Under Your Nose, The Third Murder (Closed)

[Kryshna]

Kryshna had waited long enough. It was a stand off at this point. They were not willing to move into the dark room and she had not been willing to move out of it yet. But now, the beast in her was beginning to yell for freedom. She would have to take a chance to burst straight through the four people in the next room over.

The creature's muscles tensed and her hands gripped the kukris tightly. They would not stop her if she burst through their line. She could not go through Rutger. It would break her code. Her eyes shifted between Daniel and Alana. Her beast figured the girl would be weaker. But she was with Rutger, standing closest to him. She would be the more difficult one to go through. Especially beings the two were holding hands.

The emotions that one would typically think of when seeing two people holding hands never occurred to Kryshna. All she saw before her was something that made it more difficult for her to escape. If she had understood it, she probably would have aimed for the two of them, figuring one would jump in front of the other, leaving a gap for her to escape. But emotions were lost to Kryshna. All she saw was them blocking her way.

So it had to be Daniel. Her eyes remained on Alana, though. Throw them off. She kept them there as she repositioned herself in the darkness.

And then, she moved.

It was like lightning, the only thing seen in the darkness was the flash of her eyes and the gleam of her weapons. A second later, she was on top of Daniel, her crimson eyes glaring down at him as she jumped at him, kukri's forward, aimed at his shoulder's. A growl escaped her as she attempted to tackle him to the ground, allowing an opening for her to roll away and move toward the window.

[Sean Leviner]

The thing Kryshna seemed not to have counted on was Daniel's brother, standing just behind and to the left of Daniel. It would have been nice if his quasi-psychic abilities would have warned him that the attack was happening, but all four of them were pretty on edge anyway.

In the moment, the only thing he could think to do was fire a disarming spell at the girl.... creature? It all happened pretty quickly anyway, and his first and most important thought was to protect his brother.

He rushed the couple of steps forward as soon as the spell was aimed and fired, to his brother's side to help steady him and prepare for another attack. The thing was cornered and she knew it, which meant she was dangerous. At least, moreso than normal. He shot a look at the two Aurors. "Do something!"

[Rutger Kilborn]

Rutger hadn't been expecting her to go for Daniel. He'd seen the way the creature focused on Alana, and as she ran toward them, he instinctively blocked her, pushing her to the ground and shielding her with his body just as Kryshna attacked. Later he would agonize over this moment, this one action which was unlike anything he had ever done before. Yes, he believed in protecting people, but Alana wasn't an innocent, she was a fully trained auror just like he was. His instinct should have been to stop Kryshna.

In the chaos that followed, Rutger was still on the ground, pulling himself up as Sean yelled out to them. He fumbled for his wand, which he fallen out of his hand when he hit the ground. He found it quickly, and fired off a Stunning spell in Kryshna's general direction.

[Alana Kalb]

Everything seemed to flash in front of Alana's eyes as if she was watching a scene flash by on a screen. She knew Kryshna was running for her, she saw the girl's eyes staring into Alana's. It took her a moment to realize it wasn't the same girl they had followed into the room, and Alana's heart froze. She squeezed her eyes shut, her mind blanking out. She didn't think that she was a trained Auror and that she had every capability to protect herself, she only saw the creature staring at her, and figured her life was over.

When she hit the ground, she expected to open her eyes and see whatever would await her on the other side. However, when she finally had the courage to open her eyes, when she realized she could still hear what was going on around her, she realized Rutger was protecting her from Kryshna. Alana wasn't sure if she was going to cry or make a smart remark about how it was so unlike Rutger to do that, but she realized now was definitely not the time for either.

Alana barely had time to collect her surroundings when Sean had yelled and Rutger had stood up. She looked over to Daniel and realized he was the one Kryshna had attacked, and once Rutger shouted his spell, Alana remembered what Sean had yelled for. Hundreds of spells went through her mind, some more sinister than others, but she decided on a disarming spell to go along with Rutger's spell. She hoped between those two things, Kryshna's attack would stop.

[Daniel Leviner]

Daniel wasn't quite expecting the thing to come at him. Thankfully, Sean moved quick. Of course, Sean was probably the only person that Daniel would ever trust with his life, other than their father. Once the creature, or whatever Kryshna was, moved Daniel tried to react. "Aurors," he muttered to himself just as she came to him.

He wasn't sure if he could really hold her off or even if he could protect himself for any period of time with her this quick and him not knowing what to expect from her. Daniel hated the fact that he didn't really know what the expect, but he could maybe figure something out, as long as he was still able to walk out of the room tonight.

The only thing he could really rely on at the moment would be the spells that the Aurors were firing at Kryshna.

[Kryshna]

Sean’s spell hit the girl square in the chest, sending one of her kukri’s flying into the wall near the door, the other near the window, as Kryshna was in midair jumping at Daniel. The momentum of her jump still sent her flying into Daniel, but no attack was possible.

Kryshna’s momentum didn’t stop, though it was now uncontrolled. After hitting Daniel, the two fell to the ground, Kryshna rolled off of him, lying on the ground. She pushed herself up and shook her head. Her speed was still incredible and within seconds, she was standing in front of the window. She quickly reached up and grabbed the kukri beside the window out of the wall.

Her head turned to look over her shoulder at the one that had caught her off guard. Sean. Her crimson eyes caught his. He had seen them before, in a way. But now, he was seeing them for real. He could see her eyes, the only area of her face not hidden by her mask. He could see the dark veining across the outer edges of her face and the pale color of her skin. But it was still her eyes, the emotionless red orbs, which he could recognize.

In those few seconds, Rutger had recovered and grabbed his wand, sending out his stunning spell. Kryshna was unprepared for it, her focus still on Sean. In that brief second that Sean distracted her, the spell went off. And the fraction of a second that it took to hit her, Sean watched as a sudden look of pain and fear flashed across her eyes.

The spell hit directly and hard, sending Kryshna flying into the window and crashing through it. For a long second, she fell through mid air, glass flying all around her. Alana’s spell just barely missed as gravity pulled her down.

Leander might have missed the sound of footsteps upstairs. He may have not heard the spells flying around. But the two sounds that were impossible for him to miss were the crash of the window above him and the loud Thud that came from Kryshna hitting the balcony, glass flying all around her.

She did not move after her body hit. Her eyes were closed, cuts were all across her body from crashing through the window and the glass falling around her. It was up to him to cast the dark mark and get them out of there. Otherwise, they would both be in horrible trouble, possibly from more than one group of people.

[Leander Zarek]

It was taking too long. Normally Kryshna was finished with her ghoulish work faster than this. Leander had been waiting in the room just below the victims' room, and he kept peering out the window for some sign from Kryshna.

After about ten minutes, he had gotten bored sitting in the room and opened the window. Putting a Disillusionment Charm on himself to prevent any possible witnesses from seeing a "suspicious character" on the balcony just below the scene of the crime that had not yet been committed, Leander went out onto the balcony to wait for Kryshna. It would be faster this way, he reasoned. He could cast the Dark Mark at the first sign of her, then they could apparate as soon as she swung down onto the balcony.

Still, he couldn't help his pacing. It was all taking too long, and he couldn't hear anything. He knew he hadn't liked this plan from the beginning... Kryshna needed to be monitored. Even though nothing had ever gone wrong before... Kryshna's unpredictability was very worrisome to Leander, who was always worried about something.

The first thing he heard was the crash of breaking glass. Although it was unlike her to make such a loud exit, Leander was relieved to hear the sound and was, at first, blissfully unaware that anything was amiss. He dutifully cast the Dark Mark, and while he was doing that, he heard the thudding sound of a body hitting the balcony. Unfortunately, he could still see nothing, and he had no idea what was happening. The body could have been anyone's, and he had no way of knowing whose it was. But something told him he shouldn't wait to find out.

Squeezing his eyes shut, Leander took a deep breath and apparated to the balcony above. The first thing he saw was Kryshna, lying motionless amidst sparkling shards of shattered glass. Then he heard movement--voices--coming from the room beyond, and without a second thought, he grabbed Kryshna and apparated.

[Rutger Kilborn]

When Kryshna hit the window, Rutger ran forward. They had her, he thought. The stunning spell had hit her, so even though the force of the spell had knocked her backward, Rutger was certain she was immobilized.

But then something happened that he didn't expect. In the seconds that it took for him to reach the window, Kryshna abruptly vanished before his eyes. He ran through the shattered remains of the window and stood there, in the very spot where her motionless body had lain, shards of glass crunching beneath his feet. An eerie greenish glow seemed to shine down on him, and from below he heard screaming.

Stunned, Rutger looked up and saw the Dark Mark blazing in the sky above him.

[Daniel Leviner]

As soon as Kryshna's body crashed into his, they both hit the floor. Daniel tried to move quick enough to grab her, but she was obviously faster than he was. He moved quickly to get back on his feet. Noticing that the creature was looking directly at his brother, he was ready to move again if she did.

Daniel would be lying if he said that he wasn't a little shaken by the fact that Kryshna could have killed him without a second thought. He walked over to where Rutger stood. Great, just great. The Dark Mark was above them and just as he noticed it, he heard the screaming. "Great," Daniel mumbled.

He cast out his patronus and gave it a message to tell Angelique that there had been another attack and that the Obliviator squad was going to be needed. These attacks didn't quite make sense just yet. What was so special about these people? They hadn't really looked into exactly who these people were, and maybe that's what should have been done from the start.

"We need to get rid of that mark," he stated before pointing his wand upward. "What was the point of her being here?"

[Alana Kalb]

Alana stood shocked for a moment, looking at Daniel and his brother. They looked like they were okay, just shaken up. Kryshna was so close! Alana thought, and everything was going fine until she decided to attack. Alana almost wished she was the intended target, not just the decoy one, because Alana knew that if she was attacked they would have Kryshna now. There wasn't a doubt in her mind that Rutger would finally be able to catch her if she were just a little closer...

Alana followed Daniel to the window and looked down at the people. Alana hated seeing the innocent involved, and that's exactly what was happening this entire case. She sighed as she glanced at the Dark Mark, thinking of something she could say to make everyone feel a little bit better, something dealing with how stupid she thought it looked, but she bit her tongue, looking from Daniel to Rutger, and deciding now was no time to joke around.

"You don't think she knew we were here, do you? What if she's got someone watching us, saw us all come here together, and then picked a room to attack?" Alana said, hoping that wasn't the case. She didn't want them to be tracked, especially not by someone as dangerous as Kryshna.

[Sean Leviner]

Sean was a little surprised when his eyes met hers, the girl's. The creatures. But he definitely recognized that gaze, and he remembered it clearly from the vision he'd had after the first murder. She had killed so many people... did she work for Lord Voldemort? It seemed out of his usual style, as far as they knew. He didn't know what to do.

And in an instant, she was gone, and Sean took a moment to give Daniel a hand, pulling him back up to his feet.

Addressing Alana, Sean shook his head. "I don't know... but I don't think she plans these things. If someone knew we were here... it wasn't her."

[Rutger Kilborn]

Rutger was barely holding it together at the moment. This was the second time he had come face to face with Kryshna and failed to catch her. The first time, of course, was when she had tried to kill him, and he hadn't been expecting her. But this time... he should have had her. Two aurors and two MLE officers, and they'd had her trapped. But still she got away. And Rutger knew it was his fault.

When he'd seen those cold red eyes fixed on Alana, his only thought had been to protect her. He hadn't thought that maybe she was doing it as a diversion, while she actually was aiming for Daniel. And even still, he should have thought to fire a spell at her to immobilize her. It should have been his first thought. Stop her at any cost. Instead, he had somehow instinctively pushed Alana out of the way. Why had he done that? It wasn't a logical reaction.

From now on, he thought, any murder she committed would be on his head. He had messed up, he had failed to catch her, he was responsible.

"Damn it!" he shouted, and slammed his hand down on the railing of the balcony. "She was so close...."

He took a couple of deep breaths, then glanced back up at the Dark Mark in the sky. "Deletrius," he mumbled.

Turning back to the others, he sighed. "All right. Let's secure the scene. We need to get the boy and find out what he saw."

They shouldn't count this as a total loss. They had learned something about Kryshna that they hadn't already known--that she was a vampire. And they had a witness who had survived the attack. This was the first attack, Rutger realized, in which a child had been involved. Why had she attempted to bite the child? There were so many questions to be answered.