forbidden.

Danicka
The last half-hour or so, all of their communication -- abruptly appearing after nearly a week and a half of total separation -- has been via text messages. She tells him: I'm going to New York. He tells her: I'll see you there. A little while later Lukas has an itinerary, or a piece of one; Danicka sends him her flight number and ETA. There's no hotel mentioned, and when he texts her back a snippet of information about a rental car and the city he's actually traveling towards and does she want a ride, about five minutes pass before his phone rings.

When he picks up, Danicka jumps right into it: "A ride to where?"

Lukas
He doesn't even have time to say hello before she jumps right into it. There's a beat of surprise. In the background she can hear muffled conversation, as though he were in a public space.

Then, "To your hotel." Silverware clinks. He's chewing when he speaks up again, and there's a smile on his voice that dulls the edge of this, "Obviously."

Danicka
Obviously, Lukas says, and she knows he's smiling because she can hear it in his voice. She knows the way the tone changes, can almost see the muscles pull at the corners of his mouth. Despite herself, knowing he's smiling makes her lips twitch slightly. It's not quite the fond, patient smile she might give him if they were face to face, but perhaps he, too, can hear an underpinning of amusement alongside the rustling sounds of her packing.

"I'm not staying in a hotel," she says mildly, "I'm staying with my father."

Lukas
A beat of pause. He's not smiling anymore when he replies, "With Vladik in the city?"

Danicka
She sighs so quietly it might not make it. If it weren't Lukas, if he weren't Garou, if she weren't his, he might not hear it. "He doesn't live with my father, and he's still going to be in the city whether I'm in a suite or my old room, so...yes."

Lukas
The pause is a little longer this time.

"What's going on, Danička? This isn't just a shopping trip back to the City."

Danicka
There's a pause on Danicka's end this time, too. She rolls up a pair of jeans and puts it in the compact rolling suitcase she's taking. "I would not fly back to New York City just to go shopping," she says, with the subdued disdain for such extravagance that hints at her more middle-class upbringing.

"Sam came to my apartment last Wednesday trying to get me to have a pizza and watch movies with him. He passed by me in the park a little while ago and followed me for awhile." She pauses here, too, and throws a couple of cotton thongs in with the bikini-cut panties. "I kind of went off on him, but I don't think a word of it sunk in." Beat. "I just want to get out of here for awhile."

Lukas
And this time the silence goes on for a good twenty seconds.

There's no indication of what's happening on Lukas's end. There's this, at least: no one screams, no one dies.

Then he says, low and steady, "If he comes near you again, ever, I want you to tell me. Okay?"

Danicka
Danicka actually, unlike most people, allows the silence to stretch on as long as it needs to. It is a very, very long time. A third of a full minute. She just goes on packing. And no one screams, and no one dies, and his phone doesn't get crushed, and glass doesn't break because he doesn't throw anything.

It's the Okay at the end that changes matters for her. It changes the tone of the order, though it's still clear that an order is what it essentially is. Danicka picks a string off a skirt and then brushes it off her fingertips.

"Okay."

She's leaving the city to get away from Sam hounding her, at least that's how it seems on the outset. It's not a great leap for her to be willing to step back and let someone Sam can't as easily destroy in a frenzy get between her and the Fenrir. Danicka has pride. She just doesn't let it make her a total idiot. She goes on packing, and then takes a breath:

"You still planning on coming to New York?"

Lukas
"Yeah. I'll text you the address of the hotel after I reserve a room." A pause. "I have to go. Call me when you get there, Danička. Safe flight."

The call ends.

--

Lukas
Sometime in the evening of the 1st, or the morning of the 2nd, or ... whenever it is Sam might come home to sleep, the Modi unlocks the door to the room he shares with Sampson. It's dark in the room. Sampson isn't there. He reaches for the light switch and the door suddenly slams shut behind him.

In the next instant Wyrmbreaker is upon him.

The black warbeast might as well be a shadow exploding into rending, tearing life. His deadly teeth find Sam Modine's underbelly and he tears him open, tears something vital loose. It's a single, devastating bite, and it's too sudden to defend against.

Wyrmbreaker doesn't kill his packmate. But it's a near thing, and it's control, not luck.

He doesn't say a word. He stands up, homid again. He's bloodsplattered and horrific, red all over his mouth and all down his throat, red soaking slowly through the improbably clean fabric of dedicated clothes.

The Shadow Lord yanks a crumpled note out of his pocket and tosses it atop Sam, conscious or not. Then, unless the Modi physically attacks him, Lukas walks the fuck out and slams the door behind him.

--

The note, if Sam reads it, is very simple:

You have taken advantage of our brotherhood to overstep your bounds time and again. Thunder's kin remain forbidden to you. Next time you 'forget', I maim you for life.

--

(Relevant rolls, Lessa as witness:

Ambush (Dex/Stealth): Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 3, 3, 6, 6, 6, 6, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 6 at target 6) Re-rolls: 2

Resisted by Sam's Percep/Alert: Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 1, 2, 6, 9 (Success x 1 at target 6)

Free attack, bite -- please note diff is actually 5, but this doesn't make a diff: [ 9 d10 ] 2, 2, 3, 4, 6, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 10, 10 (Success x 9 at target 6) [WP] Re-rolls: 3
Plus additional ambush successes: Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10 (Success x 4 at target 5) Re-rolls: 1

Damage part one: [ 9 d10 ] 1, 4, 6, 6, 7, 9, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 6 at target 6)
Damage part two: [ 8 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 4, 6, 6, 8, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)
Damage part three: [ 4 d10 ] 1, 2, 7, 7 (Success x 1 at target 6)

If Sam rageshifts to a tougher form, you should roll soak against 10 agg. Lukas will pull damage if necessary to avoid killing Sam.)

Sam
Sam has seen this coming for days, he'd been prepared in fact for it to come earlier, after last night there's a realization that kinfolk can be just as petty and cruel as the worst of their masters.

He doesn't get up, doesn't attack his packmate, Fenris wouldn't disapprove. This isn't backing down from a fight, this is standing for punishment. He does however shift on impulse, a four legged form rolling in the bed and letting out a howl of pain as his liver finds the floor. At least, he thinks, I did not die tonight.

Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 3, 4, 7, 8, 8, 9, 9 (Success x 5 at target 6)