The Royal Ball [OPEN]

[MORRISON CAMERON WHELAN]

At another stomp on the foot by Prue, Morrison turned his head to look down at her, giving her an innocent smile. She sighed and muttered something about being polite, but he was too busy training his ears on what the queen was saying to hear her. Tuning completely out of what his doctor friend was muttering, he turned his head back to look to the queen, his smile fading to slight grimace, though he wasn’t letting his true feeling show on his face. She was just a complete bitch and had no sense of humor.

He waited for what else she was going to say, yet his thoughts were rather harshly interrupted. As soon as the screaming began, his hands snapped to either side of his head, covering his ears, though his fingers were practically useless against the very loud and high pitched wail. It was even hard for him to keep standing, the pain in his head causing his to lose focus on everything but from protecting his precious eardrums. Beside him, Prue was asking him if he was alright. He would have envied her then if he had looked up at her; she was grimacing and biting her lip hard, but she was enduring the noise far better than he was damn. That was the one plus about being a human.

It seemed as though a minute had passed, but the screaming stopped. Morrison slowly let his hands fall from his ears, afraid the noise might just start up again. Though the screaming was suddenly the worst of his worries. The lights had gone out and he could just make out the shapes of the people around him, yet the air was now thick with the smell of blood. What the hell had happened? Prue was holding onto his arm tighter than he would have liked, though he didn’t make her let go, instead he took up her free hand instead, not wanting to let her see whatever the source of all that blood might be.

The lights slowly flickered back on and Morrison immediately fixed his eyes on the body that was lying at the queen’s feet. Unfortunately, that’s where the human’s eyes settled as well and she went completely stiff, just staring. The sight and the smell of blood was so distracting that he didn’t notice her until he felt her hand shaking slightly under his. “Shit,” he muttered, both in reaction to the bold murder that had occurred and to the look on his friend’s face. “Prue,” he said quietly, pulling on her hand to get her attention, “don’t look.” She blinked and turned to focus her eyes on him, her jaw slack and her eyes wide with horror. Sure, she was a doctor and she saw death every day, but it was quite different when it was just some random homicide that had happened right in front of you.

Morrison locked eyes with her a moment before looking around at Visceral and then Levi. Talking to them would have to wait until later. “Come on,” he told her gently, pulling her around so that they could move toward the front doors and away from the corpse. He knew it had been a bad idea to come to this ball, and now they were going to be stuck there until this situation was sorted.

[visceral]

When he returned he was ignored in a most obvious manner. His hand, his words, and even his placid mood. He shrugged off Levi and the queen's banter until he heard screams. The only indication to him that power was lost was that the smell of electricity, something like burnt ozone had been slightly reduced and was slowly fading from the walls and ceiling around them. Then the scent of blood hit him. Not old blood, like how he thought of vampire smells, but fresh blood, human blood. something that was both craved by vampires, and weres without a pack, the world round.

Slipping up next to levi, he nodded, approving of his actions. All except one action. Levi was in the habit of forgetting he was a wolf sometimes, usually in stressful situations. He was more ready to rely upon modern weaponry, his eyes, and his military training. Visceral however grew up with wolves as friends, in a pack since he was the age of thirteen or so. He had hunted with wolves for half a decade. There were plenty of times in a hunt that they had come upon another predator's kill. This was the same, and he acted the same. Thankfully there had not been too much contamination of the air around the victim.

His face blanked as he took in the 100% dead human's scent. There was something in the air, and it was familiar, not the stink of death, not vampire, though there was a lingering smell of that because of his habits, not were either. Moving his face to turn to Levi, he smiled, and placed a hand on his shoulder. "You seem to have things in hand. You've been trained for things like this, run the show Levi my friend." He handed off the entire scene to levi and backed off some. He knew that scent, not personally, but more generally. He had to think for a while before doing anything though. He had to think long and hard before he started throwing accusations around.

Moving back to a table, he sat, his arm resting on it, and his attention focused inwards now, wondering if the queen would blame the wolves just because she didn't like the race in general. He had to think of his pack. Getting each and everyone out of this house alive, before it turned into a charnel house. ones with the bones of wolves, humans, witches and piles of goo that once were vampires. He knew that if the pack were blamed, they would not go down without a fight. He didn't want that, he wanted all his wolves to be in the den tomorrow, alive and without a scratch on them.

[11tk38]

Brodir was enjoying his goblet of chilled blood when a loud scream tore through the ballroom. The scream was shrill and piercing. Brodir had been on many types of battlefields and heard many sounds and screams but never one quite like this before. It was tempting for Brodir to cover his ears, but again battlefields are loud places. Brodir had grown accustomed to hearing load noises. The level of discomfort Brodir felt however was enough to keep him from investigating its source closer. Brodir looked around to see that the most important people, them being the Queen and King of course, were still standing. Brodir caught sight of them just before the lights flickered and died. This situation had just gotten worse he thought.

When the lights came back on Brodir saw a body at the Queen's feet. There was also a lot of blood pooling around the body of what Brodir already assumed to be a dead man. One of the werewolves tried in vane to assist the man but it wasn't long before declaring him dead. Then the wolf proceeded to examine the body. Why Brodir thought he was just murdered, the killer was most likely still near by. Brodir rolled his eyes as he began following the trail of blood.

As Brodir followed the trail, presumably back to where the man was stabbed he discovered it lead outside. Brodir made his way to the exit only to be stopped by one of the human security personnel, who said Brodir couldn't go outside. Brodir looked the man in the eyes and quickly glamoured the man into believing he had authorization to go outside. Humans were so malleable Brodir thought, no wonder he spent so little time around them.

Brodir approached the end of the blood trail, to where the man had been stabbed. Brodir searched the area with his heightened sense of smell as well as his sight. He found nothing, no scents, other than the blood of course. As of now Brodir could find no clue... **** Brodir thought as he heard the gun shot and felt the impact of the bullet. Someone just shot me in the back. Well technically the bullet tore its way through Brodir's left shoulder, leaving behind a quite a mess. Brodir was suddenly thankful that so many humans preferred to use such high caliber hand guns on vampires, over-penetration was a godsend.

The silver bullet had shot through and through which was good because if the round had stayed in place it would have weakened Brodir much more than a mangled shoulder. Which was already starting to heal thanks to the lack of silver. Brodir spun around quickly and was holding the man's gun in his face handle first, before the guy could even react. "Don't do that again", he said handing the man back his gun. "Tell your friends on your radio that we have secured the scene of the attack."

[CORBIN ROSE HALLOWAY]

Corbin's eyes widened, her fangs still protruding from her lips as she eyed the body at her feet. It wasn't the fact that he was dead that startled her the most, it was the fact she was finding him harder and harder to resist. As she pushed her instincts aside, her mind began to move on to what exactly had caused this. She backed away slowly as the wolf she had been bickering with rattled off his guessing on how this whole situation had occurred. Her eyes narrowed as she looked at the man's neck...the fresh blood giving off a rather irresistible smell that she knew the other vampires were finding hard to ignore. "I need to a drink.." she muttered before making her way towards a few glasses of blood. She downed three in a matter of seconds. It seemed like rather odd behavior for a queen but if she wanted to hold herself together she was going to have to keep herself satisfied.

Corbin knew it was better to concentrate on her instinct. If she was to remember her humanity at this moment she would have easily shown everyone in the room how weak she really was. Despite the amounts of people she had killed in her undead life, it was still a bit of a shock to her that such a violent act had taken place in her own home. Her eyes darted around the room as she saw others looking around. She wondered how many believe that she had caused the death. Walking over to heath she grabbed his hand, seeking a little bit of comfort in such a confusing situation. What was going to happen now? Only time would tell.

[TINSLEY JADE LYLE]

Whenever James spoke of her beauty and how elegant she looked, as well as being amazing, Tinsley felt like glowing. In a small way, Tinsley viewed the actions of her date to be fawning over her and she smiled as a result, feeling content when entering the ball at long last. Although, Tinsley wasn't going to look into the matter any further by saying something and expressed a awkward chuckle, now thinking about the place where James had grown up in. "Don't be snobby." She rather suddenly joked with James about the size of the home he grew up in and the mansion they were surrounded in, imagining all their rooms to be equally impressive. After a little time passed, Tinsley jumped right to it and asked James if he would save a dance for her and was glad to hear his answer. That he would indeed save her a dance, and mentioned that she was his date for the ball "after all." A rhyming tongue appeared to be an occupational hazard of being a witch, and Tinsley silently nodded her forehead when keeping that in mind. It was actually kind of amusing to hear and even more memorizing when seeing spells leap into action. "I'll forgive you. Just this once." She again joked, but at the sake of making conversation this once and felt pretty clever; smug.

Eventually, she glanced toward the refreshment table and blinked whenever James spoke of a guess; she wanted a drink. How did he-? It all became clear. He didn't read her mind, but maybe she was being a little obvious. Though, she learned from him that there was a spell for telepathy and he hated it. His grandmother used to use it on him, never trusting what he had to say and it is a reason why he isn't so good at shielding himself from telepaths. Whenever James offered to get her a drink, she bowed her forehead within a nod and spoke. "Anything really. Well-. Um. Nothing citrus related, please." Tinsley slowly glanced away from the refreshment table, and peered her line of sight to focus around her nearby surroundings. It was at that moment that she thought about moving around a little, and spoke of that idea and hoped James didn't mind. "I"m gonna take a look around, though. I won't be gone long. Promise.' She crossed her fingertips and smiled while finally deciding to venture off for a brief moment; what could go wrong? Tinsley felt hopeful in being able to have fun and enjoy herself. Via not picking up on to many human thoughts and others, as she wandered around. She began introducing herself, trying to lighten up as well, despite how she felt about most vampires; being wary.

After her bout of mingling, she tried to make her way back to where she had been and rubbed the side of her temple. Silently and patiently, Tinsley waited to meet up with James again so that she could have something to drink. As well as to finally have her dance! Tinsley could hardly wait and wondered what James had been doing, but her attention became distracted while the lights flickered. Some might take that as a sign, but she didn't and perked an eyebrow when deciding such a think was a fluke. Lights, electricity as it were, had momentary shortages. Nothing to worry about, nothing at all. Little did she know that she would be wrong until "it" happened, and "it" more then startled her, a high pitched scream. Granted, she wasn't superhuman with super hearing, but that sound still wasn't pleasant to ever hear and placed her palms on her face. From that moment on, things felt like a blur because she let down her guard; catching a small wave of thoughts. What the f*$K was that!? What just happened? Who was that? Tinsley concentrated in order to gain some focus, but almost seemed useless when a new discovery was made. Someone had died, and in a rather grizzly way that Tinsley held her forehead.

Thoughts. So many of them. Oh my god. There's so much blood. I Knew it! It was the vampires. They invited us all here to kill us. SH$t! I'm next. I'm next! I'm leaving. I think I'm gonna throw up. Not that she couldn't sympathize with the panicking, but Tinsley wished that everyone would just shut up and also refrain from picturing images. Tinsley hoped that outwardly she looked normal, and not strange for whatever reason and tried hard to focus. Deep breath in, deep breath out and relax. Awkward to do, given what just happened but she needed to. Tinsley looked up and removed her palms, feeling somewhat guilty when thinking only of herself and not of the person that had died. She needed to see him. Why? Maybe to get over it in some small way, and when she approached half way, she could swear that she heard someone that she knew. "L-Levi? Is that you?"

[ARROW KATRINA CONWAY]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,100%,true][atrb=cellPadding,15px,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0px,true][atrb=background,http://i51.tinypic.com/11uul8l.jpg] Stand in the rain, STAND YOUR GROUND, STAND UP WHEN IT'S ALL CRASHING DOWN. JUST STAND THROUGH THE PAIN AND YOU WON"T DROWN. Alone in this fight with herself and her fears whispering if she stands she'll fall down. Before Arrow could react to Emile's behavior a blood curdling scream rang through the air. she jolted and whipped her head towards the sound, running right behind Emile until she was in front of the dead human. The smell of blood was thick in the air, she tried to get a scent on the human but there were to many different smells in the room for her to tell with out sticking her nose right above the dead mans skin, and even then she would be getting the smells of every person that had touched him. She hugged Emile to her briefly as she took in the others around her. Wary of the vampires and how they would react to the smell of blood. She ran her fingers through her hair and let out a soft sigh. Tonight was turning out to be much different then she had thought. Arrow's blue eyes sought out Vis, this was suppose to be a date of some sorts and she had not pictured anything remotely like this. She squeezed Emiles shoulder and started towards Vis. She ran her fingers lightly over his shoulder before sitting down, making sure she was facing the majority of the vampires. "This turned about a bit different then I expected." she teased lightly, her eyes scanning the crowd "do you think the pack is safe here?" she questioned, leaning closer towards him so she would not be easily over heard. arrow;; Twenty Three | Werewolf | Straight | Single notes;; lyrics from Stand in the rain by Super chick credits;; post template by vitriol of on the edge.

[VALERIE ELIZABETH PORTER]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-image:url(http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r71/maggiesrpstuff/BACKGROUNDS/ea5ncojpg.png); width: 420px; padding-top: 10; padding-bottom: 10; border: #363636 solid 2px;] [div style="background-image:url(http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e120/Willow_creek/Val.png); height: 250; width: 400; font-size: 0; background: -moz-linear-gradient(bottom, #d5d2d2, rgba(255,255,255,0), rgba(0,0,0,0)), url(http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e120/Willow_creek/Val.png);[br"]-webkit-mask-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, from(rgba(0,0,1,1)), to(rgba(0,0,0,0)));]hi

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You think I don't know,

Valerie laughed softly as he bowed to her, a blush quickly rising to her cheeks at his complement. "You are quite the charmer Officer Breslin." she told him, stepping into the Limo. A smile turned her lips up as she spotted the Chocolate covered strawberries and Champagne. She scanned the Limo again until she spotted it, the whipped cream! Valerie couldn't help but laugh out loud. He'd brought it all! She was so distracted with the items and the thoughts that accompanied them that she didn't notice Kyle and their drivers exchange. She grinned and bit into a strawberry as he slid into the seat next to her. Her eyes heating with memories of the night she had picked the images of the three items from his head. "You thought of everything, haven't you?" She asked him before taking a sip of the champagne. It would have been fun to explore the uses of the whipped cream and strawberries on the way to the Ball, but she didn't think they had enough time, and Kyle kept glancing at the driver and was acting a bit uneasy. So she decided against it, Though she did move a bit closer so that they were touching.

When they got out of the Limo Val noticed something off about their driver and the clearly fake accent he was using. She tried to get a good look at his face but the mask ruined her attempt at finding out who he was, She reacted out with her power, trying to get a feel for him. But was only met with a vague since that he was not a stranger, but, overall, was not a threat to them. Her brow furrowed and she turned back to Kyle "that man seemed familiar..."

Once inside Her eyes automatically locked onto a group gathered around something or someone. But before she could further investigate she became a bit dizzy and grabbed onto Kyle's arm. She'd forgotten to brace herself for the onslaught of readings she was getting from the other guests. There were so many colors! one or two for each person. It was hard to see, even with out the flashing of random pictures in her head and the endless range of emotions and feelings she was picking up. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment and clamped down on her power. She wouldn't be able to shield herself from everything, but at least it was more muted then before. Instead of getting a continues flash of pictures and emotions she was only getting a few images that she could ignore and fleeting feelings. The colors she could handle though. She no longer saw any colors swirling around the guests, she only would if she let herself.

"Sorry, I had to adjust myself so I wouldn't read all the guests at once." she apologized to Kyle, with a sheepish smile, before returning her gaze back to the now growing crowd of people. She pictures she was getting when she focused on the group were mainly of blood and death. She straightened and started towards the group, reaching into the gathering of fabric in her dress for where she stashed her Badge. "Kyle, I think something happened, theres a body." she told him. Pushing through the crowd and flashing her badge "Police! Everyone back up! Step away from the body!" She ordered, Making her way to the front of the group, barely giving the corpse a glance before motioning for the people who had not listened the first time to step back. "has anyone touched the body?" she questioned to the group, scanning the men and women surrounding the body. Her face and posture all business, but at the same time she was polite as she addressed the crowd. "My name is Officer Porter, of the Vampire Affairs Bureau, can anyone tell me what happened here?" she asked, not knowing any of the facts or even how long the man had been dead made her a bit uneasy in a room full of vampires, not to mention she had yet to draw her weapon, but she did show any sign of weakness. The killer could be right next to her for all she knew.

What kind of man you are,

But I can figure this one out on my own.

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THIS TEMPLATE WAS MADE BY WILMETTA OF CAUTION.

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[levi]

"You seem to have things in hand. You've been trained for things like this, run the show Levi my friend."

Levi nodded and was about to turn back to the body when first Buffy then Tinsley showed up. He didn't know Buffy, but Levi felt immediately protective about Tinsley, not wanting her to see the dead body or even be near the vampire King. He couldn't really do anything about either of those things, so he just gave her a small, reassuring smile that was perfectly in keeping the the seriousness of what had just happened.

"Hey Tin. You doing okay?"

There was a sudden commotion as a policewoman stormed forward. Levi had heard give an order to stay back from the body, but so many things had happened that he hadn't had a chance. As she came closer, Levi gently nudged Emile and took a step backwards, knowing that Tin would follow his lead.

"Has anyone touched the body?"

Levi nodded and stepped forwards slightly, so that he stood out of the crowd and took his mask off so that she could get a good look at him.

"I did ma'am. I checked for signs of life and then examined the wounds."

The officer scanned the small group surrounding the body, which was surprisingly full of werewolves, and asked if anyone had any idea what had happened. Since he was the one who had made the initial observations and no one was speaking up yet, Levi replied after glancing quickly at the king to give him a brief opportunity to take over. Since he didn't, Levi spoke.

"The victim was stabbed twice in the abdomen and then had his throat slashed. The upper wound is angled directly towards the centre of the man's liver and the bundle of arteries that run through it. The lower wound was probably angled up into the liver as well and, judging by the extra cuts on the left hand side of the wound, the single edged blade wriggled back and forwards several times. The neck wound partially severed the carotid artery and jugular, giving the victim enough time to walk all here from over there."

As Levi finished, he pointed over at the entrance. It was an educated guess, really, but a small, winding gap had opened up in the crowd as people on both sides either tried to avoid the blood trail or examined it. That was human nature, alright.

A shot rang out unexpectedly, and Levi moved before he'd even had a chance to realise what was going on. He pulled Em behind Tin and then put himself in front of her, moving at at the limits of what was possible for a human. The echo from the shot had barely died away by the time Levi was in position, eyes scanning the area for hostiles. He watched as guards started running towards the shot and then stopped as they seemingly received a message on their radios. Levi relaxed slightly, but he didn't move. Instead, he kept his body where it was in a position to take any fire and turned back to the police woman, grinning and hoping that his eyes hadn't changed colour.

"Looks like it was just a snarler."

[k1138t]

Michael will still keeping an eye on the situation with the werewolves when suddenly there was a loud, shrill scream that filled the air. On top of that the lights went out, that should cause a major panic he thought. Not for him and his men though, they were trained for this, Michael was worried about all the damned guests. Many of the guests were not human, no telling how they would react. "Condition Black", Michael called into his radio. Condition Black was the code to lock down the entire estate. The driveways gates would be locked down, the perimeter would shortly be surround my Michael's men, armed with assault rifles. Oh yeah and the orders were to shoot any intruder on sight.

When the lights came back on Michael noticed that there was a body at the Queen's feet. Michael stepped closer, but didn't want to interfere in the unfolding scene without the King's go ahead. One of the werewolves moved to prod at the body, he's dead enough said, Michael thought. Eventually the King approached him and relayed orders to him. The orders were already taken care of, that's what the King paid him for after all. "Already done, your majesty", was Michael's response. "And your majesty I took the liberty of inviting the police department to the ball days ago as well. Two undercover detectives are already present."

The King returned to overseeing the current scene. It wasn't long after this that one of the said detectives made herself known, immediately barking orders as if she had any real authority here. In fact she wouldn't be here if he hadn't extended the invitation to the department in the first place. Michael knew there was bound to be trouble at this stupid ball, with so many supernatural factions present. Inviting the police had just been a natural precaution.

Suddenly the loud report of a pistol sounded from outside. Michael ordered his men to move on the location via his radio. He of course moved even closer to the King and Queen. Hopefully the murderer had just been shot dead by one of his men, Michael hoped. Alas no a report came over his radio indicating a false alarm and that the scene of the murder had been secured.

Well hopefully the police could sort all of this out Michael thought. He was a bodyguard not an investigator. I will just stick by my charges and do my job.

[tk1138]

James smiled at Tinsley, "Okay, you take a look around I'll see you soon. And don't worry about me, I'll mingle." Though mingling has never been a strong suit of mine, James thought privately to himself. James watch Tinsley go, the only person he new at this whole damn party. Then again it was a masquerade ball, if he did know anyone else he might not recognize them. So really everyone was on equal footing and James didn't really need to worry about not recognizing anyone. This thought of even footing for all perked James up a bit. Though James new a spell or two that could uneven that footing a little.

James relaxed a bit and drew up some magical energies as he whispered the words to a spell, "Deducant oculi mei videbunt veritatem." It was a simple Latin incantation to form the magical energies he had gathered into the spell he desired. It was a simple spell that gave everyone James saw an aura corresponding to what type of magical creature they were. The auras were color coded for convenience. Red for vampires, yellow for weres, blue for witches, etcetera. James looked around the room at all the different auras. Yes this would do nicely James thought. He may not know who people are but he'd know what they are.

James stole a glance back at Tinsley, expecting to see the green aura that was common to psychics. What he actually saw surprised him. Her aura was a mint like color, what surprised James more was that he had no idea what that meant. He had assumed Tinsley was just a psychic, but her aura indicated otherwise. James would have to do some research into this, he was curious now. He could always ask his grandmother, she of all people would know, but then he'd have to talk to his grandmother. They weren't exactly on the best of terms at the moment.

James was momentarily distracted by the flickering lights. Power must be on the fritz, these old mansi... a loud scream broke James' current line of thinking. Then matters became worse when the power went out completely. Though the room was blanketed in near pitch blackness, James could still see everyone's aura in the blackness.

James quickly gathered, perhaps a little too quickly, more magical energies and shaped them with another quick Latin incantation, "Tutela arma movere murum." It was a quick protection spell James knew, it would surround the subject of the spell in protective energies. The energies were strong enough to deflect a single attack, not much, but there was little time. James gathered up the spell and directed the protective energies toward Tinsley's mint a colored aura. Tinsley was his friend, he wanted to make sure she was safe from harm.

After James completed the spell he cast on Tinsley, the lights came back on. James noticed what looked like a body,as it was covered in blood. But people started to close in around, so he couldn't get a clear view. He also lost sight of Tinsley in the crowd, her aura was even lost in the wave of other people's aura's that began to surround the scene.

James tried futilely to push his way in closer but there were too many people unwilling to budge. So James just hung back, hoping to catch sight of Tinsley. James knew she was still okay because he could still sense the spell he had cast, but still he wished he could get an eye on her.

James heard a female voice shout police, that was quick he thought. The police must have already been here, this made James relax a bit. After milling about for a second, James heard a gun shot. He reflexively ducked a little, as did many others. But he stood up straight again when he realized the shot had come from outside. James noticed the security guard move a bit but they stopped and returned to their previous positions. Must have been a false alarm.

James got tired of standing about as well as the spells he had too quickly cast had also tired him out. So he found an empty chair at a table and decided to sit and wait. Either the crowd would disperse enough that he could see Tinsley, or she would seek him out. Either way he was going to wait.

[1138tk]

Kyle immediately frowned at the comment Val made about something has happened. That didn't take long Kyle thought, and here I was hoping to have some fun first. Well so much for this being a date, then again what was I really expecting? There not to be massive amounts of trouble around vampires. He'd known some vampires to be murders and criminals, he had been hoping that these vampires were different. But with so many vampires in attendance, I guess your bound to get a murder or two. He was only half joking to himself. It turns out the vampires here in the smaller city of Jamerson Falls aren't much different from the vampires from a big city like L.A.

Val moved into action and Kyle disappointed let her take the lead. Why not she deserves it, every once in a while at least. "I'll call for backup", he told Val just before she charged into the crowd demanding answers. She was hot when she was all authoritative Kyle thought to himself with a smile. Kyle watched her go for a bit, admiring how she looked in that dress. Why is it the best part of dresses seems to be the fun taking them off? At least for guys, women might disagree.

Kyle glanced around and noticed the security personnel had formed a more aggressive stance and were guarding the exits. Kyle approached one of the security men and was told that he couldn't leave the ballroom. Kyle had expected as much, but Kyle had something most other guests did not, a badge. Kyle reached up and took off the mask, placing it in one of his pockets. He then drew out his badge and identification. He showed it to the security man saying, "Detective Kyle Breslin, JFPD. I need a quiet place to call in back up. I was told we would have the security details full cooperation." The man apologized and escorted Kyle from the room.

Once they were away from the commotion of the ballroom, Kyle pulled out his cell and dialed the precinct. To his surprise the Captain answered. He was probably waiting for a call from Kyle or Val. "Captain, we have a situation at the vampire masquerade ball. Yes sir, a dead body. We need backup." The Captain had backup already on standby, he had anticipated trouble. Then again Kyle had too, he was just hoping that there wouldn't be any. Kyle hung up his phone replacing it in his pocket.

Just then Kyle heard the report of a .45 pistol. Both he and the security guard drew their guns at the same time. At least they were well trained Kyle thought to himself. They both began to move in the direction of the shot when the security guard told him it was a false alarm. Kyle didn't buy it, "I'd still like to check it out." The guard told him that they had secured the scene of the actual attack. So the man wasn't attacked in the ballroom, good to know. "Lead the way", Kyle told the guard.

Kyle was lead outside, though on the way he had seen the trail of blood. Kyle approached the scene where two men were standing, one another security guard, the other an apparent guest. Judging by the condition of the shoulder of his suite, Kyle guessed as to who had been shot. Also judging by the fact that it was considered a false alarm, the man must be a vampire. Since as Kyle got closer he could see unblemished skin expose in the ruined shoulder of his suit. Kyle could hear the sirens and see patrol cars entering the main gate. "I'm Detective Kyle Breslin, I am going to need you all to stand back. Did either of you two see anything", Kyle asked the two standing near the scene. "No, we arrived after the fact", the vampire said motioning to the other security guard.

Great Kyle thought, why do I get the feeling nobody saw anything? As the patrol cars, followed by unmarked police cars arrived on the scene, Kyle felt a headache forming. This was going to be a long night. Probably a fruitless one, considering nobody saw anything. Oh shit Kyle thought to himself as he saw the Chief of Detectives get out of one of the cars, in full dress uniform. This definitely wasn't going to be a fun night. With the brass on the scene, nothing was going to go smoothly. Great, Kyle thought, this night just keeps getting better and better.