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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 4016093" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter Two-hundred-sixty-three, “The Threat” , Wednesday, June 21st, 11:15 A.M. When she is done with the introductions she steps over near George and only pauses for a moment before she blurts out, "So, why are you really all here then?" She stopped short of accusing them of wanting to take her away from George, she would let them confess to that themselves. Mrs Parker states, "Nanuet was concerned about your safety." And we already spoke about that, Ruby," Kate added. "You've been gone some time longer than we expected. But if this is where you want to be, then here you'll stay." Kate turned to Ruby's Grandmother and Nanuet. "Is there something more going on than we know about?" Ruby looks to Kate and Gonzales. "Are you trying to tell me you two don't know why they are here?" she points to Nanuet and her grandmother. "No," Kate said, confused. "As I said at breakfast, Ruby, Nanuet came back to Promise City, but then disappeared again. I had no idea where he went or where he's been, although I assume Minerva knows. I'm as curious as you are." Mina Parker states, "Yes, Nanuet can probably explain it better than I can." With a hint of disbelief in her voice she says, "But if you put yourself in my shoes, you'd have to understand why I'd be wary of this... this... gathering of my favorite people." She walks over and sits next to George, taking his hand in hers. Kate walked over and knelt down next to her. "Honey, you and I live in a world where gods and goddesses intervene. You're right, this is very unlikely to be a coincidence. But it wasn't orchestrated by any of us. Ruby you know, you know, I would never force anyone to do something they didn't want to. If you want to stay here, then here's where you'll stay and I'll have to satisfied with visiting when I can." George laughs and says, "I'm not, they are here to check me out, to see if I am worthy of you as a suitor Ruby. And quite frankly, after what happened back in Promise City I don't blame them. I acted foolishly there. I dare say that if your friends spend the next day here with me they will get a more accurate impression." Ruby pauses momentarily, taking in what everyone was saying to her. She looks into George's eyes, "I'm sure as they know you they will come to love you like I do." A smile and a soft kiss later, she turns to Kate. She leans forward on the couch and hugs her friend. "Of course Kate, I'm sorry. I'm just a little overwhelmed with everyone showing up this morning and the goddess...," her voice trails off. She didn't want to go down that road with George just yet. "I'm certain there is a reasonable explanation for all this. And in truth, I am just glad you are all here." She releases Kate then sets her gaze on Nanuet. "Alright then, why don't you fill us in on why you are here." "I am here for one reason, and it has nothing to do with Ms. Kate or Mr. Gonzalez. Ruby, or Mr. Eastman for that matter….Ruby, Colin Turner is after you. I think he is close. I have chased him across the country and have every reason to think that he knows where you are." Ruby's face drops and goes pale. She looks at George, then looks around the room at the others. She comments, "I- I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I thought I saw him last weekend, that night at the theater. I wrote Jake before that and asked him to tell you all I had a feeling he wasn't dead. Just a weird feeling." Kate says, "Then someone is truly protecting you Ruby. Turner may be looking for you, but here are at least three, if not more, people who know exactly what he is and how to stop him." Ruby says, "A-Aphrodite did tell me she was watching over me." Her face grows even paler and she frowns, the panic she has been so free of the past weeks creeping back to her. "But if he is truly following me and knows where I am, I have led him right to you." She looks at her grandmother, and then George. "The people I love." Kate replies in a very serious tone of voice, "No, you've led us to him. Something he will very deeply regret." Ruby's eyes were already going blank as she continued to feel the pain of what was going on. There was no way she could shoulder losing any of the people sitting in the room, the people closest to her in her life. Her best friends, her teacher, the only relative until recently that cared for her, her new lover. "But except for Nanuet, who else here is prepared for a battle like this? We've never come up against any nearly as strong as him." And she thinks, And any who have power over me like he does. Mina Parker says, "My darling, I have been up against far worse. In an Egyptian crypt James and I once destroyed a half-dozen animated mummies and the lich, an undead cleric-wizard, that was controlling them." Kate interjects, "And Promise City was absolutely infested with the things after you left. Most of Hamiliton Fisks party were vampires. None of us are new at this. And notice, all our friends are fine. All the fiends are destroyed." Ruby’s eyes widen but the panic remains. "Really? Nana? Kate?" She spins around and faces George. "Uh, baby, remember I told you about all this? What are you, well, thinking?" George replies, "I'm thinking that if somebody is stalking you I had better get on the telephone to my friend the Police Commissioner." Kate says, "Mr. Eastman, I'm not sure you quite understand who that someone is. You've heard us say words like mummies, Liches, and vampires and we are not exaggerating. Ruby says that she's told you of this. Colin Turner is a vampire, and from what I've seen older and stronger than the others we've seen. He can cloud your mind and make you do things you would never do. He can drain your life from you until you are only a shell of yourself, or just drain your blood and leave your body behind. This is not something the police are equipped to handle, much as I would like to leave it to them." Nanuet states, "I agree, I don't think the police will be very effective in this situation, or very likely to believe what you tell them. I actually think you would just be putting more people at risk. Mrs. Parker, I am glad to hear you have some experience with some of the darker creatures of the world. Kate, it sounds like you've had your share of tussles with them lately as well, I am sure your knowledge will be invaluable. Something you must know though, Turner is a Vampire Lord, much more powerful than a normal vampire." Nanuet shudders as he thinks to himself A normal vampire? As if there is such a thing." Nanuet says, "Ruby you have not led us to him, we have simply arrived to help. Whether it was willed by the gods and goddesses or simply coincidence, we are here to help you and keep you safe." George was speechless and Ruby was as well. Her normal flight instinct was taking over and it was hard to push it away. She wasn't sure what to say to him, or anyone. This would probably make his final decision in regard to her, and in that moment she felt a hatred for Colin Turner unlike any she had felt before. "I uh, need a moment, to pull my thoughts together. Excuse me." She gets up from the couch and hurries outside, heading for the beautiful gardens, hoping to lose herself there. Kate watched Ruby hurry away, torn between following and giving her the space she needed. "Nanuet, I'll want to know what being a Vampire Lord means. For now I'm going to keep an eye on Ruby." She got up and followed her friend from the room, but not out into the gardens. Instead she watched from a window for a few minutes, trying to respect her wishes and give her a chance to pull her thoughts together. After a few minutes she opened the door and stepped out, following the path until she found Ruby sitting on a bench. Kate comments, "It's beautiful here, isn't it?" Ruby is startled out of her thoughts but it only takes a second for a sad smile to arrived on her face. "Yes... it's the most beautiful garden I've ever seen actually. There are flowers from almost every part of the world. It's like a little adventure right here in your backyard." "Mr. Eastman brought them back from his travels, I assume." Kate knelt down and looked closer at a particularly lovely pink bloom and breathed in its sweet scent. "This garden is full of surprises, like life." She got up and sat on the bench next to Ruby. "I can't even pretend to know how you're feeling. I said I hadn't told you all the stories yet, and one of them was about the vampires in Promise City. We had help there. Kevin Tomlinson apparently has another job, Watcher. Apparently there is a... birthright that passes from girl to girl. Strength and power to destroy vampires. There are only one of these girls at a time, and when one dies her power passes to another. Mr. Tomlinson thought you might be one of those girls, but this week as we destroyed Colin's kinsman Mortimer, Shannon O'Hara rushed in. That power had awakened in her. I know it doesn't seem to have anything to do with you, but I think it does. We're here to protect you, and we can call on more help than you can imagine to destroy Turner. You're safe in this house, and now we have the advantage. We'll all be glad to be free of Turner." Ruby spits back words to Kate, trying to understand. "Watcher? Kevin? Me??" before she is quiet again. She sighs, "It's been a nice three weeks, not having to worry about any of this. With the exception of one night when we were chased...," Ruby's eyes twinkle at the memory, "George stood in front of me to protect me, from who he thought was Deadeye Douglas. He would have taken a bullet for me Kate." She pauses and then continues, "I knew it wasn't finished with Turner. I felt it, I can't explain it. He has some sort of hold over me. And you're right, I do feel safe in the house but I can't hide there forever. But George...," Ruby hangs her head. "This is probably too much for him. I don't think he understands, he doesn't live like we do." Kate says, "When you first met me on the stage from Tombstone, swathed in black and trying to hide behind you in the stage from all the strange people, would you have thought I could do what I've done? Become what I've become? Do think George can't do as much?" Ruby hesitates. "Well... no... but we've experienced things together. We didn't have a choice about a lot of the things that have happened they were just kind of thrust upon us. And... why would I choose for George, or anyone I love for that matter, to have these kinds of things happen, have this kind of fear over them?" Ruby shakes her head. "I gave George back his ring. And he's... he's still deciding if he wants to give it back to me or not. He didn't know anything about ma... what we can do except for what he's been told. He looked into it and is still thinking it over. He's never seen the things we can do. All I did was light some candles. He doesn't know all the other stuff. So what if... he sees something..." Ruby doesn't finish her thought. Kate says, "Something that frightens him? Something that makes him fear you? I can't guarantee that won't happen, honey. But if the two of you do decide to build a life together he should fully understand what this power is. And do you know what else he is going to see? Three people of arcane power, four, counting you, working with a cleric to rid the earth of something incredibly evil. I think he will see that power of any kind in the wrong hands is dangerous, and in the right hands a tool to make this world better and safer. Our power doesn't make these things happen, it just makes us able to deal with them" Kate took Ruby's hand. "What you've wanted is someone who loves you for everything you are. If George sees something within you or through you that he can't accept, was he the man to do it in the first place? But I think he will be able to handle this. It may be difficult, but his is the kind of mind that seeks out understanding." Ruby sat quietly, Kate's petite hand in hers, considering her friend's words. She was right, but it didn't make Ruby any less scared. She couldn't live her life always looking over her shoulder, waiting for Colin Turner to show up again. And eventually she would have to accept that George might not really like her for who she was. She hadn't really wanted to hide that part of her anyway she just figured it wasn't the right time. Once again fate was forcing her hand before she was ready. "You're right. He should love all of me, not just some of me." Ruby smiles half heartedly, "And he does have that sort of mind. Of course before a couple of days ago he though these creatures to only be myth and when I spoke to him of it he thought I was joking." A long sigh falls from her lips. "I guess I just thought I was done with all this. Him. Colin Turner. Does Mr. Gonzales even know about all this?" Kate says, "I keep our teacher pretty well informed of most of what happens, unless it is some else's secret. I haven't told him about Shannon O'Hara yet, it's her secret, but now I think we will have to. Hopefully we won't have to call on her, but he should know what all the options are. We might have to refresh his memory about some things, I might not have told him everything. It doesn't matter how right it is, it's still scary to let someone you love see the things you're afraid will drive them away. It's so much easier to hide it, but that just delays things and leaves you waiting for the shoe to drop." "How can we call on Shannon? She's all the way back in Promise City. Unless..." Ruby stops short. "Do you think we should leave here? Take the fight back to Promise City? Or at least away from George?" Kate says, "No. I think those of us here should take care of this, and if we find we need help we can wire Kevin Tomlinson and tell him where to find Turner. Mr. Tomlinson's been after him for some time now. Turner will suspect if we all just go back to Promise City." "He'll probably suspect this large gathering anyway," Ruby shrugs. "You know I shudder to think of him, if he's been here outside my window, or walking behind me somewhere... always close. always watching me." Goosebumps run up her arms at the thought. "That night at the play, I swore he was in the crowd. I didn't want to accept it, I told myself it was just my mind playing tricks on me." Kate says, "Why would you want to believe it? I have to believe someone was watching out for you to have kept him away from you that night. Let's make it so you never have to think of him again." Ruby nods in agreement. "I'll have to talk to George and finds out what he wants to do. I can't let him make a mistake over his ignorance in this matter and put his employees at risk without warning him." Ruby stands from the bench. "I... I guess I am very lucky you are here." Kate says, "As long as his employees stay in after dark, everything should be fine. I don't see any reason we can't include him in our plans. He already knows about your talents and whatever he decides I'm guessing he's not planning on turning you in. I would hope the same would hold for the rest of us. I consider myself lucky to be here just when you need me," Kate said with a smile. Ruby hugs Kate tightly, she now knew what she had to do. "I wanted to show you around the garden under better circumstances. Perhaps later while the sun is still out we can. For now, let's head back inside and come up with a plan." "I'll look forward to the tour," Kate said simply as they began to walk back to the house. "You had plans to go to the theater tonight. How long have you had those plans? Long enough for Turner to know it?" Ruby says, "We've had the plans for... I'm not exactly sure. At least two days. So yes, I assume he could know about it. Looks like you're going to the theater after all. I'm sure we can find you a gown. Actually, I saw one when I was shopping just the other day, I could send Al back to the store to buy it if necessary. Let's go inside and see what plans we come up with." Ruby takes her by the arm and leads her back inside to the parlor.</blockquote>

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