Taken in the Night

Night has fallen on Wilderness Pointe, but Dolan has what he came for, and it is neither raining nor snowing. A haversack full of supplies and food, at far better prices than can be found in the city. He seems in better spirits than he has been earlier in the day, and turns to Andelena. "It's going to be a long, cold walk home, baby. We'd better get started."

Andelena's got her own haul of supplies, too, although there's a stick with a little stuffed mouse dangling off a string that suspiciously sticks out of her rucksack that she's brought along for the occasion. "Yeah, I think I got enough for the little ladies," she says, grinning at Dolan. "Let's go."

Lyme is also in Wilderness Pointe, also with a heavy pack stuffed full of supplies -- mostly food. In fact, almost all food. He eyes the fading light, twists his mouth, and mutters to himself. "You better get a-moving."

There are plenty off people wandering the area, even this late at night. Perhaps even particularly so, given that the gates will close soon for the evening and most are in a bit of a rush to get into the city before they're left out in the cold. Above the surface of the crowd, a few heads poke up. Mostly orc or sith-makar, but one man as well. Scanning the crowd lazily with emerald-green eyes.

Dolan is among those headed for the city, gesturing to Andie to follow. "Did you get _anything_ for us?" he laughs, slinging his pack over his shoulder. "Good thing I did. " He hasn't spotted the man with emerald-green eyes, yet, so intent is he on making the city gates.

Lyme's head is fairly significantly above most of the crowd, absent the presence of giantborn. His tread is steady, happy to be a part of the flow of people -- rushing but not too hard, letting his legs eat up the distance without shoving the smalls aside.

Halani is lounging at the gates, leaning against the wall, dressed in her winter parka and fur lined trousers, quarterstaff resting in the crook of her arm. When she manages to pick Andelena and Dolan out of the throng making their way out, she pushes off of the wall but waits for them to get closer to the gate. She doesn't seem happy.. but that mood has quite possibly fled for a good, long while after the events of the previous night.

The remark gets Andie to actually flush a little, followed by a sheepish grin. "I mean. I was /trying/ to get stuff for us," she says. "But the moment I saw those adorable little toys, I was kind of distracted."

Sure, okay. Whatever you say, Andie. Either way, she follows Dolan out. "I just know they're gonna love them, though. Especially Spot. I want to put some meat on her bones, because the poor little thing's got some growing up to do." It appears the Sunguard has ambitions for fat and happy calico cats.

Though Dolan does not notice him, the tall man with green eyes certainly notices him. He breaks away from where he's been sequestered partially away from the crowd. People give way for him, moving aside as if some inner instinct tells them that they should. He reaches Dolan's side rather quickly, coming in on the side that Andelena stands on and though he offers her a glance he almost immediately dismisses her. "Hello amber-eye. It is good to see you again."

Lyme frowns, looking up ahead, watching the person traverse the crowd like a shark in the water. His gaze focuses on the interaction, even if he's still being pulled along behind them and not in listening range yet.

That voice. Dolan freezes, his blood suddenly running cold at the sibilant voice. He turns, instinctively putting up an arm between Andelena and Kol. "Kol Demontry. What do you want?" His tone is a deadly serious warning, and he makes to put himself between Andelena and Kol, if she will let him.

When Dolan and Andelena stop, accosted by the tall man wading easily through the crowd. She's not close enough to hear any words coming from the trio, but she gets a sense of the body language offered.. and it isn't a good sense. Her grip tightens about her quarterstaff, then she starts walking towards them. People don't part like they do for Kol.. thankfully she's adept enough to weave through them.

Andelena's eyes widen and then narrow as the name is said aloud in a tone that entirely gets her attention. "Oh, not this motherfucker, she murmurs under her breath, although in a manner maybe more accurate with a hiss.

"You're in a crowd of people, Kol," she speaks up, reminding him that there's plenty of people around, although to him, that may not be a deterrent. The anger is just quick to boil. "Don't do something stupid. I get you like my man--I do too--but that doesn't give you the right to do whatever you want."

Kol looks around at the various people passing by calmly. For a moment his gaze falls on one random person in particular and travels with them for a time before his green gaze returns. He smiles more broadly at Andelena. "I will do what pleases me, when it pleases me to do so. Nothing will stop me from that. Not a crowd of people, and not... you." He looks at Dolan curiously. "You belong to this woman?"

Lyme slows down, one hand checking his belt pouch for something, as he tilts his head at the interaction. His eyes flick over as he sees Halani come as well, and he shifts his approach so that he's about 180 degrees from her vector.

"Yes. She is mine, and I am hers." Dolan sets his pack down at Andie's feet, and takes a step forward. "Leave her alone, Kol. It's me you want. Don't think I don't know that." He reaches around his neck, suddenly breathing deeply, his heart racing. _This is it,_ his mind whispers silently. _Don't make it too easy, though._

GAME: Halani rolls sense motive: (9)+31: 40

Halani comes to a stop near the three, though a quick glance confirms Lyme's approach as well. A suspicious look sent about the milling people... then she plants her staff down on the ground, enough to show she's here to support the Daeus Duo. "Heya. Dolan. Is this a problem, here?"

Andelena's face is twisted with confusion, followed by anger as she looks between Kol and Dolan. "Wait a minute," she says. "Wait a /damn/ minute. I..."

She looks at Dolan. Her steel-grey eyes fix on him. It's an unspoken ask, almost a question: /please tell me you're thinking this through./ Finally, she takes a breath. "Knight protect you," she says. It's somewhere between hope and prayer that whatever's happening, everything will work out.

Kol tilts his head in confusion. "If you are hers, then how can I take you from her?" He grins broadly and lets out a grinding amused noise. "I think that you do not. I have no interest in her my amber-eyed one. None. I want you to come with me."

The tall green-eyed man holds out his hand toward Dolan. Ignoring everyone else, anyone else. They do not seem to matter to him at all.

Lyme's hand closes on something at his waist, as he watches the interaction. It is sus...picious.

Dolan lets out a long breath, and turns his back, deliberately, to Kol. "It's fine, Halani. I need you two to do me a favor." The chocolate-brown eye that he raises to meet Andelena's steel gray ones are dark with fear, but full of determination. He does know what he is doing. "Andie." He pulls the holy symbol of Daeus off of his neck, and offers it to her. "Keep this and my stuff safe for me. And -"

He reaches up to the golden gem set in his face, twists once, twice, thrice. It comes out, leaving the empty eye socket to look even more eerie and nasty than the gem does. This, he hands to her last. "Give this to Auranar and her girlfriend. They'll explain." He leans forward, then, and kisses her on the lips, then leans forward and whispers something in her ear.

Lyme palms a vial, and considers the tableau for a good moment. He licks one of his sharp teeth for a moment, and stops within a long step of it all, probably jostling the person behind him with the sudden stop.

Andelena watches with an increasing sense of shock in her face as Dolan divests himself of all the things that he holds dear--including the gem. The gem eye gets a particular look of disbelief as he gives it to her. Even as Dolan kisses her and then whispers into her ear, the look never really goes away.

But her hands hold the symbol of Daeus and the eye that beholds Daeus's light. She looks briefly to Halani, and then back to the Redeemer.

There's a lump in her throat as she looks at Dolan. "Go with the Knight," she tells him. There's so much emotion in her voice, so many of them dueling for power, but the Sunguard's trying to put up a brave front and keep all of them down. "I love you."

Halani's fingers tighten even more against her staff; her general aura of unhappiness deepens further when it becomes obvious Dolan is going through with this. "I dunno, Dolan.. he doesn't look that tough," she offers, her usual bravado a little bit off. Not that she's planning to actually attack Kol.. at least, nothing has shifted in how she's holding herself to indicate any preparation for an attack. "Still seems like a bad idea, yeah?"

Kol seems endlessly patient, holding his hand out without moving as Dolan offers his goodbyes to Andelena. As Lyme draws closer. As Halani offers one last pointed comment or two. He doesn't seem to see the others at all, but his awareness is larger than it seems. He simply is completely unmoved by these other goings on. "Come with me amber-eye. You know what you desire."

"Knight's got my back, baby. I know you do too. Just do what I asked, and everything'll be okay." Dolan hesitates, stares up at Andelena a little longer with a wealth of emotions written plainly across both sides of his face, then turns away and towards Kol. "All right. Let's go." The words are not at all the voice of a man who _desires_ anything about this, and indeed, he swallows hard before taking the last few steps towards Kol.

The Sunguard watches on. Andelena turns her gaze towards Kol--not looking into his eyes, but looking at the man like she's contemplating separating his head from his shoulders.

But she looks at Dolan again and... she nods, and she turns her head away. So Dolan doesn't have to look at the tears beginning to bead up in her eyes.

So that's that. Halani holds her ground; enough mistakes have been made that she's not about to go against Dolan's plan. Even if it goes against every fiber in her body. And for a moment she starts to justify attacking to herself. That's her go to action, after all. Wouldn't not doing that raise suspicion? But it's a weak argument. Kol is not an enemy that would know her. So instead she remains as she is. What's important, now, is keeping Andelena safe long enough to get her message back to Verna.

The vampire wraps one arm around Dolan, drawing him in by the hand and then... He's gone. Carrying Dolan off in a flash of movement too quick to follow. Gone.

Andelena knows without looking that Dolan's gone. That the vampire's gone and taken him. That all she's got left of him for the moment is his amulet, his eye, and the supplies that he doesn't need.

For the moment.

She draws in a breath and she sighs, and then she lifts her head up to the night sky. Without Daeus in the night sky and her Redeemer, one might expect the Sunguard to look lost, especially with the tears in her eyes.

But she looks to Eluna. The grey eyes become steel again.

"Daeus's daughter as my witness, I vow here and now to destroy Kol Demontry," she states firmly in a solemn tone. Then she turns to Halani. "Now. Bry said you and I have talking to do, and I don't want to be in the dark anymore."

-End