Generally, dawn was a time in the day when most people slept and when few people were getting up ready to face what was coming. The entrepreneurial sort would be threading sashes of silk in various loops and twists, hoping to achieve that coveted Half-Windsor knot. The versatile knot said casual, elegant, and adaptable – appealing to associates and investors alike who were cut from the same kind of cloth, practically guaranteeing a sale. It was all in the appearance, the commitment, the ability to show that you’ve got what it takes to get the job done. Of course, they weren’t the only ones awake at this hour. Some had been up for hours, tending to over-enthusiastic offspring and/or pets which had determined a new play hour. The dark circles around their eyes were not only a badge of honour, but symbols of their obligation for the next 18 or so years when the kid had moved out and the cat had kicked the bucket. Some over-achieving folk hadn’t even slept at all, deciding to start the weekend a day early. It wasn’t exactly safe to travel the streets at night anymore, so it made for the perfect excuse to drink until the sunlight bleached the streets of criminals. Creatures like Levi, meanwhile, were few and far between, and were perhaps so rare that they could even be regarded as an endangered species.This thread is back-dated to November 18th 2016
It wasn’t typical for Vampiri to sit before a bare window at the crack of dawn and watch the sun rise, but, Levi had found a way to make it both tolerable and enjoyable. The floor to ceiling windows that made up a quarter of the room were treated beyond just the standard. Most buildings simply get an enveloping of treatment which creates unique climate adaptive conditions, cutting the costs for heating, air-conditioning and lighting. Levi had gone one step further and opted to have the most cutting edge glazes applied to his office windows. Blackout smart glass blocks 99.4% of ultraviolet light, and when used in combination with Nanocrystals, also provides selective control over both visible light and heat-producing near-infrared (NIR) light independently. Of course, it wasn’t entirely evident what in the sun’s unique spectrum caused a Vampiro’s skin to smoulder or burst into flames as spontaneously as a Disney characters might burst into song, but it was sensible to cover all the bases at once. Don’t protect four weaknesses when you had five because it just left that one chink in the armour open to abuse. That was how the Death Star got fucked.
Although the sky was over-cast, with bands of clouds dividing the belly of the sky, Levi could still make out the sun’s trajectory. It was the colours that gave it away. The bands on the cusp of the horizon were slate-grey filtering into muddy navy, suggesting that the sun was just popping its head up above the pillows of the Earth, stretching slowly into life. The forecast for the day spoke of cloud, maybe even some rain, with temperatures between 0 and 10 degrees (32 to 50 Fahrenheit). The waters would be something considerably worse then, maybe even colder than a polar bear’s nose, which reaffirmed his earlier theory about taking Hannah swimming elsewhere. They’d agreed the coast – sort of – and since he had to keep in the mind the fact that she was still vulnerable to hypothermia, he’d had to plan their trip abroad. Granted, he hadn’t exactly meant to push the date so far back that it would be the middle of November before they would actually be going anywhere, but the Italian had suffered a couple of set-backs recently, things he couldn’t leave alone at the risk of his entire business exploding, or worse, finding every single one of his minions had been drained of their blood.
It was actually that bad. Not that he blamed the minions exactly. As a matter of fact, he blamed himself for this ******** in its entirely. He hadn’t trained them to deal with the level of threat that they were under – even though none of them were actually aware of it to deal with it. It took a few months of silence before the Vampiro was convinced that he’d covered his tracks well enough to avoid revenge. Snooping into organisations like the Hebigumo Foundation and the Lionelli Crime Family wasn’t something you did on a lazy Sunday afternoon before you settled down and read the papers. It involved a certain degree of subtlety and no end to the amount of balls inserted when pulling something so dangerous like that off on your ******* own. Levi had many skills, with subterfuge and shooting things in the face wrestling for pole position, but he didn’t know all there was to know about covering your tracks. He was as careful as a Shadow could be, but, he didn’t know if that was enough. And while it had been several months since he’d gone in and wheedled out some intelligence, he wasn’t entirely convinced that he’d gotten away with it scot free. Nevertheless, he wasn’t about to put his life on hold while he waited for a strike-back.
While it had been a little too dangerous to leave his place of business for extended periods of time, that hadn’t meant that he and Hannah had been completely out of touch. They’d exchanged emails, text messages, and even a phone call or two. Levi had occasionally stolen a few hours of the day and night to visit her in person too. Nothing overly substantial happened, but, these moments were certainly the beginning of some kind of relationship, something he could no longer disregard as mere acquaintance level interactions. Of course, with the Italian being stubborn and hopelessly naïve in all things social, he couldn’t exactly put a label on what they were. And he appeared to very much need to quantify these things, to put them in neat little boxes so as to know exactly what he was meant to be doing. It was trickier to do that with people he didn’t associate for work reasons or Vampiri reasons. Those relationships were easier to maintain because he didn’t really give too much of a **** about their shared personal opinions; they were together for a mutually beneficial purpose and didn’t need to even like each other to achieve their goals. Levi was better at being detached from people because caring was dangerous. Caring led to him giving way too much of a **** when they left and allowed his anger get the better of him.
Rage was a familiar emotion to the Italian, but, that didn’t mean it was always welcome. Levi was perceptive enough to realise that his anger often created obstacles for himself, and since he had entirely too many challenges as it was, he could do without losing his damn temper and making things worse. Luckily, he could store some of that fury away and release it at more appropriate targets; like punching in the faces of those Fae bastards until his knuckles came away red and coated in pulp. That was one way he found relaxing, a leisurely retreat from the monotony of his days. Another pass-time of his involved swimming, which was just as well because that was on top of the agenda for the day. He’d been researching for months on and off, and given he and Hannah didn’t have the time to fly over to Italy for a quick dip and come back again, his focus had been a little closer to home. Around this time of the year, Florida would be their best bet for warmer waters. Well, maybe not Jacuzzi warm, but, like… there was less threat of having one’s extremities attempt to leap back into the core of you.
Levi had informed Hannah that she would want to book a hotel in Fort Zachary Taylor State Park in Key West. He’d also informed her that he was taking a flight out and would meet her there sometime in the evening. Of course, there had been a mention of meeting him at the bar of the hotel once she had determined their venue, which invariably led to another jab at him being a lush. He found it amusing. The truth was often funny. There were several Resort hotels dotted on the coast of Florida, so he was sure she would choose well whatever she decided in the end – even if she was going to be petty and pick a destination lower than 3 stars. He wasn’t worried. Fort Zachary is one of Florida's most beautiful spots, with wide stretches of sugary sand and tranquil waters, a rocky secluded beach and countless picnic spots. The word paradise might have been apt for once – particularly if few people visited in November and especially if fewer ventured out at night. Regardless, he was looking forward to having some time away from work worries, away from the stresses of being a monster, and away from troubling questions regarding their relationship status. Levi was just looking forward to seeing Hannah in a bikini and, obviously, beating her in this swimming contest.
With a smile, Levi reached for his phone that sat like a perfect rectangular sheet of black glass on his desk. He scrolled through the list of contacts, found her name, elected to send her a text message and began to compose.
From: Levi D’Amico
To: Hannah Lynn
Message: Rise and shine. Today’s the day we toast to my inevitable victory. Hope you’ve had a hearty breakfast.
