~ Another Useful Tool ~ (Zafrina)

[mikel]

The Amazon was not usually a place that Mikel Machnerum would find himself and it was for no sporting or luxurious reason that he found himself in one of the densest jungles of the world. Well Mikel wasn’t exactly in the jungle just yet. He flew high above the canopy of the jungle in a privately owned apache helicopter fully outfitted with all the weapons of a true military helicopter. This was not meant to be a thrill ride and even though Mikel would love to have the luxuries of his several other transportation helicopters; this journey was simply not suited for such an occasion. Mikel’s mood reflected the importance of the mission that he was on. Mikel was stern and serious; his facial features were set; his eyes wondering over the jungle below. It didn’t take any sort of intelligent person to know that he was looking for something. Mikel watched the trees but he also watched those that were in the trees that were his own and that moved at the same rate as his helicopter and some ran in front. Mikel had designated a secure landing spot in a small clearing in the dense jungle on what was some sort of mound. Mikel had told his men to go ahead of the helicopter and clear the way for his landing. Mikel knew that he was going to have to be on foot for most of this journey but he was dressed in his usual attire. Mikel was clothed in a black suit and wore everything else black that went with his suit, including his black cane that rest over his lap, his right hand on the silver wolf crest handle.

The men that ran beneath and before Mikel were not normal men by any means. Mikel did not surround himself with the mediocre and average human. In the world that Mikel lived in normal humans were useless in defense. Mikel needed something more, something with a little more bite, literally. In the forest jungle beneath the helicopter were a number of vampires, werewolves, weretigers, shapeshifters and a great assortment of the “strange” creatures of the world. These were all creatures that Mikel was able to either brainwash into service, bribe into service or simply acquire good relations with until the point of servitude. Mikel was no cruel master to his workers because he understood that he needed them to complete his work. Mikel had no problem letting his vampires feed on anything they desired and the same for the rest of his werecreatures. Mikel wanted them to be as strong as possible and that often required human blood and not that of any animal. The creatures were increasingly good at their jobs and did not let Mikel down very often. On this day they ran ahead of the helicopter and some of the vampires were the first to the designated landing site. They immediately started forming a perimeter, positioning themselves at first in a square around the landing site until more of their coworkers arrived and they begin to contort the square into a circle around the spot. At the moment there was nothing to be seen of any resistance and even if there had been something nearby, the thirty or so creatures Mikel had brought with him would be able to deal with them. Mikel had come expecting a war.

The helicopter hummed over the landing spot and hovered for a moment before Mikel received the word that everything was in order for him to land. The helicopter descended until it landed on the grassy floor of the jungle. Two men exited the helicopter before Mikel and they were both heavy laden with weaponry and equipment. Mikel was fully aware of where they were going to have to go and what they were going to have to do. Finally, Mikel stepped out of the helicopter, his cane touching the ground before his feet. Mikel stood fully erect on the ground, his eyes looked around still a bit uneasy. He knew what territory he was in and what ancient creatures roamed. Mikel loved ancient culture and traditions and he loved going to ruins and on any other day this would have been quite an adventure but today Mikel had business. The helicopter rose up into the air again and hovered above the landing spot, not going too far away so that it could give air support to any sort of situation that might be needed. Mikel walked over to the man in charge on the ground which happened to be a woman. She was dressed in dark green clothes, wore a simple pistol on his side. She didn’t need weapons to protect her. Her hair was a mess due to the helicopter but she was still a rather attractive woman. Mikel wouldn’t have it any other way. “Are we ready?” Mikel asked. The woman nodded and Mikel smiled with delight. “Lets find my artifact.” He announced as he started walking towards the ruins.

[aquablue22]

Zafrina’s eyes scanned the forest. She was away from her coven at the moment. Her coven mates were off on there own. No reason to be together every second. She had feed earlier in the day. Her eyes red as the blood she had drunken earlier in the day. She was full; a few off the work men who were tearing down the forest did the trick. She hated those men, those humans. Didn’t they see the beauty of the forest? Of course they didn’t that was why they destroyed so much. She scowled. Her anger was immense against them, she couldn’t stop them all. Even if she did the Volturi would have their say and well, she would most likely be a pile of ashes. She moved quickly, as most vampires do. But her movements weren’t clear or straight forward. She jumped into a tree then to another, acting more like an animal than a vampire. She looked up at the canopy. She saw monkeys swing from tree to tree. She saw glorious colorful birds flying, spreading there bright wings, with colors of blue, yellow and red. She smiled when she saw them. She loved the Amazon, she had grown up there. The place was one of the few places not very well explored. Leaving it most of the time free from humans. Now the natives and the occasional scientist but other than that, free. She liked it that way. No pesky humans talking about shining people or annoying them. She liked the privacy, most of the time.

The Amazon was a perfect place to life if you were a vampire, at least to Zafrina it was. No humans, next to the Natives to speak about you. And if they discovered you, they thought you a god, more than a vampire. She laughed at the thought; to her they had brains the size of peanuts. But there were other things that she liked, very little sunlight, with the canopy, it blocked out most of the sunlight making it almost impossible to start shining like diamonds. Also, no werewolves to worry about. It was the life here; she was surprised few vampires beyond her and her coven mates lived in the Amazon. But again, very little civilization and some vampires no matter how strong, were babies, to afraid to go without fancy suits or things of that nature. They were not Zafrina’s style she preferred natural products, like animal skins and things of that nature. At the moment she wore a leopard skin of that tied at the back of her neck and a long and a short pair of shorts made of fur.

She sighed and jumped to the ground. She was quick and landed gracefully. She walked toward the edge of the forest. Part open too many things. She sat there for a few moments before hearing the sound of a copter. What was a helicopter doing there? She thought to herself. She ran toward the source of the noise. She smelled other vampires and weretigers, werewolves, and other shifters. What were they doing there? Her curiosity got the best of her. She hurried herself to the source of all of these. She ran as fast as she could. Soon she could see them. She saw the copter land, and a man with a cane come out. She didn’t know the scent but was surprised. She heard his words. What could he be looking for? She looked at them, watching, she wanted to know but observed for a few moments. She walked toward them, making sure to prove she proved no threat. At least not yet. She said “Hello, may I ask what you are looking for? I may be of help, I know many places in this forest. Ruins, and things of that nature. But if not I can make myself scarce in an instance.”. Her accent thick.

[mikel]

The problem with the Amazon was the fact that it was overwhelmingly thick and utterly impossible to simply tear through if someone was searching for something. If it was up to Mikel he would have leveled the entire forest and simply searched through the ruins that way. He had no care for forest when they stood between him and his ultimate goal. In retrospect, he had no care for anything that stood before him and his goals. Mikel knew that he was in a time sensitive situation and he knew that he was going to have to move quickly so that his helicopter was off the radar. He didn’t need any Portuguese military nosing around in business that simply wasn’t theirs to worry about. Mikel might have had the Volturi to clean up some of his messes but they didn’t like to get involved in highly political things. Mikel only knew a certain general location where to find his artifact and he knew from experience that the old things of the world were usually the hardest to find. This artifact was much older than Mikel and Mikel was no young man. It dated back to a time around the beginning of the charmers themselves. A lot of mystery surrounded what Mikel was looking for and for the most part it wasn’t even known how the artifact came to South America. The general location where Mikel was currently was honestly the best guest and that was the best he could do. Mikel didn’t like the guessing game.

Mikel’s steady footsteps towards the jungle were suddenly halted as several of the members of Mikel’s bodyguard snapped into action and moved to stop a single woman that had approached the clearly. She wasn’t moving very quickly and she was attempting to act as though she wasn’t a threat. The problem for the young woman was that vampires new vampires and it did not take long for the group to release what Zafrina was and identify the fact that she didn’t need to act innocent. One of the men came up to Mikel and told him what the woman had said and Mikel made a distinct point to move down to the woman. He was still a ways away and he couldn’t get a very good look at the woman. She was completed surrounded by her own kind and an abundance of werecreatures. Mikel knew that his bodyguard was going to be good enough to deal with any problems from this one vampire. Mikel; though, being a thinking knew that where there was a single vampire there were usually more. He was more worried about the rest of the family than the single vampire. Still his men had not determined any more people in the area for the moment. The problem with vampires was that they moved so fast. An area could be clear for one moment and utterly overrun in the next. It was rather annoying. Thankfully, with a thick blanket of cloud covering none of the vampires was glistening in the sunlight like usual. Mikel finally reached Zafrina and his men parted so that Mikel could meet this stranger.

Mikel did find it rather odd that a person showed up within the first minute of his landing. This wasn’t even just a random human either. This was a vampire. Mikel did figure that perhaps this particular vampire was just coming to investigate the scene and more than likely heard the helicopter as it landed. Another thing that bothered him about this woman was the fact that she was so willing to walk out into the open. Did she not know that by walking into the open as she did that she could be easily killed? There was at least ten of her own kind around her and other creatures that still formed a perimeter. Mikel himself would have been a formidable opponent and he was mostly human. Mikel leaned on his cane for a moment, looking into the eyes of the woman, contemplating her proposal. “Intriguing my dear, very intriguing. I wonder; though, if you can really help me instead of being a hindrance.” Mikel paused. In his mind Mikel knew he was going to let her help him. He couldn’t say no to such a business deal and potential employee and besides all of those things she was rather attractive. Mikel moved his right hand to his chin and stroked it for a moment. “We are seeking the ruins nearby. There is legend of an ancient temple. Perhaps you know it? If you do I would welcome your help but one condition.” Mikel purred, his voice assertive, “The rest of you stay away.” Mikel commanded. He didn’t want to have to deal with an entire coven today.

[aquablue22]

Zafrina wasn’t intimidated by the bodyguards that came her way. In fact she expected so when she saw all of them. She knew that her curiosity could be the thing that could be very well the end of her. But she knew she was familiar with the area, more than any of the others. Though she was so surrounded she was sure she could escape in less than heart beat if she was attacked. Her breathing stayed the same. She wasn’t afraid. She was older than some, no most of the bodyguards, even those that were her kind. She was smart and quick. She had no fears at the moment. Not one. Also, her ability could come in handy, at least for the vampires, that would buy her time if she needed it. Her feet bare she looked coldly at the vampires and other species. She showed no fear, you show fear you die, that was a lesson she lived by in the Amazon, in live and now. She knew her coven mates couldn’t be to far away, though they were apart, she was sure that if anything happened they would be fine.

Zafrina kept her arms at her side. Making no attempt to hurt attack or anything like that, if she would have attacked she would have done it by now. Her red eyes glanced about quickly, more of animal’s instincts than humans. Her hearing had proven right, there was something going on. They were looking from something. Something important if he came with so much protection. She hadn’t seen the man since the other vampires and werecreatures had formed some sort of shield around her. A better word she thought perimeter. She knew very well if things went bad, she would be a pile of ashes in seconds. She finally got a good look at the man. She kept quite as she listened. She knew that whatever it was she could help. She wouldn’t be a nuisance. She wanted to state so, she became agitated but cooled down keeping her straight face. She heard him talk about an ancient temple within ruins. She sighed, she knew them well. She knew the entire forest very well, better than any other thing that had ever walked the earth next to her coven mates even then she had the best knowledge. She answered “I know them well. I can lead you there and can prove to be very helpful. May I ask what you seek? If I know I may be able to narrow parts of the temple out for exploration, as I have done exploring of bits of the ancient temple, not much of those but I know where they are.”. She hoped she could be of help. The ancient ruins had never been discovered not by scientists, and the few natives who had found it had wrotten the tales of it. Though the tales often were proven to be true. She had to admit that the leader of the group was handsome, she would be happy to help. She was willing to help most people, unless they were destroying the forest, then she wanted nothing more than to watch them die a slow painful death, hopefully at her own hand.

[mikel]

Mikel didn’t like guests that he didn’t know about beforehand. Mikel didn’t like unexpected things because they became variables that were due to change at any given moment. Mikel didn’t like variables. Mikel knew how to think on his feet and he knew how to take things that normally would cause someone to panic or would normally cause problems and turn them into something that he could use for his own gain. Mikel was brilliant and resourceful. He used his resources and right now he happened to be standing and looking at one of his resources. Everything changed in the world and something that was a resource to Mikel one day might not be one to him another but he certainly understood the fact that he needed to make do with what he had when he had it available to him. She told him that she knew the ruins and that excited Mikel greatly. It would be very helpful to have someone that knew what they were doing as opposed to Mikel simply going by trial and error. Mikel understood the fact that he had vampires and that they could search areas quickly but the ancient race that the build temple also knew about the vampires and would have put in place devices to stop them. Mikel didn’t like to expend his resources or his vampires because each one came at great cost to him whether it was physical expense, mental expense or simply the expense of his time and will power. Mikel didn’t want to send his men so easily to their deaths if he could avoid such things. This woman was going to help with collateral damage whether she knew it or not.

Mikel nodded his head in acceptance of her help. It was interesting to for her to think that at this point her help was at all optional. Now that Mikel knew she was of use to him he was going to force her to help him. Mikel took a step closer to Zafrina. He understood good public relations and he understood that things could still get messy if he didn’t handle things in a certain way. Mikel gave a half smile to the woman. “Now, if you wouldn’t mind leading. I feel as though you would know the layout and terrain far better than any of us. We would just mess this land up if we had to search on our own. As for what I am looking for; that might be something I shall keep to myself, at least for now. Just know that it would something used in my rituals and more likely in sacrifices as well. I do hope that will be enough information for you to lead us to our destination or at least your best guess.” Mikel requested and gestured for her to lead the way. He looked over at the woman in green and nodded his head to her. She began to bark out orders about how to continue to secure the perimeter as they followed the woman. The helicopter remained hovering in the air above them and would follow them as they walked, keeping constant communication. Mikel looked at Zafrina. He wondered if she knew that if she led him to the wrong place or if she was wrong about anything he would not hesitate to kill her and anyone that would try to safe her. Mikel was not one of the “good” guys.