Vivienne

-I have to go!- Brian thought to himself as he bounded down the three flights of steps.  Once outside the cool air cleared the young mage’s mind enough to remember that there was an operation going on.  He tapped his blue-tooth earbud, “Captain Mattson, I am headed your way.  Side entrance, If you need me I can get you out.”

“Great.  I could use the help, I think those groupies broke my damned ribs.”  Raollet coughed and felt the pain radiate through his body. “The best thing about this building is that it was built in an old city park.”  He paused for a moment. “Let me amend that.  It is the best part, but also a detriment.  Whoever escaped can be hiding in the woods ready to take us apart.”  Raollet took a painful breath, “We can also hide in the woods.”

“Get off….me, you blood hounds.”  Captain Kino yelled and the distinct sound of an electrical charge and a thud came across the link. “....and….fucking…stay…down.”  Angelie huffed for a second, “One down and a few more to go.  Captain Mattson, are we just going to lay the beatdown on the Thralls or are we taking the building down?  What’s the …” Captain Kino stopped her question and swung her baton again, “...Where the fuck are they all coming from?”  

Raollet stopped stumbling his way to the side entrance. “Loved One, I am going back to help Captain Kino.”

The Darla spotted the group that had managed to almost surround Captain Kino’s little squad. “No, Raollet.  I will assist Angelie.”  The Darla flicked her wrist and sent a twisted green-black coil of thorns to grab the thrall attacking her captain.  The Darla heard the thrall’s scream across the street, “...So potent.”  She waved her tireless arms in a circular motion and encased the thrall, once more sending pulses of red along the tethered connection and into her body.

Seeing that the streets around Phantasmagoria were devoid of any traffic, Brian sprinted to the door just as Casey came bursting out of it, carrying a smoldering body.  Finding himself frozen, Brian couldn’t initially say anything and simply admired the woman he’d loved for two years. -Maybe she will see reason now that she’s holding a boiling husk.-  A little strength came back into his legs and he took a couple careful steps to his ex-girlfriend.  Brian had just opened his mouth to speak when Casey set the woman she was carrying on the ground and offered the lady her wrist.

“Sylvie…”  Casey panted, nearly out of breath. “Come on, open your eyes.”  She whispered something in the vampire’s ear and leaned back up. “Damnit, come on.”  Casey held her wrist to Sylvie’s mouth.

Brian took a deep breath and let out a surprised gasp. “Casey.”

The ward looked up with a smile on her face, “Brian!”  She pointed to Sylvie laying on the ground. “Come help me get her out of here.” Her chocolate eyes pleaded with the big man. “I can try to explain it all later if you really want to know.”  Casey looked down at Sylvie who had started to move her head. “Something inside just started the sprinklers and somehow this water..”

“It’s holy water, Casey.”  Brian said flatly and opened his lightly glowing palm for Casey to see. “They are vampires, Casey!”  He paced around and balled up his fists in frustration and inner conflict. “I am here to save you from these monsters.  Look at you…JUST LOOK!”  He screamed, “You are trying to give the fucker your BLOOD!”  He raised his hand and the green light started pulsing. “No, I have to save you.”

Casey didn’t take the time to think, she just acted.  Using the new strength of her enhanced legs, Casey leapt at Brian in the effort to tackle the mage before his spell would go off.  Watching as the green glowing palm veered away from Sylvie, Casey prepared for some impact that would stop her hasty tackle.  The next thing the young ward knew, she had sand and dirt in her eyes and was completely blind.  Unable to stop herself mid-air, a second later she hit the ground with a thud, knocking the wind out of her chest.

“The blindness will be gone in a second, Casey.”  Brian looked around and climbed on an abandoned car. “You belong to me, not this witch on the ground.”

Casey cleared the dirt from her eyes and glared at Brian standing on his higher position. “I don’t belong to anyone.”  Casey felt the tug of Vivienne in her heart and took a breath, “Well, I do.  It just isn’t you.”  She pointed her finger at Brian. “Vivienne wouldn’t ever say it though.  She also wouldn’t attack me.”  She stood up and brushed herself off. -Damnit.-  Casey slowly backed away and started walking in a semi circle away from Sylvie, hoping that Brian would follow her. “Tell me, Brian.”  Her words dripped with sarcasm, “Who did you hook up with to learn what you know? Last I saw you, that was a birthmark.”

Brian smiled as his rolling mound of soil tunneled its way to where Casey was walking. “I thought it was a birthmark.”  He quickly shrugged, “Turns out I am what my new friends call a geomancer.”  He waved the fingers on his glowing hand. “I didn’t believe it at first either.”  Recalling how Denise flicked her wrists and how she maintained control of the magic and talking, Brian commanded his little mound to grab Casey from behind.

Sensing the ground moving beneath her feet, Casey waited. “You are really going to do this?”  Casey felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand.  Not waiting for Brian to respond, Casey in a fluid move crouched and sprung off the dirt pile that had started to rise up and grab her.  Knowing that Brian had the higher vantage point, she aimed for the car rather than the big man himself.  Inertia and her more solid form plowed into the car, turning it on its side.  

Before tumbling off the car like a sack of potatoes, Brian’s plan had been to grab his girlfriend with the mound or to blind her once again.  Knowing that the thrust from the vehicle would make him land somewhere hard, Brian’s mind quickly thought about loose soil.  His pine green light flared from his palm and zapped the ground where he was going to land.  A small mattress-like section of earth pulled from the surrounding area and caught the new geomancer. “Yes, I am really doing this.”  Brian whispered a fast thank you to Gaia and continued, “Sometimes the best love is tough love.”  Brian stopped the mound with another quick flare and made the blob take the form of a giant humanoid, complete with lava rock eyes. “Contain, capture.”  Brian watched as the runes from his commands imprinted themselves in the root twisted soil with an eerie green hue.  Feeling the rush of power from the commands and the free flow of magic, Brian started trembling. “Never in two years did you hear what I was saying to you.”  Summoning a pillar of ground similar to the seats he’d carved at the quarry a day before, Brian felt himself rise on an earthen pillar surrounded by twisted roots that seemed to be guarding the approach.

“Tough love?”  Casey responded from the cover of another car. “What the hell has gotten into you in just a few days, Brian?”  The earth golem flowed as one with the ground and was beside her in an instant, reaching for the ward.  A set of blue eyes flashed in Casey’s mind and she followed them to the top of the car she’d been crouching on.  Deftly sidestepping both of the creatures hands, Casey landed with grace, not denting the vehicle. Upon seeing the pillar with his guardian roots slithering like snakes ready to strike, Casey knew that the only way to her ex-boyfriend was from above. - Come on Rivers, think of something.-

“I know what it is like to be charmed now, Casey.” Brian paused and saw the helpless Sylvie on the ground barely moving.  Ordering the roots of his protected pillar, Brian grabbed the vampire and hurled her high in the air by one leg. “These damned things!”  Brian’s green eyes began glowing deep as his rune, “Blood sucking killers.  You know the damned stories.”  The branches flung the helpless vampire across the street, causing her to smash through the brick wall of Phantasmagoria.  Confident and drunk with magic, Brian used the roots like a mechanical arm and pointed to the massive bus sized hole in the wall. “Yet, you joined with that.”  He shook his head and summoned his magic once again, pulling up two more earth golems. “I saw how you acted when the two fed on you at the same time, like tapping a keg for beer.”

Casey gasped when she saw Sylvie flung like a doll into the building. “Monster.”  Casey saw the second and third creature pull itself from the ground. -Break his focus.-  Casey quickly thought to herself.  Taking the initiative, Casey reached for the closest automation.  Clasping her hands around what she perceived was the thing's wrist, Casey mirrored what she’d seen Brian do moments ago with Sylvie. “Take that!”

When the metric ton of dirt was hurled at him, Brian simply waved his hand once and the densely packed ground separated into its granular form and washed over him harmlessly. “I know you Casey.  I just need to push you until you give up.”  Clasping his hands together, the two remaining golems caught Casey and held her firm. “Just like in bed, all I have to do is pin you and make you…mine.”