Under Your Nose, The Third Murder (Closed)

[Kryshna]

It had grown quiet over the past couple of weeks around Kryshna’s case. The trail had grown a bit cold and no new sign had been seen of her. But it was time for another strike.

High up on the 13th floor of the Avalon Hotel, Kryshna was attaching her weapons to her and heading for the window. She glanced back, across the dark room, at Leander as she reached the window and slid it open. She was still unsure of him and still had yet to actually say a word to him. But that was normal for her.

Quickly, she climbed out onto the balcony and looked up. The target window was one story up from her. The windows were dark. It was very late at night, so the targets should be asleep by now. She removed her wand from its holster beside her hip and pointed at herself, muttering an inaudible word. A form of camouflage appeared over her, blending her in perfectly with the building, only leaving a slight rippling affect around her body.

She quickly put her wand back away and began to climb up the intricate architecture of the hotel. The wind whipped around her, but she kept her balance and did not falter. It did not take her long to reach the window.

She reached out with her wand towards the lock and muttered a spell. The lock clicked open and she slid inside. The wind outside was too strong so she was forced to close the window so as to not wake the targets.

Kryshna quickly slipped into one of the bedrooms of the suite and looked down upon the sleeping couple. It was a simple task. Kill the two, get out, apparate home. But her mind did not think this way, otherwise the task might already be done. Instead, Kryshna began stalking forward towards the bed.

The male first, always the male first. She moved towards his side of the bed, pulling out her kukri. His wand was on the bedside table. His wife, a muggle, had no wand. She quickly brought her kukri up, judging the best way to kill him. Then decided for a straight stroke, from stomach to head, appearing out of her camouflage as she does so. And like that, it was done.

The movement had woken the wife though, who had sat up and a scream echoed out across the hotel room. Kryshna made quick work of silencing her, slicing straight across the throat. As the woman fell off the bed, clutching her neck, unable to breathe and bleeding out, Kryshna headed for the door.

She removed her wand and pressed the tip against the door, just under where the numbers would appear on the outside. Once the Hassassin symbol was burned into the door, she turned around to head for the window. And then she noticed the complication.

A young boy, no more than 4 or 5 years old, stood between her and the window, looking up at her, scared. An innocent. Kryshna froze, her eyes widened. She glanced towards the doorway where the boy’s parents now lay brutally murdered. Her dark eyes then went back to the boy. It felt like she was frozen there for hours, as the two seemed to have a bit of a staring contest.

Then, something odd happened. It was as if Kryshna’s only shred of humanity peaked through. She moved forward to the boy and led him closer to the window. Her beast screamed at her to kill the child and she knew she had to. But that last shred refused to do it brutally.

Slowly, she knelt down beside the boy so she was eye level with him. She brought a hand up to the black cloth mask covering her lower face. It revealed that the dark veins going down either side of her face did extend to below the mask. An odd tribal tattoo was under her left eye, just barely covered by the mask. Her pale face practically glowed in the moonlight by the window and she pulled the child to her into an embrace. The low light reflected out of her predatory eyes as she lowered her mouth to the child’s neck. Fangs were revealed and she bit down, beginning to drain the child of blood.

[Leander Zarek]

Leander was really just there to get Kryshna in the building, and to cast the Dark Mark above the scene. But the actual killing, well, that was all Kryshna. It really wasn't Leander's style, anyway. Climbing out the window was certainly not to his liking, and when she went out there, Leander was content to stay right where he was, thank you. He would wait in the room just below the victims', so that once the deed was done, they could make a quick getaway.

Leander liked a good killing as much as any Death Eater. But Kryshna's methods were so... messy for someone as fastidious as Leander. He was actually glad that he could stay where he was, where he was sure to avoid any blood splatter. Blood was just so hard to get out of one's robes.

He was close enough to hear the woman's scream--it was loud enough that it seemed to reverberate through the walls. He hoped Kryshna finished her work quickly, because it wouldn't be long before someone came running...

[EDITED BECAUSE I SHOULD HAVE CHECKED MY INBOX FIRST...]

[Rutger Kilborn]

Meanwhile, down below on the 5th floor, Rutger had called a meeting. It wasn't that he didn't like working at the Ministry, but he felt more comfortable on his own turf, so to speak, and the hotel was the closest he could get. Besides, he had the "command center" set up just as he liked it. And since it was after hours, anyway, it seemed pointless to waste time at the Ministry.

When it came to Kryshna, Rutger thought he had something of a sixth sense. He just felt that Kryshna would be attacking again soon. It had been long enough... surely she couldn't have moved on so soon...

So he had Alana, along with the two Leviner brothers, sitting in the command center, going over everything that they knew about both Kryshna and the Death Eaters.

"OK," Rutger was saying. "You believe that Kryshna is working for this Lord Voldemort, and that her latest victims are people that have offended him in some way?"

[Sean Leviner]

Sean ran a hand through his hair, tired and frustrated. He could tell just by looking at Daniel that he was equally tired, equally frustrated. There were two MLE and two Aurors on this case... why was this taking so long? It should have been an easy capture.

Sean didn't normally drink coffee. Caffeine, he had discovered, made his visions a little worse, and little more intense, and a little more frequent. Aside from the fact that he needed something to help him stay awake, he was kind of hoping for another vision. He wasn't sure how that was going to happen, though, considering he only got his visions when he was physically close to something pertaining to it.

At Rutger's words, he shook his head. "No... no, I'm not convinced that's what this is. Death Eaters have never used anything other than Voldemort's symbol before, and that middle eastern symbol was very prominent. There's a correlation there... I'm just not sure what."

He rubbed his hand over his eyes, feeling a slight pinching in his vision. That should have been his first clue, and maybe Daniel's too.

"And we're trying to investigate any ties that the victims so far may have to Voldemort or any reason why he would want them dead. It's just that... this isn't usually his way of doing things. It all seems so third party. Merlin..." he finished, his words sounding half distracted, pinching the bridge of his nose as the pain behind his eyes started to throb.


(((Going to let everyone post before he sees the vision))))

[Alana Kalb]

Alana hadn't really wanted to have a meeting about Kryshna. She would rather be sleeping or shopping; she had realized she missed shopping while in England, but she knew she was there on business. She wasn't going to anger anybody, especially not Rutger, by showing up late to a meeting because there was a new pair of shoes in a shop window that caught her eye.

But Alana was too tired to be able to sit still through a meeting. She hadn't been sleeping very well since the murder a couple of weeks ago. That one disturbed her more than she realized while she was at the scene. She wouldn't admit it, but she had been losing sleep over it. And now, everything had gone quiet again, something that's never good, no matter which way you look at it.

Alana sat and listened to Rutger speak and then Sean, and she noticed things were going to get more complicated than they already were.
"So, we now have to track this Voldemort as well as Kryshna?" Alana sighed. "How do we go about searching into Voldemort? I'm sure you will be able to do that easily?" It came out as a question, a rather hopeful one that Alana hoped there would be a positive answer to.

[Daniel Leviner]

"Maybe if we look at who exactly these people were, there has to be some kind of connection, there has to be." Daniel ran a hand over his tired face. Everything was running together. He needed sleep but that chance wasn't going to be coming anytime soon.

"Voldemort wouldn't just have just anyone to work for him I don't believe. I mean if you were evil and wanted to kill people, you wouldn't just have just anyone kill for you." Daniel was trying to make connections in his mind, but he had been awake for so long, trying to figure this out, his thoughts seemed almost muddled at the moment. Even though his thoughts might not have been coming out clearly, he was fully aware of what was going on with Sean. He could sense that something was about to happen with his brother, especially the way Sean was moving.

"Here's my thought. We find the dog, then we'll find the person with the leash. There was other evidence that some one else was there with her, other than the ones that were murdered, correct? She has to have someone working with her, and right now our biggest priority is finding Kryshna. Also, finding Voldemort will be like trying to find a needle in a huge haystack. He has followers everywhere, trust me."

Turning to Sean as soon as he pinched the bridge of his nose, Daniel put a hand on his shoulder. He was never going to tell Sean, but it always scared him a little whenever Sean would have visions. He didn't know what was going to happen with this so called gift on down the road and that worried him.

[Rutger Kilborn]

Rutger was frowning deeply, looking at his written profile of Kryshna. He had studied killers like her extensively in books, and he thought he understood the psychology behind it. He had a profile written up about her: young, probably an orphan, abused, angry at the world. Maybe trying to get back at people who reminded her of someone who had hurt her in the past, or maybe trying to hurt people who reminded her of what she had wanted her parents to be like. Now he was beginning to think it was all rubbish, so much that he abruptly crumpled the parchment in his hands.

"I don't care about catching the master at this point. That's a bigger problem, and I can't deal with that now. I just want Kryshna and her partner. In fact, I'd settle for just catching Kryshna. If she's so valuable, I doubt the master will look kindly on her partner if she's caught."

He paused to rub his own head and take a sip of the coffee that was pretty much the only thing that ever kept him going. He had not yet noticed that something was wrong with Sean, and he just continued on his current train of thought. "The way I see it, if Kryshna is working for Lord Voldemort, she has not always been doing so. Her first attack was almost 10 years ago, and there was no sign of the mark... what do you call it? The Dark Mark? There was only her symbol."

[Sean Leviner]

Sean wasn't even remotely aware of what Rutger and Daniel were talking about anymore. He was getting drawn into his own little world more and more, and he could almost feel himself being sucked into a vision. Probably thanks to the caffeine, he couldn't have pulled himself out of this one if he tried.

"Excuse me, I'll be... right back," Sean interrupted. Given the option, he'd rather not do this in front of Rutger and Alana. Somehow, to this day, Daniel was still the only person that knew he could do this, and he wanted to keep it that way.

Sean got to his feet, his movements a little shakey, but not hinderingly so. He stepped towards the door, even put his hand on the knob, but that was as far as he got before the headache hit him with a throbbing force, and he pressed up against the door for support.

As usual, the images were fast in his mind, and he didn't quite grasp all of them. they would become clear later, when he thought back on it. But he got the very urgent sense in this one, and just as the number's "1407" burned into his mind, he heard a bloodcurdling scream.

He honestly didn't know the scream had been in his head, it was so loud and crystal clear. And then, the symbol came to mind, and Sean's heart started to pound.

Despite the throbbing of his head, he managed to alert them that "She's here! 1407, go!" and then he bolted. Risk of muggles or no, he would have apparated if he didn't think he'd splice himself a million ways. They could do that- he would be upstairs shortly.

[Daniel Leviner]

Daniel was feeling highly annoyed and it wasn't really any of their faults. He wanted to give Rutger a smart comment on his observation, but he didn't have the strength.

"Obviously," he sort of mumbled under his breath. "Exactly. She just recently started working with Voldemort. We hadn't had any murders like this until she first got here. Well, there is this other thing going on to, but the two are not related. I don't understand why she joined him all of a sudden, unless he wants to send out a message and is using her to do so."

Daniel was aware that Sean left the room and he would go check on him in a moment if he wasn't back, however he didn't have to worry about that. He knew exactly what happened, as soon as Sean alerted them. Daniel dropped what he was about to finish saying about Kryshna. "Come on," he said just as he started to follow his brother.

[Rutger Kilborn]

Rutger had been about to explain to Daniel that even though these two murders were the first time Kryshna had struck in England, they were not the first times that the Dark Mark had appeared over one of her murder scenes. It had been more than a year ago when the symbol first appeared alongside Kryshna's own symbol, which led him to believe that she'd begun working with Lord Voldemort around that time.

But he never got a chance to say any of this. Sean suddenly cried out from the other room, and without even hearing the words at first, Rutger rushed in to see what was going on. And then the words sunk in... she's here... 1407...

Rutger didn't even ask how Sean knew, and despite his logical brain telling him to question such abrupt, unfounded information, the urgency and the promise of maybe catching Kryshna after all this time managed to override all of his doubts.

With a quick glance back at Alana, he shouted, "Let's go! Room 1407!"

He didn't wait for anyone else; he just apparated himself directly up to Room 1407.

[Alana Kalb]

Alana jumped when Rutger shouted, coming out from her drifting sleep. She felt bad for falling asleep off and on the entire meeting. She couldn't help it. She heard Daniel saying something before he left, and when Rutger informed her to go to room 1407. It took her a minute to realize Daniel and Sean were gone, and when she looked back to where Rutger was, he was gone too.

She didn't know how anyone knew Kryshna was here, but she wasn't going to question it now. The thought that someone in their group was working with her crossed her mind, but she shook that thought out of her head. There was no way that could be true.

"Oh. Okay, that's fine, guys, leave the woman alone." Alana scoffed, and took a deep breath, thinking, "I really would like not to splinch, not now." With that, she apparated to the room, making it there in one piece.

[Kryshna]

The sound of two pops in the room startled the creature out of her focus on the boy. He was still alive. He was not one of the targets, and actually took her quite by surprise. But he was still alive... but weak. Her eyes rose up to the two people in the room. It was him, Rutger. Her one, personal target that had escaped.

Her mask was down; they could completely see every pale feature of her face, every vein that was etched abnormally across the edges of it and even the odd tribal tattoo under her left eye. But more importantly, they could see her crimson eyes and her lips as they parted.

The creature let loose an inhuman growl and they could see the fangs where normal canines should be. Quickly, faster than a human should be able to move, she grabbed the child and moved through the second bedroom door.

Kryshna slammed the door shut, blocking it with a chair. The boy was weak, but still alive. He would survive if she didn’t kill him now. But it was too late, something had gone wrong. Now her mind raced, like a trapped animal. The window of this room was around the corner from where she needed to drop. There was no balcony within reach and climbing the whole way would very much put her at risk.

A normal human probably would have used the boy as ransom. But Kryshna was anything but normal and definitely not human. She was turning around, franticly searching for anything, occasionally turning towards the blocked door and growling loudly at it.

She would have to fight her way out. It was the only way that she could get to the window. She growled once more at the door then backed up, pulling out her wand. Within seconds, all of the lights in the room were broken. Her wand was put away and her kukri’s were out. The boy was now hiding under the bed. He was safe there.

Her mind quickly went over who was on the other side of the door; some woman and Rutger. She could not kill him. The woman could die, but he was protected. She sniffed at the air. Others were coming. She had not had a real fight in a long time. Since the last time she and Rutger met. But it was not a fight she wanted. Only escape.

Her hand reached up to the cloth gathered around her neck. She pulled it up and over her nose and mouth, her eyes narrowing at the door, waiting in the shadows for when it would finally open.

(stalling so the boys can get into the room)

[Rutger Kilborn]

It all happened so fast, and yet, it seemed oddly slowed down at the same time. Nothing could have shocked Rutger more than the sight of Kryshna in front of him when he apparated into the room. The initial shock of recognition and the thrill of finally coming face-to-face with her were both immediately shattered when he finally got a look at her face.

She was not human. Her red eyes seemed to glow against her pale skin, there seemed to be a strange sort of tattoo on her face... and her bloodstained lips were parted to reveal her pointed fangs.

Rutger was rooted to the spot, his eyes wide and staring. In that second, almost everything he thought he knew about Kryshna was completely shattered. He had always thought that she had a method, that she had a pattern, that she followed some kind of twisted logic. But now he could see that he'd been wrong all along. Kryshna wasn't human. She wouldn't think like a human.

"She's... she's a vampire!" he gasped needlessly, for surely Alana would have realized the same thing.

She had been in the process of draining the boy when they came in, that much was clear. It was just so odd and unexpected... she had never bitten any of her other victims, and in fact, most of the other murders had been exceedingly bloody. He never would have expected that she would be a vampire, with all the precious blood she left behind. Yet, here before him was the proof.

She growled at them, then darted with inhuman speed into the other room, dragging the boy along behind her. Rutger sprang into action, but he was not nearly fast enough. Before he could reach the door, she had it shut and barricaded.

"Reducto!" he shouted, pointing his wand at the door, but it was no use; whatever she had used to block the door was too heavy to be blasted aside by the single spell. "Alana!" he said desperately, looking to her. Maybe if they did the spell together, they could blast the door open.

[Alana Kalb]

Alana stood staring at the girl in front of her, shock and fear coming over her all at once. She couldn't believe this was happening, that the person they were trying to catch for so long was right there within walking distance.

She knew what Kryshna was the moment she saw her, but it took Rutger's words to finally let it sink in. Alana felt like she was dreaming, that she really had fallen asleep in the meeting and this was just her dream. It wasn't possible that this girl, this young woman, could be responsible for all those deaths, for almost killing Rutger. Alana knew she was young, but she wasn't expecting her to be a vampire as well.

Alana pointed her wand at Kryshna, ready to hit her with whatever came out of Alana's mouth first, but she wasn't fast enough. She didn't realize Rutger had run up to the door to try to open it until he shouted her name, breaking her out of her thoughts. As Alana ran up to Rutger, she realized she hadn't been breathing the entire time Kryshna was in the room.

She looked at Rutger and nodded swiftly before aiming her wand at the door and shouting, "Reducto!"

[Daniel Leviner]

As Daniel was running after Sean, it occurred to him that he could have possibly apparated to the room, but that wasn't really an option when his first thought was to just run. Following his brother into the room, Daniel came to an abrupt stop. Both Alana and Rutger were standing there with their wands out. Looking to Sean, he pulled out his own wand, not knowing what to expect to happen.

He quickly assessed the situation in his mind. She was waiting on them to come to her. Why else would she shut herself in the closet? "Watch yourself," he whispered to Sean as the two aurors tried to blast open the door.

[Kryshna]

The door finally gave out, bursting into splinters. Once the dust had cleared away, the room on the other side was pitch black and very quiet. After a few silent seconds, a very low growl emanated out of the bedroom. Nothing moved for a moment and then they could see what looked like two cats eyes shining out of the shadows. They were completely still.

Kryshna had not bargained on Rutger following her out to the British Isles. She had not guessed that leaving the mainland would put her face to face with him once more. He had not been one of Voldemort’s targets, merely one she had placed her own target on because he had been getting too close in his investigations. But she had failed. And now, here they were, face to face, once more.

The creature waited, growling lightly at the gathering of people outside of the darkened room. It waited for one of them to make a move towards it. Ever a patient creature, it had, literally, all the time in the world to wait for them to make the wrong move.

[Rutger Kilborn]

Rutger's heart was beating very fast, and for a moment all he could hear was the rushing of blood in his ears. Everyone was frozen as if they had been petrified, certain that one tiny movement would result in disaster.

He felt Alana next to him and felt the absurd need to push her out of the way, even though he knew she would be angry with him for doing so. But now, with Kryshna standing before him, he felt certain that anything could happen. All of his previous attempts to figure her out, to predict her behavior, had been utterly and completely wrong. She was unpredictable, and there was no telling how she would react when pinned in a corner.

"Kryshna?" he called out in a clear, smooth voice. "No one wants this to end the wrong way. Just... stay where you are. Send the boy out to us first."

Did she even speak English? He realized suddenly that he wasn't even sure about that. He just stood, waiting, his every muscle taut and alert. Any sudden move, and he was ready to spring into action.

[Alana Kalb]

Alana was terrified, more so than she would like to admit. She wasn't sure what would happen now that they were so close to Kryshna, so close to the girl that had almost killed Rutger. Alana had always planned in her head that when she finally came face to face with Kryshna, Alana would personally kill her without holding back, but now that that moment had come, Alana found herself rooted to the floor, unable to get enough strength to get any closer, fearing for her life, and the lives of the people around her. She resisted the urge to take Rutger's hand, to hold onto someone for safety and reassurance that she was going to be okay, even thought she knew Rutger didn't know that. Besides, she knew Rutger wouldn't approve of her showing weakness. In the end, her mind won the battle in her head, and she grabbed onto the end of her shirt, the knuckles of her other hand white as she kept a tight grip on her wand.

When Rutger spoke, it startled Alana, breaking her out of her thoughts with a jolt. She wasn't sure if she was going to cry or scream at the girl, or try to run, which would most likely cause her to get hurt or killed if Alana saw her running away. Alana came to the conclusion that the safest place now was with Rutger, even though she wasn't sure if anyone would be able to fend off Kryshna when she attacked.

"There is no need to hurt anyone else, Kryshna. It will be okay." She said, not sure if it was a smart move or not. Her voice wasn't as smooth as Rutger's; she was shaking and terrified and her voice reflected that. "I'm sorry," She whispered to Rutger, hoping it wasn't the wrong idea to talk. Her grip tightened on both her shirt and her wand, and she prepared herself for anything that would happen next.

[Rutger Kilborn]

Rutger heard the tiny tremor in Alana's voice, and for a moment he could not concentrate on anything else. He wanted to turn to her, to reassure her with a look or a squeeze of his hand that everything would be OK. But he couldn't do that. Not only would any movement, any turn of his head likely result in Kryshna escaping--or worse, attacking someone--but he also knew that he could not promise her anything. Kryshna, he now knew, was utterly unpredictable. She could launch herself at them all right now and butcher the lot of them. He just didn't know what to expect now.

Still, Alana's tiny, whispered apology got to him, and he chanced just a subtle, sideways glance in her direction. "It's OK," he whispered back. He only hoped that, by taking his eyes off of Kryshna for that fraction of a second, he wouldn't be making his words into lies.

[Daniel Leviner]

Daniel looked back at Sean, just to see his reaction. He didn't really know what exactly was going on and it didn't matter how old the two got, Daniel was always going to try to protect his brother.

Looking back to the now dark area that the thing was waiting in, Daniel's jaw was tight. He grabbed his wand in his cloak and held it tightly. His patience wasn't exactly the best sort of patience in the world at times. Tonight happened to be one of those nights.

"Come on out," he said trying to keep his voice calm and even.