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Post by Anastazja Romanov on Dec 3, 2008 0:16:14 GMT -5
Ana pressed her back to the cool wall of the alleyway. It felt good. Good to feel something other than nothing against her skin. Even if it was the cold brick that lay at her back. Her guns were drawn, one in each hand. The bullets? They cost her about a hundred dollars a piece. Liquid silver spilled within the bullets. Her chest burned, her mind swarmed and she felt like she would explode.
Her body ached for release. She needed it. She needed that taste, that copper thickness to spill against her tongue. She slammed her head back against the building and stifled a scream. No. She couldn't. She wasn't a monster like them. So long. She had been alone for so long, and she didn't even know how to truly hunt. She didn't know how to choose the right human.. choose the right vein..but she remembered the taste.
A growling sound came from above her, both behind and in front, and to either side of her. She was cornered. There was no place she could run to. Anna swallowed hard and pulled herself from the wall, and began to run in the direction opposite that she came in. She heard the scrape of feet against the ground, as if someone had jumped off the roof. She didn't look back. SHe couldn't look back. There were more of them. So many more of them.
Vampires. Those beings like herself who lived off the blood of others to survive. The first round pulled off, and then a second. The silver would wound them, but it wouldn't completely stop them. She needed to get back to the warehouse and fast. She had blades there, she should have brought them tonight, but they were a little impractical.
"Fuuuck!" Anna screamed, shooting off a few more rounds.
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Post by Devon Parker on Dec 3, 2008 15:11:13 GMT -5
((Ima jump in if that's cool.))
Devon had never much liked New York City. It was dirty, busy, and smelly enough without being absolutely bloody full of vampires. Goodness knows what else was crawling through the streets that he didn't know about and frankly didn't want to, either. Still, there was a concentration of vampires here that had drawn his attention. Their numbers didn't grow this large unless something was brewing; that was always the case, and the large number of lycans couldn't have been a coincidence either.
He had expected shoot-outs. He had expected bloodshed, yes, even outright slaughter if it came to it. But he hadn't really expected to get shot at the same day of his arrival. Devon hadn't actually done anything; he'd been scouting the area and trying to learn the patterns of a few vampires he had already seen. So when he was hopping across rooftops and bullets whizzed past his ear (expensive ones, he noted), Devon was somewhat less than pleased.
The vampire he crossed up on the roofs that now had a bullet hole in him didn't look too happy either, but it was nothing personal. Still, someone was shooting at vampires, and Devon wanted to know who. He never made friends, but the occasional ally wasn't a bad idea. Nabbing one of the wounded bloodsuckers as it ran past him in the shadows, Devon hit the creature on the head with the barrel of his gun, stunning it, and then jumped down into the alley with the limp body.
"I beg your pardon, were you just shooting at me?" the Brit asked politely, as if discussing the weather.
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Post by Anastazja Romanov on Dec 4, 2008 13:50:47 GMT -5
(Thanks for joining!) Anna continued running, oblivious to anyone having seen her, other than her intended victims. She groaned slightly as she felt the dumpster's side as she passed scrape into her thigh. She bit into her bottom lip and continued moving. She hadn't fed on anything more than animals for a long while, so her body wasn't as quick to heal as it should have been.
Anna continued through and then heard the drop, just before she plowed into the man who dropped in front of her. She glared. Her dark hues turning an icy blue, while she extended her fangs, in a hostile greeting. She knew what he was, without really having proof of it. Is this what they called vampiric instinct? She wondered.
She took a few steps back, the alley was silent, at least for a moment, as if the others were watching the male and female vampire as if they were acting out a play. Anna stared at him a moment before her glare returned.
"Should I be shooting at you?" She asked, cooly, her own accent hinted Russian, despite her desire to erase the sound.
A shadow drifted over the man's face a moment, and she looked up, her right hand extended and shot off a well placed bullet right between the vampires eyes, letting the body fall the several story fall to the ground. Her attention reverted back to the man before her, and she licked her lips lightly. Her mind swam. She shouldn't have come here without feeding, she hadn't even taken a trip to the zoo tonight. Damn. She pressed her back to the wall to control the dizziness mixed with the blood lust that began to burn in her chest.
"Comrade of yours?" Anna asked, keeping her left hand extended, the gun pointing at the man. She didn't trust anyone.
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Post by Devon Parker on Dec 4, 2008 16:07:33 GMT -5
Devon let go of the currently-unconscious vampire, and the body slumped to his feet in a cold huddle. He eyed the gun in front of him with some distaste; he normally didn't appreciate being on the recieving end of those. Especially when the one holding the gun was also a vampire, a fact made obvious not only by sense but also by the fangs on the woman in front of him.
"By all means, no. Foreigners ought to stick together, especially in a city such as this," Devon replied evenly, noting the faint accent, placing it somewhere in the proximity to Russia. He looked at the vampire at his feet, and stood unfazed as another dropped nearby from yet another gunshot. "And especially when our goals seem to run along the same vein. You're quite a good shot, aren't you?" Devon asked rhetorically as he leaned down to examine the neat hole between the victim's eyes.
The one with a bullet in his head probably wouldn't live, but there was a chance. The other, however, definitely would, but he'd be out for a while. Devon didn't mind; live cargo was troublesome enough without it wriggling all over the place and trying to kill you. He observed the young vampire in front of him; she seemed tired, agitated, edging on unwell. He knew that feeling. She needed blood, and soon.
"No, no, I'm new to the area. I actually just arrived in this fine city," he sad sardonically. "You can imagine I was somewhat surprised to be shot at only hours after stepping foot in this place. No one but you it seems even knows I'm here." Devon paused, watching her carefully. "It seems our situations are even more similar than I thought."
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Post by Anastazja Romanov on Dec 4, 2008 16:44:52 GMT -5
Anna watched as he dropped the vampire and rose a brow slightly. She wouldn't drop the gun, not yet. She wondered if he was a strong vampire, wondered if he was the type that was an elder or something. She knew enough to know that Elders didn't take kindly to people killing vampires, especially if one was a vampire.
She passed her tongue against her fangs slightly, bringing them back from their elongated points. "I see, and I'm supposed to trust you, because you're new in town?" She asked incredulously. She passed her gaze from the fallen vampire to the man in front of her once more. "Our goals seem to be the same?" She asked, her expression almost shocked. And then she shrugged. "I'm a fairly new vampire. Only five years since my embrace, and I've been alone since this curse began." She narrowed her gaze a bit, before shifting on her feet, keeping her senses piqued to hear any others that might come. "I've had to learn to take care of myself, yano? Any means possible.. and I'll find out who embraced me, and left me for dead." If that meant killing every vampire she came across, so be it.
Anna's fangs poked out again, as she bit into her bottom lip, a trickle of blood trailed against her mouth, and she suckled the flesh lightly. Her own blood tasted cold, dead, no longer did it have the copper mixed sugar flavor of life.
Anna stared at the man a moment. "Fine city..." She muttered lightly, then her eyes drift a bit. "My bullets weren't aimed for you," She locked her gaze with his once more. "At least not yet, I don't feel as though you pose a threat to me, just now."
Anastazja looked at the man further, her gaze searching for some small quiver, some small notion that he was full of shit and would turn her in on the first chance he got.
"How are our situations similar? Because I'm a new vampire, and you're new to the city?"
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Post by Devon Parker on Dec 7, 2008 17:57:51 GMT -5
"Trust? Really?" Devon could not quite suppress a laugh. "Good god, no. Trust is a human farce, an idea that hold no merit. Trust is what gets you killed." He looked at the gun again, examing it. "No, I wouldn't ask you to trust me, young one. You seem far too intelligent for that."
Only a vampire for five years? She was a full grown woman when she was turned then. Devon wondered if she had had a life, a lover, and felt hate rise in his chest. Some vampire had taken that from her. He watched her carefully for a few moments; this woman looked rather desperate, to both find who turned her, and to find something to feed on.
"And if you find whoever did this to you, laid this curse on your doorstep, and kill him, then what? Are you going to find someone to cut off your head?" Devon mused, stretching his arms out. "I myself have never known a human life, never known a heartbeat, never known warmth. Eighty-four years of living death, hating your species, outcast by all. Count yourself lucky; you have far less reason to be bitter than I do," Devon said darkly. "You and I do much the same thing. You kill vampires in order to locate a single one, the one that ruined your life. I just kill them because I can. It's what I do in unlife," Devon concluded flatly. She didn't need to know the reasoning behind his actions.
No one ever would, either. He was a very secretive person, and there hadn't been anyone in all of his eighty-four years that had broken his shell and torn down his walls. It was a secret he would carry with him, and one that no vampire, human, lycan, or godforsaken combination of the three would ever tear out of him.
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Post by Anastazja Romanov on Dec 9, 2008 14:20:08 GMT -5
Dark mocha hues fell upon the man. Was he laughing at her? Her thumb rubbed the back of the gun, while her index finger cradled the trigger. She, however, wasn't smiling. When he continued to speak, she flinched as if she had been slapped. Human farce, human emotion. It wasn't too long ago that she had been human. She cleared her throat a bit and then locked her gaze once more upon the man. "I've not trusted anyone in five years." She admitted, though loosened her grip a bit on the gun.
Five years ago, her free hand pressed to her abdomen. Five years ago, she would have been a mother, a wife. She would have had a life, she would be only twenty five now. She looked away from the man, though once more tightened her grip on the gun.
Anna watched the man across from her again, though her gaze faltering slightly. "If I.. If I find him, and kill him.. I think I'll be fine with myself after that. To stop him from ripping the life out of someone else, tearing away their hopes, their dreams, their life. It's a lonely existence. Maybe I'll find someone that feels like I do, and I'll not be so lonely. And I'll learn how to hunt, how to feed properly, and.." She shook her head. She watched him, her gaze trailing over each inch of his body, before her eyes fell upon his once more, as he spoke. He was born a vampire? She blinked as she heard him say about killing other vampires. "And do you desire to kill me? I'm a vampire and I'm standing here, with a gun pointed at you."
Anna wouldn't push the issue of knowing why. She wouldn't ask why he wanted to kill his own kind, and he seemed he did it for pleasure, rather than any real reason.
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Post by Devon Parker on Dec 9, 2008 16:00:05 GMT -5
Devon nodded to the woman. Watching her movements carefully, he could see the pain in her face. The hand on her stomach... he wondered what that might mean. Perhaps she had lost more than he had originally assessed. The hate that had been brewing in his chest grew all that much more.
"Then you've learned enough to survive," Devon replied, keeping his tone even. "No, no. I have no sane reason to kill you. You're helping me along, really. The intelligent mad man doesn't destroy those who aid his cause," he said sagely. "At least until they're the last ones left. So I think you're safe for the next couple of centuries."
Devon walked slowly to the alley wall, leaning aginst it, keeping his eyes trained on the gun. Her grip seemed to have lessened. He was never much of one to take in strays, or make friends. Alliances, though...those he could live with. Perhaps this woman actually could help him, given more training, a steady supply of blood... and revenge. Besides...she was attractive.
"Like I said, you and I act similarly. Perhaps we can help each other in a somewhat less confrontational manner." He paused, and frowned. "Where are my manners? My name is Devon, Devon Parker." He held out his hand, wondering if she'd actually shake it or shoot him.
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Post by Anastazja Romanov on Dec 9, 2008 18:55:43 GMT -5
Ana watched the man for another curious moment, before she nodded a bit. "Do you truly need a sane reason to kill a monster?" She murmured gently, gazing down to the floor of the alleyway. A smirk lifted the frown from her mouth, her chin lifting a bit to lock her eyes with the man again. "Good to know."
Anna watched as he moved, her body tensing a bit, though he had only leaned against the wall, like she herself had been. The gun swung against her index finger and it was replaced in the holster beneath her trench coat. Perhaps a bit cliche for her to wear a black leather ankle length trench coat, but it was warm, and kept things hidden. "This doesn't mean I trust you, it just means I don't desire to kill you this minute." She said, patting her chest lightly. She swallowed hard though her throat was dry, and felt like it would crack and bleed any minute.
Anna nodded slightly, "I suppose we do act similarly." She rose a brow to him as he offered a bit of a truce for the meanwhile. "I think we can strike up some sort of deal." She took the outstretched hand, and squeezed firmly. "Anastazja Romanov, though you can call me Anna." It was an odd feeling that struck her. For the passed five years, she had lived vicariously through watching her former life pass by, she had watched her parents drift, her mother's depression lengthen until she died, and then her father's drinking. She watched her fiancee, not even a month after her 'death' skirt off with another woman. And now here was this man, so much like her, someone who was condemned to live a life forever. She gazed upon him, looking more selectively.
His mouth was full, as if it was made for kissing, and he had just the beginning of a beard and goatee growing in. She thought it made him look rugged, not at all metrosexual. She felt the quiver of a smirk climb her lips once more. His eyes. Those were what made her lower her guard around him. She didn't trust him, but maybe, just maybe, one day she would.
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Post by Devon Parker on Dec 9, 2008 21:01:58 GMT -5
"Well, no," Devon replied bluntly. "But it's always better to have one."
He relaxed just slightly as the gun was lowered and holstered. It wasn't that he was afraid of dying; the girl was too inexperienced to overcome him. But bullets hurt like a mitka, and he didn't have time to waste on healing.
"Oh, of course not. I guess we'll have to exist on that level for a while, won't we," he asked, smiling again. She was sharp, this one. He had always appreciated a good mind, especially when on top of a great body. But focus, focus was important.
He'd never considered having a protege, or anything of the sort, but he realized now it was not a bad idea. Devon had certainly helped the few vampires he'd encountered that he thought were worth leaving alive, but had never encountered one who was fighting in a cause so similar to his own.
"Anna. Lovely name. Very well. Here's my offer: I help train you, teach you how to hunt for both killing and feeding purposes, and you won't kill me. You'll kill other vampires as you're doing now. We part ways, and we never see each other again, if we're lucky. That is all I would ask of you. Can you agree to such terms?"
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Post by Anastazja Romanov on Dec 10, 2008 0:25:18 GMT -5
Anna, hearing his reply, couldn't help but laugh. "Ah, so it's not just for kicks then? You don't actually just kill for fun?"
Anna watched him a moment longer, as she sobered herself. She looked younger, looked naive when she smiled, she had been told, and she didn't want to look weak. She nodded a bit. "Yes, It will have to work on that level. We don't have to trust each other, but for now -- For now we can coexist."
She considered his words as he spoke, each word, velvetine to her ears. Each word a promise for more than she had ever been promised before. Life. A better life than the one she had known in life and in death. He was offering her help, offering to train her, offering to teach her how to live all over again. What she wanted to do is leap into his arms and hug him and kiss his cheeks and thank him, but all she could do is nod.
"Thank you. I've been partial to the name Devon myself." That infact had been the name she would have chosen for her child, had it been a boy. Devlyn, had it been a girl. Her chin lifted slightly and nodded. "I think I can manage that." She smiled lightly. She felt a bit of pain in her abdomen when he mentioned leaving one another. How could she leave him, once she got to know him, when he'd be the first of her kind, or any other kind that she had associated with in five years?
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Post by Devon Parker on Dec 10, 2008 17:07:46 GMT -5
Devon looked away from her, out into nothingness. "No. I... have my reasons," he said quietly. The moment passed and he was smiling again. "I can't deny it has some thrill to it, though. Never knowing if the next one will get the best of you... I can't say this younger generation has been much of a problem. No offense," he added quickly. "It's actually a good thing. Only Elders to worry about now."
The outcast raised an eyebrow; this woman, Anna, was far more like him than he had first realized. Frankly, he was surprised that he had found someone so willing as he to exterminate vampires. It had been a precious few hours since he stepped into the city. Perhaps their meeting was not entirely coincidence.
"Good, good. There are certain rules that need to be followed, and I sincerely hope that you can as well as you accept my terms." He smiled more easily now. His name was something he had liked about himself...one of the only things, really. "Well, I guess that's one thing we have in common."
Devon pushed himself off the wall, and unfolded his arms. He had only been here a few hours, yes, but he'd been smart enough to find a place to stay beforehand. He'd been left out in the cold, quite literally, more times than he cared to remember. "Now, you need a good meal, am I right? Would you like to come back to my flat before you pass out, assassin?" He grinned and offered his arm.
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Post by Anastazja Romanov on Dec 11, 2008 16:00:59 GMT -5
Anna thought that for a moment, He looked lost, perhaps as lost to the world as she was, and then he was smiling again, an act that seemed so natural to him. "At first I never enjoyed it, I felt like I was killing a person, because they look like people.. like you.. like me.. and then I remembered what they were... What we are.. and well. I got over that fairly quickly." She murmured. "Younger generation.. Elders.. I know what they mean, but to say I feel one way or another about your opinion or what you've found thus far, I don't know if I've fought Elders or I've fought the younger generation." She answered honestly.
Devon's expression had her curious, the rose brow at her response to him. Had he not thought she'd be willing? She watched him a moment. How could she accept his help when in five years, she had hunted down anything that remotely shared a vampiric gene? He was definitely a curious sort, and he hadn't told her to choose. She still was unsure what a coven was, she thought they were what Witches did.
Anna only nodded at his words. She could follow the simple rule that he offered, at least she hoped she could. She hadn't formed a bond with anyone in five years, and thought that it wouldn't be hard to follow the rule. Her lips quivered into a light smile. To have something in common with him, other than a hatred for their kind, was at least, a start.
Anna watched as he moved from the wall, the action somewhat a poetic slither. Perhaps that sort of grace came with time, for she, at times, still held a certain amount of clumsiness. She started to move, then paused. How had he known? Was it so obvious that she had starved herself? She couldn't deny it, nor deny this feeling that claimed her. "Yes." The answer was simple, an answer for both questions. She noticed the offered arm and offered a curious look of her own. A gentleman? How curious, especially in this age. She remembered from books, on how to properly accept a man's arm, and slid her arm curled around his own, silently thankful for his strength, for if not for him, she probably would have been captured that night.
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Post by Devon Parker on Dec 11, 2008 19:31:08 GMT -5
"I can't say I neccessarily enjoy it, though sometimes that true. Mostly I find satisfaction in the dead. Besides, it's not like killing a living creature," Devon observed as the now walked down the alley into deeper darkness. "We're not alive. No harm killing something that's already dead, really."
Devon sighed, though not in sadness, more out of tedium and continued irritation with his species. "You really were out in the woods, weren't you? Don't take this as an insult, but I'm amazed you made it this long without being hnted down yourself." Despite his inherent hatred of all things vampiric, he had to wonder why sires didn't just explain things to those they turned. It's not like everyone a vampire bites became another vampire. Why didn't they understand that? "You would have fought a younger generation. An Elder could squash you like a fly, and even I'd be hard-pressed to come up with a way to kill one and escape in several pieces. I've come in contact with a few, and it isn't easy to kill them."
I've only managed one...
Devon looked around when they came to the end of the alley. He frowned a bit before leading Anna to the left. "Everything looks different from groundlevel. At least this city is a bit of a grid, and I didn't wander too far; it's hard enough to find my flat. I'm going to apologize in advance, it's not exactly a suite at the Four Seasons. I think I have a card table and the fridge up and running; maybe a few plastic chairs and a lamp. Never been much of a homey person, you know. No reason to be." The vampire shrugged, and kept walking.
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Post by Anastazja Romanov on Dec 14, 2008 21:02:11 GMT -5
Anna stared at the man a moment, and grinned lightly. "Remember who you're talking to, Devon. I enjoy killing them, I enjoy knowing that I'm ridding the world of a monster that could potentially do what whomever did to me." And then it dawned on her. This man could have been who embraced her and left her for dead.
Anna shivered noticeably, though said nothing. "No, not alive.." She muttered lightly, before her gaze turned back to him, as she heard the sigh. "I guess I was.. out in the woods, I mean." She lowered her gaze to the street of the alley. "My mother always told me that I was a survivor, I guess she was both right and wrong. I didn't survive a run-in with some strange vampire, but I managed not to be hunted by others.."
Anna listened to what he had said about those she had fought. She pressed her lips together and lightly shrugged, before resting her head against his shoulder lightly as they walked arm in arm. She lifted her head as he began to speak again and she nodded. "I like this city.. so much easier to blend into the scenery." She shifted her gaze to him, and cleared her throat. "I live in a shitbag motel, that has more roaches than occupants. It's one of those pay by the hour, pay by the day, or pay by the week, sort of joints." She cleared her throat again.. "I'm sure whatever you have is just fine."
Anna was so much different before. She had loved to keep her house nice, she didn't have the best of things, but she had sewn slightly worn curtains to make a couch cover. She had a scratched up table, but she could make it look good. And she had loved to cook. No need for any of that anymore. Anna rested her head upon his shoulder once more. Part of her wanted to cry, Part of her wanted to hide, but all of her just kept moving.
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