The Competition

[Jayde Archer]

Jayde didn't usually frequent clubs other than her own precious Eternity, but every once and a while she explored what other clubs the city had to offer. The streets were lined with second-rate clubs and bars and most of them didn't have a line or a invitee list. It made her want to chuckle contemptuously. Eternity was the most exclusive club the city had to offer and it wasn't because it catered to only the rich and famous, though they often found their way inside, but it was because it was an immortals only club. But the humans didn't know that. As far as they were aware, their name just wasn't on the picky list.

Sometimes Jayde would walk along the street outside Eternity to see the long line that had gathered. Many loyal patrons smiled and nodded to her. But it was easy for her to pick out the humans. They just carried themselves differently, not to mention they had a very distinct cattle-like smell to them.

And the smell of cow was strong as ever in the Moonlight Maze, a competing club. Of course it could never meet the standards that Eternity had to offer. That was already known to Jayde, but it was fun to check it out none the less. Maybe let loose. She smirked to herself as she waited only a few minuted before she was let inside the club. It was large, she gave it that, and it was incredibly lively, but she gave credit to the humans where it was due. They knew how to enjoy themselves. So she assumed came with the territory of having a short life. Having lived over 200 years, it was hard to get the same kind of enjoyment out of the things she's been doing for a century. None the less, she told herself she was going to try and enjoy herself.

So she decided to go with a deep red dress that hugged her form flatteringly. Jayde wasn't one to be ashamed of her body. She used it to her advantage and she wasn't against human advances. They had their interesting quirks. But she sometimes couldn't help but feel strange when she saw a human as food and as a bed warmer. There was just something twisted about that. Jayde moved through the crowd with a practiced and natural grace and she easily made it to the bar. She instantly got the bartender's attention, a middle-aged man who's been doing this for a long time. She ordered a vodka tonic and he nodded with a smile before he went to fill her order. It was done quickly and Jayde slipped him the money before turning her back to the bar to look back out at the crowd, a smirk on her face all the while.

"Interesting," she purred to herself before taking a sip of her drink.

[Aaron "Hawkes" Carlyle]

Humans. As a collective group, they formed a harmonic community of imperfection and insecurity. They drank to get drunker, dressed to be noticed and inevitably acted like fools because they were finally drunk and still hungry for attention. It was hard for Aaron to forget himself when he was constantly set on edge by the presence of possible prey. He never felt wholly human because, well, he simply wasn't; not anymore, nor did he see any way of turning back.

Aaron took a sip of his mixed drink, not entirely sure what he'd even ordered. He was sitting at the bar in order to look inconspicuous, and it was working for the most part. It was a successful ruse that withstood eye-contact with strangers and any possible first glances. To anyone looking from the outside, he was just a normal patron sitting on his own to enjoy his girly club drink.

Aaron still didn't know what he was drinking, but it was the sweetest thing in the room... until he caught his eyes on the bosom of a fair-skinned blonde. Actually, fair-skinned was an understatement. She didn't have a blemish in sight.

She stood in front of the bar and ordered her drink, Aaron's eyes immediately darting away from her breasts to watch the ice in his drink sink to the bottom of his glass as he sucked up the rest of it.

The lycan wet his lips, his olfactory perception translating into brief arousal. He ordered another drink and avoided looking at the hot blonde a second time, but he couldn't resist. Aaron looked up at her and allowed his eyes to follow her slender neck down to the dips of her shoulders. She stood straight, her physical features pronounced. What a fine specimen.

Something other than her tits and her ass made his blood pressure rise. It was her scent -- she didn't quite have one underneath all that perfume. It was as if she were a pretty little hollow casing housing something much older and much more dangerous than her sex appeal led on. She was one of them. A member of the race of supernatural immortals.

Aaron had beheld the very same scent hundreds of times before. Identifying creatures of the night among thousands of human commuters was a challenge, but when they were so close to one such as Aaron, it was almost too easy. Aaron realized he'd been staring at her, and he chose to look away. Could she also sense him?

Shrugging the possibility away, he ordered another drink, this time some Swedish imported vodka. It wasn't wise to mix alcohol, but he needed a stronger drink to kill his senses so he could enjoy himself for once. His phone was vibrating on and off all through the night, and he'd decided to ignore it even though it was his boss, Mr. Cobb. He'd gotten a few texts from his new partner Tony about something "real important." No time for work tonight, tonight was his night.

"Interesting," he heard a soft whisper that erupted from her lips and could practically feel the sweet warmth radiating from her voice when she spoke, despite how loud the music was. He almost responded to her, but was delivered his vodka just in time to drown his lips. Aaron felt so compelled to act on his instincts, but he didn't know what he wanted to do. Did he want to take her to bed or take her apart?

His phone vibrated for the thirtieth time, and it broke him from his trance. Aaron let out a long sigh and picked up the phone. "What is it?" he polished off his drink and rushed to the hallway leading to the restroom for as much peace and quiet as he could salvage.

"Terry's dead. I don't know what to do man, he was our friend man. He was our friend and now he's just fucking dead!" Aaron recognized the drunken slurs of his young partner, Tony. It took a moment to register, but Aaron's heart skipped a beat when he fully understood the news. "Terry's dead," he said flatly, as if meaning to ask a question. Tony just sniffed in affirmation, his voice warped by bad service and heavy drinking. "Who killed him?" He bit his lower lip and waited for Tony to respond, who was too hysterical to speak.
"One of those Russian guys, I don't know."
"What does Cobb want us to do?"
"Nothin'." The two of them retained a steady silence for several seconds.

Figures. Aaron took a deep breath and exhaled. "Look, go to sleep, you're working yourself up. We'll deal with this in the morning," Aaron paused, wanting to say something more, but unable to put his condolences into words. "Where the fuck were you man? I've been calling you all night and I get your goddamn voicemail. What, ain't got time for your fucking friend?" Aaron shut the phone, unsure of how to handle the situation any further.

Our friend... your friend. Why did he say that as if Aaron were a member of their family? They weren't his friends, they were basically just co-workers. They had beers together and that was about it. Why did he feel sorry for any of them? They were criminals.

Yet, so was he. Aaron reclaimed his seat and empty glass, ordering another drink. He wasn't going to bother checking his voice-mail, nor was he going to get involved in criminal politics. Eurasian crime syndicates held much more power over a small family of Irish gangsters. They'd be obliterated if they tried to make any moves from here.

Terry's death was a message: we're taking your turf for ourselves, and fuck you if you have a problem with it. This wasn't any of Aaron's concern. Cobb paid him for odd jobs and that was it. He could get up and walk away at any time, it was not his responsibility.

Tonight was still his night, and it was also very young. He was going to enjoy himself.

As his eyes carried over towards the blonde once again, he was still unsure of what sort of enjoyment he wanted to partake in. The beast within him was writhing and snarling, practically begging for release. What had gotten into him?

Everything looked so... delicious.

Aaron polished off his last drink and hunched further down into his chair.

[Evelyn van Buren]

There was nothing too creepy about what she was doing.

In Evelyn's defence, she'd had other plans tonight. Her social life had been suffering lately. She'd wanted to go out on the town with her odd posse of human and Lycan girlfriends. Instead, as she readied herself, she'd received a call from one of her boys telling her one of the many people she liked to keep track of had been spotted at The Moonlight Maze. So far alone.

Evelyn had been looking for a chance to talk to Jayde Archer for a while now. A few years, in fact. She'd just been so busy faking her way through peace talks with the Vampires. And of course with Logan, who would be verging dangerously close to being crowned Dalai Lama of New York City had she not seen him stake a Vampire a foot from her face.

Jayde's club was a place Evelyn had frequented a few times, but always with a concealed guard. Every time she'd gone, she'd wondered, with a sinking heart, whether the bouncers had actually been jotting her name down in their lists. It was a paranoid thought, but had she been in Jayde's place, she'd have wanted to know at least a little bit about her client base. Maybe more.

Was Eternity really a neutral zone? The question had gnawed at Evelyn and she knew the only way to soothe her fear of an ambush on the dance floor by zealot leeches was to meet the mysterious woman running the place. It wasn't just for her own skin that Evelyn was so eager to see her. It was for the unwary Lycans wandering into Eternity, running the risk of never leaving. As their Beta, she had a responsibility to them - which extended to nightclubs.

Upon hearing of Ms. Archer's presence in a familiar downtown club, Evelyn had cancelled her more-entertaining plans via mass-text, ignored her friends' returning replies and called her guard to meet her at the club instead.

Had she been making a social call here, she wouldn't have brought them along. But she'd learned that in her line of work, office hours went less lethally if she was accompanied by a handful of plain-clothed bodyguards. She didn't think a woman like Jayde would cause a stir in the middle of a human club, but that one percent chance was a risk Evelyn wasn't willing to take.

And who said Jayde was going to be the only potential adversary in the vicinity? On any given night, rogue vampires and Lycans mingled among the mortal masses.

Evelyn didn't bother to drive. She'd been around since before New York was born. In the spirit of inconspicuousness, she cabbed it from her midtown apartment. Stepping out feet from the club entrance (and the long line outside), she adjusted the above-knee deep-pink asymmetrical dress she'd chosen and paired with a short leather jacket and black booties, ran a hand through her tousled brown waves and entered, hoping her relaxed appearance would not be a demerit point.

Getting into the place was easy enough - for her anyway - but avoiding the tactless leers thrown her way by human men proved harder. She halted beside the doors for a moment, feeling male gazes burn into her while she allowed her olfactory sense to adjust to the sudden burst of information. Her ears began to ache immediately and Evelyn closed her eyes for a moment, deadening her senses after that first wave.

Three, possibly four other Lycans beside herself were in here tonight. One scent seemed to be growing increasingly stronger. Male, probably moving toward her. Two more entered just behind her, her own men, who immediately immersed into the crowd without a telltale glance her way. Evelyn tested the air again. Maybe three vampires? She couldn't get a handle on more info than that.

She scanned the room for Jayde, rising up on her tiptoes to look over the taller patrons. It was hard to see the bar from here with the sheer number of people in her way. That, her accomplice had said, was where Jayde had been.

A man was approaching her, drink in hand and lust in eye. He scanned her up and down as he walked. Evelyn expelled a mild groan. She didn't have time to make up dumb excuses to repel him. Unlike many of her kin, Evelyn had never been the type to aggressively frighten off a human (unless thoroughly provoked) - she regretted that at times like these.

Carefully avoiding looking at him, she inhaled, held her breath, and plunged into the forest of swaying bodies; in a manner that was almost natural, she half-danced her way through the crowd of gyrating humans, melding in seamlessly as she made for the bar.

Almost instantly, she got a lock on Jayde. Evelyn approached, flashing a brilliant smile at the man on the stool beside Jayde. She knew Jayde would have sensed her approach already, but that was all right.

Evelyn stopped in her tracks, inquisitive brown eyes lingering on Jayde's neighbour. He returned her smile and got up instantly.

"Seat for the lady?"

She smiled at him again and sat down, brushing off his offer for a drink and turning to the bartender as a silent dismissal. Ordering a cranberry vodka shot, she waited for the bartender to move away before turning her head toward Jayde. "This is a surprising change of scenery for you, Miss Archer, isn't it?" she asked casually.

Then she smiled, a smile that didn't quite reach her cold eyes. "Evelyn van Buren. I've wanted to meet you for a while now. You're an elusive person. Almost paranoid."

[Jayde Archer]

Jayde always made it a point to be aware of her surroundings. And after two centuries, she felt like she had it down to a science. She was aware of the bartender's heavy eyes on her body, hoping she would finish her drink just to turn around and order another one. She was aware of the werewolf sitting not too far away from her. Jayde was also attuned to his shifting eyes, the way they ran up and down her form. She wanted to smirk, but he was of no consequence to her. She was also tuned into the few Vampires on the dance floor. They were easy to pick out. Having run a nightclub catering strictly to immortals, Jayde had come to understand the way each specie moved. They had their signature styles, and while individualized, it all stemmed from similar primal origins. Vampires moved with a deliberate and practiced grace, a predatory sway, while werewolves, she noticed, moved more with a primal rage. Their movements were loud and determined.

So Jayde noticed when the werewolf beside her answered his phone and moved away from her. And she also noticed the beautiful werewolf who entered the club with a few bodyguards. To the untrained eye, the bodyguards looked like they were patrons of their own standings, but Jayde was quick to pick up on the rouse. Never being one to be out of the loop, Jayde recognized the werewolf as the beta... a second-in-command if you will for the werewolves. The bestial names the werewolves came up were most interesting she always thought. She didn't necessarily look down on the werewolves. She really had no opinion of them. Her fellow Vampires liked to put themselves on a pedestal and claim superiority, when in her experience, vampires caused as much trouble in her nightclub as the werewolves did. There really were few difference between them, but it was laughable that they made war out of it. Mind you, Jayde was no fanatic for peace, but war simply did not profit her.

Jayde initial suspicions were confirmed when the beta approached her at the bar. The werewolf ordered a drink and sent Jayde a smile, but she noticed the weariness in her eyes and the blond woman couldn't help but smirk knowingly as she turned to her new companion. She flipped her hair over her shoulder before taking another sip of her drink. She looked over the beta's shoulder to see the werewolf returning to his seat, a weary, tired look on his face. Gray eyes shifted back to the brunette.

"Strange coming from a woman who roams the city streets with body guards on her heel." Jayde off-handedly gestured to the dance floor where one particular body guard was making himself sparse. "But being the Beta of the werewolves, it's only expected." Jayde smiled knowingly, showing her she probably had just as much information as the woman before her. "But paranoia comes in handy when you have feral wolves scratching for release." Jayde's eyes shifted to the man sitting behind Evelyn knowingly.

[Aaron "Hawkes" Carlyle]

Where there was an alpha, there had to be a beta flaunting their secondary superiority. She reeked of perfume, like the blonde, but she was much more reserved in her physical presentation. Reserved, if you could even properly call it that. Aaron looked at her in the form of a glance that didn't last much longer than a second.

She was... cute. Aaron scowled and went to order yet another drink, but the bartender ignored him. The heavy-drinking lycan took a hint and let his hands fold neatly around his empty glass cup. He was quite bored now that he had nothing to intoxicate himself with. All of the attractive artists and free-spirited women ventured into the big city looking for all sorts of things. There were at least twenty of them getting wasted in this club... and he was sitting at the bar with an empty drink.

Not to mention the abundance of spooky night-dwellers filling up the club, two of which were dangerously close to him, probably aware of his disease. Ooh, Aaron found his ice-breaker! They shared something in common.

He decided to eavesdrop on the two women a few stools down from him, which was an extremely easy thing to do, given that his abilities magnified each of his five senses tremendously.

Miss Archer... and Evelyn van Buren. He didn't recognize either name because they weren't very present in his line of work. Though, if he'd met women like the two of them during one of his jobs, he probably wouldn't ever go back to working for a fat, bald, Irish prick.

Evelyn van Buren... it sounded so official as it rolled off the top of his head. He looked over his shoulder and spotted two well-dressed men mixing in the crowd trying to remain unseen. They were just like the two of them, no doubt brainless lackeys who'd do anything to stare at her ass all day. Did they even get paychecks, or was that their pay-off?

He was going onto some unrelated tangent of thoughts. There goes the A.D.D.

Aaron's phone hummed in the pocket of his faded blue jeans, his hand immediately swiping it to get a look at who was calling him next. He answered the phone and shook the ice in his cup, smiling warmly. "A bit busy," he said gruffly, tightening his jacket collar and awaiting a reply.

"So getting shit-faced is how you're spending your time when you should be locking your door and preparing for war?" Cobb said, his voice filled that typical imbecilic rage. "I thought you wanted me to come see you tomorrow," he raised his glass and drank some of the melted ice. "Tonight's my night, I'll do with it what I please." He looked over his shoulder and searched for whoever might be watching him.

"How did you know where I was?" Aaron asked, eyeing the bartender expectantly once again. "My slut of a daughter is getting it from one of the bouncers that works there, that's how. He knows who you are, that you work for me." Cobb let the air between them burn slowly with that false sense of possession. "Oh, really." Aaron shook his empty glass, beckoning for a refill yet again. "Got any cranberry juice back there? I could use it for my, y'know, kidneys." The bartender laughed and traded Aaron's small glass in for a much taller one. "You'd better tip me well, or I'll start spitting in your drinks." The bartender replied. The two of them exchanged quiet chuckles, and Aaron turned away to listen to Cobb's bitching.

"Are you fucking listening to me? You're gonna get yourself killed." Cobb almost sounded sincere. "They ain't after me, they're after you and your operation. I'm not a part of your family and I've got nothing to do with this turf war." Aaron wet his thumb with cranberry juice and licked it. "Mmm, that's sweet. I do owe you a tip! Thank you sir." Aaron swallowed an unreasonably large mouthful of cranberry juice... for his kidneys.

"The fuck did you say? You work for me, you fucking retard. You don't think they know who you are?" Aaron shook his head, as if Cobb could see him, and the two sat quietly together, both expecting responses from the other. "Okay, okay. This ain't proper, talking business over the phone. Get yourself some tail, and stay in bed for the rest of the week." Cobb let out an extended phlegm-filled wheeze.
"This is my business phone, though."
"Don't be a smart ass! Come see me tomorrow and we'll get shit done. Until then, keep your ass off of the radar, okay?"
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say boss."
"Kid... I'm sorry about Terry. He was my great aunt's kid. I don't know what I'm gonna tell her. I got her oldest son killed." Cobb didn't say anything after that.

That caught him by surprise. "Got to go." Aaron terminated the phone call and shut the phone off for the night. That was the last business call he was going to make. It was time to admire the backsides of vampiric bombshells and lycan businesswomen.

They're not my fucking family. Not my friends, either.

Aaron had been working for Cobb for about a year and a half. It was a way to keep his head above water, but that's all it was. It was a way of surviving. He'd known Terry and the guys back at Cobb's bar for quite awhile, considering things. Tony came into the picture six months after Cobb had Aaron driving his soldiers all across the city. He was practically a cab driver.

They started dealing with the one-percenters and the small-time thugs, but when the Eurasians came into the picture, Cobb tried to meet with them. That's how Terry got himself killed. Cobb tried to take a handful of the American pie, and he ended up with crumbs.

Cobb and the rest of his enforcers viewed Aaron as a valuable asset, nothing more. They were all gangsters and they'd turn on him at any moment if it meant self-preservation. He was going to end his business relationship with Cobb and the rest of them and carry on with his life before he got mixed in with the kind of trouble he'd narrowly avoided for several decades. He wasn't going to stick with them because they'd gotten all cozy with having him around.

"I'll take that spit in my drink." He said quietly, trying to get his mind off of the current topic of the night.

None of the strange presences his senses had encountered decided to engage him, so he was calmed for the most part. The members of opposite bloodlines continued to engage each other in conversation, and the stupid lackeys shuffled among the partying crowd on the dance-floor. Aaron sighed and sipped his cranberry juice.

The time was coming once more. He would soon have to reinvent himself all over again. What an utter waste. Suddenly, being a lackey under some beta leader belonging to an organization of pretentious assholes didn't seem so bad.

Neither did laying under her... or Miss Archer. Both at the same time would be cool.

Is this what happens when you haven't gotten laid in awhile? Aaron destroyed his cranberry juice and got up to take a leak. Hopefully he'd be more well-adjusted to alluring monsters when he returned. He wondered what the hell was getting into him. Must be the girly drinks.

[Evelyn van Buren]

At Jayde's tactful hint, Evelyn's eyebrows had arched in inquiry. Without much regard to subtlety, she swivelled slightly in her seat, glancing over her shoulder, rested one elbow on the smooth bar and looked down it, at the man in question.

It was the werewolf she'd scented previously, the one who smelled like he'd been more wolf than man at one point. She'd not let the thought worry her, but now she took a moment to examine him as he shifted his gaze off the dance floor and sipped his drink.

Embarrassment wasn't an aspect of Evelyn's daily repertoire of feelings. So she really didn't worry about being caught when he set his drink down and their eyes met. There wasn't a werewolf in the city that she hesitated to stare down. It was just the way she was. Some might have assumed she'd let her position go to her head, but Evelyn had been born unafraid and confident in her right to be outrageous.

Rogue wolves, however, were not her favourite people. In fact, it'd be almost a contest between which she hated more - vampires or the vicious lone Lycans running rampant. This one, however, didn't look particularly like he wanted to rip into the nearest human; to the untrained eye, he was a handsome man relaxing at the bar after a week's hard work.

But after Jayde's comment and Evelyn's earlier observation at the door, Evelyn decided to play it safe to prevent any impending disasters. This was a roomful of drunken humans and he was a lawless wolf.

She didn't intend to rough him up unless absolutely needed. She had people to do that for her and she glanced over at them and let them follow her gaze to the man.

Leveling her gaze on his, Evelyn tilted her head just slightly to one side and lifted an eyebrow, silently letting him know she was watching him. It would no doubt infuriate him, but this was her turf and it was about time somebody reminded him of that.

Then, just to infuriate him some more (and because, Beta though she might be, Evelyn was still very much female), she winked at him with just a hint of a smirk on the edges of her lips, and turned back to Jayde, tucking a caramel-brown lock of hair behind her ear.

"We wolves get antsy when we've been cooped up too long. I'll try not to let it ruin your night," she remarked dryly. She took a second shot from the bartender and threw it down before she sobered. "Jesting aside, I'll be blunt. I've been a patron at your club for a while now...I've always wondered if each time would be my last. You understand, I'm sure, why I'd feel that way..." She trailed off there, watching Jayde with some consternation.

It was hard to figure out who to trust in this political mish-mash they were navigating.

"In your position, I don't believe you'd want skirmishes in Eternity...and you've opened your doors to my kind. I guess I'm just trying to figure out whether you feel at all motivated to pick a side between the races. Because we both know what side you'd pick. And it wouldn't end well for any Lycan who happened to be in Eternity at that point."

She turned and signaled at the bartender.

[Jayde Archer]

Jayde watched carefully as Evelyn acknowledged her words, turning her head to look at the man. She noticed he just got off the phone, another call. He must be a busy man, but something about him intrigued her. She had become attuned to those mixed in with shady business, and she had an overwhelming feeling that this man was in with the wrong people. Not that Jayde considered criminals the wrong people. It's just that criminals that weren't her or working for her were the wrong people. She raised an eyebrow at him curiously, showing him he was indeed getting her attention.

Then she turned her gray eyes back to the beta as she spoke. Her words brought a soft smirk to her full lips. Even as her tone grew more grim, her lips did not falter to put on the charming smile. Her eyes drifted back to the other wolf, making sure to keep an eye on him, but it was more to look him over once more. Attractive... for a wolf. She took a sip of her drink, her eyes locking with his over the rim of her glass. Surely he was listening in on the conversation by now since Evelyn made it a point to toy with the man. Her admiration of the woman grew with each passing second.

After a long sip of her drink, Jayde lowered her glass and looked at Evelyn. She eyed the woman up and down for a moment before smiling. "Unfortunately, my kind are just as difficult to control as yours. I do despise it when fights break out in my club, but seeing how wolves are too stubborn and bats are too haughty, there seems to be no avoiding conflict." She paused a moment. Her voice grew more serious with her next words. "But if you've ever been in Eternity when feathers were ruffled, you would see just how quickly my people are on to stop the situation from escalating. Rarely have I ever had to take serious measures to ensure peace within my club."

She took another sip of her drink. "War benefits no one, Miss Buren. I do not intend to associate myself with the conflict. I would lose half my customers if people can't get a hold of themselves." Jayde took a moment to let the information seep in. "I'm not going to propagandize my club for your uneasy nerves. All I can say is try and enjoy yourself while you're there. Maybe take home a pleasant man for your bed. I could name a few loyal patrons if you're interested." She smiled pleasantly again.