Denise Feene (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
brujah_barkeep) wrote2015-08-11 09:05 am
brujah_barkeep) wrote2015-08-11 09:05 am
Entry tags:
Backstory
From her birth in the late 1600s, it was well known in Camarilla circles that the young Olivia Turpin was destined for Kindred life. In fact, her birth was manipulated by a Ventrue Primogen named Darius Kaur who, through his social connections, arranged for the marriage of Olivia’s parents, a young count and the daughter of a penniless lord, in the hopes that they would produce a female offspring. A year after they were married, Alexander and Mary Turpin were proud to announce the birth of their daughter, Olivia.
Olivia grew up, raised in the finest of high society, receiving the best of everything that money could buy. Tutors educated her and the church kept a spirited child in line. She was introduced at court at a very young age, thanks to her maternal grandfather's title, and even met Darius Kaur once or twice before the age of twenty. On the whole, she found him utterly unimpressive, although he could certainly dance well for an old man and dancing was always Olivia's favorite thing. In fact, she liked any sort of activity that allowed her to move. It was something of a concern to her parents that their daughter was more interested in running through the halls than sitting still to do her needlepoint, but on the whole, it wasn't the worst of things.
Alexander Turpin arranged for a marriage between his daughter and the son of his cousin, a very wealthy boy named Jonas Mayenca. The marriage was set for the week after Olivia’s twenty first birthday and it seemed that Olivia and Jonas actually liked one another. Jonas could dance and it helped that they were close to the same age. Kaur was determined to Embrace Olivia on her twenty first birthday, but in the weeks leading up to that day, a Brujah rival of Kaur’s, named Marquez, caught wind of his intentions and decided to screw him over. Marquez and Kaur had been responsible for the deaths of countless of each others's underlings during the Spanish Inquisition. Just how and why an animosity between the two of them developed is largely unknown, but it was intense and raging and resulted in Olivia's life changing forever.
As Olivia and her parents were riding back to their country estate one evening, the Brujah attacked the carriage. The footman and coachman managed to get away, but Olivia’s parents were brutally slaughtered in front of her and Olivia was Embraced. Marquez, having no real desire to be associated with an illegally sired childe, abandoned Olivia near the edge of a forest. He went on to Embrace Jonas Mayenca as well, worried that Kaur might change his plans and Embrace the boy instead. Oliva understood none of this, however, and would not learn the full truth for a very long time.
She was discovered by an Independent Gangrel elder named Areous a few nights later, as she struggled to survive an existence she did not fully comprehend. Although Areous knew full well that she was Brujah, he adopted her, breaking with Gangrel traditions to help her in the transition from mortal to vampiric life. He diligently taught her the ins and outs of Kindred society and Denise's Brujah abilities manifested. She proved a valuable asset to Areous defending him in both social and physical confrontations. Olivia's feelings over her parents' death were left largely unaddressed. Areous was aware of the fact that she was avoiding the trauma. Like a father, he did what he could to support her through her darker moments and they gradually became a quiet background noise.
Together, Olivia and her adoptive Sire traveled Europe. Although a staunch Independent, Areous’ business was in mediating between Camarilla and Sabbat factions in an effort to minimize Masquerade breeches that would draw the attention of vampire hunters. Olivia was helpful in these endeavors but she soon became restless. The unresolved matter of her existence left her desperate to know more about why Marquez did what he did to her. Realizing that Areous couldn't help her, she eventually parted from her mentor, on good terms, to try and find her actual Sire. Areous was wary of the decision, but acknowledged that she needed to make her own mistakes. His parting words were words of warning however: She needed to control her passions. Olivia did not understand what he meant by that.
With only the faint memory of Marquez's face and voice to go on, Olivia moved south. In Spain, she chanced to meet Darius Kaur. Unbeknownst to her, Kaur had gone to Jonas, after Olivia's family was slaughtered. He found the boy, also a newborn and abandoned Brujah, and took him under his wing. He offered Olivia membership to the Camarilla and the same mentorship, but she declined. Enraged, he tried to force her to drink his blood. Areous had warned Olivia of the danger in that, how blood binding would reduce her to another Cainite's slave. As fierce as a Gangrel, Olivia fought back, sinking her teeth into Kaur's throat. Although she tried to stop it, she started drinking. And kept drinking. And drinking. Until, without meaning to, she sucked the soul clean out of Kaur, an act among Kindred known as "diablerie," punishable by death. She fled the country. It was widely held in the Primogen Counsel that he had been diablerized by Marquez and no blood hunt was called, as most of the Primogens wanted Darius dead anyway, due to his social manipulations during the Inquisition that got many of their ghouls killed.
The act of dialberie frightened Olivia. She realized the full extent to which she was capable of evil. Having Kaur's soul swimming around inside of her made her sick and caused her to spend many years hiding from all people and vampires. The feral, Gangrel tendencies she picked up from Areous grew stronger as Olivia shed the remaining skin of her mortal life as a girl of the privileged class. She forced herself to remain isolated, fighting against the whispers of Kaur and his ambition inside of her until, at last, the diablerie cooled. When she was finally ready to be among people again, Olivia's first and only thought was of Areous.
Olivia returned to Areous in 1780. Although he suspected she'd done something horrible, as a sign of deep love and trust, Areous never questioned her about it. Together, they returned to London where Areous continued his work with Olivia’s help. Unfortunately, her time in the wilderness left Olivia with little patience for politics. It was clear that her help was only out of love for Areous, not out of actual interest. When not on duty, she often drifted to pubs and taverns, enjoying the rough environment, which was the closest she could get to the wilderness within the confines of a city.
The two of them traveled to Virginia shortly after their reunion. Although Olivia hoped that a change of scenery would cure her restlessness, she only found herself more agitated. On Areous' advice, Olivia took off on a quest for Golconda, a sort of Cainite state of nirvana. Unfortunately, Olivia didn't have the first clue how to begin this quest, and simply ended up spending more time alone in the woods. She eventually gave up on finding peace and returned to civilization, largely living off of odd jobs and nights in the pubs.
As she went along, she was frequently called upon by Areous to do some scouting of the vampire scene in local towns across the newly formed country. She would dutifully report back to him, but in Manhattan in 1790, a Camarilla Gangrel intercepted one of her communications. Mistaking her and Areous for Anarchs, he confronted Olivia. Words were exchanged, quickly leading to blows. Although Olivia could have easily trounced him, using her social disciplines, she preferred to fight physically, like a Gangrel. He was much more powerful than she and soon beat her into a torpor. The Gangrel turned her over to the Camarilla government for execution, but the Sheriff, a friend of Areous, hid her body until everyone was certain she was dead. In 1804, Areous finally arrived to claim and revive Olivia.
Olivia wanted to start over. She'd tried to find peace and it hadn't worked. She'd tried to find her Sire and it hadn't worked. She'd tried doing Areous' work and it hadn't worked. Disheartened, Olivia was facing an identity crisis and she didn't want to rise to the occasion. A chance encounter with a friend of Areous', however, changed her outlook.
The Malkavian was named Artemis. She was the leader of a Cainite cult called the Order of the Silver Crescent. Half a peace-keeping force, half a school for the protection and training of Dhampir, the Order had a strong hold in the New World and had, for years, been calling on Areous. He had, in fact, kept many of the members of the cult informed of Olivia's development and activity, in the hopes that one day she would demonstrate the potential to join.
Members of the order traveled the country, on Artemis' command, sorting out trouble in the Kindred world. It all sounded too much like politics to Olivia, but Artemis had a different take. She described their work as a fight. Olivia liked fights and she liked the idea of giving them some kind of meaning. What really drove the point home, however, was the realization that Artemis' work meant that no young girls would have to suffer the fate that Olivia once suffered at the hands of Marquez. No innocent bystander would watch her parents die and be murdered for the sake of a feud between two immortals. Artemis encouraged her to try doing Areous work again. She also helped Olivia to reinvent herself. Olivia changed her name to "Denise," using this to try to close the chapter of unresolved questions in her life.
With new vigor, Denise plunged herself into Areous' world. Throughout the latter half of the 1800s, she became whatever he needed her to be, in whatever city he and Artemis had business. She became more accustomed to the company of other people, leaving behind her wilderness days. Hints of the mortal girl she'd once been, who loved to socialize and dance, began to reemerge. This was a time of her third iteration, a cross between Olivia Turpin the society brat and Olivia Turpin the reclusive vampire bruiser.
In 1900, as a new century began, Denise was invited to join the Order of the Silver Crescent as a full member, on her own merits. She accepted the offer and went through the initiation rites. It was during this time that she began to learn more about Cainite lore. She was introduced to the Book of Nod and the history of the vampire race, dating all the way back to Caine and Abel. Not being the quickest of studies, it took Denise years to gain a basic understanding, but in that time, she grew close to the other members of the cult. It was a new family for Denise.
During the 1970s, Areous caught wind of what was happening on the vampire scene in Atlanta. Trouble was brewing in the form of a Sabbat incursion that would lead to catastrophic collateral damage among the mortals. He set Denise up, working for the Keeper of Elysium in a bar in order to get reports about the situation. That was when Denise fell in love. Being a bartender proved to be everything Denise never knew she wanted. It was a position of subversive power, allowing her to know everything about everyone without having to give any of herself, unless she wanted to. She could combine business with pleasure, using the social scene of a bar to gather information for Areous and Artemis.
Unfortunately, the Keeper of Elysium had a few enemies, one of whom decided to burn down the bar. Denise got away, fleeing to Augusta where a member of the Order of the Silver Crescent, Elsbeth Lennox, served as Sheriff. Denise was able to hide out there until the situation calmed down. Shortly thereafter, Denise was contacted by Artemis. Being something of a Seer, Artemis had a certain premonition about Youngston, Ohio. Denise promptly moved to Ohio in 1992 and opened her own bar, the Diamond Tavern. Since Denise was fiercely independent, politically, the bar quickly became the local hangout, a sort of neutral territory without the Camarilla taint of Elysium.
For a very long while, Denise's life there was uneventful. She moved through her nights simply enjoying her time, making friends among the various clans, regardless of political leanings. She grew especially close to a newborn Gangrel woman named Joey. Unfortunately, a cold war was brewing between the Camarilla and Sabbat in town, and the Independent members of the city were feeling pressure to join one side or the other by 2005. Denise came up with a third alternative, bringing together the Independents of the city as an unofficial, third sect. This had disastrous results, however, as her third sect turned to a powerful occultist, the Don of the Giovanni clan, for protection.
Don Giovanni required favors of Denise, Joey, and the others, leading them deeper and deeper into occult mysteries that they were ill-equipped to deal with. Both Areous and Artemis urged Denise to get out, but there was no safe way of doing so. Further complicating the matter was the sudden arrival of Jonas in the city. He had been following Denise's trail for years. He wanted her to join him as an Anarch and leave the city. Although she was tempted by his offer, his blunt confession of the fact that he'd seen her diablerize Kaur frightened her. In the end, the other members of her Independent sect, fearing he had dirt on all of them and would likely get them killed, staked Jonas and packed him away in a crate.
Another startling revelation occurred when Marquez showed up in the city. His greeting of, "Hey, didn't I sire you?" did not go over with well Denise, who was disgruntled to feel that particular wound open again. Despite her years of rehabilitation and transformation, she fully intended to trap and diablerize Marquez. Before she could carry out her plan, however, another Brujah in the city with a grudge against him deprived Marquez of his head. When her temper cooled, Denise realized how close she'd come to doing something unforgivable. She decided that Youngston was getting too dangerous for her and she wanted to leave. Areous arrived to help her make preparations, but it was too late. Denise sent Areous away, for his own protection, but chose to stay, to try and fix the mistakes she'd made. Areous was amazed to see that his beloved daughter had grown up without his realizing it.
Don Giovanni was up to something. It started with the people of the city manifesting symptoms of a strange disease. The disease spread, the population declining too rapidly to be natural. Most of the vampires of Youngston, including Denise, started to manifest signs of diseased blood as well. Soon, the corpses were piling up. And those corpses, one fateful evening, rose as zombies right before Denise's eyes.
Before too long, Don Giovanni's motives were revealed. He wanted to rip open the veil between the world of the living and the dead. This would destroy the world, most likely. Denise and Joey turned against the Don, joining with the rest of the city to fight him. They managed to stop his ritual from being realized, but the price was high. Youngston and all of its inhabitants were dragged down into the underworld.
Denise's memories on her time in the underworld are fuzzy at best. Half cartoonish (something about an Easter egg hunt?) and half horrifying (well, they don't call it 'Hell' for nothing), time went by in a haze. All she knows for sure is that one minute she was there, the next, she was sprawled on the floor of Artemis' mansion in California. She was told about how the city of Youngston just completely disappeared and that there had only been two survivors to get out alive, Jonas (whose whereabouts were unknown) and a Giovanni named Skinny who was currently in a block of concrete in New York. Denise herself was pulled out by a Dhampir coven working for Artemis.
Deeply disturbed by what she'd gone through, Denise elected to stay close to Artemis. She took a position as one of the guards for the mansion and its surrounding compound. Artemis frequently asked Denise to serve as her personal bodyguard, when she visited Court. Slowly, but surely, Denise began to sort through her feelings (she had a lot of them!) about Youngston. In fact, she was just about recovered when, all of a sudden, the shadows closed in on her...
Olivia grew up, raised in the finest of high society, receiving the best of everything that money could buy. Tutors educated her and the church kept a spirited child in line. She was introduced at court at a very young age, thanks to her maternal grandfather's title, and even met Darius Kaur once or twice before the age of twenty. On the whole, she found him utterly unimpressive, although he could certainly dance well for an old man and dancing was always Olivia's favorite thing. In fact, she liked any sort of activity that allowed her to move. It was something of a concern to her parents that their daughter was more interested in running through the halls than sitting still to do her needlepoint, but on the whole, it wasn't the worst of things.
Alexander Turpin arranged for a marriage between his daughter and the son of his cousin, a very wealthy boy named Jonas Mayenca. The marriage was set for the week after Olivia’s twenty first birthday and it seemed that Olivia and Jonas actually liked one another. Jonas could dance and it helped that they were close to the same age. Kaur was determined to Embrace Olivia on her twenty first birthday, but in the weeks leading up to that day, a Brujah rival of Kaur’s, named Marquez, caught wind of his intentions and decided to screw him over. Marquez and Kaur had been responsible for the deaths of countless of each others's underlings during the Spanish Inquisition. Just how and why an animosity between the two of them developed is largely unknown, but it was intense and raging and resulted in Olivia's life changing forever.
As Olivia and her parents were riding back to their country estate one evening, the Brujah attacked the carriage. The footman and coachman managed to get away, but Olivia’s parents were brutally slaughtered in front of her and Olivia was Embraced. Marquez, having no real desire to be associated with an illegally sired childe, abandoned Olivia near the edge of a forest. He went on to Embrace Jonas Mayenca as well, worried that Kaur might change his plans and Embrace the boy instead. Oliva understood none of this, however, and would not learn the full truth for a very long time.
She was discovered by an Independent Gangrel elder named Areous a few nights later, as she struggled to survive an existence she did not fully comprehend. Although Areous knew full well that she was Brujah, he adopted her, breaking with Gangrel traditions to help her in the transition from mortal to vampiric life. He diligently taught her the ins and outs of Kindred society and Denise's Brujah abilities manifested. She proved a valuable asset to Areous defending him in both social and physical confrontations. Olivia's feelings over her parents' death were left largely unaddressed. Areous was aware of the fact that she was avoiding the trauma. Like a father, he did what he could to support her through her darker moments and they gradually became a quiet background noise.
Together, Olivia and her adoptive Sire traveled Europe. Although a staunch Independent, Areous’ business was in mediating between Camarilla and Sabbat factions in an effort to minimize Masquerade breeches that would draw the attention of vampire hunters. Olivia was helpful in these endeavors but she soon became restless. The unresolved matter of her existence left her desperate to know more about why Marquez did what he did to her. Realizing that Areous couldn't help her, she eventually parted from her mentor, on good terms, to try and find her actual Sire. Areous was wary of the decision, but acknowledged that she needed to make her own mistakes. His parting words were words of warning however: She needed to control her passions. Olivia did not understand what he meant by that.
With only the faint memory of Marquez's face and voice to go on, Olivia moved south. In Spain, she chanced to meet Darius Kaur. Unbeknownst to her, Kaur had gone to Jonas, after Olivia's family was slaughtered. He found the boy, also a newborn and abandoned Brujah, and took him under his wing. He offered Olivia membership to the Camarilla and the same mentorship, but she declined. Enraged, he tried to force her to drink his blood. Areous had warned Olivia of the danger in that, how blood binding would reduce her to another Cainite's slave. As fierce as a Gangrel, Olivia fought back, sinking her teeth into Kaur's throat. Although she tried to stop it, she started drinking. And kept drinking. And drinking. Until, without meaning to, she sucked the soul clean out of Kaur, an act among Kindred known as "diablerie," punishable by death. She fled the country. It was widely held in the Primogen Counsel that he had been diablerized by Marquez and no blood hunt was called, as most of the Primogens wanted Darius dead anyway, due to his social manipulations during the Inquisition that got many of their ghouls killed.
The act of dialberie frightened Olivia. She realized the full extent to which she was capable of evil. Having Kaur's soul swimming around inside of her made her sick and caused her to spend many years hiding from all people and vampires. The feral, Gangrel tendencies she picked up from Areous grew stronger as Olivia shed the remaining skin of her mortal life as a girl of the privileged class. She forced herself to remain isolated, fighting against the whispers of Kaur and his ambition inside of her until, at last, the diablerie cooled. When she was finally ready to be among people again, Olivia's first and only thought was of Areous.
Olivia returned to Areous in 1780. Although he suspected she'd done something horrible, as a sign of deep love and trust, Areous never questioned her about it. Together, they returned to London where Areous continued his work with Olivia’s help. Unfortunately, her time in the wilderness left Olivia with little patience for politics. It was clear that her help was only out of love for Areous, not out of actual interest. When not on duty, she often drifted to pubs and taverns, enjoying the rough environment, which was the closest she could get to the wilderness within the confines of a city.
The two of them traveled to Virginia shortly after their reunion. Although Olivia hoped that a change of scenery would cure her restlessness, she only found herself more agitated. On Areous' advice, Olivia took off on a quest for Golconda, a sort of Cainite state of nirvana. Unfortunately, Olivia didn't have the first clue how to begin this quest, and simply ended up spending more time alone in the woods. She eventually gave up on finding peace and returned to civilization, largely living off of odd jobs and nights in the pubs.
As she went along, she was frequently called upon by Areous to do some scouting of the vampire scene in local towns across the newly formed country. She would dutifully report back to him, but in Manhattan in 1790, a Camarilla Gangrel intercepted one of her communications. Mistaking her and Areous for Anarchs, he confronted Olivia. Words were exchanged, quickly leading to blows. Although Olivia could have easily trounced him, using her social disciplines, she preferred to fight physically, like a Gangrel. He was much more powerful than she and soon beat her into a torpor. The Gangrel turned her over to the Camarilla government for execution, but the Sheriff, a friend of Areous, hid her body until everyone was certain she was dead. In 1804, Areous finally arrived to claim and revive Olivia.
Olivia wanted to start over. She'd tried to find peace and it hadn't worked. She'd tried to find her Sire and it hadn't worked. She'd tried doing Areous' work and it hadn't worked. Disheartened, Olivia was facing an identity crisis and she didn't want to rise to the occasion. A chance encounter with a friend of Areous', however, changed her outlook.
The Malkavian was named Artemis. She was the leader of a Cainite cult called the Order of the Silver Crescent. Half a peace-keeping force, half a school for the protection and training of Dhampir, the Order had a strong hold in the New World and had, for years, been calling on Areous. He had, in fact, kept many of the members of the cult informed of Olivia's development and activity, in the hopes that one day she would demonstrate the potential to join.
Members of the order traveled the country, on Artemis' command, sorting out trouble in the Kindred world. It all sounded too much like politics to Olivia, but Artemis had a different take. She described their work as a fight. Olivia liked fights and she liked the idea of giving them some kind of meaning. What really drove the point home, however, was the realization that Artemis' work meant that no young girls would have to suffer the fate that Olivia once suffered at the hands of Marquez. No innocent bystander would watch her parents die and be murdered for the sake of a feud between two immortals. Artemis encouraged her to try doing Areous work again. She also helped Olivia to reinvent herself. Olivia changed her name to "Denise," using this to try to close the chapter of unresolved questions in her life.
With new vigor, Denise plunged herself into Areous' world. Throughout the latter half of the 1800s, she became whatever he needed her to be, in whatever city he and Artemis had business. She became more accustomed to the company of other people, leaving behind her wilderness days. Hints of the mortal girl she'd once been, who loved to socialize and dance, began to reemerge. This was a time of her third iteration, a cross between Olivia Turpin the society brat and Olivia Turpin the reclusive vampire bruiser.
In 1900, as a new century began, Denise was invited to join the Order of the Silver Crescent as a full member, on her own merits. She accepted the offer and went through the initiation rites. It was during this time that she began to learn more about Cainite lore. She was introduced to the Book of Nod and the history of the vampire race, dating all the way back to Caine and Abel. Not being the quickest of studies, it took Denise years to gain a basic understanding, but in that time, she grew close to the other members of the cult. It was a new family for Denise.
During the 1970s, Areous caught wind of what was happening on the vampire scene in Atlanta. Trouble was brewing in the form of a Sabbat incursion that would lead to catastrophic collateral damage among the mortals. He set Denise up, working for the Keeper of Elysium in a bar in order to get reports about the situation. That was when Denise fell in love. Being a bartender proved to be everything Denise never knew she wanted. It was a position of subversive power, allowing her to know everything about everyone without having to give any of herself, unless she wanted to. She could combine business with pleasure, using the social scene of a bar to gather information for Areous and Artemis.
Unfortunately, the Keeper of Elysium had a few enemies, one of whom decided to burn down the bar. Denise got away, fleeing to Augusta where a member of the Order of the Silver Crescent, Elsbeth Lennox, served as Sheriff. Denise was able to hide out there until the situation calmed down. Shortly thereafter, Denise was contacted by Artemis. Being something of a Seer, Artemis had a certain premonition about Youngston, Ohio. Denise promptly moved to Ohio in 1992 and opened her own bar, the Diamond Tavern. Since Denise was fiercely independent, politically, the bar quickly became the local hangout, a sort of neutral territory without the Camarilla taint of Elysium.
For a very long while, Denise's life there was uneventful. She moved through her nights simply enjoying her time, making friends among the various clans, regardless of political leanings. She grew especially close to a newborn Gangrel woman named Joey. Unfortunately, a cold war was brewing between the Camarilla and Sabbat in town, and the Independent members of the city were feeling pressure to join one side or the other by 2005. Denise came up with a third alternative, bringing together the Independents of the city as an unofficial, third sect. This had disastrous results, however, as her third sect turned to a powerful occultist, the Don of the Giovanni clan, for protection.
Don Giovanni required favors of Denise, Joey, and the others, leading them deeper and deeper into occult mysteries that they were ill-equipped to deal with. Both Areous and Artemis urged Denise to get out, but there was no safe way of doing so. Further complicating the matter was the sudden arrival of Jonas in the city. He had been following Denise's trail for years. He wanted her to join him as an Anarch and leave the city. Although she was tempted by his offer, his blunt confession of the fact that he'd seen her diablerize Kaur frightened her. In the end, the other members of her Independent sect, fearing he had dirt on all of them and would likely get them killed, staked Jonas and packed him away in a crate.
Another startling revelation occurred when Marquez showed up in the city. His greeting of, "Hey, didn't I sire you?" did not go over with well Denise, who was disgruntled to feel that particular wound open again. Despite her years of rehabilitation and transformation, she fully intended to trap and diablerize Marquez. Before she could carry out her plan, however, another Brujah in the city with a grudge against him deprived Marquez of his head. When her temper cooled, Denise realized how close she'd come to doing something unforgivable. She decided that Youngston was getting too dangerous for her and she wanted to leave. Areous arrived to help her make preparations, but it was too late. Denise sent Areous away, for his own protection, but chose to stay, to try and fix the mistakes she'd made. Areous was amazed to see that his beloved daughter had grown up without his realizing it.
Don Giovanni was up to something. It started with the people of the city manifesting symptoms of a strange disease. The disease spread, the population declining too rapidly to be natural. Most of the vampires of Youngston, including Denise, started to manifest signs of diseased blood as well. Soon, the corpses were piling up. And those corpses, one fateful evening, rose as zombies right before Denise's eyes.
Before too long, Don Giovanni's motives were revealed. He wanted to rip open the veil between the world of the living and the dead. This would destroy the world, most likely. Denise and Joey turned against the Don, joining with the rest of the city to fight him. They managed to stop his ritual from being realized, but the price was high. Youngston and all of its inhabitants were dragged down into the underworld.
Denise's memories on her time in the underworld are fuzzy at best. Half cartoonish (something about an Easter egg hunt?) and half horrifying (well, they don't call it 'Hell' for nothing), time went by in a haze. All she knows for sure is that one minute she was there, the next, she was sprawled on the floor of Artemis' mansion in California. She was told about how the city of Youngston just completely disappeared and that there had only been two survivors to get out alive, Jonas (whose whereabouts were unknown) and a Giovanni named Skinny who was currently in a block of concrete in New York. Denise herself was pulled out by a Dhampir coven working for Artemis.
Deeply disturbed by what she'd gone through, Denise elected to stay close to Artemis. She took a position as one of the guards for the mansion and its surrounding compound. Artemis frequently asked Denise to serve as her personal bodyguard, when she visited Court. Slowly, but surely, Denise began to sort through her feelings (she had a lot of them!) about Youngston. In fact, she was just about recovered when, all of a sudden, the shadows closed in on her...