Park Slope Studios - Brooke's Studio Apartment
The large studio apartment offers a great deal of open space. The studio has been recently renovated to include walls between the rooms, and though it's only 900 square feet seems much larger due to the open concept.
Two bedrooms can be found in the apartment, though only one is an actual bedroom. The second, which looks out onto Prospect Park, has been set up as a home office for a budding new business. Filled with filing cabinets, a computer, several calendars, extra day planners, the office manages to look both comfortable and busy at the same time. Several client clipboards hang on the wall.
French doors separate the two bedrooms from the main living area, which encompasses both a small living room and a dining nook. The living area has exposed brick wall with a fireplace. The remainder of the walls are a soft cream in color, and all the furniture is black.
The small kitchen is simple and elegant, with hardwood floors, and wooden cabinets to match. The appliances are older, but still in good working condition. There's no balcony, but there is access to the rooftop garden through a stairway that runs alongside the entrance.
Characters
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| Bryn Blackwell | Kieran Collins | Serafine Roche |
Kieran's had a nagging feeling of being 'off' all day. It's nothing that he can quite pin down or put his finger on, but he can't deny the ongoing feeling that has him a bit curt and snappish with everyone at the restuarant. It doesn't take long for his employees to realize the best way to handle things is to avoid attracting his attention, which means doing everything right or only dealing with Nichole.
He's been hoping that seeing Brooke will calm his nerves, though he just gets edgier when she's late. No voice mails, no texts, no emails. It's not like her unless she lost her phone, and even then he thinks that she'd get in touch with him.
After sequestering himself in his office to reach out to Lady, he calls it a night and heads over to Brooke's place. The puppy is still that: a puppy. All Kieran can get at a distance is that Brooke isn't there and the puppy is hungry and lonely. That tweaks his 'off' sense more because that's not Brooke.
He drives himself out to Brooklyn, glamours the two teens on the front stoop of the next building over into watching his car. If he's feeling nice, he might pay them later, but he can only deal with so many things at a time.
Heading up to Brooke's place, he rings Sera, listening impatiently while her cell rings.
"Is Brooke with you? Did you two plan something, because this radio silence surprise isn't my thing."
The negative reply does nothing to ease Kieran's mind, nor does finding the door to Brooke's apartment unlocked. Lady immediately comes running, yipping quietly at his feet. Kieran reaches down distractedly to pick up the dog, and sniffs the air. There are unfamiliar scents in the flat but they're fading fast. "This isn't right …"
~*~
Serafine is still on the other end of the phone line because Kieran hasn't hung up yet. She frowns, "Kieran, what's going on?" There may be air space between them, but she knows her Maker well. The subtle difference in inflection in his voice might be unnoticed by others, but she notices it. Something has him bothered.
~*~
"The door was open." Kieran lifts the puppy and looks into her eyes. "Lady, what's going on here?" A few moments later and he has a disjointed picture of Brooke receiving visitors. One he believes is her mentoree, but the others are strangers and it seems as though Brooke left with them. That's the problems with working with a puppy; her vantage point is like that of a pre-teen at this point. Missing some of the sharper and finer points, but it's enough to send off klaxons.
Kieran curses loudly in Gaelic, placing the puppy on the couch. "Sera, is Bryn there?"
~*~
It's on the tip of Sera's tongue to argue with him and ask what's wrong. However, it's the tone of his voice, the demand in his request even though he didn't word it like so. It's years of association that has a ball of fear forming in her gut as she hands her cell to her fiance. "Kieran wants to talk to you."
~*~
There's something off about the call. Serafine's reactions to whatever Kieran is saying aren't very positive, and it sounds like something is wrong. He can feel the tension in her, and Bryn quietly sets his hand to her back while she's talking.
Is everything alright?
He tries to hear through the phone, but can't pick up anything at all. Frowning, he takes the phone from the vampiress and glances at her curiously.
"Kieran, what's going on?"
~*~
What Kieran wants to do is tear the flat apart, and the city following that, but he knows that won't help in the least. Besides, it's not like he'd know where to begin to look. He can call in a few vampires to search out and ask questions, but it's going to take time to get in touch with the handpicked few that he actually trusts and knows are in his pocket. The same with the wolves.
"Brooke is gone."
Beat.
"She's missing." The tone of Kieran's voice is eerily calm, which is never a good sign.
~*~
"We will be right there."
It's all Kieran needs to say. With the recent disappearances, he figures Brooke wouldn't be gone unless she was trying to hide from Kieran, and from the way the pair have been lately, he's fairly certain that isn't the case.
Covering the mouthpiece, he looks over at Serafine. "Get your shoes, and put dinner on hold, luv. We are going to Brooke's flat."
He's already moving toward the door, handing the phone off to Serafine again. "Talk to Kieran, please. I need to place a call to the Priory. Unaffiliated people going missing is one thing, but someone needs to contact the Coven to let them know what is going on." They'll have to decide whether or not to inform the Bishop's.
"Tell him we will be there as soon as possible. I will see if Kayla can come take care of Lady for the time being, and keep an eye on Brooke's place, in case someone makes contact."
~*~
The perks of vampire hearing are such that Sera hears what Kieran didn't tell her. There's a sinking feeling in her gut, at the mention of Brooke being missing. As far as she knows the witch isn't upset with Kieran, and she also knows the cases that Bryn has been working on lately.
No argument is given as she takes the cell phone back and heads into the kitchen to turn off the oven. "When was the last time you spoke to her, Kier?"
Beat.
"Is there anything you can get from Lady?" Oven off, Serafine slides into her shoes and grabs her coat by the door.
I'll try to piece things together from Kieran while we drive, Sera tells Bryn. She's positively sick to her stomach at the thought of something happening to Brooke, but she needs to hold this together. If only because she'll be useless if she falls apart, and her vampiric abilities could come in handy. Not only that, but she knows how Kieran can be. It's only a matter of time before he snaps.
~*~
Kieran is merely going through necessary motions at the moment. In the kitchen, he puts the puppy down and finds her food. He can hear the conversation between Bryn and Sera, and while he wants to say 'screw the Coven,' he knows that Bryn has the right of it.
"Not much. Only that Brooke left with two people I've never seen before." That doesn't mean anything, Brooke has plenty of clients, and Kieran doesn't know each and every one of them. If he'd talked to Brooke, it wouldn't be a problem, but not talking to her …
As if queued up, there comes a distinct ring tone from somewhere in the living area. It only takes a few moments for Kieran to locate Brooke's phone, which isn't too far from her purse. "Her phone and purse are here."
Beat.
"After Lady has eaten, I'm going to try again." He's not cruel, and he's practiced enough to know that physiological needs must be met in order to get good results.
~*~
Good idea. I am going to be driving like mad, so if we get stopped, I will need you to mind-wipe the police.
Bryn is out the door, and ushers her out it as well. Locking the door behind him, he nods to the black vehicle. He rarely drives it. He loathes driving in America, but he will in circumstances where it is important.
This is important.
"Ask him to see if there is anything else unusual in the apartment. Open doors, missing clothing, perhaps anything she left behind as a clue."
Once they're in the vehicle, Bryn does as promised. Pulls out of the parking spot and drives like mad. It's a good distance to Brooklyn, and thankfully the roads aren't too busy at the moment. There's still traffic, but it's not jam-stopped.
~*~
Sera nods when Bryn 'says' what he does. Another time and place, and she'd smirk and tease him about using her to avoid speeding tickets, but this isn't such a time. This is a do what must be done moment; he wouldn't ask it otherwise.
Kieran is going to try and learn what he can from Lady. Bryn knows enough about vampires that he should be able to fill in the blanks regarding what that implies about Kieran's abilities with animals. She's still a puppy though, so it's a bit like working with an elementary school child. Or so Sera has been told. Thus far, she has no affinity with animals on the same level as Kieran, outside of 'encouraging' dogs to like her and not bark.
~*~
Kieran speaks before Sera can ask. He places the bowl of wet dog food on the floor in front of Lady and proceeds to look around. "I'll check for her suitcase and clothes in the bedroom." As he's walking that way, he stops just inside the kitchen. There is the tea kettle on the stove, and two mugs on the counter. The tea has been left out, instead of returned to its proper place.
Kieran frowns, and focuses on that for a few moments. He needs to distance himself from worry and anger, and focus on the things that will help. "Two mugs of tea. She definitely had company, or she knew her kidnappers. There were two of them according to Lady."
Kieran knows Sera will relay the information to Bryn, and begins making a circuit of the kitchen, stopping when something crunches beneath his heel. Bending down, he goes to pick up the crushed cell phone, when a flicker of something glittering catches his eye. If he weren't already down on the floor he might have missed the glint of bright sparkling. Stretching his fingers, he hooks up the ring and peers at it. "There's a crushed cell phone and a ring. Definitely not Brooke's." He already found her phone and there's no way Brooke could afford a ring like this on her income. If she did, she certainly wouldn't have left it on the kitchen floor.
~*~
Alright. The puppy is obviously still there, so whomever took Brooke, or for whatever reason she left… no one hurt the dog, or it had to have been a severe emergency.
Once the rest of the information is relayed, he frowns.
"Two mugs of tea? Brooke usually would clean up after that."
Beat.
"So, there was another person there with her? Does the ring have an inscription?" Bryn focuses on driving, cursing slightly when a taxi cuts him off.
~*~
"She would have," Sera agrees. Brooke keeps a tidy and neat apartment. She doesn't relay the question to Kieran. He can hear Bryn just fine, and she knows that he's focusing. "The cell phone is crushed? Not just dropped and broken?" Even the littlest of details matter. "What does the ring look like?"
~*~
Kieran does hear Bryn's question and he lifts the ring to peer inside of it. "There's no inscription, but it's expensive. It has to be platinum, and the diamonds are flawless. There's butterflies on the setting. The phone is crushed, like someone stepped on it or smashed it until it was non-functional." With another frown, Kieran flips the case over. It's broken as well, but not so much that he can't tell it's a picture of butterflies.
"Does one of Brooke's clients have a thing for butterflies?"
Placing the phone and ring on the counter, Kieran moves out into Brooke's flat. He quickly checks her bedroom and relays that her suitcases and over night bags are still there. No open drawers. Back in the living room, he spots the shoes near the couch. "Someone was here. There are shoes here that aren't Brooke's." Kieran picks up the shoes and sniffs. It may sound gross, but it confirms that the shoes aren't his girlfriend's and belong to one of the fading scents in the apartment. It's a scent that he's caught before, but he can't quite place it at the moment.
~*~
"Siobhan Knight. Donovan. Siobhan Donovan." Bryn curses, and decides he'll call Robert later. There's no sense worrying the man until there's a little more information. "It is not her client. It is the witch-sorcerer she is mentoring." The Brit does know a lot of what's going on in Brooke's life, if only because of their renewed friendship, and the fact that she's called him several times in regards to spells that Siobhan has asked about.
"Anything else that you can find, Kieran, will be helpful. I will have Kevin sweep the apartment later, in case he can find anything we might miss because we are too close to the situation."
What he's not saying is that he'll see if Kevin's friend can tag along, and see if she can pick anything up that will at least let them know if either woman is alive or not.
"I doubt that Siobhan would have run off without her shoes, but in an extremely dire situation she may have."
~*~
Sera glances over at her fiance and blinks. She hadn't made that connection that quickly, though she does know that the young witch frequently visits Brooke when she needs guidance or just wants an older sister figure to talk to. The expensive ring was probably a give-away, but -
"Why would her ring be there, particularly if it's as expensive as Kieran believes it to be?"
~*~
Kieran doesn't have an answer for the ring left behind, any more than he does for the shoes left behind. His final sweep of the flat does confirm Bryn's identification, however. Siobhan Donovan's purse is found, and the driver's license inside is a definitive confirmation.
The last thing he finds is an odd contraption that looks like something out of a future spy movie. He picks it up and turns it over curiously. "You'll want to see this when you get here, Bryn."
Of course, everything he finds and doesn't find begs the question of what the hell happened to his girlfriend and her little mentoree.
~*~
"Likely as a clue. Robert is a smart man, and must realize that having two very unusual children could put them both in a great deal of danger at some point of their life. My guess is she slipped it off." Bryn turns a corner and steps on the gas when he sees that the street is fairly clear. "Either that, or it is too big for her finger and fell off."
"Give us five more minutes, Kieran. I think I am breaking every law in the city, but we will be there soon. See if Lady can tell you anything else." It feels weird for the sorcerer to be telling a vampire to 'talk' to a dog.
~*~
"Smart man. Smart girl," is all Serafine says. This way, if something happened to the two women, people will know that there are two women. She focuses on what Kieran has told them, coming back to the question of who and why.
~*~
Kieran disconnects from the call when he learns that they're close. He'll spend the time further delving into what Lady saw and heard, although what he learns has him bristling with angry energy and ready to smash a wall, or rip open a few throats by the time the couple arrives. He's like a caged animal, pacing the floor in an effort to stay calm. He can't go after the villains because he doesn't even know whom they are.
~*~
"Serafine, go to your Maker." Bryn doesn't dare go near the vampire. The calmness alone was enough to tell him that it would not be a good time to try to comfort him. He steps to the side, glancing around. Then he pulls out his own phone, calls Kevin quickly explaining the situation. Then he contacts Kayla, telling her to put in an incident report, look more closely into the recent disappearances, and gives her directions to Brooke's address and informs her that there is a puppy that will need caring for, as well as the apartment.
Once he is done, he moves toward the pair of vampires.
"Kayla and Kevin will be here in a while, but as we are currently here and there is little else they can do but another sweep and caring for Lady at the moment, we need to look for other clues."
He nods to the contraption and frowns. "It is giving off a magical resonance, though I cannot quite place whatever spell was stored in or on it." That is something he can do to be useful. Snapping a picture of the device, he sends that to Kayla as well.
"What did you find out from Lady?"
~*~
Serafine doesn't need to be told twice, or at all. The moment she sees Kieran, she knows he's holding on by a thread at this moment and is in need of very careful handling. He's dangerous, though he might not look it under the charming, handsome demeanor, but Sera can feel his anger and frustration as though they are tangible things.
Walking over to her Maker, she simply wraps her arms around him and pulls his head down to her shoulder. The fingers of one hand dance up and down his spine, and her other hand rubs gently at the base of his neck. He will need to release his anger and frustration, but this will keep him calm in the interim.
~*~
Kieran's arms automatically tighten around Sera, holding her tight against his body. He's hugging her tight enough to hurt her if she were human. As it is, his grip will leave her bruised, but her vampiric healing will take care of that.
He breathes in her scent, and shudders at the familiar, soft, comforting touch. It's a show of weakness, not something that Kieran would let just anyone see, but he's willing to let his guard down around Bryn.
His fangs itch to descend, and he looses a soft growl, as he fights the urge. He does need an outlet, more than an embrace, but he can hold it together.
Lifting his head, he looks over at Bryn. Slowly disengaging from Sera, though he keeps her close to him, he relays what he found out from the puppy: from Siobhan coming by to the pair being led out with little resistance or fan fare.
"From what I can tell, they didn't even use any magic to resist or react."
~*~
"That really does not sound like either of them," Bryn replies. He knows Brooke, and knows that if she could fight back in whatever way possible, she would have. He looks over at the device again, frowning slightly.
"That is a good indication that they could have been manipulated via glamour or magic. Brooke would hardly let a normal human take her out of her apartment. It may not be much, but it does lower the suspect list from several million to about a quarter of that."
He hates to say it, but he knows he needs to verify. "The two doing the leading, they were not someone you know? It was not James and Gwendolyn?"
Beat.
"Or perhaps someone doing the dirty work for them?"
~*~
Sera might not know Brooke as well as Bryn does, but she's never known a witch to give up without a magic fight of some sort. For there to be two witches so easily walked out the front door, there is more here than they're picking up. "They could have had a weapon as well. Or using magic as a weapon. If you want to get someone to cooperate, the best way of doing that is to threaten the individual that they're with. Brooke wouldn't want to see any harm come to Siobhan, and I'm sure Siobhan felt the same way."
Beat.
"Kieran," Sera turns to her Maker slowly, reaching out to stroke his arm. "It wasn't anyone you recognized?"
~*~
"It wasn't James or Gwendolyn," Kieran reveals. If it had been that easy, he'd already be on the move. He knows the pair well enough to figure out their moves and motivations. He'd know where to start tearing up the city to find them.
He knows what Sera is getting at before she finishes the question. He's made a lot of enemies in his time. "If this is about me, they didn't send familiar faces." Kieran won't discount it entirely, though it's unlikely.
"Someone with a vendetta against me wouldn't have taken the Knight - Donovan - girl, though. She useless, and wouldn't even be considered leverage. They'd have killed her out right. Maybe even as a message. A warning about what they'd do to Brooke."
~*~
"Right. So it was not the usual suspects." Which automatically sets the wheels in Bryn's brain to motion. "You may actually be the only person to be able to describe the pair. Can you let me know what they look like? We can run them through a database at the Priory to see if we have anyone on file that matches the descriptions so we know where to start." Flipping his phone over, he opens up a notebook program and prepares to type whatever Kieran says into it.
"I do not think this is about Kieran, though if it is, whomever is targeting him and his is going about it in a roundabout way. Which means that you need to be on extra alert, Serafine."
Beat.
"Though it may have something to do with the number of passing through supernaturals that have gone missing in the last few months. It has taken a while for us to compile a list, because not every supernatural passing through the city makes contact, or stays long enough for anyone to actually realize that they are missing."
~*~
"Why change their M.O.?" Serafine wanders Brooke's small apartment, until she gets to the desk. She searches for a pencil or a pen and a pad of paper, giving no explanation of what she's doing. "Supernaturals have been going missing for months, but like you said, they've always been drifters, runaways or visitors. Brooke isn't unknown in the supe community."
Sera carries the pencil and pad to Kieran. "She's rather high profile even without her 'business' association with Kieran because of the sort of work that she does, and the fact that she's done work for Kostas and myself. Siobhan Donovan is known because of her parentage."
Beat.
"The Hecanthenos would love to get close to her, but Kostas is respecting the truce and reminds them to stay away."
~*~
Kieran takes the pad and pencil with a nod. "I can draw them for you, Bryn." After four hundred years, you learn to do a lot of things. He may not be a great artist, but he's a good sketch artist. It's something else to do to distract him from wanting to punch a hole in the wall or rip out someone's heart.
Once he finds Brooke, not if, she's moving in with him. He should have bought her lease out already. He knows what that means for the bond, and he doesn't care. If he and Brooke had the connection that Sera and Bryn have, he'd be that much closer to finding her.
"It could be coincidental and unrelated." Kieran doesn't believe that for one minute.
~*~
"Things always escalate, Serafine. Either Kieran is closer to the situation that we are thinking at the moment, and someone wanted to strike out, or they wanted to strike out at Kostas through Kieran." Bryn isn't quite sure he believes that either. Though he does look at the two vampires, and quietly points out, "The other supernaturals that have gone missing have had only one lineage. Brooke and Miss Donovan are both hybrid. Of course the Hecanthanos would love to get their hands on either of them."
He takes another look at the device, still frowning. "This honestly looks like an EMP device, though if it knocked out any devices, we would already know. Neighbors would have been complaining about that for hours."
~*~
Sera's head jerks up and she twists to look at the sorcerer. "Brooke's a hybrid? How so?" This is a factoid that Sera hasn't heard before. "She's a witch, yes? Her father is a normal human?" The vampiress wonders when she missed a branch in Brooke's family tree. The other woman would have mentioned it right?
Drifting over to stand beside him, Sera peers down at the device in his hand, "There are spells to take out magic, right? I know that spells can be applied to objects and objects can carry spells. Could an object be triggered to release a spell?"
~*~
"Her father is a sorcerer. Her biological father." Kieran isn't going to hide it now that it's out. It's another little factoid that might help in finding Brooke and whomever is behind this. "Brooke doesn't know."
He hands the pad to Bryn, where he has sketched both individuals on two separate sheets. "There's nothing else I can do here. We're chasing our tails. I'm going to talk to my contacts."
~*~
"Her biological father is Randall Reynard," Bryn says, as though he's not talking about someone he dated in the past, who is his friend now. "She has no idea, and the information is well hidden. The only reason I am aware of it is because she does show signs of being much more prolific in sorcerer magic than she lets on, and I had overheard many conversations when I was younger. It is easy to put it together from that."
The sorcerer glances at Kieran, then nods. "Maybe it is time she does. They Reynards may not want to acknowledge her, but I am fairly certain I can convince Randall to help in this once we locate the pair." He takes the sketch, and flips out of the notebook app and back to his camera. Snapping a picture of each, he sends them off to the Priory house and then frowns.
"Hecanthanos may be a place to start looking as well. I can start searching for any 'rogue' groups that may be off-grid or non affiliated with the Master of the City." Even if they aren't responsible for taking the two hybrids, it gives them a starting point for the questioning.
"Serafine, did you want to come with me to break the news to Robert?"
~*~
The vampiress makes no attempt to hide her surprise at that revelation. "Randall Reynard is her father?"
Sera gives her head a faint shake to dismiss the topic for now as one for discussion. "Then it's possible that it's not as well hidden as everyone thinks, and someone wanted Brooke because of her lineage. They may have timed it to get two hybrids at once." It's also possible that Siobhan was just collateral damage, or a witness they couldn't leave behind. Or leverage. Or food. There are too many or's for proper consideration.
Looking to her Maker, Sera studies him for a few seconds. He's taut with tension, and it's just a matter of time before he breaks. He won't let himself do so just yet however. She shifts her gaze to her boyfriend and nods, "Yes, I'll do that."
~*~
"Magda was going to be my first stop," Kieran says. Even if her people have been told to stay away, it's always possible that she has people who aren't listening. She hopes that Magda has eyes on the Donovan girl, because this will lead to Brooke, and this time she'll get a pass on loose interpretations of Kostas' decrees.
~*~
Bryn takes a moment, then glances between the pair of vampires. "Serafine, you can stay with your Maker if you would prefer. I can bring Detective Curtis with me to speak with the Knights and the Donovans." He may, actually, enlist Rhett Harper to talk to Siobhan's friends, simply because it will be a lot easier for them to take it when it's coming from someone familiar.
"I will handle the Bishops on my own when we need to let them know. For now, I think that Prudence and Walter have enough to deal with in regards to the twins." He may tell Bridget, but that remains to be seen.
"I am going to assume that Brooke was the main target, and Mrs. Donovan was just in the wrong place at the wrong time — for now." He may revise that assumption when they get additional information.
~*~
It's not a matter of preference so much as it is a matter of what is needed. Bryn can handle talking to Siobhan Donovan's family with Kevin, but it's difficult to tell how long Kieran will walk the line of control that he has.
"I'll go with you to speak with Magda," Sera says, giving Bryn a nod. He needs someone to keep him in control right now, she tells her sorcerer through their link. "I'll update you if we find new information, Bryn."
Sera still hasn't dealt with it herself on a personal level, but keeping an eye on Kieran will keep her otherwise focused. She doesn't have the luxury or time for worry right now.
~*~
"We need to get going then." Kieran takes a last look around, before reaching out to take his Child's hand. "The information and trail is getting colder the longer we wait. People have a way of a forgetting things that they don't deem to be important, yeah?"
~*~
I did figure as much, and I can handle talking to the families on my own. Bryn steps forward, pressing a kiss to Serafine's cheek. "Be careful, the both of you. I will wait here long enough for Kevin and Kayla to arrive, and then we will go inform the families. Dawna can inform the Coven, and let them know how important this is. Pass around those pictures you sketched, Kieran."
He looks the older vampire right in the eye, then steps forward to give him a slight hug and a pat on the back. "We will find her. If I have to hit up every Priory office around the world to do it."
~*~
Seeing Bryn's concern for Kieran and feeling the sincerity in his words is almost Sera's undoing. Her fiance is wearing his professional skin right now, distancing himself from everything on a personal level. He takes a moment to reassure Kieran and that means something.
"We'll be fine." Sera gives Kieran a quick look, hoping that her words hold true. Physically, they'll be fine, but things could get ugly fast if someone pushes Kieran the wrong way. There's only so much she can do. She brushes her lips over Bryn's cheek and rubs a hand down his arm. Thank you.
~*~
Kieran stiffens at first. It's that whole show of weakness, and he initially recoils from the idea of doing such a thing. The vampire relaxes slowly, returning the hug and the pat with a nod of gratitude. "I know you will. That's why I asked for you first." Brooke is Bryn's friend, and not just a case for The Priory.
Beat.
"I'll have Sera contact you with any new leads."
