliding with his jaw before her hand held out to Athan for the kerchief he’d been cleaning up with. “At least I brought lunch? We should be pretty well off for a while.”<br/><br/>Then, after a brief pause, her lips quirked up in a knowing smile. “You missed some, by the way,” she pointed out, tapping her nose. “Just there.” As far as she was concerned, the rest of the participants didn’t exist until they had something productive to bring to the table.<br/><br/><div><hr style="height:2px; width:100%; border:0; color: lightblue;background:lightblue;"/></div><br/><br/><span style="color: #FF8000"><span style="font-size: 150%; line-height: 116%;"><div style="text-align: center;">Sheyera</div></span></span><br/><br/>The afternoon had been fun and relaxed thus far for the couple with two rambunctious twins to deal with. The twins were two now and given their genetic makeup; this meant that they were not average by any means. Each had their own little personality and neither of them had them being anything buy tiny monsters to their parents and part time nanny. Still, these were moments that Shey treasured far more than she could ever put to words. With all that had happened in her life, moments like this were some that she never expected to have and not with such an unlikely person either.<br/><br/>At the moment, her mate, her love, Dherris lay on his back in the middle of what would be considered the “living room” as he played with their children. Aria had run off to hide behind a piece of furniture, with only her tail visible as she waited for what would seem to be the perfect moment to pounce. Michael, on the other hand, had decided he would enjoy a nibble or two his father. At first, it was cute, downright adorable until he shifted into his wolf form and took another nibble at Dherri’s foot which elicited a loud yelp from the poor man.<br/><br/>Who, was then promptly pounced on by his daughter with another grunt as some of the air was knocked from his lungs.<br/><br/>“I think he wants something to nibble on,” Shey chuckled and pushed up onto her hands and knees from where she had been seated to crawl over to where he still laid. “I think I have a bone or something in the basement for him,” she said her face upside down in contrast to his own, which was somewhat covered by her hair that had fallen forward. A smiled played on her lips, before she leaned down and gave him a quick simple kiss. “I’ll be back in a sec, ok?” and pushed up before he could protest or distract her with another kiss.<br/><br/>“Don’t let them eat him, while I’m gone. Ok?” she said to the Nanny who had come from the kitchen. She was fae, some kind of tree folk, with a kind heart, patient hand and a wicked righthook. Just what both of them wanted in regards to a caregiver for their children when they were not around.<br/><br/>Bare feet traversed the hard wood floors and to the small door that led downstairs to the roughly hewn out basement that only served as a means of storage and very little else. The stairs creaked under her weight as she descended the steps; the light she had turned on at the stop of the steps flickered just as she neared the bottom. A groan of annoyance left her lips as she looked back at it, before she focused on the light that should have been one of the windows in there. After a few steps she realized it was something was not right, not right at all.<br/><br/>“What the fuck?” she growled only to suddenly bang her leg into a couch and find herself in a room filled with…well filled with people she had no want nor desire to be around. “This is not a funny joke,” she grumbled aloud to no one in particular as she strode past them all and about the room as she sought out her family. “Dherris? Aria? Michael?” she said and continued to look about the room for her mate and children.