Winter Wonderland

Stooges

Citali

Citali had caught the flash of concern in Carbry's eyes before the vampire was at her side and gently grabbing her elbow. Something about the name had alarmed him, but she reacted out of instinct and training, twisting her arm out of his grip and pulling away. He blocked the reflexive strike that was supposed to go with that evasion, but let her step away from him.

Then he was gone.

Citali jerked in surprise, initially assuming that the monster that had been plaguing her had arrived and attacked him, but the next thing she knew, Ryker was yelling and aiming his gun down toward the lake as he grabbed her and tried to pull her behind him. Knight Corp employees were swarming down toward the water, and Citali turned to see a jumbled mass of two grown men wrestling like they were boys in a schoolyard.

Very quick moving boys.

It took more time for her to realize that it was Carbry down there, fighting with... Naiche. And despite the size difference, Car looked to have almost a hundred pounds of muscle on the other man. They both seemed equally matched.

"Ryker, NO!" Citali leapt in front of the man and his gun, spreading her arms out wide and facing him down as she tried to block him from taking a shot.

Luckily, Ryker was smart enough that he lowered his rifle.

"What the fuck is going on?" Ryker loved Carbry. Worry for the other man was all over his features, but he issued the command for the others to hold their fire.

"That's Naiche." Citali offered desperately. "He's a good man."

Ryker looked like he begged to differ, baring his teeth at her and offering a growl, but he merely nodded. "That good man is trying to kill Carbry."

Citali spun back to the fight and stumbled through the deep snow down the hill. "Naiche! Carbry! Stop!"

Ryker was at her side, grabbing her arm and holding her on her feet when she nearly toppled head over heels down the hill. Still, he pulled her to a stop a safe distance away from where the two vampires were still growling, snarling, and punching each other as they rolled and re-rolled one another.

It looked like a strange UFC fight. Vampire UFC, though neither one of them was trying to do more than gain the advantage. Citali found her brain focusing on the fact that they both still had their swords on their backs, despite the likelihood of the ridiculously long blades getting caught in the ground or something.

When neither responded to her yelling, she reached down and grabbed a fist full of snow, packing it into a hard ball. Naiche was rolled and suddenly found himself on top of Carbry, and in that moment, Citali pelted him in the side of the head with her snowball.

Both fighters froze and turned to look at her. Fangs elongated, eyes near-red with fury, noses or lips dripping blood from the exchange of punches that had been going on. It was a terrifying sight to behold, and even as she took a step backwards, Ryker shifted partially between her and the two of them.

Then Naiche blinked and stumbled up and away from Carbry, his expression back to normal, though he was glaring at Ryker. "Citali, are you ok?"

"Can you tell me why you decided to get into a brawl with my boss?" She snapped, the worry and excitement filling her voice with frustration.

Actually, she was frustrated. With both of the idiots.

Naiche turned to look at Carbry, who was pulling himself to his feet and brushing the snow off of his suit. "Your... "