Chasing Away Terrors (Open)

[Aiden Devereaux]

The night had produced a good outcome at the business. As Aiden had hoped for. People danced, laughed and flirted all around him. Of course, that was what happened on a Friday night when everyone was off for the weekend. He had come to the building aiming to find a pretty face to lull and spend the rest of his evening with. But it was rather hard when he didn’t leave the corner booth he had claimed and shrunk into the shadow the crease. His drink remained barely touched, only a couple sips taken from its liquid.

All day, he had been plagued with the thoughts of his past. He had officially turned into one of THEM. The nobodies that sulked in the corner of a hotspot and pitied themselves while dragging down the rest of the party. But he couldn’t help it. It was, after all, the anniversary to his friends’ deaths and he mentally mourned for their losses. The creature, the cause of their deaths, haunted his mind, its image still fresh as though he saw it only yesterday. It was hard remembering such things. He wanted to redeem their wasted deaths and kill whatever it was, but he had never found out where it went. Never even found out what it was. But if he believed in story tales, which he didn’t, he would have said a werewolf.

The idea alone made him snort in disgusted laughter. Clearing his throat as though he was going to be caught over the blaring music, he sat up tall. Aiden would NOT be brought down by this. He was not going to let it best him yet again. He refused. In a triumphant self-success, he grabbed his drink and downed the contents, taking advantage of the liquid courage. Once empty, he slid from his seat and approached the bar, replenishing his stock. The second glass was half gone in seconds as his eyes glanced around the floor at all the dancers. Who would he choose to chase tonight?

[Evelyn van Buren]

Nightclubs presented a simultaneous hell and pleasure to a werewolf.

As much as she loved socialising with human society like any average mid-twenties girl, Evelyn could never quite decide whether she hated or loved the thumping bass beats that felt like they were reverberating inside her skull, leaking painfully into her very nerves.

It almost amde her want to curl up in fetal position in the plush leather seat she'd been sitting in and plug up her ears.

As a matter of fact...

"Are you seriously wearing ear plugs?" Yasmine, a pretty Ukranian woman Evelyn often met through her work with EAI, peered doubtfully across the table at the brunette. She pointed ot her own ears with a quizzical expression, clearly thinking Evelyn couldn't hear her.

Evelyn smiled in response, reaching up to touch the two little cones jammed in her ears. What Yasmine didn't know was that she could still hear pretty well. The earplugs were designed for human hearing. They left a little milimeter's gap around their edges. She could hear a fair amount through that gap. Like Yasmine's voice and the leering yells of a bunch of college frat boys at the booth two away from theirs.

Winking at her drinking buddy, Evelyn pulled her hair forward over her ears to conceal the buds. "I have a headache. Plus," she lied, "I can still sort of hear. They're not very good."

Dismissing this telltale sign of Evelyn's inhumanity like only a human civilian could, Yasmine shrugged and threw back another vodka shot from their little tray. Then she stood up. "I'm gonna go dance."

Evelyn declined the offer to join. "I'll get us another round." She swung her legs out of the booth, tugged down her snakeskin leather skirt, adjusted the cropped corset and blouse she'd paired it with, and rose gracefully to her feet.

As she cruised through the club toward the bar, Evelyn sized up the male patrons she passed. Most of them cast lingering glances her way, their eyes pricking like lazers into her bare legs. She never dated or slept around (usually anyway) but though confident in herself, she'd always been just slightly hesitant in her sexuality. Being leered at constantly discomfited her - when she'd been a young girl, that kind of thing was thought of as vulgar.

Tucking her hair behind her ear in an unconscious habit, and hastily releasing it when she remembered the ear bud (albeit the club was so dark, she doubted it made a difference), Evelyn gained the bar.

Tonight was a carefree night, one of a rare few in her schedule lately. She'd been held up for the past few days, communicating with some rogue Lycans about a series of murders around the city.

Evelyn didn't like to think she was cold-blooded, at least not when it came to humans. Yet she was having difficulty hiding her amusement that these lycans were killing faceless humans (the types nobody would miss) and draining their bodies to make it seem like Vampires had done it - at least to the hunters. A Vampire wouldn't have been fooled.

Evelyn grabbed a tray of shots and began her precarious journey back to their booth. She held the tray tightly in front of her, trying not to elbow anyone in the face as she navigated her way. At the edges of the dance floor, a man grabbed her with a rather drunken lack of finesse.

Alarmed, fighting the instinctive wolf's reaction to retaliate violently, Evelyn grabbed one of the shots off the tray and hurled it at his eyes. He yelled as the alcohol burned and she wriggled free, smiling as she sauntered on.

"You bitch!" he yelled after her. Her smile widened into a decidedly amused smirk as she set the tray down at her booth and slipped slowly into her seat. He had no idea how right he was. Bitch indeed.

[Aiden Devereaux]

If there was one thing Aiden was good at, it was blending in. Not being seen. He spent so many years for the various gangs being a side body, the one no one noticed until too late. Most of his life adult life was spent doing it. And habits broke hard.

I pretty and tall thing sauntered toward the bar. Slender hands easily brushed at brown locks, only to quickly release the work she had done. Not without quickly flashing the pieces wedged within. He casually took another elongated drag from his drink, watching her from across the bar. Of course he was due for a cigarette if he was thinking smoking terms for a drink. Yikes. Aiden received a better view as a person walked away from the bar. He found himself curious of her now.

Walking back to her booth with her tray of shots, he knew instantly she was either with a group or just really a lush. She was grabbed in the next moment by a rather absurdly drunk individual and Aiden, in no way, could hold back his sudden burst of laughter as liquor met the man’s eyes. She had spunk, and lots of it. And that poor bastard just had his night ruined. Aiden held a hand to his mouth, stifling back the amusement of her reaction. Most woman would just push back and scream a thousand curses and even possibly slap. Apparently this one had different morals.

Patting the bar, he motioned for the barkeep. “One of whatever that woman just got at the other end.” While he waited for the shot to be poured, he glanced to her location, ensuring she didn’t move again. “Thank you.” He quickly stated before throwing some money to the table. He knew he over paid, but it made no problem. He would make up the cash at another point. He always did that when he was in a hurry.

Walking briskly, he slowed only as he reached her visual range. He set the drink down on the table and slid it to her. “For the fallen soldier.” He had to yell over the music, but kept his smile the whole while. “His sacrifice does not go in vein.” Aiden was a confident guy. He had to be to survive. Hell, when you were a legally wanted man and needed to still keep active in daily life, you had to find ways to dealing with people without government. Otherwise, you were walked all over.

And here was the ultimate answer to the question. Her reaction. He had seen it all since his college days and this one, was not one he could guess at.

[Evelyn van Buren]

Even with her ears plugged up, Evelyn was supremely conscious of her surroundings. Particularly after being groped.

So her ears twitched just slightly as she heard the clack of footsteps coming toward her beneath the musical din of the room. She glanced up, ready to dismiss the noise as a passer-by, but then her eyes landed on a tall man heading in her direction, a shot glass in hand.

His gaze was pointed right at her. Frowning just slightly, she returned her eyes to the tray of shots before her, listening carefully as his footsteps closed the distance.

He stopped two feet away. Evelyn's downcast gaze picked out his shoes. With a squeal of glass on polished wood, a shot glass slid to a halt in front of her and she lifted curious eyes to the stranger. She wasn't alarmed - this man was human. Unless he had a concealed weapon on him, she was all right.

She surveyed him across the table. He was handsome in an aristocratic way. Mid-twenties to early thirties, she judged, and his demeanor was a mix of cocky and confident that was refreshingly varied from the usual one-liners she got in this place.

Her lips twitched into the slightest smile as she looked him up and down in a fleeting glance. "I shall need a lot more of these to get me through the war." She tilted her head just slightly toward the rowdy table of trust-find frat boys nearby. They had momentarily stopped hollering at her. People like them were the reason Eternity thrived. They just simply were not let in.

Evelyn made a mental note to send Jayde Archer - Eternity's Vampire proprietress - a fruit basket, and took the offered glass, giving it an inaudible sniff for offending substances. Despite his easy smile, she was going to be careful. Good-looking men had the potential to be deadlier than their peers.

Finding the scent satisfactory, she nudged her tray slightly in his direction as a silent invitation, leaned back in her seat as she waited for him to grab a shot, and then threw hers down with a simple "cheers".

Relishing in the surge of electricity it sent through her veins, she set the glass down, uncharacteristically cheerful after the previous round. Reaching up, she fiddled with a lock of hair over her ear, adjusting it to hide the ear bud, just in case he could see it. That wouldn't look too odd or anything.

To distract him from the maneuver, she twirled the lock of hair between two fingers and let it settle freely against her shoulder. Her eyes skipped over to find Yasmine in the crowd, spotting her despite the poor lighting. She turned her attention back to the man. He was infinitely more interesting at this point. But human men generally did not hold her interest long, mostly because they tended to judge her on a scale meant for mortal women.

"So is this your standard...pick-up technique? Empathy for lost alcohol?" she asked, amusement in her eyes. 21st-century slang was something she was still immersing in her usually formal vocabulary. She leaned forward, resting her elbows gently on the tabletop as she watched him with the direct, unflinching stare her lupine form had gifted her. "I can tell you it works better than Paws back there."

Her face twitched slightly in a grimace of disgust before it smoothed over into amusement again.

[Aiden Devereaux]

Eyes said a lot about a person, and this woman’s were everywhere. Psychologically speaking, eyes dictated a person’s ‘inner dilemmas’. A submissive person refused eye contact simply to prevent a feral challenge. Dominant people couldn’t stop staring. Or at least that’s what they said. Aiden knew as well, when a person lacked full eye contact, it wasn’t always submission. Sometimes, a person had a lot to hide. He watched where her browns shifted to, his own emerald following the path. Instantly he was overcome with a frown and could not help but agree with her statement. Frat boys could be the worse. He remembered the days and couldn’t help but wonder; had he been just as annoying? It was a wonder such individuals managed to make it into the real world.

Shaking his head away from their sight, he sighed lightly, returning his gaze back to her. Up close, he could see her features much clearer, as well as the details of her hair. The lighting was of no help, but it beat noticing her across a room and estimating. He almost missed her silent invitation. Broadening his smile, he nodded and plucked a shot glass from the tray. Aiden offered her a “cheers” before downing his as she had.

Leaning against the edge of the booth’s backing, his eyes followed hers over the room. Sometimes he hated his training, hated why he needed it. It interfered with the simple pleasures of life. He would much rather be oblivious to her wandering eyes and think he was top of his game. Like the frat boys. Scratch that, instantly Aiden had a newfound appreciation for what he did. Mid swig of his beer in his other hand, he nearly snorted the alcohol through his nostrils. So blunt. As soon as she called him out on his actions, he instantly felt like an ass.

Rubbing a hand above his top lip, his smile turned nervous and he oddly found his own eyes adverting from her. Hell he was only missing the blood red in his cheeks now. A reassuring statement had his back on track in seconds. “To be honest, I think at this rate, Paws is going to find his night quite ruined. That much alcohol never ends well.”

Her demeanor had changed in seconds. Now eye contact was a constant and the hairs on the back of his neck prickled. Almost as they had with Elijah. How he had wished it was a prickle of the liquor setting in or an intense attraction to the woman in front of him. Though there was attraction, it wasn’t the same prickle. It was the feeling of someone unseen, watching you. Waiting for you to make a wrong move that would cost you your life.

Rolling his shoulders, he forced a broad smile, dismissing the images of his dead friends from his mind. And the beast that had caused it all. “I’m asking this as a very serious question. But what are you doing in a place like this? I see you in more of a place with the red velvet and better company. Here, you have the cave men of the world knocking women over the head with their clubs.”

[Evelyn van Buren]

She'd made a mistake. A simple misstep that, had she not caught it, would have given her away to experienced eyes.

He'd recoiled, imperceptibly but not enough for her to miss the move. He'd noticed the steel in her eyes, listened to that most valuable instinct that humans possessed and she envied - the instinct of something not quite right. In her race, it was a repressed feeling - there wasn't much that Lycans feared belowground, and that was where much of her pack stayed for most of their time. The combination of hunters, vampires and rogue Lycans kept them well ensconced in their home. As a result, many of her Lycans were unsuited for a life of danger.

She had not intended to alarm him. Sometimes she simply forgot how her stare looked to a human. He was right to recoil.

It was the gaze of a wolf focusing on a target. Usually, the target was never a human, but she was aware that, traditionally, humans had been on the receiving end of a wolf's hungry gaze. For him to recognize the danger - unlike most of his peers - it spoke volumes about his sense of self-preservation.

He'd caught what Yasmine had dismissed. The woman had always joked that Evelyn had a killer death stare. Men looked away when she fixed her eyes on them, their arguments dying in their throats. But that was all the reaction she ever got. Evelyn's physical appearance was hardly threatening. No civilian had ever connected her eyes to a killer’s.

With a sick lurch in her stomach, she considered the possibility that the charming man sitting before her was a hunter. As he recovered and began to address her, her eyes looked him over with a new curiosity, attempting to peer behind the smiling facade.

Did you, she wondered, taking a slow sip of her next shot and then a longer swallow to empty it, did you see that look in the eyes of a Lycan before you shot them?

She set the empty glass down. Her eyes returned to him again, morbid curiosity disguised behind her playful interest in what he was saying. She'd grown used to always filtering and checking herself. She wore the calm, entertained look of a contented woman well.

Because she had to.

He was right about one thing - she probably stuck out here. But she didn't entirely mind.

"Are you saying you're one of them?" she asked, after he'd given his opinion of the men around them. Her smile widened slightly tauntingly as she scanned him up and down in one swift glance. "Funny, I'd have thought the same about you. Except you clearly have a lot of practice with the ladies."

She glanced over his shoulder at a laughing group of people. "You're right - I do normally grace slightly somber places - but I like it here...There's this energy that you can't find anywhere else."

Her tone shifted to wistfulness. What she couldn't tell him was that she couldn't remember the last time she'd seen a group of Lycan having as much fun as their human counterparts six feet away. Because the situation in the city didn't allow for that kind of recklessness. Her Lycans feared getting drunk on the streets and rowdy, attention-drawing behaviour. There was always the fear of a lurking Vampire gang or worse, a hunter.

Well, she had a hard time deciding which was worse.

Abruptly, she changed topics. Fiddling with another shot glass, she looked up at him through her lashes coyly. "So what's a man like you doing in New York?" It was such a loaded question that she feared even a civilian would pick up on the heavy meaning between the lines. But she couldn't help herself - even though she knew he'd never admit to being one of the men who hunted her kind.

She didn't have to know, she told herself. Once she left tonight, the chances of running into him again were slim to none. The anxiety of knowing she had brought a work friend - a human at that - with her added a permanent sense of entrapment - she could not afford for anyone to link her professional persona with the supernatural side of her.

[Aiden Devereaux]

((I am so sorry about that late reply, had some personal issue come up.))

Aiden loved to smile, but even if he didn’t he wouldn’t be able to resist at her response. He simply shook his head and took a swig of his beer in hand. There was no way he could deny her statement. Aiden was mode definitely not one of the cavemen frats but he did have his way with the ladies. Once upon a time. It seemed his knack had slowly dissipated for whatever reason. Perhaps he was getting too involved in work and not concentrating enough on the fun life?

There was a point to her explanation he could not deny himself. Places like this did manage to hold a lively nature. But it was one of the few places he was comfortable going to. There were not many high quality lounges he could exactly hide and blend into when the cops rolled around. At least people in these places didn’t seem to really pay attention. It was one of the few places he could get decently comfortable. Not completely, but enough.

Slowly he lazily swished his beer in his glass, watching the liquid create a hurricane effect on the inside. Her question was a tough one, but you couldn’t do what Aiden did and not have something ready to just throw out there. With a lightly roll of the shoulders, he smirked and sighed. “Pretty much business. I was debating only passing by, but I don’t know. There’s an opening here and I think I might take it. I like sightseeing and trying out different places. You know, change of scenery and all. But this city has managed to pull me in.”

Which was a very true statement. He really had only had one other serious interaction with a resident and the man had scared the hell out of him at first, but proved to be a good guy. The southern usually were. Business was plentiful in a big place like this and it seemed like crime leaked out of every crack in the streets. It was easy enough for him to hide here.

Curiosity was overcoming him, wanting to know what she did here and know more. But it was questions like that that were dangerous. If he began asking them, so would she. That is, if she didn’t intend to already. “Speaking of, you seem like you might have been living here awhile, any suggestions on other fun nightlife? Any other entertaining places you think I should check out?”

[Evelyn van Buren]

[OoC: Don't worry about it. I always take a couple days after reading a post to reply so take your time. XD]

From his answer Evelyn deduced a few things at once:

1. He did not like drawing attention to himself. She could see it in the shifting strain of his shoulders. It was a contradictory thought considering he had been the first to make a move tonight.

2. He did not love to talk about himself. His answer was so vague, it could have passed as her own!
3. He was a mover. She guessed he didn't stick around one place for very long. She absently wondered if he left a trail behind. Most people did.

4. More than likely, he was on his own. And single.

That made him almost a perfect candidate for an unexplainable abduction by a rogue Lycan or Vampire. Evelyn pursed her lips just slightly and took a sip of her last shot glass. She hoped for his sake, he’d move on to another city. Despite her lack of interest in humans and their lives, she found no joy in hearing about violent attacks on them by her hungry kin – or by a leech. She closed her eyes, feeling her head start to spin as the alcohol filtered into her bloodstream. Because of her high metabolism, it never kept her drunk long, and she needed a lot to stay immersed in a pleasing, half-intoxicated state, but when she did finally feel the buzz, it shot to her brain pretty damn fast.

She opened her eyes and speared the man with a softened version of her previous searing stare. He was starting to look slightly blurred around the edges as he spoke and she felt herself smile wickedly all of a sudden.

The word "Eternity" was on the tip of her tongue when common sense reached over her shoulder and put a filter back in her mouth.

"Oh!" Evelyn murmured. That mistake would have cost her. And him. She shook her head and set her shot glass down carefully. "To be honest, this is one of the livelier places. I doubt you'd like most of the others I've been to." She paused and added, "They're all rather prissy."

She hoped he wouldn't keep asking questions like this. Her tongue was definitely unravelling if she'd even considered Eternity in response to a human's question. Eternity was supernatural-only for a reason. If he went in there, it would only be to serve as a blood whore.

Right. Change of topic. He was a man; it couldn’t be that hard to distract him. She shifted and swung her legs out of the booth again with a purposefully sensual grace, rising slowly with a hand braced on the back of her seat. That part was maybe not so sensual. She was having trouble keeping her balance already.

Her eyes flicked to his, gleaming with impish intent. "You know, you're never going to enjoy this place to its full potential if you don't join in."

She tossed straying curls of dark hair over her shoulder with a precise jerk of her head before fixing her eyes on the nameless man again and holding out a somewhat calloused hand to him. "Come dance? If you can keep up, I might even tell you my name afterwards," she added.