A Life for a Life [OPEN]

[Emma Melrose]

Riley was up to her mischief in the Underworld, trying to figure out who ‘killed’ their parents in a car crash. Dillon was out on a date with his girlfriend, Jessica, and they were probably going out dancing tonight or something, and then would head to her apartment to have a little fun. Which meant that Emma was free to do whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted. Though, she was still worried that her sister was going to get killed, or that her brother was going to get Jessica pregnant.

That was what Emma did, sometimes - she worried about what her big brother and little sister were getting into. And knowing the two of them, they could get into some very serious and very crazy trouble. Emma was the sarcastic one of the bunch, but she was careful a lot of the time. Prideful, sure, stubborn, no duh, but Emma was careful not to do anything that she would regret someday.

Emma sighed and looked around as she sate in the small café. Dressed in a pair of jeans and a sapphire tang-top, she was just relaxing and sipping a soda, waiting for her meal. She didn’t know what she was going to do that night, honestly. Most likely, head to a club and try and find a guy or something. Emma liked boys, a lot, and wanted to get married someday. Not right now, but someday, someday soon. Emma had always wanted children.

But she didn’t want to have a child without being married to the father. Call her old fashioned, but their parents had raised her together, and she didn’t think that, if they had had to, that either Christina or Howard would have been able to raise the three Melrose kids all alone. She had loved her parents dearly, and missed them more than anything. She honestly didn’t know if their parents had been killed or not, but it was still too painful to talk about for Emma.

And with Riley on her revenge-kick, Emma was terrified that she was going to lose her baby sister.

She sighed, and then looked around. Emma then realized that, while she was hungry, she would much rather prefer to eat near the beach. So, when the food came at last, Emma asked for her check and a box, and then left after paying. Walking down the boardwalk, she sighed, glancing around. She didn’t know what she was going to do anymore - she was almost out of college, and she had her whole life ahead of her.

Yet, at the same time, she had never felt more lost, more alone.

She sighed, and then settled down on a bench, and started to eat. Soon enough, she had finished, and she still had nothing to do.

“Well, this night is a total flop,” she remarked dryly, shaking her head.

And then she heard the shout of fear coming towards the alley.

She jumped up immediately. As a witch, she always assumed that something was wrong when someone screamed. She knew where it come from, and Emma knew that she could be safe defending herself. She had the power of deflection - granted, she didn’t exactly have the most control over it, but she had enough control to be able to fight against demons. She was stressed enough anyway.

Emma charged towards the alley, running as fast as she could. Her flip-flops clocked against the wooden deck, and she raced into the Seaport’s alley. Emma froze in her tracks, however, when she saw that there was no one in the alley. Now, she was confused beyond belief - who had that been, if there had been someone screaming. Had the demon taken the person who screamed, or-

Oh, crap.

Emma realized that she had fallen into the trap the moment something struck against the back of her head. She managed to cry out in pain quick enough as she was knocked unconscious. As her body fell limply to the ground, the demon smiled in triumph.

“Too easy,” he remarked, shaking his head. “You witches really do hold such a high opinion of yourselves…”

He formed an energy ball, and prepared to take the life of the unconscious witch below him.

[alexanderdavenport]

Newly in town, Alexander Davenport was still getting used to the area. Although he asked his younger sister, Ruby, to show him around, it seemed that she was too busy with her own life to throw him some slack. It didn't phase him though, all the siblings were very independent and led their own lives, and yet, were still close.

So he was out on the town on his own and thought he might later visit Ruby at work, at this club she raved about called 'P3', and see what she was doing then. For now, he was happy to stroll along the broadwater with his camera, taking in the atmosphere and some shots, focusing on the lights and shadows. Alex came up to some restaurants along a jetty; seeing the people, focusing his camera lens, he scoped the jetty and stopped when he saw a beautiful girl eating alone. He kept watching, gazing in her beauty.

This kind of behaviour would seem odd to some, even stalker-like, but for Alex, it was pretty normal - he was a photographer, and sometimes, a freelance paparazzo. So, when she started running toward a dark alley, his curiosity started to take over. He walked toward the jetty, while following her with the lens. Alex saw her look frantic and rush into the shadows. He feared for her, so he ran to the alley and got there just in time...

There was a strange man looming over her as she lay on the ground. He was just at the entrance and the alley was almost pitch black, to the stranger, Alex would have looked like a silhouette. He saw the energyball in the 'man's' hand, about to kill the woman he had only moments ago watched through his camera. "Hey!" He yelled out to the what he assumed was a demon, and raised his camera, flash at the ready. The demon turned to look at Alex, energyball in hand, and Alex took his chance, taking a few shots to blind the demon (somewhat) as he knew they were photo-sensitive... living in the underworld would do this to you. Although Alex didn't know whether this demon could transport away, he didn't want to risk it.

That's when Alex decided to tap into the demon's mind. It was a little harder to get into, as his mind was a little crazier than most, but when he did, he accessed the part that knew how to make energyballs; and suddenly, Alex had one of his own in his hand, but he didn't throw it, yet.

[Emma Melrose]

Emma had only been unconscious for about a second and a half before she woke up. She hated getting knocked out - the first time, she had been thirteen, and had fallen down the stairs at school. She had been in the hospital for nearly a month, because of the injuries she had gotten from it… either way, being unconscious sucked. Big time.

Which meant that Emma was not a happy witch when she woke up. Her dark brown eyes snapped open the moment her body felt alright, but she didn’t move as she heard another voice. And then, surprisingly, Emma watched as a flash of light went against the wall that Emma was facing. She was lying on her side, with her back to the entrance of the alley.

She had no clue what it was, however. Was it some sort of power that she had never seen before. Another possibility came to mind, and then she heard the click that followed the same time as the next flash. A camera? Now, this was definitely getting more and more confusing over the next couple of seconds. Ugh. This was going to end interestingly, she could tell that much… whether it ended with her still alive, however, was still going to be even more interesting.

Emma moved her head around, and then saw the demon standing over her, towards her feet. A defiant snarl made its way over her face, and she kicked at the demon on the legs. The demon’s face showed surprise as she did so, and he stumbled back a pace, his energy ball disappearing as he did so. Emma struggled up quickly, and then took a step back, flattening herself against the wall for a second. Which gave her enough time to glance back to see who had saved her life… so it seemed, anyway.

And that was when she noticed the energy ball that he was holding. She nearly groaned out loud. Two demons battling for one witch? Either the demons knew something that Emma didn’t, or this blonde (rather handsome) demon standing at the alley was something different. But, then again, Emma mused, most demons didn’t carry around cameras… like the blonde one at the mouth of the alley was.

A guy with a camera and an energy ball. Yep - Dillon and Riley were never going to believe her when she told them about this evening.

The demon’s eyes narrowed as he regained his balance, and he glared at the blonde man and Emma. “I’ll be back,” he snarled.

With a last half-smile, the demon pointed at Emma, and then pointed back towards the man. Before she knew what was going to happen, Emma yelped and found herself being flung into the air and hurtling towards the blonde man. This demon was telekinetic. Great, for Emma and whoever-blondie-was.

This demon also seemed to have a talent for multitasking. At the same time as he telekinetically flung Emma towards the blonde man, he also shot an energy ball towards them. Emma, hoping that whoever this guy was would catch her, flung out her hand. A blue shield appeared around it, and the energy ball reflected back towards its owner. Emma was gifted with the power of deflection (just like her Aunt Jackie and her great-grandmother Samantha).

She grunted as she landed hard on the concrete in front of the man, and she couldn’t tell if he had caught her or not - it had been a hard fall, either way. The demon shimmered out as his own energy ball came barreling towards him, and the ball burned a mark in the wall behind where he had been. Emma closed her eyes for a second, and tehns sighed.

“Humor me for a second,” she told the blonde guy dryly. “Are you a good guy or bad guy? Because on one hand, you saved my life, but on the other, you had an energy ball.”

Probably not the best way to make a first impression. Emma took a good look at him, and realized that he wasn’t just cute - he was really handsome. Oooh. She just got save by a real hottie.

The night was so getting better now.

[alexanderdavenport]

Just as quickly as Alex had created the energy ball he was still holding in his hand by tapping into the demon's mind, the young women kicked him in the leg, distracting the demon long enough to escape from under him. 'Ah,' he thought, 'she can defend herself', but stood in a stance ready for action.

When the demon snarled at them, threatening that he would avenge his failure, Alex took this with a grain of salt and rolled his eyes. Demons' threats rarely scared him. It was only during battle that any fear actually came to him. And this didn't seem to be the situation... until the demon immediately telekinetically tossed the young woman toward him; with an energy ball still in Alex's hand!

He panicked somewhat, not really knowing how this was going to work. Alas, he didn't have much time to think about the impending danger. It was then that he saw that the demon had thrown an energy ball almost simultaneously as he had sent the woman through the air. Since Alex couldn't do much else, he threw his energy ball at the the demon, hoping that he wasn't able to attack and that they would be able to dodge the power and have enough time to escape. However, it seemed that the young woman was magical as well. She used her power to shield them and deflect the energy ball back at the demon.

He couldn't see much else, as the brunette was landing almost on top of him. He tried to catch her, but they weren't close enough for him to cushion her fall, so he was only able to half catch her. He helped her to a stable stance as he questioned him on his alliance, to which he responded, "I'm a good guy," but he hesitated in saying, "I'm just able to borrow powers." Hopefully she wasn't too worried by this; he understood how confusing it could be. He looked her in the eyes when she finally stood straight and was slightly entranced by her beauty. He then snapped out of it and asked, "Are you okay?" he gave her a once over, lingering a little longer than needed.