HooD [OPEN]

[Maddison (DELETED 8452)]

Maddison was still a little dazed as to what was happening. There had been five men and Robin. Why would they want to hurt him? Also where had this other blonde come from? It was all just a little confusing for her. This isn't what she had in mind when she had come to the opening of Robin's new business. Maddison should have known by now though that Robin had a case of the bad luck, but this probably topped it. He was hurt and the blonde was pulled out of her thoughts when she heard the sickening sound of Robin's skull cracking. Oh ****.

Everything was happening so fast and in a moment, Robin had risen from the ground and let out an extremely loud yell. She covered her ears for a second and blinked. What happened next could only be described as a scene from a movie, a peculiar movie. A swarm of angry insects arrived, the other blonde left and her and Robin were left standing with two of the attackers. The attackers looked confused and the insects looked ready to strike.

She didn't know what to do. She had seen her fair share of fights since Robin had become part of her life, but this was the biggest. She didn't want to draw her knife, but if she had to she would. Robin was in no condition to fight. The blonde moved towards Robin's side, hand working in her clutch to find her small dagger. She usually carried them on herself but tonight's dress didn't allow that. She looked at Robin, concerning etching over her features.

"Are you okay?"

What a stupid question to ask, of course he wasn't okay. He was bleeding out and had cracked his skull. The man should be taken to a hospital. Were there hospitals for vampires? She had to think so. Of course, she didn't know. She hadn't been in the city long enough to know and hadn't been injured that badly to know. She kept her gaze between the two standing men and Robin.

"Just go. You've done your damage. Unless you want to be stung to death. Just go." She turned towards Robin. "We need to get you to a hospital."

[Robin Little]

Robin had no idea what was going on. Although he could hear footsteps he had no idea who they belonged to; he had no idea who was left, and who still remained. They could be standing right in front of him and he wouldn’t know. They could be ready to stick a hot poker right through his eye and into his brain, and he wouldn’t move to stop it from happening. And it all happened so fast.

The blonde that had come to his aid bid her goodbye. What Robin could not see was the dispersing of his hard-won customers. They didn’t crowd around the booth. The bees, though summoned by him were not entirely controlled by him. They didn’t leave the same way they had come; they buzzed around the establishment sending women shrieking, others shaking their heads and immediately pulling out their phones to give their reviews. That was what this generation was like. They had to review everything. Everything was digital. Nothing could be erased.

The two remaining men lost their nerve.

“This isn’t the end, devil!” one of them shouted as he grabbed the other’s shoulder. The other was relieved and took the cue, both of them making a run for it. Robin wanted to stick his thumbs into their skulls via their eye sockets, but he couldn’t see them to do anything. All he could do was listen to them leave, the threat hanging over his head. It wasn’t over. They would come back. There would be more of them, next time. Next time, they’d succeed. They’d corner him somewhere private, and they’d kill him. It was his own fault for thinking he could pull off something so public and get away with it, when the position of vampires in this city was still tenuous, at best.

Maddison asked if he was okay and he laughed, though there was no mirth to it. ”No. I’m ******* not okay,” he spat. Up until now he’d taken all his bad luck with a certain amount of grace. He’d laughed it off. But this was the tipping point. Maddison had done nothing to deserve the anger but she was there. And Robin was angry. The effort it took to speak caused him to cough – a cough that he couldn’t stop. And he couldn’t see the blood that it was splattering all over his hand. A hand he used to touch the back of his head. One tiny touch and it felt like a shard of glass lodged itself further into the recesses of his brain. He let loose an aggravated howl.

”I’m not going to a ******* hospital, Madds! With my luck they’ll lock me up and prod me like a lab rat,” he said. Every wound he’d sustained in the past had healed, and he assumed these would, too. He just… needed to sit. Unable to see to find the booth’s chair, he just slumped to the ground where he stood.

”This was a spectacular failure. I’m so ******* sick of this ****,” he spat. This time, he could taste the blood in his throat. He hacked it up and spat it on the floor beside him.

[Maddison (DELETED 8452)]

Clearly Maddison didn't know what she was doing. She had never met a man that had so much bad luck. The run of the mill stuff, was usual. Even she experienced that from time to time, but this? This topped the cake. She made a move to sit down next to him when he hit the ground. What exactly was she supposed to do? Did she offer up her blood? Would that make him heal faster? Would he even recover from any of this? They were supernatural but how much could one supernatural being take?

She didn't know the answer to that question either. In fact, come to find out Maddison didn't know very much about the supernatural world. She had lived in it for a year but really all she knew was that she needed to feed every day and she healed faster than a human being. She also knew one more thing. That a cloud of trouble followed her boyfriend/sire. The blonde let out a sigh and cringed when he snapped at her. She hadn't done anything wrong but she was the only one left to deal with the aftermath. She'd take it and shake it off.

"I don't know what you want me to do. How do I make you better? There's not a vampire hospital you can go to? Do you need my blood?"

She was running out of options. She cringed again when the blood was spit out onto the floor. Gross. She was a vampire but she wasn't really a fan of all the blood. Maddison put her hand on Robin's shoulder and sighed. "It wasn't a complete failure. People were really seeming to enjoy it when I walked in. I'm sure there's a way we can spin this that will make the club more popular."

Maddison was ever the optimist. There probably wasn't a way they could spin and Robin was probably right. It probably was a big failure but she wasn't going to be the one to give up on that.

[Robin Little]

Robin’s lips pressed into a hard line. There wasn’t much that Maddison could do, and he knew that his behaviour wasn’t warranted. He didn’t know what she could do; he didn’t know himself what to do. So how could he answer that question? His body was tense, as if waiting for another onslaught; every movement that he made exacerbated the wounds that already existed.

”There is not a vampire hospital. Even if the relationship between humans and vampires seems okay right now, I doubt such a thing would ever exist. I’d become an experiment,” he said. His stare was wide, and he stared at nothing in particular. He blinked a couple of times, even squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed at them with the heels of his palms.

Although Maddison was probably right, and they could try to convince the media that what had happened was a hoax, a play, a scenario concocted by the owner as a ploy to give the customers what they wanted – a taste of vampiric existence – he wasn’t in the mood just yet to deal with it. It was a sensitive thing and would have to be dealt with near immediately, but… even then. Even if he didn’t, people would soon forget. They’d come back. He could manage from a distance. If he kept himself off the premises, nothing untoward could happen to further ruin the business’s reputation.

”My skull cracked. I can’t see,” he said, almost too calmly given his most recent outburst. ”This will all heal eventually. I need blood,” he said, pulling his lower lip into his mouth with his tongue. He could feel the thirst, could feel his energy and good health still weeping from the numerous wounds he had sustained. His whole body hurt – he felt woozy. How close was he to death? One more wound, one more mishap and he might just end up as ash on the pavement.

”I should go home…” he said, but could barely bring himself to move.

[Vexen]

WEARING

Stupid, insensitive, inconsiderate asshole.

The day that Mr. Wright finally succumbed to his age and the cancer that rotted his body had topped the list of the worse days of her life. At least, she had thought it had. There was no way she could have prepared herself for today, however. The moment she had walked into the small, cluttered lawyer’s office, she should have turned on her heel and walked right back out. Hindsight is always 20/20, she thought bitterly, her fingers curling around the shattered pieces of the ballpoint pen she had unknowingly stolen from the fresh-faced, dead-eyed lawyer.

Mr. Pence.

Just thinking his name had an entire slew of curses filling her mind, and there wasn’t enough city air for her to breathe into her useless lungs to shake the smell of body spray and cigarette smoke. She had been dreading today since she had received the missive, informing her that Mr. Wright had left everything in his will to her – including Novel Idea. She never wanted the business. She never wanted his money, his home, or his car. She had just wanted him. Of course, the snake hadn’t believed a word she said. Instead, he had looked at her with a twist of his lips and a perverse gleam in his eye as he called her a gold-digging slut without actually saying the words.

She was a well-read, intelligent English woman, and she had been rendered speechless.

It was all she could do to not jump across his paper-covered, cracked desk and rip his throat out. Instead, she had angrily wiped at the tears that stained her cheeks, signed on the dotted line, and walked out. She had yet to stop walking. Taking a moment to run her fingers through her hair, she paused on the corner of the street, her golden strands wrapped around her knuckles.

She needed a distraction.

As if karma was finally taking a break on her, the vibrant lights of HooD stood out against the shadows, drawing her in with its irresistible glow. “Forgive me, brother,” she whispered as she hastily crossed the streets and ducked into the building, the scent of blood hitting her the moment she stepped inside. Had she been any other woman, she would have turned and followed the men as they stumbled out into the night. Had she been anyone else, she would have pulled out her phone and called the police. These were all logical, intelligent options – and yet, she did the exact opposite. Pushing herself through the crowd, she followed the sweet scent of copper until she found the owner. At first, she did nothing but stand there, blue eyes unblinking as they drank in the scene before her.

It was something straight out of a novel, babbling, helpless blonde included. Of course, what wasn’t something written on the pages, was the man in the center of it all. She would know him anywhere. Hell, she could barely keep her eyes off him when he ventured into her store. There was something about his charismatic, playful smile that always brought her words to a halt. She had thought of a thousand different conversations they could have one day – and none of them had been this.

Clearing her throat, she finally shook herself from her stunned stare and moved to his side, her hands outstretched before she jerked them back. “Mr. Little, what on earth happened to you?” It was obvious, of course, from the blood on his face to wounds on his body, but the reason for it eluded her. He had never struck her as the criminal type, and now, here he was, looking as if he had tussled with a mob boss.

“What can I do to help? I can’t be losing one of my favorite customers."

[Maddison (DELETED 8452)]

Maddison nodded even if Robin couldn't see it. His skull was cracked. "Right, I understand. I guess there wouldn't be vampire hospitals. That was stupid of me to think so." Maddison wasn't a helpless, babbling blonde. She held her own. She had a strength about her. She wanted to help Robin. She'd been helping Robin since they met almost a year ago.

Maddison didn't like the looks of the other blonde and her face said so. Her jaw tightened. This wasn't the time to make a scene however, Robin was bleeding out on the floor and she needed to get him back to the condo. She was most certainly didn't need the help of this blonde either. Nor did she want it. Maddison bent down beside Robin and took hold of his hand. "Do you need to feed from me? At least until we get back to the condo. I have blood bags there or I can even get something from the real source."

She asked the male before her. Maybe Maddison should find a room in the Condo to turn into a room where he healed. He had healed from Halloween, but this was worse. Tenfold. Her gaze finally took in the other blonde and she gave a shake of her head. "I've got it."

The words left her a little more snappily than she had wanted but oh well. She looked back to Robin. "I'm going to help you stand, okay? My car is just right outside and we'll get you home."

[Robin Little]

At first, Robin struggled to recognise the voice of the newcomer. It was not the blonde who’d joined the melee only to abrubtly leave it – that woman he had never seen in his life. This one, he could not see, but the voice was one he knew he had heard before. The fact that the voice spoke his name, too – last name, not first – helped to narrow down the possibilities. There were plenty of people that Robin knew through his various jobs, though he’d quit The Necropolis months ago in order to pursue his own businesses. This voice he’d heard more recently than that.

It was when she mentioned something about him being a customer that it clicked. ”V…” he started, hoping he was getting it right. He’d asked for it, once. Hadn’t he? ”…Vexen?” he breathed, the name uttered amidst Maddison’s reply. It was the second time she’d asked if he needed her blood and he realised he hadn’t answered her before. A frown creased his brow as he wet his dry lips, shaking his head.

”Taking your blood would not be beneficial at this point. I don’t particularly want to become a Necurat,” he said. The only vampire blood he’d tasted was that of his sire, and it had been cold, the texture unpleasant. He preferred the heat of humanity, and had heard tell that if a vampire drank another vampire’s blood, their body began to reject human blood. It became permanent. He didn’t want to risk it.

The wounded male nodded when Maddison said she was going to help him up, his free hand reaching out into space as if he might magically find some other solid object to help keep his balance. But even as he stood that frown etched into his brow only deepened – not only because of the pain that lanced through his body as the dozens of wounds all stretched and pulled at the same time, in so many different ways. A migraine settled at the back of his head, where his skull had been cracked.

”Please don’t be rude, Madds. If you’re angry with me, don’t take it out on someone else. I’m on death’s door. I need all the help I can get,” he said, heavily breathing out through his nose, then, as he held tight to a groan he didn’t want to let free. He had no idea how much blood he had lost, but his legs were shaking beneath him, wanting to give out. He coughed, burying his face in the crook of his elbow; he knew, now, that he was coughing up blood. He could taste it on his tongue. Best not to splatter it all over those trying to help him – even though the cough only reminded him that there were several holes in his lungs, his muscles spasming where they were severed.

He wasn’t as thankful to Vexen as he could have been, nor to Maddison. He could barely stand, let alone summon good manners.