Beneath the Moon (OPEN)

[Molly Beck]

Basically, she was there to help them decide whether or not the damn thing could possibly be anything other than an accidental, single person death. In short, was it a homicide caused by another person? Another person, specifically, not currently present. The dockworker had found the body approximately two hours prior, and being the ME on call that night, Molly had found herself awakened to not only her private phone ringing, but her work phone as well. Apparently, there was something cool they wanted her to see that was, as the officer put it, right up her alley. She hadn't realized she had an alley for something to be right up, but she suspected it had something to do with there being no obvious cause of death, something that she was able to confirm once she actually started poking around.

Actually, it was really fantastic. Off hand, she wanted to say exsanguination was the cause of death. The Caucasian male had literally bled out. What remained unknown was from where. The water had washed away most of the evidence, she was sure, but she sincerely doubted that the guy accidentally fell into the water or was suicidal. Not with that level of blood loss. She was kind of excited to get him to the morgue and cut him open, wondering what she might find to tell him about his overall life and his final few hours. Lost in her interest, Molly hardly noticed that someone had found something further up that might indicate an actual crime scene and the people she was with dwindled from roughly six others to just her and a rookie police officer staring at the corpse like he was going to be sick.

And, then, he was gone, too, called away by some higher rank. It was in that silence that she felt it. Her instinct higher than normal given the unfamiliar surroundings and the ungodly hour of the night. She hated two am death calls, but they happened. Something was there, watching. She didn't know what, and she couldn't identify malice, but it made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end at any rate. Shivering, Molly strove to push the sensation down, silencing her gut. Licking her lips, she focused on her work deciding it would be best to have the next person down her way help her put the body into a body bag and load it up and she would be on her way.

[Ina W. Ledoux]

Ina wasn't a day person. Naturally, she came out at night. So it wasn't a surprise to find her out that night. Humans who dared stalk the cities at night were in for a treat, but Ina was in for the biggest treat of all. This was her hobby, hunting and biting humans. She performed her duties because she got hungry. It felt bad being hungry. Correction: it felt horrible being thirsty. The thirst had got to her - she needed fresh blood, not the animal blood you'd find in the fridge. Ina was very bloodthirsty. She would do all it takes to get fresh delicious warm blood from a human - however daring it may be. Ina often went to the shipping yard on clear nights like these to see if any humans were there looking at the night sky. Such idiots, coming out here. Didn't they know about the vampires who crept at night?

Ina was hidden, watching the woman pick up the body. She smelt human. Human... Ina kept her gleaming eyes feasted upon the human. She seemed to be some ME of sorts... Ina watched as she picked up the dead body and placed it in a body bag. Ina laughed inside her, not daring to laugh out loud, it might spoil her dinner. Obviously another vampire had been around here and had their fair share of fresh blood. But this vampire had gone far. This one had killed the person.

Ina had killed before. She had lived a long time and over those tons of decades she had made a few kills. She wasn't the type of vampire who ran around crazily killing human after human just for a meal. She preferred small snacks, and occasionally the big feast, but even then she picked a few different humans to drink from.

Ina kept her watchful eyes on the human, waiting for the right moment.

[Molly Beck]

After a couple of minutes that, according to the hairs still standing on end at the base of Molly's neck, seemed to drag by like hours, another officer trotted down the hill asking if she needed any help. The two went through the motions of rolling the body into a bag and lifting it onto the cold, metal gurney. No small mattress or blankets for the dead. Molly shivered. She didn't know where it had come from, but her mind was quite suddenly drawn to the recollection that five months prior, a body had vanished from the morgue. She had been told to dismiss it, and so she had, but the eeriness of it still weighed in the back of her mind. Of course, as a school girl, she had been taught about the massacres less than two hundred years prior. There wasn't a soul who hadn't, but it still wasn't normal. Something wasn't normal.

And, she didn't mean the existence of predators who appeared human. That had become a normalized ideal and she honestly couldn't tell the difference. Over the past three years, she had seen the handiwork of a serial killer four times on her slab, and she was certain that a vampire or lycan could be just as cruel or just as merciful as a human. The disappearance of the dead though haunted her. The dead simply ought to remain dead. Sighing, she shook it off once more. The Chief Medical Examiner was probably involved in some black market organ sales deal. As disturbing as it was, it was New York. More criminal and immoral things than that had happened. Plus, she didn't like the tone that the alternative took-- that she had been locked in a tiny room with a creature that wasn't really dead and fed happily of human blood. But, then, as far as she knew, other than the history books, she didn't know any vampire or lycan.

Quietly, she unzipped the body bag and poked around at the body. She hadn't seen any skin tears that would indicate a means to completely exsanguinate a body this large, but she supposed it could be in a more subtle location. The man had to be about six foot two, maybe three, and in order to fully drain a body, it would be required that a vein or artery be punctured. She figured she would have to get him under the knife and see if internal bleeding had been the cause. The best possible explanation she could offer was that there had been some kind of tearing in the intestine that allowed him to bleed out one end or the other. What had caused it, though, would be the mystery worth solving.

As she prodded, wondering if it were possible for anyone or anything to be sadistic enough to actually do that or if there was some more natural explanation despite her gut telling her it was murder, the officer wandered back up, likely not feeling useful at the base of the hill with a woman who seemed to be more conversational with the dead than the living. Molly had never been accused of having the best bedside manner, and she tended to grow quiet from time to time despite her rather wild and otherwise rambunctious nature. As she tucked the arm of the corpse back into the bag, she felt it again, like eyes boring into her from a not too distant site. It may have been her imagination, but she wasn't sure if the first pin pricks of malice were beginning to crawl across her skin. Zipping up the bag, she pulled her gloves off, tossing them into a tiny bucket she kept in the back of the van for just such a purpose. "Get a grip," she mumbled to herself, "Get Skippy back to the lab and-"

She turned, her heart hammering in her chest. No. Something was definitely out there. Wide eyed, she looked around, nothing but darkness and the faint, haloed light coming from above came back to her. Yet, she would swear on her brother's grave that something was out there, watching her. "You're paranoid, Moll," she mumbled, running her nails through her hair as she turned back around.

"I guess I better take a look at you on the slab tonight, huh?" she said, addressing the corpse, "Just in case whatever killed you is still around." She wasn't sure if she was just being silly or if she had something to worry about. Surely, something wouldn't attack with so many people around. And, realistically, she didn't even know if the man was killed or if he had died from a tear in his esophagus and had bled out due to natural causes, though that the body had obviously been moved from the original site of death was enough to have her leaning toward murder.

Exsanguination was a romantic death that was more of a reality in consideration since the massacres the history books told of, but there hadn't been anything quite so major in over a hundred years. Molly glanced up the hill beyond to where there were a handful of people she couldn't see, but she could hear as she wondered how many of them were predators.

[Ina W. Ledoux]

Ina kept watching as another officer came down. Two snacks, then....She kept her eyes on the woman, the one who smelt so human and fresh. When Ina smelt that, she couldn't stop herself - the feeling that she needed blood took over her body, controlled her mind and she ended up biting someone. Ina listened to their little conversation, then laughed (inside) at how she thought she was paranoid. Ina placed her hand on her stomach. She was thirsty for blood tonight.

Ina kept her eye on her target. If her eyes left the human, she would probably not be so focused. She needed to stay focused to pick the right time. The officer went and the woman began talking to herself, and prodding around the body. Ina took a deep but quiet breath, and then stepped from the shadows. Soon her hunger took over. When a vampire sees its target, it goes insane - almost possessed. Ina was like that now.

She grabbed the woman, hoping that she would aim correctly and sink her fangs into her neck...

(You can choose whether Molly ducks or gets bitten, so write it in your post, you have my godmodding permission)

[Molly Beck]

((OK. Let me know if this is alright by you, then?))

Maybe her gut instincts paid off. Maybe the paranoia of working in the darkness of the two am moon near the lapping water paid off. Maybe it was a combination of both because she didn't hear the woman behind her, and she didn't really see her. It was like a shadow, but a heart beat before the woman gripped her arms, fear gripped her stomach, and Molly turned as hands stronger than hers clamped around her, needle sharp teeth missing her neck out of sheer luck and sinking into her shoulder.

Despite missing the intended target on the body, the bite still had an effect. Molly wanted to scream but she couldn't get the sound out, her heart thrumming in her chest and fear blurring her vision. She pushed at the stranger with every ounce of strength she possessed though the part of her brain that controlled logic quietly reminded her that it wasn't likely to do much good. Caught between the side panel of the van and a woman who seemed intent on-- somewhere in her mind, it dawned on her that the woman had bitten her and the warmth she felt on her shoulder was likely her own blood.

Molly's pupil dilated, her iris disappearing as fight or flight took over. That logic in her mind said flight wouldn't work, but it argued that fight wouldn't either, and Molly wasn't the kind of person to simply lay down and take it. "Get off," she barked trying to pull herself away from the predatorial woman and figure out some way she wouldn't be totally trapped. If she could put something other than the van at her back, she might be able to make a deal with the woman in front of her. At least, if the vampire was hell bent on making Molly a meal, it was the only way Molly could think of getting away with her life. But then, what did she have to offer except her life that such a being would want?

Molly's wild, fear-filled eyes met the woman's for a brief moment in the struggle, and even the medical examiner, who previously would have said she had seen everything the city had to offer, could testify that she had never seen that kind of pure hunger in any creature she had previously encountered, living or dead.

[Ina W. Ledoux]

Ina missed. Her fangs hit the shoulder blade, biting in. Ina's teeth missed the actual blade, she just managed to get some of the blood on top. Ina tried to struggle to get to the neck, but then made do with the blood she had. Fresh human blood. All she wanted. Ina ignored the woman's actions. She was but a feeble human, and that was all she'd ever be unless she got turned into a vampire.

"Get off," the woman said, and Ina lifted her eyes, still drinking the blood. She pulled her blood-stained lips away from the shoulder, and glared at the woman. "Make me," she said, and her eyes hit its target. The neck, this time. But there was still the gaping wound in the shoulder, so Ina lowered her mouth to continue drinking from the wound. Couldn't this pathetic human leave her to her meal? Unless she wanted to be killed...Now that Ina had the blood, she turned pure evil until the effect wore off, so her eyes gleamed red as she carried on.

[Molly Beck]

The challenge to make the vampire leave her alone hit on something in the instinctive part of her brain. She still had free access to her hands, and without warning, Molly smacked the heel of her palm into the woman's cheek as hard as she could, her fingers aiming to curl into the woman's hair and, with luck, either shove or slam her head into the side panel of the van. Though Molly had never been into the kind of lifestyle surrounding the romanticism of vampires, she had heard of those who willingly gave their blood to the vampires. What was so wrong with the vampire before her that she couldn't use that outlet?

Trying to ignore the sharp pain in her shoulder, Molly aimed a series of strikes and kicks at places she knew to be more sensitive on the human body- though she had no idea if there were a correlation to the sensitivity on a vampire's body- hoping that one or enough of them would land so that she would be able to break free. She wasn't above using her nails, either, and she suspected, had the woman gotten close enough, she might have bit back. All she wanted was to be released.

Fairly standard in the vans found at the Medical Examiner's office were palm sized discuses of silver, the idea being that should the dead not really be dead, it offered the driver some measure of protection. However, Molly was not accustomed to being left alone at a death scene, and had therefore gotten into the habit of leaving the discus in the van. If she could get to that, at least she would have something to defend herself with. Vampires didn't like silver, right?

"Help," she finally managed to scream, finding enough of her voice as her physical strength diminished. She knew the vampire would be stronger than her by far. Molly was in great physical shape for a human, but she was fairly certain even a body builder would be bested by such a creature. All she had to do was survive long enough for help to show up. Was that too difficult? Maybe if the vampire snapped her neck, she would be screwed, but she had the strangest feeling that the woman wouldn't do that. Why kill fresh blood? At that moment, Molly wasn't aware enough of it, but it would come in time. She would, more or less, be marked for this vampire. Others would, if what she had learned in school were true, know that she had been bitten by this specific vampire by smell alone for either the rest of or the majority of her life. She could decide what that meant for her job later-- she was fairly certain her boss wasn't human, but those were suspicions she kept to herself.

If she could just get to the driver's side door, she might have the opportunity to defend herself. She could feel shock begin to replace adrenaline and fought against it. She would be damned if she was going to pass out or become non-cognizant with the predator still about her. She hoped to God her scream was heard by some of the officers and techs up the hill. Molly wasn't sure she had the energy to scream again, and she doubted the woman would let her get another yell out. Drawing attention would ruin her meal.