Esra Sunshine: Trial and Error

He was alone in a little room he was pretty certain belonged to one of Twist's daughters. It wasn't a bedroom or anything, but he could hear Niamh outside telling one of the disappointed girls to stay outside. He had two options. He could try and dismantle the Grotesquery, or at the very least his additions to it, or he could hide it and hope no-one ever found it. Hiding it would prolong his partnership with Vex, and destroying the torso was difficult. It was probably impossible. He fed Lily and went down into the main room where the woman had regained conciousness and was currently staring up at Vex and Twist with immense fear.
"You have a name?" Vex asked gently as Twist turned his attentions to the window.
"Uh...Tewdews...Tewdews Sympathy...where am I?"
"Mr Vex here decided to kidnap you because you looked hurt." Esra replied before anyone else could so much as open their mouth. Tewdews frowned.
"Sweet yet immensely creepy."
"So are you a vampire or one of Mevolent's lot?"
"Me? Vampire."
Vex made a 'God damn it I'm an idiot' face. Esra grinned. "Into the dungeon with you, then."
"Lorcan, shut up." Twist snarled.
"It's a safety precaution! You said it yourself when I watched you letting Erin out of there!"
"Erin had been my friend for years. I'm not hiding vampires in my dungeon just because-"
"I wonder if vampires can destroy Grotesquery torsos..."
"Oh Jesus..."
Vex tried a kind smile, but he was still a little freaked by the idea of dragging a vampire all this way. "Tewdews, I think we have a job for you. You don't need to really do anything, just get locked in a dungeon with something we need destroyed and then be a vampire. Simple."
"If it were so simple, why would you need me to do it?"
Vex shrugged and looked to Sunshine, who mimicked the shrug. "Kidnapping victim benefits?"
She narrowed her eyes. "Yeah, okay, whatever, Lorcan."
"Esra. My name is Esra."
"Lorcan sounds better." She stretched. "Where's this dungeon and that thing you need broken? Might as well occupy my time."

-----

Aleron groaned, holding the side of his head. The Warlock was running away. He heard Cadence yell abuse and saw her chase after him. Something was happening and he couldn't see. Mainly because not all of his feeling had returned to him yet, but also because there was blood in his eye. He didn't think he was bleeding, so maybe it was just rotten luck from when Cadence had broken Maxim's nose with the heel of her shoe. Finally he pushed himself up and saw the car. Sierra's car. Afton Redbird had Daemon in a headlock in the back and it drove off as the others came for it, leaving Maxim behind. He swore in Czech as spears of shadows flew towards the car. It swerved and disappeared from sight. "Well...that sucks" Austin muttered. Katherine came over to help Aleron to his feet and they stood in the middle of the street, trying to ignore the stares of the others. Hopefully it would turn out this was a mage village. It was nasty enough.

Maxim tried to edge away, but found Katherine and Cadence in the way. He gave a sheepish grin. "Hello." Nightwish said cheerily. He took a step back, but Baritone had moved closer and he stumbled back into his arms. Baritone wrapped one arm around Maxim's throat. "That girl was my friend. Why don't you tell us where your friends are taking her."
"I don't know. Sierra didn't tell me we were going to have to tell her, just get something off her. I didn't even expect any fighting."
Katherine looked like she was about to collapse. "You've caused a lot of damage, you and your friends. What did you want from my friend?"
"None of your business. It's Sierra's."
With a sigh, Austin let go of him and kicked the back of his knee so that he dropped. "Kath, I think you need to go to hospital."
"I was just thinking the same thing." She let out a shaky laugh.
"There's one nearby." Aleron stated. "I'll take Katherine, you deal with the filth."
"I'm not filth!" Maxim whined. Austin forced him to his feet and he sighed. "My brother is on the council of elders in the Czech Republic. You hurt me and there will be consequences."
"Nice threat. I've been threatened by Mevolent, though, so it doesn't faze me much. I just want to know what's going on with my friend."
"She has something of Sierra's. Sierra wants it back."

-----

"Another thing I hate about flying is jet-lag." Ekaterina moaned as they stepped out of the airport and into Australia.
"Kat?" Scaramouch began, "Shut up."
"You're all like children." Harrison mumbled, hailing a taxi.
Hibernia was ignoring everyone, listening to some music through little pink earphones. She was singing along under her breath. "You know I'll be your life, your voice your reason to be my love, my heart..."
Scaramouch pulled a face as he heard what she was singing. "I hate that band."
They all piled into the taxi and Hibernia sighed, taking her earphones out. "Harry? How far is Wylie?"
"About a day's worth of travelling."
She gave a discontented grunt. "Perfect."
"Stop whinging. You've lived with Fred for sixteen years. I thought you'd be used to discomfort."
"Fred's dead." She turned her face to the window. Harrison looked at the floor. Everyone was silent.
"We'll have to live our lives still. For Dearth, maybe, but Fred would want us to be self-enclosed assassins and to hate everyone and everything..." Scaramouch randomly mumbled.
Harrison laughed. "Live for Dearth, be reclusive creep-ninjas for Fred. Got it."

-----

Amadeus thought back over the vision he had seen during the fight. The more he thought about it, the more sense it seemed to make. He was sitting in the waiting area just thinking...well, thinking and flirting absent-mindedly with the redhead beside him. Hey, old habits die hard, and he could even kid himself he was helping the friend that girl used to stalk. She had been removed from the Sanctuary in question for the stalking. Kaleidoscope Fern was quite happy to flirt back up until Darkside gasped and shot to his feet. "I need to talk to the Grand Mage..."
Bernard Sult covered the mouthpiece of the phone he was talking into. "You know she isn't here."
"Any Grand Mage, I don't care anymore! I just need to talk to one! I had a permeable vision!"
"Uh...Are you sure that was the right word?" Fern asked.
"I'm sorry, but shut up. This is important. Patch me through to anyone, Sult."
Bernard nodded and continued talking to Rabe. "One of our sensitives wants to talk to Warheit. I don't know, just any Grand Mage, he says, and this is fastest."
Fern stood up to stand beside Amadeus. "What's going on?"
"I think I know what Mevolent's planning."

((Hey look, a chapter and half term holidays! And French failure! Aaaaaaand Billy-Jinx, who refers to herself in the third person thanks to Teen Titans, is finally getting back to her FF.net stories...also I wrote this whole piece on One Direction music and now I can't stop listening to it and have downloaded three or four songs and I want Niall and Louis and Zayn and I can't choose who I want more...hey look, author note babble...hey look, I fancy two people who are only 19! Normally hot famous people are closer to my mum's age...ONLY 19 THOUGH!!!...yeah, I'll shut up now...))