The night is a lovely clear evening, and Tallulah has enjoyed the vast majority of the start of it in her little tiny space of the garden that Elijah first showed to her. She finished the brookfruit Selena had delivered to her the night before about an hour ago, which warmed her skin and muscles. The relaxing feeling and her skin's faint glowing, healthy sheen was a nice touch.

She can see the city in the distance, with only a limited amount of haze to distort the lights of humanity. She runs one of her hands along the side of her neck, appreciating the smoothness of her skin from the brookfruit. Tallulah muses that Selena might be a little conniving and brutal, but she understands that sometimes, a person just wants to feel good in their skin.

Her calm, relaxed state is suddenly interrupted by the noise of shouting and movement down by the stables and garages where the vampires maintain their small outdoor vehicles. She slowly stands and moves closer to look down from where she is in the garden. By the time she finds a good place to observe from, she can see guards dashing here and there and a guard tugging up the large door of one of the garages.

She watches the vampire Opal coming out from a small guard housing area, wearing a full complement of dark clothes and a bulletproof vest. It immediately reminds her of the first night they encountered the vampires in the glade because they wore the same attire that night. The next vampire to join Opal is Vincent, wearing similar gear. An ATV is rolled out of the garage, and the two vampires immediately check it over like a pre-drive pair of inspectors.

A third vampire joins them with two assault rifles in hand. It's Christina. She hands both Vincent and Opal their assault rifles, her own already slung onto her back by a strap. Tallulah's eyes are so intently focused on the flurry of activity that she doesn't even hear Elijah coming up behind her.

"Hey, Miss Tallulah."

She startles a little bit with a near-squeak of noise.

"Ooh, goodness. Hello Eli. You startled me."

"Sorry about that, Miss Tallulah. Since I'm your escort, I had to come and find you."

"What's going on?"

"Ehh."

"Come on, you know you can tell me."

Elijah moves to stand next to her, and his kind eyes focus on the three vampires down below setting up their vehicle, the same as she's doing.

"Someone tripped the outer perimeter motion detectors–well, people in the plural–like, physically coming across the wire boundaries. Whoever did it probably doesn't even realize it happened."

"I know all about that."

"Yeah, yeah, I know."

Tallulah watches as the fourth vampire joins the other three–Rhys. He doesn't help with the preparation of the vehicle. Instead, his job seems to be keeping them in order and moving. Shortly after he arrives, the quartet of vampires take seats on the ATV and, shortly afterward, are speeding off through the gates of the perimeter security fencing.

"I feel sorry for whoever is out there."

Elijah doesn't respond to that, probably unsure of what to say.

"Anyway, I had to come collect you. When we have a perimeter alert, everyone with a charge–like, you're my charge–gets moved into the protection of the homestead." He shuffles his weight a little bit from foot to foot before adding. "Sorry, Miss Tallulah."

"It's alright. I've been out here for a few hours anyway."

Elijah turns and leads the pair back toward the walkways and sculpted paths leading to the homestead. They pass through the first security door with no trouble, and he leads them not towards Tallulah's room but further inside. They weave around domestics, hurriedly moving through the home and doing their duties until Elijah finally leads them into what is more of a recreational room. Several people are inside; about half the number look to be guards on break, the other half seem to be domestics and some of the more affection-paid men and women of the household. Tallulah sets her heels on a nearby chair, and Elijah sets down a few items off his belt and vest next to her shoes to give himself more freedom of movement.

"Oh, this is where you all hang out when you get a few minutes to yourselves?"

Elijah walks over and picks up a pair of long pool sticks, then offers one to Tallulah as she draws near him at a carved stone pool table with burgundy-colored felt on the top.

"Yep. You can come here whenever you want, of course. Like, the vampires don't come in here. Figured maybe you wouldn't mind not being alone always. Dunno, just an offer, not trying to suggest anything."

Taking the pool stick in hand, she leans against it a bit while Elijah starts to rack the pool balls in front of them. He doesn't seem nervous, but he's certainly trying to make sure she doesn't think about what she just saw going on outside the last few minutes.

"I'm not betting anything with you, Elijah. I'm terrible at this game."

"Oh, don't worry about all that, Miss Tallulah." He laughs.

They flip a coin to see who will break–he calls heads and wins, so Tallulah continues to lean while he breaks the table with a firm strike. Two balls sink into pockets, and he calls out stripes as his chosen side. It's a good thing that she didn't bet, Tallulah muses, because he could absolutely pool shark if he decided to. Tallulah laughs and grins in good humor every time before he takes a shot. It isn't until he's sank three more that he misses his next shot.

"Good grief, Elijah, thank you for letting me play!"

"You're absolutely welcome, Miss Tallulah." He cracks a toothy grin at her, "I'm all about that fair competition."

"Uh-huh," Tallulah smirks in response, good-naturedly.

The pair continue to play, with Elijah winning every game to no great surprise. Perhaps it's the brookfruit's effects, but Tallulah feels spry, with no aches or other little annoying niggling things that usually happen now that she's older. She feels healthy and full of life; being able to play recreational games like pool with the exceptionally young Elijah and not feel as though she's holding back the progression in some way is a nice feeling.

It's not until an hour or so later that the mood changes.

As they decide who will break the next game, a torrent of guards rush through and suddenly stop. One of them calls out to a radio that they'd found Tallulah and Elijah, and Elijah would have blanched if his skin weren't dark. He realizes–and Tallulah as well–that when they'd started playing, he'd set down his radio next to her shoes that she'd taken off to be more comfortable. Elijah apologizes profusely to one of the guards, who simply waves him off like it's not currently important. Instead, he explains the situation to him.

Elijah comes immediately over to Tallulah.

"Miss Tallulah, we need to take you to a communications room. I apologize, but we gotta go, like, now."

"Okay, Elijah?" She raises an eyebrow, expecting some explanation, but it doesn't manifest.

Instead, Elijah scoops up Tallulah's shoes simultaneously with his radio. He gives her the heels, but she doesn't bother putting them on, instead electing to follow him barefoot from the recreational room. The guards and assorted domestics left behind in the room all watch the exodus in placid detachment.

"What's going on, Elijah?" Tallulah murmurs to him as they're rapidly taken through the homestead.

"You've gotta talk to someone over the longer-range radio. I don't know anything more than it's important with a capital 'i', you know?"

"Do you think they found someone from our village who didn't get rounded up with the rest of us?"

Elijah looks over at her as they pass through the very secure hallway she’d been through before with the two lines on the floor with serious-looking guards posted at various spots. This time, they’re following the red line. His look is serious, which answers it for Tallulah before he does.

"I don't think that is the case. Sorry. I don't know any more than you do."

Tallulah lapses into silence. The guard's boots clomp across the smooth concrete of the more secure area of the home while her bare feet silently pad against its coolness. Two more security doors are passed through before she's brought into a room with a wall full of monitors, each with a different security camera view.

There must be at least fifty different screens. The illumination and size of the room shock her. This is the security heart of the homestead, she realizes. It's no wonder it was so secure. She's immediately taken from Elijah like she were important cargo, who is made to stay outside the room, and brought to Selena, who stands next to a very nervous-looking radio operator.

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"Miss Tallulah." Selena politely intones as Tallulah is brought over.

"Hello Selena, what's going on?"

"Nothing to worry about, darling. There is a small situation I will need your assistance with, I'm afraid."

The radio crackles to life in front of Selena, the operator, and Tallulah, as if to answer any question Tallulah is about to ask.

"Operator? Vincent checking in. Christina wants an E.T.A. on Tallulah."

The radio operator looks over his shoulder at Selena, clearly asking for permission to say anything. Beads of sweat drip down the sides of his face, and Tallulah can't at all blame him. With Selena's seemingly unconcerned approach to basic punishment, Tallulah figures he probably thinks his life is on the line and doesn't want to make even the slightest bit of an error with what's happening.

"I'm going to need you to speak with someone, Miss Tallulah, and I'm going to need you to do it as though you were a full member of this house. Of course, you are already darling, but this is the first official use. Do you understand?"

"I can do that," Tallulah murmurs in response, realizing that whatever is going on must be more serious than they're saying openly.

"Wonderful." Selena purrs, but her voice hardens slightly as she directs the radio operator in the same breath. "Tell them Tallulah is here."

The radio operator does exactly as Selena says, with no variation of words. Selena gestures to one of the guards and a chair, so within about three seconds, Tallulah has a chair brought over and placed for her to sit on. Selena taps her smooth fingers over the chair back, encouraging Tallulah to sit down in front of her. Without complaint, Tallulah shifts over and slides down to sit in front of the vampire.

Almost immediately, the icy hand that just patted the seat for Tallulah to sit in brushes very lightly over the top of her head and gently through the silvery gray strands of hair on her head. Selena's other hand grips the top of the chair back, and she quite literally looms over Tallulah, who is sitting in front of her.

"Copy. Christina is putting on the person now."

It's Vincent's voice again, but only for a moment. There's a little pause before a new voice crackles onto the radio.

"Hello, Tallulah?"

Tallulah's brow furrows, and she tilts her head slightly. The voice sounds familiar, but she can't place it precisely. It also sounds relatively young. She racks her brain for a few moments before slowly leaning forward and pressing the same button she saw the radio operator press before he spoke shortly before.

"Hello, this is Tallulah." She grimaces a little, unsure of how to respond other than that.

"No offense, but I need a little proof you're Tallulah the Wilder from a village that disappeared from the Wilds a couple of weeks ago."

Tallulah pauses, then presses the button again, speaking in fey tongue.

"I am Tallulah, and we're safely on the property of a group of vampires. I can't speak in this language for long, but I wanted you to know I am who I say I am. Who are you?"

"What did you just say?" Selena intones. Her voice is smooth and unconcerned-sounding, but the faintest firmness of her voice tells Tallulah she's playing with fire, speaking in faerie like she just did.

"I told him that my name is Tallulah, we're safe here on your property, and that I won't be talking in our shared language for long, but I wanted to prove to him I could. Then I asked his name."

"Very good, dearest, very good."

The gentle strokes of Selena's hand continue through the strands of Tallulah's hair. There's a bit of a pause between the time Tallulah speaks and when the radio next crackles to life with the young man's voice, now speaking in a common language so everyone can understand it.

"My name is Orion. I have two with me that you might recognize or not. One is called Khalil, and the other is named Aria."

Tallulah turns her head and murmurs to Selena.

"I know one of the three of those names. Aria is dangerous; she was–well, how do I describe it? Oh, I know, she used to be basically what you'd consider an elite soldier for one of the ruling tribes in the Wilds a lifetime ago–before I even walked out of the Wilds. She's dangerous but, oddly enough, left the fighting a long time ago and became kind of a farmer and traveling trader."

"How dangerous?"

"I wouldn't want to meet her in a dark alley. Her kind is, um, they are red-level dangerous. Known for enjoying violence. Sorry, I'm not being descriptive enough; trust me when I say that she's the most capable of beyond-extreme barbarity of the three, no matter what the other two are."

"Thank you, darling."

The radio crackles to life again. "Hello?"

Tallulah leans forward to press the button to transmit once again.

"Sorry, Orion. I was trying to recall you and your friend Khalil. I remember Aria."

"I remember you. How's your new blue hair dye treating you?"

Tallulah was puzzled by that, unsure of what the man was talking about. She leans forward again, speaking into the microphone without hiding her bewildered tone.

"Sorry, what? I don't have blue hair. Are you confusing me with someone else?"

"No," Selena murmurs behind Tallulah. "He's making sure you are who you say you are."

A little pause crackles from the radio again, and a little chuckle emerges.

"Yeah, I know you don't. I just needed to hear what you'd say. Okay. We've agreed you're probably Tallulah from the Wilder village. Listen, we came here looking for you and your people. We were the trading group coming to trade for some gasoline, but everything was just gone by the time we got there. Are you all good?"

"We've been trying to find a way for most of us to return to the Wilds. The vampires here have been helping."

"That's cool," comes the response from the radio. Tallulah tilts her head back to look at Selena, who is quite focused and serious. When she realizes Tallulah has shifted to look at her, she offers her a faint, softened look.

"He's young for certain. What do you want me to do?"

"Keep him talking, but try to convince him it is safe to come here so we can all speak civilly."

"Is it safe for them?"

"Does it matter?"

The response makes Tallulah hesitate, which draws a slightly lifted eyebrow from Selena.

"If they're just here to help our people return, then I'd hope it would be safe for them to meet and talk it through…" Tallulah trails off.

"Of course, my beauty, they would likely be safe."

"Alright, so here's how it's going to go." The radio crackles again. "We have two of your people here, and their names are Vincent and Christina. Sorry, the other two didn't make it. Shit popped off for a bit, as Khalil just said."

Tallulah blanches at the news that Opal and Rhys, whom she'd just seen an hour or so ago, are dead and gone, the seriousness of the situation now clear to her. The voice belonging to Orion continues on the radio.

"We know it's getting close to daylight, and we'd rather not have to keep them out here and cause you more deaths, huh?"

The chair Tallulah is sitting in creaks as Selena grips the chair's back harder, the only visible reaction to the voice on the radio informing them that two of her house have been killed. When Selena speaks, her tone is low and deadly.

"Ask them what they want."

Tallulah quickly presses the button.

"Okay, Orion. What are you looking for here? What do you want?"

"We know all about the dogs and all that, so let's be real honest with each other here. I should probably mention that Cassandra Bentham is my patron, and if your vampires don't know who that is, her maker is Delilah Falk. I figure that should probably make a difference in our discussions here. Sorry, I should have probably mentioned it earlier."

Selena hisses and stalks away. Moments later, a chair's metal legs find themselves embedded in one of the concrete walls as Selena uses a sudden vicious display of raw vampiric strength in what can only be described as a legit tantrum. No one in the room moves, especially not Tallulah. She stares with eyes like saucers at the electronic equipment before her, trying not to move a muscle.

There's snarling from Selena, and she barks orders at other vampires in the room in their language. They quickly disperse like a disturbed ant hill, no one wanting to tempt Selena's fury. Selena seems to have regained her composure a few moments later, so she casually walks back over to retake her position behind Tallulah. This time, though, she folds her hands before her body rather than touching the chair Tallulah is in or her hair. Tallulah doesn't even move, let alone say a word, and Selena finally intones.

"Alright. Tell him that we extend the hospitality of the House of the Bear officially to himself and his two friends, so long as our two house members are further unharmed and return to our homestead with them as such. Also, inform him that the hospitality will extend tonight, the daytime tomorrow, and its entire night."

Tallulah carefully reaches forward and sorts out Selena's order in her mind before speaking again into the radio's open microphone.

"Okay, Orion, so I've talked with some of the vampires…" She exhales, trying to make this sound just as casual as possible. "And, you'll be happy to hear they'll grant you official hospitality from the House of the Bear so long as you bring their two house members who are currently with you back safely to their homestead here. It's official-like, and they're extending the hospitality for the rest of tonight, then all day and all night tomorrow. So there'll be plenty of time to get this mess all sorted out with a, hopefully, happy ending."

"We agree, but with one slight change."

"Go on."

"You'll have to find us a safe room for vampires because Christina stays with us until we speak to whoever is in charge officially. It's not exactly a hostage situation, but it kind of is. Sorry-not-sorry, it's shitty, I know."

Selena exhales air through her nose quite resentfully.

"This boy is angering me quite deeply, Miss Tallulah, quite deeply indeed. Does he realize how rude he is being?" It's clearly a rhetorical question, so Tallulah doesn't say a word, instead allowing Selena to stew and decide what to do and say.

"Tell him fine, we agree."

"Okay, Orion. They agree to your change." Tallulah leans back after pressing the button.

"Cool, that's great. Oh yeah–I'd like to see you when we arrive."

"Yes, alright, of course. I'll make sure to be around."

"Uh, Orion, over and out."

The radio operator turns his head to look at Tallulah and then carefully steals a glance at Selena. He's still sweating and is undoubtedly completely worried about his health. Selena takes a step back from looming over Tallulah's chair. She seems to have completely recomposed herself because when Tallulah turns to stand and look at the other woman, who is only slightly taller than she is, Selena offers her an affectionate smile like Tallulah just did an excellent job under pressure. Selena reaches forward and touches the side of Tallulah's cheek affectionately.

"Marvelous job, Tallulah darling. Come with me."

"Okay, Selena."