Hunter or Hunted? [Kendal]

[Raven Talius]

Raven shook off the shadows as a yawn parted her lips and permanent fangs flashed in the pale light of the lamp post. The woman had just come back from visiting the Shadow Realm, a place that she visited often whenever she could and didn’t feel the need to be in Harper Rock for whatever odd reason. A hand lifted to brush through black and red locks as her brown hues glanced over at the Quarantine zone for a moment. Why she always seemed to come out of the Shadow Realm near the Quarantine Zone, was a mystery. A hand slide along her stomach for a moment as she realised that she still hadn’t eaten enough spirits to heal her death wound and carrying a death wound wasn’t exactly ideal for a Shadow pathed vampire. However, Raven wasn’t too bothered, it caused her some pain, but pain was exactly what she enjoyed. Some called it a sickness and tried to fix her, but she wasn’t something to be fixed.

A tongue trailed down along one of her permanent fangs before she turned her back to the Quarantine Zone and made her way towards the bridge so she could cross the cannel and over towards Voodoo as she normally would have a couple of months ago. Why? Simply because she used to simply hang out there before she went on a hunt. The woman couldn’t very well turn up bloody to a public café that was filled with humans on the top floor. It would have raised suspicions long ago. Not that it mattered now. She hadn’t visited the spot in over a couple of months. Hadn’t been in contact with any Dragons and she hadn’t even been in contact with Doc who was from Ty or whatever. She had spoken with Clover and Jesse, but it must have been Jesse’s words that made her think of going to Voodoo to speak to Doc.

However, she could always call the silly human that basically handed out his personal information to her. Information that she could use to hunt him down and kill him with. Instead, she hadn’t, why? The woman still wasn’t sure. It wasn’t in her nature to make friends with humans, so what was he? An acquaintance maybe? Silently, the vampire propped a hip against a stony wall of the stone bridge that she stood upon and her gaze was turned to the water that slowly flowed beneath the bridge. Stars flickered within the dark waters and she turned her gaze up towards the night sky as a soft breeze picked up and tugged at free flowing locks that fell down her back. Instead of standing there, she could always just go hunting as well, there was always some criminal that needed to be hunted down and have their throat ripped out.

The vampire was a vampire without a purpose except to kill and ever since humans finding out about vampire existence, she couldn’t quite glutton herself on every criminal that she saw. Her twin had gone underground once more, so she wasn’t exactly sure about where to start looking for him again, but it seemed like hunting was a good first step, at least for now. Find a criminal, beat him until he was black, blue and ready to talk. Then, kill him. Because she at least got to kill and feed on someone at the same time. Why hunt now? Because Clover seemed fine and Ty was quiet, so what else was there to do? Slowly, she Shadow shrugged off of the stony wall, shoved her hands into her jacket pockets and began to make her way towards that slums.

[Wearing]

[Kendal]

“Is there an instruction manual?”

It had been a wry joke at the time, during training, when he was being told to do a million things like how to use Harper Rock’s transportation system or how to use a weapon. There’d even been a session on how to hack because, Bax figured, there were likely more sightings and contact with vampires in the deep web. It was all very basic training and now he felt like he did actually need a training manual.

No one had told him how to kill a vampire if he were to encounter one. Was he supposed to decapitate them? Or do a good old-fashioned impaling like in Dracula? Where was he going to find a proper stake anyways? He’d found cellphones and watches but there were no scraps of wood to be found anywhere.

As Bax toyed with the unlit cigarette between his fingers, his brows pulled together in thought. Suppose he were to Molotov Cocktail one, set it on fire and then shoot it in the head? Currently he had only two weapons, a sword (how impractical, right?) and a Glock (more practical but maybe not against a vampire). Maybe there were special bullets he wasn’t aware of that he could buy from some black market. He’d imagine a place like Harper Rock, with its rumours of vampires and zombies, to have some from of a black market.

He went to the slums first but it had been a very brief trip because already he could feel temptation pulling at him like an old friend. It seemed like the second he reached out, he was able to snag a dimebag or something similar without an issue. Normally, that would’ve been convenient and a great place to hang around and start a business but he had more pressing matters to attend to.

As he was exiting the slums, he saw the curious figure of a woman with hair unlike anything he’d ever seen before. Red like blood and her complexion was ashy. Like death. Curious, more than suspicious, he lifted a hand (the one with the cigarette) to catch her attention.

“Got a light?”

[Raven Talius]

Normally, she would have ignored the man and simply walked on by, however he had lifted a cigarette and a sigh parted her lips. Raven’s footsteps came to a slow stop as her gaze flickered over the man’s appearance for a quick second and she lifted a hand to slide into a pocket, just so then she could fish out her lighter and toss it to him. The woman took in the platinum blonde hair and the outfit that he wore, before she propped a shoulder against a wall near-by, indeed she kept a lighter on her, because she herself had a cigarette occasionally, but that was mostly to curve the cravings that she often had.

Now that she was on the hunt, she really didn’t fancy one, especially when she could simply listen to the man’s beating heart instead. Th-thump, th-thump, th-thump, was the sound and her brown hues focused upon his chest for a small moment. That was until she slowly drew her gaze down along his form as a yawn parted her lips and fangs flashed underneath the pale moonlight.

The man didn’t seem like your typical gangster criminal, in fact there was something about him that she couldn’t quite put her finger on. He was too… Fit? To be a simple criminal or human. Military perhaps? Was he even from Harper Rock? Raven was sure that she had seen someone like him or something like his build anyway, she just couldn’t seem to put her finger on it, at least not yet. The Shadow was content to stay quiet, but curiousity was a thing of beauty and so she spoke. Mostly simply to ask him about who he was. The man might respond, or he might not, but he wasn’t thieving her damn lighter, this much she did know. Otherwise he was going to become her next meal, because she disposed of bodies using that lighter.

”So, this is an odd place for someone like you to be wandering around in, especially all alone at a time like this.” A slow smirk found its way to her lips then as whether she realised it or not, her sights were slowly beginning to set on him. Perhaps it was curiousity or maybe it was something else that was the drive, but Raven cared little to none half the time.

[Kendal]

Ah, a lighter.

The soles of his heavy boots came to a halt and he reached up to catch it as it was tossed to him.

Bax ducked his head and lit up before tossing the lighter back as he inhaled, lips pursing around the filter of the Camel. Even with his eyes down, he could feel her watching him the way prey might feel under the watchful stare of a predator. Stranger danger, he thought.

It was weird; there was this idea that had developed, over the millennia that humans had been on earth, that humans were at the top of the food chain. Never mind the sharks and the tigers and the carrion and hell, even foxes, carnivores capable of overpowering an average man, taking him down and stripping his flesh from his bones within minutes. Somehow, Man had got it in his head that he was at the top. Wasn't ego a funny thing?

But now, with this newfound information, about the existence of vampires... where would that put mankind now? Likely closer to the bottom than they'd ever been before. Maybe it was just what was needed to knock that ego down a few pegs.

Bax lifted his head and exhaled, plumes of sparse grey seeping out of his flared nostrils. The woman spoke to him and he looked over, cigarette dangling from the corner of his parched lips. He looked over his shoulder, back at the shabby looking collection of buildings that were Harper Rock's slums.

"Is it?" he looked back at her. He thought he fitted in rather well, himself. "Is that another way of saying, 'what's a guy like you doing in a place like this'?" he mused out loud.