Vulpe
Vulpe didn't want to go to New Orleans. But she couldn't stay at the Mansion any longer, in case Gambit showed up. He could order her to go to New Orleans. As it stood, she was temporarily without orders and very carefully being unable to recieve more. She sent little postcards and messages though, so her parents knew she was alright. She just made sure she couldn't be contacted.
She cocked her head as she padded up the walk to the house, checking the scrap of paper in her hand. Yes, this was the address Mouse had given her. She walked up to the door, and smoothed down the black matte leather on her legs, and ran a quick hand through her hair. The hand had no effect whatsoever on the riot of firey strands that covered her head. She knocked on the door, tail twitching slightly.
Zac
Zac heard a knock at the door on his way up the stairs from his room. He peered out and saw an unfamilar, but foxy (in both meanings of the word) woman on the doorstep.
He opened the door slightly.
"Yes?"
Vulpe
"Ciao! Name's Vulpe, is Mouse around? Or her boy?" Vulpe grinned. Why were all these americanos so erotico? Just not fair. Then she went down under two huge canines. "Oof!" She rolled and somersaulted until she was on her hands, then flipped out and away from Bets and Fafnir. She put her hands on her hips and glared at the grinning animals. "Whaddaya think Topa say, she caught you foolin' round like that, ey?"
Maybe Vulpe can find Mouse. Bets suggested.
I don't think even she's that good a Thief to find someone taken by the gods. They padded over to her and Vulpe cooed to them as she scratched their heads. She looked up, eyes gleaming.
"So, where's my ragazza?"
Zac
"Umm..." Zac replied. "I think... I don't know where she is. She's disappeared. Err... Vulpe you said? Who are you exactly?"
Vulpe
Vulpe flipped a knife out of her boot and started to clean her nails. "Name's Vulpe Rossino. Mutant." She decided to skip the fact that she was a Thief for the moment. Her face was serious now. "What happened? Where is she? If those bastardi have taken her again, I swear to Dio and the Madre Maria I am going to finish the job I started at dat cerchio di inferno." She spun the gleaming knife in her hand, quite comfortable with the surgically sharp steel spinning close to her skin and veins.
Zac
"I hope you're careful with that thing," Zac said, eying the knife warily. "I don't think it has anything to do with those xenophobes though. I think Taylor has some idea. He's gone and locked himself in his room."
He paused.
"We're all Dath's here," he warned, not knowing if he could trust her or not - being a stranger to him, after all, "and if you get up to any mischief I promise you I will use my powers against you."
Vulpe
Vulpe flipped her knife into the air, then caught it. "Hmm. Well. I'm just pissing myself in terror here." Her tone was dry. "Bite me. I can bend over if it will help, americano."
Bets and Fafnir laughed. She looked down at them, and grinned, flashing her fangs.
"So. Bets, Fafnir. Take me to your leader." She flipped the knife again as she stood up.
Zac
"No thanks," Zac reply coyly. "There's only one person I bite, and she's not here at the moment. And maybe what I do doesn't send fear into people, but mark my words, I can make it so that one minute you were here and the next on the otherside of the country wondering how the heck you got there. And I'm not a teleporter."
He stepped back.
"It's only because you're obviously a mutant that I'm letting you in. I know how mych crap you guys get. Tay's room is upstairs."
He started leading the way.
Vulpe
"Eh, I can smell her all over you." Vulpe grinned as she followed him. "And what clued you in that I was mutie? The ears, the tail, the fur?" Fafnir and Bets got in front of them and then slipped into Taylor's room. "Besides, I can very well take care of myself. Altough mio parents don't think so. I think it would just be fun, if you sent me to the other side of the country. Hardly an adequate test of my abilities but it would be fun."
Vulpe's here, looking for Mouse. Fafnir told Taylor.
Zac
"Well," Zac replied, giving Vulpe an odd look. "All those features kinda point in that direction, but the real dead giveway is the fact that you told me you were a mutant just a few minutes ago. Duh. And if you think that, that particular display of my power is boring, maybe you'd like me to boil your blood instead."
Zac grinned slyly.
"Y'know, you're the second person to tell me that I have Faith's smell all over me."
Vulpe
Vulpe arched an eyebrow. "The scent is kind of...loud, bambino. Hard to ignore, si? Do you even wash?" She kept her walk smooth and unhurried, even though she was growing afraid within herself for Mouse. She stopped at the top of the stairs, and her nostrils widened. Fear, her Mouse's fear. "Madre di Dio...what happened to Mouse? I can smell her fear...so strong." She knelt for a moment and ran her fingers along the surface of the floor. "Mary di grandine, pieno di grazia, il Signore è col thee; l'arte benedetta tu fra le donne, e benedetto è le Frutta di tuo grembo, Jesus..." The phrases of the Rosary fell easily from her lips. Something old here. Something powerful, and it made her pray to Mary to intercede. "Santo Mary, la Madre di Dio, prega per noi i peccatori, adesso e all'ora della nostra morte. Amen..." She was very worried now, and very, very angry. Her eyes blazed as she looked up at Zac. "Topa trusted you all to keep her safe. If I had thought..." She shook her head, tightlipped. "Mio Dio!" She bounced to her feet and strode to the door she had seen Fafnir and Bets disappear behind, and from which she could now smell Taylor. And the acrid scent of Mouse's fear. She opened the door, her tail fluffed up and her ears laid flat against her skull as her eyes smouldered redly. "Why is it that I can smell Topa's fear, everywhere here? And where is she, raggazzo? Hmm?"
Oh boy. Bets shook her head, and she and Fafnir shared a look. Well, this is going to be fun.
As long as the furniture stays intact. Vulpe looks like she breaks things.
Taylor
Taylor looked between the two wolves from his place on the bed. His back was against the wall, as he'd just been staring across the room for... he didn't know how long. Maybe a few hours. Or more.
He glanced at Vulpe, then brought one of his legs in to his body as he looked at the wall straight ahead of him again.
"Il mouse è stato preso dai dii. Desiderano occuparsi dei suoi bambini," he almost growled, his face expressionless.
Vulpe
"E siete andare giusto sedersi qui? State andando avete lasciato questo passaggio vicino? Madre del Dio! Li ho pensati ero un uomo, ma ora posso vederlo non sono neppure un bambino. Passerebbe con il inferno per voi. Vi farebbe qualche cosa per. E vi sedete qui e mi dite che sia stata presa e non state facendo nulla?!" Vulpe bared her teeth, fingers itching. "Se è un aspetto dei dii... avete persino Nyx messo in contatto con? O Priss? Potrebbero aiutare, o suggerisca una linea di condotta! Vigliacco. Posso sentire l'odore del suo timore dappertutto. Non ha desiderato essere presa."
Fafnir growled at her. Don't you dare make a move with the knife I know you've got in your boot. He is my Pack leader, and you should not talk to him that way.
Vulpe snarled back, a wordless threat. Bets bared her teeth.
Taylor
Taylor's face remained expressionless, and he didn't even bother telling Fafnir and Bets to stand down.
His glassy eyes turned to her.
"You would accuse me when you do not even know me," he stated with cold calm, "you don't think I've tried? You don't think I've cursed myself for not being there for her once again? You don't think I lover her as much as I do."
He looked forward again.
"I invite you to go after her yourself. She was taken by the Gods, so she can not and will not be found until they decide. It was the cats' mother who took he rin the first place. They'd know already."
He hesitated, breathing evenly.
"Don't accuse those you don't know Vulpe."
Vulpe
"I was talking to Nyx last night! If she had known, she would have told me, because I told her I was coming here!" Vulpe snarled back. "And don't you presume you know me either, bambino. I *heard* about what happened when Mouse was taken the first time. I think that Bastet is working on her own. Nyx had her magick taken! Do you have any idea how serious that is?!"
Bets and fafnir both rumbled a warning, and she glared back at them.
"I can take the two of you if I have to, so don't you even start!"
Zac
Zac glowered at Vulpe.
"You know, I didn't let you in here so you could insult my brother," Zac growled. "He loves Mouse a great deal and he's going nuts trying to figure out how to get her back. So unless you're going to contribute something useful to this situation, instead of critisims, and insults then I think you will find yourself on the otherside of the country."
Taylor
Taylor's eyes fell on Zac for the first time, before he looked at Vulpe again.
"That simply implies that you were not listening to what I was saying," he raised his eyebrows, "because if you were, you would not accuse me of assuming that I know you. I don't know you. You don't know me. Don't think you can just throw the blame for this onto me when there was absolutely no way I could control the situation. If I could..."
He stopped himself and looked away again. He wasn't going to lose it.
Vulpe
Vulpe mumbled something in Italian, and then flipped her cell into her hand. She dialled rapidly. "I'm not blaiming you. Excuse me if I'm slightly upset that one of my only friends in this godforsaken country has vanished into thin air..." She waited for Nyx's private line to be picked up.
"Hello?"
"Nyx, ciao. It's Vulpe. Mouse is gone, apparently your mother took her." Vulpe held the phone away from her ear as Nyx's scream of rage echoed down the phone line, clearly audible to the two men in the room with Vulpe. "I think that answers the question whether the gatti knew." She winced slightly as a stream of curses followed. "Never even knew you could *do* that to somebody..."
"We. Are. Coming," Nyx hissed into the mouthpiece. "I will make my mother wished she had never given birth." Vulpe's call was broken off with the sound of something breaking.
Zac
"Wow," Zac said, rasing an eyebrow. "That kind of language should be illigal."
Then he grinned at Taylor.
"If a goddess is in trouble, does she get stuck by lightning?"
Taylor
"I think that if the other Gods frowned upon Bastet's actions, she would have already been punished," Taylor began again.
He brought his other knee in to his chest, and wrapped his arms around his legs as he rested his chin on his knees. His eyes began to well up again.
"Jane already can't stand Bastet. She was so annoyed with the way she handled everything. Who knows how she'll feel about her when she returns."
Vulpe and Nyx
Nyx got Demetria to teleport her to Sabre. She picked up her brother, and flashed to Tulsa. Priss was dozing uneasily, and woke as her siblings entered the room.
"What is going on?" She asked sleepily.
"Mother took Mouse," Sabre said grimly. Priss's mouth opened in shock. "Yeah, right there wit' ye on the disbelief, lovely."
"Let's get going," Nyx hissed.