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

Entry tags:

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject