Verity Alice Price

Convincing Sarah to stay behind wasn't nearly as hard as it would usually have been. She'd been scared, and that was something she wasn't used to. Uncle Mike got her set up in one corner of the main room with a pile of computer pieces Verity didn't recognize. She settled in to connecting wires and configuring settings, looking happy as a clam. Everybody had their comfort zones.

Uncle Mike, however, refused to stay behind. Not that Verity complained much; with him along, they could take the car. They rode in his sedan, blending smoothly into the traffic. If the Covenant was watching for them suspiciously, they'd know to be watching the high ground. Hopefully, being on the roads would keep her and Liam under their radar.

( They drove down the streets in silence )

Sunil never returned to the counter, going upstairs to pack as soon as Verity came back downstairs. Then they left their (fully human) staff to clean and close up behind them, the five of them leaving with the last crowd about five minutes before lunchtime closing. Neither brother liked that very much, but Verity was going to use every trick at their disposal to keep them safe and that included taking advantage of the Covenant's refusal to involve ordinary humans in their 'holy work.'

It took almost two hours to get back to the Nest, thanks to Uncle Mike's evasive driving techniques, which included a trip over the Key Bridge. Verity and Liam spent most of the drive watching the mirrors for signs of pursuit. They never came.

Sunil and Rochak goggled shamelessly as they entered the Nest. Each of them had a suitcase, and Rochak was dragging a cooler filled with gingerbread, cookies, and jars of assorted types of sugar in both liquid and granular forms. Verity had never realized there were so many kinds of natural sweetener. ( Watching a Madhura pack his kitchen was definitely an education. )

[Adapted from Midnight, Blue-Light Special by Seanan McGuire and preplayed (and coded!) by firstofitskind. Up late because conventions are delightful but exhausting. NFI, NFB.]

"So this is what the street-level entrance looks like these days," Verity said, as she and Liam rounded the exited the alleyway onto the main street. After a night of strategizing about how to handle the oncoming purge, the three of them had broke around dawn for some much-needed sleep, agreeing to meet up again that evening to start warning other folks. The Freakshow was a pretty good place to start, though that meant making a few necessary concessions.

Ryan might be willing to let Dominic in by himself every so often, but two nights in a row was pushing it. For Dominic to get in without much trouble, Liam and Verity needed to be with him. And Dominic's aversion to running across rooftops meant that they needed to meet him on the sidewalk below as he approached the front door on foot.

( The front entrance was painted to look like the mouth of a tent )
[And the beat goes on! Preplayed and coded by the amazing firstofitskind, adapted from Seanan McGuire's Midnight Blue-Light Special. NFB, NFI Previous Post]