undergrounds | Fae-napped! (May 7th-10th)

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Fae-napped! (May 7th-10th)

Cooper had spent the day in his office, mostly lost inside his own head. The upheaval of the Night Council was weighing heavily upon his mind. First Samantha had been made Mother of Witches. That in itself wouldn't have been cause for alarm, but now reading about the scandal that Sylvia Redbright was involved, he had to wonder. He could smell a power play from a mile off. After all, he'd been involved in more than one himself, both in his time running the Nest in Pemkowet with his mentor Stefan and the Nest here in London. The real question here is who was this going to benefit? Cooper could see part of the picture, but not the whole thing. He cursed himself for a fool, too stupid to put all the pieces together.

Ah well. Maybe it would come to him if he discussed with other members of the Nest. He turned out the light in his office and picked up his keys. A good ride back to his and Nancy's apartment would clear his head. He called home to let Nancy know that he was on his way. Just as he was about to hop onto his motorcycle, a woman with beautiful golden eyes came up to him. "Mr. Cooper? Might we have a word?" As he turned to answer her, the glamour melted away, revealing a fae with the ears and eyes of a doe, a pattern of dark dots surrounding her eyes and nose. Cooper felt a pair of strong hands grab him from behind, but before he could even begin to struggle, the doe blew powder towards him, and he slumped into unconsciousness.

Within minutes, there was no sign of what had happened to the vampire, save for a shattered cell phone and the keys still left in the ignition of his motorcycle.

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Cooper had reassured Nancy he'd be home in fifteen minutes. They could sit down, watch some Netflix, and generally have a relaxing night in after the heavy day that had been weighing upon him.

Hours later, there was still no sign of him. Calls to other members of the Nest showed that no one had seen him. While it was possible that he was just caught up in some piece of business he'd failed to mention to Nancy, there was also the likely possibility that he'd gotten into trouble. It was time to start worrying.

Fifteen minutes was five hours ago, and no one knew anything about him. A few calls around and no one could tell her anything. Normally, she would have figured he was working late, be able to get a hold of him, but he'd promised her that he'd be home in fifteen minutes.

This was the sort of thing she had expected with Bill. Him to just disappear sometimes, he'd come home, he always did. But this was Cooper, he was always in contact with her. Taking matters into her own hands, around midnight, Nancy found herself outside of the Night Council, trying to search. for any sort of lead. She managed to find his bike, the keys still in the ignition. He'd never left.

And near by... His phone. Some sort of magic still lingered in the air, but it could easly be written off as Nancy's own. But there was something more wild about it.

Staying next to his bike, Nancy grabbed her own phone. There was only one person to call.

"Eames? Eames, I need your help. It's Cooper- I think- I think he's in trouble," she manages to get out before bursting into tears. "I'm outside the Night Council headquarters. Please, please hurry!"

Called out to the Council building in the middle of the night is not exactly Eames' idea of a good time, but half an hour later a car pulls up and Eames steps out looking, well. Not too pleased about it.

In contrast to Nancy's panic, he's perfectly calm as he comes to find her, even offers the kindness of reaching out an arm to pull her to him in the hopes that a little comfort will calm her enough to talk this all through. Much as part of him hopes the little shit's been vanished off a cliff in Greenland, Nancy's not gonna leave this kind of thing be, so really he's just going to have to get to work.

When Nancy's pulled in, she eagerly accepts, pressing her wet cheeks into his chest. There's a mascara stain on his chest when she pulls away. Eames' is warm on this early May night, familiar and stable.

She takes a deep, shuddering breath.

"He's gone- he said- around six, he'd be home in fifteen minutes. I came back to see if maybe- maybe he was still here- no one knows, I tried everyone and- and his bike is still here! He loves his bike!" Seriously, Cooper would probably choose the bike over Nancy in a heartbeat. It was something she accepted. Bill had loved his dog over here, after all. Everyone loved something more than her. Just how it went.

The wind is picking up, blowing her hair about. "I found his phone on the ground." She shows him the broken remains.

Eames frowns and runs his fingers through her hair a last time before he pulls away to look around; there's no doors this close to Night Council HQ, that was part of their agreement with Redbright, but that doesn't mean there's nothing else afoot.

He kinda hopes it's a pissy werewolf or something to blame, but he can't spot anything that'd point in that direction, and he curses under his breath when he comes back to Nancy to take the phone.

It's not even like he can really blame them.

"He was taken by fae," there's a deep frown on his face, and Eames sighs, "likely back to Faery."

Nancy gasps, a wracking noise that's half a sob. "no!" Her voice is hoarse as she whispers it, clutching the phone to her chest.

"We've got to get him back." If they're in the other realm, that will be tricky. "he could be hurt- dying! Please, Eames- without him I've got nothing. We have to find him." We. because damn straight was she going with him. Cooper was her boyfriend, damn it.

"Nothing." Okay well he'll just go fuck himself then.

He sighs, folding his arms over his chest. Like hell he's bringing Nancy to the other realm with him, "I'll get him back."

Okay but she lives with him and she loves him and he's the reason she has Islington anyway and without that she's got nothing. No way in hell is she joining Daybreak, after all.

"I can come with you. What if he's hurt?" she could heal him. Maybe. let him drink from her, at least.

She could join the Court, be an official ally. And then maybe later find a guy who doesn't need to drink blood to survive.

"When was the last time you practised your magic? Pushed yourself to see what you can do?" He raises his eyebrows at her, suspecting the answer is that it's been quite some time, "they'd tear you apart."

He's right. She's been coasting. She never had proper training as a child and now she was content with mundane sorts of magic. She presses her lips together.

"During the election..." Norrell's, and how exhausted she's been after rigging all the polling places. "And at the museum last month..." That had been exiting. So many wax figures to destroy.

"But I'm going with you." there's a fire in her eyes as she looks up at Eames. "He's my boyfriend. I want to be there."

Yeah, that's about what he thought. Eames presses his lips together in a firm line, because she knows enough that she probably could just go on her own if she got it in her head to do that, but come on now.

"I can't look for your errant boyfriend and watch your back."

she lets out a dark laugh. "yes I can. Lord knows I've been doing it most of my life. I'm coming with you."

"Not like this, you haven't."

She'd find her own way anyway, he knows it, and he shakes his head before setting off in the direction of the nearest door, "stay close to me, and stay quiet. Witches are even less welcome than they used to be."

Oh, good, so he knew her well enough to know she was stubborn enough to follow along no matter what. She has to hurry a bit, to keep up with him. At least she's charmed her boots to be comfortable as trainers.

Hah- there's some magic for you, Eames.

"Of course. I've been there before, you know. Besides, it's not as if I'm aligned with that bitch of a woman." She wants to sound tough, and it's something to keep her mind off of the dark feeling growing in her chest. Keeping her away from the fact that Cooper is gone has been taken. She's used to her boyfriend being the one doing the kidnapping.

Idly, she realizes this is the first rescue mission she's ever been on.

"I'll follow your ever word. Promise." What was the point of rescuing Cooper if she couldn't live long enough to see him again?

He doubts any fae is going to care where her allegiances lie, but Eames doesn't say that much. Instead he nods, accepting that Nancy won't do anything rash (before they know where he is anyway) and keeps walking until he finds the door.

"Should take us to Unseelie territory," Eames glances back at her; the fae might be acting as one on the mortal side but that's less true in the other realm, "nobody's going to bother you there, but I can't say the same if we have to venture into Seelie lands."

Nancy nods grimly as they approach the door. She won't screw this up, she reminds herself. She's no good to Cooper if she's dead. She can do quiet and subservient, she's done it a thousand times before, accompanying Bill from one place to another, watching him conduct business.

"Alright. Let's do this." With a determined look, she starts to stride toward the door.

Cooper had no idea where he was being held. He wasn't even sure if he was still in London or if they'd whisked him away to the Other Realm. The group of about seven or eight fae sure weren't the kind to give him any answers. All that they would tell him is that the recent decimation in their ranks was his fault. If he hadn't voted in favor of summoning magic for the witches, none of this would have happened.

Mostly, they seemed to be keeping him around to torture. Bloodied and bruised, finally, he did ask one question. What was to become of him? The one who answered him was a tall Seelie fae with oak leaves weaved through his long white hair. "I should think that would be obvious. We're going to make a sacrifice of you. Such a powerful vampire should provide the catalyst for being able to change our fortunes." They planned to do it on the full moon in order to harness the moonlight's power for such a sacrifice.

It looked like Cooper was doomed. He wondered if Nancy and his friends would ever know what had become of him.

The wonderful thing about being a powerful fae on his home turf? There's so many ways to use your magic that you can't on the mortal side.

Eames has actually been here a little while, magic pressed down to a murmur, hidden from view. Admittedly, part of him did consider just... Letting them do as they will with Cooper, enjoy having this front row seat, but there's a frustratingly long list of reasons why he can't so instead he listens. For anything useful, anything more than gloating or jibes or whatever.

The mention of a sacrifice seems to be the best he's going to get, and it seems like as good a time to make his presence known as any, and so he does with a gust of icy cold wind as he drops his glamour, standing at the edge of the group.

"Yeah, about that." There's nothing much different about him, not physically, but he's a powerful magical presence and anyone attuned to that sort of thing should be able to feel it, "I'm afraid I can't let that happen."

Everyone in the room turns to look at Eames as he arrives. This includes Cooper, squinting through one black eye. "Oh no. Not you," he mutters to himself. Really, Eames is like his third least-favorite person he could possibly think to appear right now. And honestly he's not certain the fae didn't appear just to watch the show.

The doe fae who originally helped to capture Cooper steps forward, her steps light and graceful. There's an ingratiating smile on her face. "Lord, surely you understand our position. Fae left and right are being enslaved. Something needs to be done or the whole of London will be lost to us."

"Oh, I understand," there's a sharpness to his voice, like a cold snap, and he stares her down as she comes towards him.

Instead, he steps toward Cooper, tilting his head to look at how the little vampire is bound, "but... what? You think sacrificing him's going to do anything for you? You'll have the anger of the vampires, and witches feeling righteous when they enslave us to deal with, but, hey. You guys'll get a little extra magic out of the blood of a vampire who's not even two-hundred years old."

The smile of the spokeswoman never falters. "And what were we supposed to do? Let him wander free? His direct actions led to all of this." It's clear that they weren't going to just willingly hand over their prisoner, even to a fae lord as powerful as Eames.

"He has a point here," Cooper says, though no one's paying attention to him. Personally, he'd thought the entire idea was dumb, and had told them so the first day. That had gotten him a stake shoved through his shoulder for his trouble, so Cooper had decided silence was the better part of valor.

"So does she," Eames says, giving Cooper a look, "I'd recommend shutting up while I save your life."

Speaking of, he shifts his gaze back to the fae who's speaking to him. The leader, he'd guess, or at least the strongest. He curls a finger, a gesture for her to come toward him — not that she has much of a choice, since it's accompanied by a pull of magic that drags her forward until their faces practically touch.

"And you, little doe, don't get to talk to me about the state of affairs in their realm. Because frankly, you don't know a fucking thing about it, or you'd know games like this--" he says, a vague gesture in Cooper's direction, "don't do anything for us."

Cooper, for once, obeys Eames. For all he knows, the fae is still going to leave him here. It'd be easy to justify to Nancy. 'So sorry, I did my best, but he'd already been sacrificed by the time I arrived.'

The doe, despite her precarious position, manages to retain most of her haughty demeanor as she tosses her head back, liquid golden eyes cast to the ground as she acknowledges Eames' power. "If you want him, then take him." There's something that says she's hiding something, some final capricious trick that fae are known for.

Eames will find out soon enough what it is. The moment he tries to take Cooper out of the Other Realm and back to London, he's going to be overcome by agonizing pain, a final parting gift cast on him by the group in case he escaped himself.

"'Want' is a strong word," Eames says under his breath, though he fully expects everyone around to hear him clearly. He sighs, looking from the doe to her compatriots, eyes narrowed when he looks at her again. It's never that simple unless there's something else in play, Eames has been at this long enough to know better.

He tilts his head, looking to catch her gaze, "what else did you do to him?"

He doesn't want to bring him back only to have Cooper's chest explode or something. He's already in a bad enough mood tonight, cleaning that mess up really wouldn't help.

"Gee, thanks." Cooper's shut up for long enough. He knows exactly why Eames is doing this. It's definitely not because he wants to, at least not for Cooper himself.

"Nothing that he won't recover from," the doe says in a sickeningly sweet tone. No, she's not going to make this easy for either of them. Their plan has been spoiled and getting anything else out of the group of fae is going to be like pulling teeth.

If he actually cared, Eames might press the issue, but honestly he just really hates Cooper and wants to get him back to the mortal realm and wash his hands of him as quickly as possible.

He moves to undo Cooper's binds, making short work of it to usher him along and out of here. Nancy's nearby, she can deal with him from here.

"If I have to find you again, you'll regret it." Eames addresses the group, not just the doe. The friends who kidnap together, incur a Lord's wrath together.

The fae group remains silent at Eames' warning. The eight of them even put together were no match for the Lord of Autumn. They'd just have to mind their P's and Q's for a while.

Cooper knows whatever trick or enchantment these fae have laid on him is not going to be pleasant. But after a few days of getting tortured with silver and wooden stakes being shoved through him whenever they got bored, he'll just think about whatever is to come when it actually happens.

He's limping and weak from a lack of blood when Eames drags him out of there. Truth be told, he's leaning on the fae to keep standing upright. They'd really done a number on him. He looks up at Eames. "I owe you for this." Much as it galls him to think about owing a fae anything.

"Yeah, you do." But they can talk about that some other time, maybe when Cooper isn't woozy from days of torture. For now, he puts an arm around Cooper's middle to help keep him upright once he notices how he's not really staying upright on his own.

So it's not really all bad, a favour from an Islington Marquess and Vampire rep is decent enough.

Nancy was, unhappily, waiting at the designated meeting spot. The meeting spot she was supposed to stay at, and was doing her very best to stay at that spot, even if her dad was on a rescue mission to save her boyfriend.

The moment she saw them, Nancy was on her feet, running over toward the pair. "Cooper!" She gasped, coming immediately to take him from Eames. He's in bad shape- real bad shape. He needs help, and she can give it to him. Sinking down to the ground, she holds him tight. "Cooper, gods- What did they do to you?" There are tears in her bright green eyes as she turns to Eames.

"I need to heal him. Just enough so we can get him back to London."

So do yourself a favor, dad, and look away, because she's pulling her hair to the side to expose her neck to him. Fastest way to heal a vampire, right?

Cooper limps forward, still leaning heavily on Eames for support. He'd hoped maybe Nancy would have stayed at home, for he's afraid of what might happen to a young witch in the Other Realm. Yet here she is, big sad eyes brimming with tears.

"Oh, y'know, they poked a few new holes in me. No biggie." He tries to smile at Nancy, but it's clear he's in a lot of pain. He normally would protest at her solution to heal him up. There's better ways at the disposal of a witch. But he's been hungry for three days now and has no strength to heal on his own.

His fangs come out and he sinks into her neck with hunger borne of the injuries he's sustained. Wood-based wounds are always the hardest to heal and he'll need energy in order for them to close up properly. He knows Eames is probably looking on with disapproval. He also is too tired to properly care.

Eames is 100% looking on with disapproval, watching because he knows self-control is always an issue with injured vampires and he needs to be ready to intervene.

(The really annoying thing is it's not even something he could really hold against Cooper if it did happen. Not that it'd stop him.)

He waits until Cooper's good enough to move and brushes past to lead to the nearest door; one that should bring them up in Westminster.

"That's what you have magic for," Eames says to Nancy as he moves past the two of them, openly less than impressed. She also could've offered a less integral vein, but they'll never leave if Eames gets into all his complaints.

Nancy gives Eames a look and raises two fingers, dragging them along her neck. The moment her fingers passed the bite marks Cooper had left, they left new, clean skin in their place. other than the look she gave him, she made no indication she'd heard him.

She helps Cooper back to his feet. "We'll get you healed more when we're back at your flat." It was his flat, after all. She just lived there.

with Cooper at her side and Eames in the lead, she can't help but think back to three years ago, how it would have been Bill she was helping, Fagin leading. But she pushes this thought away as they make it to the door.

"Let's get you home," she whispers to Cooper, pressing a kiss to the side of his cheek.

The worst of Cooper's injuries begin to close and his limp becomes less pronounced as he walks. He sees Eames' approval, but he's just too damn tired to protest or make a fuss out of it. What's done is done. She's alright and can take a blood replenisher when they get home.

As they pass through the door, the fae's final malicious trick plays out. As soon as he steps foot back in London, shooting pains stab all over his body like the sensation of burning up in the sun. He can barely focus enough to check and make sure his daylight ring is still in place. He sinks down to his knees, in such agony that he can't even make a cry of pain.

Eames' lack of sympathy is probably expected honestly. He looks at Cooper on his knees with a dispassionate frown, like looking at someone annoying on the tube rather than a man in acute agony.

"I guess that's what she was talking about," he glances around as he speaks, wondering if anyone's nearby to see them. Last thing they need is some good samaritan calling for help.

"Cooper!" Nancy's on her knees next to him immediately, holding him against her. She goes into mothering mode again, holding his head to her breast. "It's okay," she whispers, "we're gonna get you home."

She glances at Eames when he speaks, her mouth set in a line. His disdain for her boyfriend is never ending, and honestly frustrating.

With one hand on his brow, Nancy furrows her own, trying to concentrate on the pain. Closing her eyes, she holds Cooper tight, trying to use her magic to lessen his pain. With any luck or skill, it'll work. She's tried it on herself before, years ago, and a few of the boys since. But hopefully this works.

It takes a few agonizing moments for Nancy's spell to take affect, but when it finally does, the result is almost instantaneous. He feels the relief shooting through him to combat the pain that makes him feel like the sun is doing its best to burn him alive.

Finally, he's able to open his eyes back up, the pain starting to fade. "I'm alright now, I think." He shakily gets back to his feet, acutely aware of any signs that the fae's vindictive little curse might be taking hold again.

Eames frowns watching this, not judging or anything, mostly assessing. It's hard to ascertain the full nature of the curse or even if it's run its course from where he's standing.

"I'm gonna get us a cab back to yours, give him a look over from somewhere a little safer." For him anyway. He looks from Nancy to Cooper, still frowning but it's not at Cooper for once? "Might want to chain your bike for the night."

"Good," she says, giving him a gentle squeeze. She presses her lips against his briefly, before helping him to his feet.

"I'll take care of it," she tells the two men. She was more mobile than Cooper at hte moment, and Eames would probably key the bike the first chance he got. So it obviously fell to Nancy to do.

"I'll be back in a minute," she promises, before rushing off to chain the bike.

"Great. My poor bike." Yes, Cooper has his priorities in order and they involve making sure that his bike is still working order come the next morning. For all he knows, the fae cursed that too, and it's going to blow up the next time he tries to get on it.

By the time Nancy get back, they've hailed a cab, and Cooper is getting it. He breathes a sigh of relief at getting off of his feet. Honestly, this has just been an entirely terrible situation the whole way around.

He had been planning to go with the two of them to keep an eye out, just in case any other curses should make themself known, but he's done everything he said he would and he can't stand Cooper so it kind of just seems more prudent to leave them be.

Plus, part of him would rather rip his own ear off than watch Nancy fussing over Cooper all night.

Eames holds the door open for Nancy once she's back, "let me know if anything changes, all right?" His voice is soft for her, but it takes on a touch of wryness when he adds, "otherwise don't bother me."

But seriously, don't.

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Fae-napped! (May 7th-10th)

Nancy and Eames - Where is he?

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Eames - Fae dad to the rescue!

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