[tCotR] Bob

[Roderic]

"Where you going?" I hear from somewhere behind me, even if my boots are hitting pavement every few seconds as I run from the scene. No way in hell am I going to jail any time soon. Not like this. If I did ever wind up in jail, I'd not want to go to jail for loitering. Sure, I would be in and out in a matter of days, or a week tops once I posted bail, but I never imagined going to jail over something so petty. And what might start out as petty, night snowball in to something a little bigger.

I slow my run to a walk when I my mind recognizes the voice as John Doe. "Isn't the station that way?" I play it off as a sense of bad direction after I take a big breath in to catch my breath and let it release through my nose, slowly. "No, it's back that way." I look at where the voice is finally and see him and a finger pointing west. "Oh. I'm sort of new here and still learning my way around town." I shrug, as I take another breath in, this time through my nose, in hopes he didn't catch it.

"Come on." He took off with a nudge of his head, again, his feet making no noise on the pavement and the sound of my own boots growing softer now that I'm not running. "So who's your maker?" I had to think for a second, because I wasn't sure what he was talking about, but then I realized he was asking who made me a vampire. I thought through all the names I had come to learn and pick the name that seems to have no big ties to them. If they had, I had never felt the repercussions of feeding off them. "Hariasa." I mumbled, hoping he didn't hear me or know who that was. He doesn't say anything as we approach the station, so I take that as a good sign.

The guy takes a seat on a bench and even though there is room for me, I don't sit. I like to keep distance between my prey and me. Just makes things easier. A few minutes go by and we don't say anything. We just wait. "Yours?" I ask him at about the time the train shows up. He doesn't say anything, not at first as the guy stands and makes his way over to the train. "Come on."

[Roderic]

We're on the train a few good minutes and the guy still doesn't answer my question. Is he protecting someone, or does he not know? I'm not sure how the vampire making process goes, only a few theories from what I've researched. Some suggest it's just an action of blood transferring from a vampire to a person they want to make a vampire. Some suggests it's based off how a person lived their life and the fact they'll never be at rest, made to walk earth like this forever. Some say there is a curse, or witch involved that's damned a person's soul for eternity.

So, maybe he doesn't know who made him like this. Not that I care, but it's starting to seem like the guy isn't going to be able to help me at all. If he doesn't even know who made him this way, then he probably doesn't know the first vampire. I'm about ready to scrap the idea of using him to get to the first, but then the train stops at a somewhat familiar side of town and he gets up. "See you around." He says, intending on parting ways because we had gotten out of a hairy situation earlier and he was where he needed to be now. I nod.

Newborough. I stand as he makes his way to a door of the train. I'm not fond of the area, but there's a place that I've grown attached to. And he's in the area of the place. My focus shifts as I think about the cave. My cave. I'm off the train before I can even think about getting off it, as if some invisible force was pulling me off the train. My feet move by this invisible force and I know exactly where I'm going.

[Roderic]

I'm not really focusing on John Doe anymore. My cave is out there and I've got the urge to make sure it's still there, still hidden away and still mine. There was a vampire who tried to say they owned it, but like that tree in Cherrydale's wilderness, I was calling ********. Vampires living in caves or trees just seemed nomadic and flawed in multiple ways around.

I end up in front of this mountain and feel a small flick of my lips rise, as if I'm pleased. It's a stupid idea, being pleased to see an inanimate object, but my feet haven't felt like moving since I laid eyes on it. I want to see how my cave is holding up. The desire is just about as strong as when I find the perfect specimen. Maybe even stronger. I look at the entire outside of the thing. It's height, the way it's shape (in an attempt to familiarize myself with it), the color of the sides and the width it is.

Then I see him.
John Doe.
He's climbing on top the rocky fixture and I'm suddenly pissed. It's not his place to be climbing on it and just why the heck was he climbing the thing? I take after him like a bat out of hell, not even thinking about anything other than keeping the cave a secret and keeping it mine. He's not getting inside that cave, I don't care if we got out of a situation together or not.

Then it dawns on me. He never answered my question on who made him what he was. And he's here, where she, the potential first, claims she lives more or less. He knows her. He knows the first. I climb, faster than I ever have before. They're trying to take over my cave while I'm not there.
That wasn't an option for either of them, or me.

[Roderic]

"You ******* following me?" I hear from up above my head.
I didn't expect to go unseen while climbing the thing, but I had tried to be pretty quiet. I look up at him and our eyes meet. I can see it in his eyes. The suspicion, the paranoia and even confusion. It's all a valid response. What was I doing here? What else could I be doing as I climbed the mountain he was climbing? But there's something more, I can see it.

"**** you. You ain't getting ****, man." His taunt only embeds the desire to make sure this place stays mine. "I worked some of my bounty off, so **** you." I think my own eyes held the look of confusion for a second before it vanishes and betrayed me. I don't know what the heck he's talking about. But again, I don't care. I don't say anything about it to let him think one way or another about his retort at me, I just keep climbing.
So does he.

We're climbing this rock, the guy going faster than he was before and I'm loosing him. It seems with every step up I take, he takes two or three. Vampire advantages, it seemed, were getting the upper hand tonight in a few ways. He makes it to the spot where the rock is. Where the cave is behind it. And I only climb faster. I'm determined to get there before he gets too far in it.

[Phoenix]

Tick tock, tick tock... Eleven o'clock. Robert - Bob - was late, and I really hated tardiness. I really hated waiting in the lower reaches of the citadel for some wayward childe I thought I'd killed. But then hadn't.

I really needed to start making sure these fuckers stayed dead...

The cell reception down here was poor - not that it was much better at the top of the mountain's innards, but at least it worked. We had a receiver. Down here, not so much. My 3G data plan was entirely useless, but Crownet still worked fine. On a whim, I pulled up the bounty list. And that's how I knew what my precious little Robert had been up to. There was his info, along with a large chunk of change.

"**** you, Crow." I turned the device off and stuffed it in my pocket, slowly pacing the mouth of the cave. One job - he had one ******* job, and he'd ******* managed to **** it up. ****! I stayed there, pacing in front of my security cameras, traps and concealed cages, for the better part of an hour before voices reached me. Voices. One of them was Robert. The other I recognized, but couldn't put a name to the sound.

At least he was safe. Now I could strangle him even if there was a witness. As soon as the familiar man rounded the corner, I was on him. Before he'd even registered I was there, I'd backhanded the fledgling so hard he'd reeled into the wall. What a loving sire I was. Right.

"What the **** is the meaning of this!?" I shrieked, my voice bouncing off the walls of the cave, amplifying it to the scream of an enraged banshee. Which really wasn't far from the truth. "What the hell have you done!?"

I really didn't care who was outside. If they were hunting my childe, I'd kill them before they killed him.

[Roderic]

He had vanished before I caught up to him. I was getting better and stronger with the vampire powers I took each and every time I fed off one of them, but I still seemed to fall short a little every time. I was fine with him thinking he got away and had the upper hand for now. Things like this took time and skill. I had to make sure the guy never came back to this place.

I finally get to the point where I know the boulder is at. The one that kept the place a secret. More or less. As my hand grips the ledge of the mountain, I hear something. I strain my hearing to try and make it out. A scream, or something comparable to it. Words. And even though I can't make out what is being said exactly, I know that tone.

It's her.
The potential first vampire.
I don't care about the guy anymore. He's done his job, more or less.
I don't even care about the cave at this moment. At least, that's what I try and tell myself.
It's probably not true, because I'm not sure which one pisses me off more.
The first being in my cave. Or the fact she might be the first, the problem to my problem.
She's my object of attention.

So when I pull myself up, I make sure it is here and not some figment of my imagination.
I see the hair of hell first and that's how I know that what I thought was right.
John Doe did exactly what I needed him to do, without him knowing it.
My lucky night.

[Roderic]

I've just gotten up on the side of the mountain when I see the guy go flying in my direction. I don't need to know who sent him that way. I've met the woman and know what she can do. I have to admit that I'm surprised someone with that much of a temper can bake and bake as well as she can. Maybe it was a tribute to her character. Some aspect I don't know about yet.

With him on the ground, I act.
I've had these powers for a few days and I want to know what he's capable of doing.
I sprint towards the guy, which I'm pretty good at.
I'd probably say I was in my prime of my life right now, with all the runs I do day in and day out.
My chin is tucked to my chest, arms at my side and my heart pumping as I gain on him.

Once I'm near him, I do what I normally do to catch the attention of someone for whatever reason.
I bite him. Not on the neck. I've found that tactic to be ineffective more times than not.
No. I tackle the guy as he's working his way up from the ground, struggle to get an arm and give it a good, deep bite with my "fangs."
He calls me something I've never heard of before. Something with the word "rat," in it. I'd never been called that, my whole time as a blood thief. I'm not sure how rats and blood thieves are comparable, but it doesn't matter.

I don't need much, just a couple sips and I feel different. I feel strong, but not as strong as I once was. It's hard to explain, but I definitely knew the difference between feeding off him and the one chick I kept on feeding off of when I saw her in the catacombs.
"****." I mutter.

[Roderic]

The guy kicks me off him, and I go sprawling backwards a few feet. I'd been hit harder, but it still served its purpose. I was off him and a couple feet away, enough time for the guy to get on his feet after getting his bearings.

He says that word again, as if he expects some sort of reaction from me for saying it.
Only, I don't react. I just get up and stand there.
My eyes dart to her, then to him, wondering what's going to happen, or who is going to act first.
She doesn't move. It doesn't even seem to register to her that I bit the guy.

John Doe though wasn't about to let it go.
Not that I expected him to.
He does that shadow power, the one that sucks someone inside of darkness and I know I'm screwed over.
I can't see or hear him like that from what I remembered the last time he was in the abyss.

He makes an error as I hear the sound of a gun make that "click" sound from the hammer part as someone is ready to aim at a target. I drop to the ground and roll at the time the shot is made. I'm not sure which way to go, left or right, but it doesn't matter. At least I hope. I probably look like an idiot, but if it's death or life, I'll look like a fool.

[Roderic]

The bullet grazes my shoulder just before I hit the ground. Where it lands, I don't know, but the guy reappears almost as soon as the shot went off. It's happened to me once or twice before, so I knew better than to try that tactic until I needed to use it.

She's still not doing anything. I can't figure this woman out for the life of me.
She attacks me over this cave, but doesn't bat an eye over this guy.
Maybe the two of them weren't working together.
I did come in on some sort of incident between the both of them.

I don't have time to think more about what I've walked in to other than that, before I'm rolling away from the guy, the John Doe some more. He's not a bad shot by any means, but he's forgot that once a gun was out of bullets you'd need to take time to reload. I just need to stay in one piece, instead of many until that time comes. I count the bullets from his hand gun each time he fires. Most hand guns carry anywhere from seven to twenty bullets in them. I'm not a guns man, so I shoot somewhere for the middle of the two numbers.

Two more shots go off, one hits me in my right upper thigh, as I roll. I stop rolling, because the bullet had one hell of a bite and sit up. It takes everything in me to stand up. I need a different tactic. If they aren't working together, I can't bait them against each other. Attack one, the other will step in. She doesn't seem to care he's in a fight with me at the moment. I'm going to have to go for the weakest. Take him out, get his gun, along with my small blade, then go for her.
It seemed to make sense.
Or did it?

[Roderic]

I've gone head to head with this guy for a few blows. He's a little stronger than me, but not much. He's grazed my shoulder, got a bullet in my one thigh and one in my throat from getting too close to him. I've managed to hack off his arm, take an eye and give him some ***** cut.
I'll admit, the guy was tiring me out.
I didn't know how much more of a fight I could put up, either.

Finally, he has to reload.
I take this time not to try and get him again, because he isn't my answer to anything.
He's just a distraction.
He's not as strong either.
The key is in the room, but it's not him.
It's her.
It's always been her.

She's not moving, because, I assume, she's using him as a shield between her and me.
If he gets lucky, and if they aren't working together, she can finish the job I started.
If they are working together, she walks away the winner, unscathed.
I've got her figured out (or so, I assume). She's a manipulative *****.
No, she's a manipulative vampire *****.
And the first.

I need her blood again. Her blood would cancel out his less than adequate blood.
I could definitely kill him with her blood.
Maybe her too.
I'm weakened, but I've got something vampires lack.
The flight or fight response.
Adrenaline.

So while he reloads, my target shifts and I vanish in to the shadows that I called from around the room to aid me.
And then I'm on her before she knows what's going on.