Path of the Vampire forum

The knocking on her seventh floor Sanctuary apartment door was just the interruption Dominique needed. She had to give up the parts in her hands but that was easy enough to do. With the turn of her wrists the pieces fell to the table below where she was currently crafting. Her hips pushed back and sent the office chair beneath her gliding backwards just enough that the petite shadow could stand up. Clad in a khaki wrap shorts and black tank she made her way to the door and opened it using care in how far she opened it. The place wasn’t exactly open for the eyes of strangers. The unit was a little hard to explain and she had no interest in trying to.

The elevator doors were shutting when Dominique slid through the small space to step out into the hall. She sighed and was about to turn to go back in when she nearly stepped on a package in the way of her bare feet. She picked it up and eyed the address. Her face scrunched up at the name and the apartment number clearly not being hers. She looked down the hall towards the direction it was supposed to go and found the length of open walking space empty. With a mumble of doing someone’s work for them she stepped back in and slipped on her matching khaki and black wrap sandals. If the person on the shipping label didn’t answer she would simply chase down the idiot who was doing a half *** job of delivering packages. She knew the type all too with her shop in Honeymead Market. At least once a week she was spending thirty minutes out of her night dropping off packages and envelopes that were erroneously left at Twisted Sister.

HOPE pulled the heavy apartment door to close behind her. A twist of her wrist confirmed it was locked. Once she was satisfied that she was leaving all behind the door secure she set out down the hallway to the correct apartment to deliver the medium size cardboard box in her hands. She approached to turn the minimal corner to knock at the door. She stepped in paying more attention to the label on the box instead of the space in front of her. When she finally looked up she found a cop standing and waiting. Much to her surprise the tall female looked quickly down at her while her warm brown eyes drifted slowly upward.

“You live here?” The officer was clearly not looking to make polite conversation.
“Uhmmm….” The dark haired mechanic and crafter stalled.

Dominique was not uncomfortable. Her healthy complexion, lack of fangs and mortal aura had a way of making it impossible to tell her apart from any other excessively inked female. That is as long as they didn’t set hands on her unusually cool skin. She had developed a knack for being able to avoid contact. She made it work every time so she was golden.

“Yes?” A slight uncertainty lingered in her response but not enough to register that she didn’t live there. Just that she sounded more confused as to why there was an officer at her door since she was such a law abiding citizen. “Is there a problem?”

“We had a complaint of noise coming from this unit.” The woman’s eyes shot to the door in front of them. “Any reason you have for disturbing the people below you?”

Dominique walked into a mess. She was not expecting that at all and now she was having to explain something that was not her doing because if she did not she would be lying to an officer about her identity. That would open up a whole other can of worms she didn't have the time or the interest to sort out. Well, so much for being a cool neighbor. She narrowed her eyes at the door and then looked to the woman in uniform.

“Sorry about that. I have a zumba class I teach and the arena was doing some work in that room so I had it here at the last minute. I promise it won’t happen again.” She smiled and tucked the box under her arm as she slid LESS into the left pocket of her shorts as if she was about to pull out a set of keys to the door she didn’t own.
“Zumba?” The woman’s voice was saying exactly what she didn’t want to hear. This was the last time she was going to wing it and be nice.
“Yes, Zumba.” Thankfully she knew what it was and proceeded to demonstrate rather enthusiastically the first few moves of the last workout she did before the officer finally shook her head. "That. It is great cardio work."
“I won’t be called back again for your zumba?” The black perfectly shined uniform shoes stepped back into the hall away from the apartment door.
“I promise.” Dominique shot HOPE up into the air as if she was willing to swear under oath to it.
“Have a good night.” The sound of the officer’s radio echoed a call for the Swansdale area and she double stepped it to the elevator.

Dominique waited for the doors to close on the lift and then turned around and curled up the fingers of her colorful right hand and began knocking on the door. Whoever this person was better be grateful and better be careful. She was being nice but was not above using the hands that held the package if she had to. As she waited she hummed the cool down song from the Zumba workout playlist she thought of starting up when she got back to the apartment. Eryka Badu’s smooth “Didn’t Cha Know” moved lightly through her lips as she rocked absentmindedly to the rhythm in her head.

Dominique was enjoying the whole song in her head and the motion of her body to the music until a voice surprisingly found it’s way over her shoulder. It certainly was unexpected. She had barely finished dealing with the cop at the door and now there was a voice at her back getting her attention. She turned and tucked the box a little tighter under her arm.

The petite shadow’s wide warm eyes locked on a chest. Slowly her gaze moved upward and landed on a set of green eyes topped with a blonde head of hair. The face that was keeper of both appeared young, striking in the above average looks and yet a little on the pale and thin side. It was instant. She felt a pull.

That pull was present with very few that she could think of. Leona had it. Doc had it. Kenlie had it. Lennox had it. Cat had it. Okay, so a few had it. More than a handful in fact but the point that arrived to her rather quickly was that it was not in the air...it was likely in the cool blood in the man’s veins. She was nearly certain. Just to be sure she did the only thing she could do given the fact she was on the spot. HOPE reached out slowly while her lips went up at the corners in her trademark dimpled and disarming smile. The door behind her opened and with a voice commenting then quickly shut. She was stunned by who she was looking at. Enough so that it was not enough to pull her attention away from the one holding the canvas bag.

“I wasn’t expecting it so soon.”

A brush of her index finger was all it took. Lightly it moved at the tip to the surface of the skin that held the bag. It was no warmer than her own. Her fingers curled slowly to clutch the bag in her grip. The lack of body heat would usually confirm nothing beyond it was her coming face to face with another walking set of fangs. However, there was something that stirred her and it was instant when she looked back up from the bag exchanged.

Green eyes. Even if they were the rarest color one could have there was something more to them. The depths were beckoning her to look deeper and that was incredibly uncommon for her. She had never seen him before. She felt like she should know him or that he for some reason knew her. She kept staring at him. And there it was. That rush of the unexplainable all over again. Last time it hit her was with Leona while she was laying there hidden beneath covers trying to hide. It was also there the first time she had Lennox at her door. There was only one who was powerful enough to leave this trail for her to discover. He had marked her so deeply and permeated his presence in everything to the point she found him wherever she went in some way , shape or form. She was doing it right there with this man.

“Do you have a few minutes to spare?” Her smile softened as if she found an old friend or kindred spirit. The box shifted with the attempted balance of the duffle bag and LESS coming to view trying to sort it out. “I would like to talk somewhere…”

The door now at her back opened again and this time it caught her attention. Turning to face the occupant and hand over the box with the units address she found a wall of flesh sending her a whole lot of warmth as the door stayed open. Her head craned upward and found a mountain of a man looking down at her. Dominique certainly had seen large specimens of bodies with all the killer vampires strutting around Harper Rock. This one was clearly still alive and looked to be willing to start kicking with little provocation. She had yet to come across a vampire so advanced and powerful that they could send out body heat. The dark muscle bound wall spoke and she blinked. She was surprised enough that she wasn’t sure what to say about what they wanted. Originally it was just her not a group effort standing at the door. The package in her grasp became less of her focus. Seventh floor was becoming a location of more interaction in the last ten minutes than she had participated in the whole last month.

The sounds of babbling about vodka filled the air behind Dominique while she tried to make sense of the male in front of her. It could have been anyone so she let it go as momentary traffic moving by. It was a residential hallway after all. Her issue was with the greeting in front of her. She was being nice. What the hell had the world come to that even that was met with such a tone? Her expression deadpanned and just as she went give her ‘nice manners’ speech the weight of the box beneath her arm was relieved so that her arm dropped completely. Great. Could the situation become more involved? She turned long enough to see the box leaving with the male that was waving and talking about open windows and space hamsters. Her empty hand lifted and the thumb hooked over her shoulder to signal towards the packages unexpected departure.

“That was what I was here for.” She nodded her head slightly to the same direction as the male that was escaping. “I was left a package with your address on it. I was kind enough to walk it over to your door but it seems that guy has other plans for it and it is leaving again.”

Dominique stepped back and stood next to Ancil. She figured the man at the door would need some room to clear the doorway and go retrieve it. HOPE slid the duffle bag over her shoulder and blanketed her inked arm over it then slid the same hand into her front pocket. She was not going to have the same thing happen with what was in the bag beneath her arm.

Dark eyes scanned the new face to the side of her. He seemed like they quiet type. She nodded slowly feeling satisfied with that assessment. Then again they were looking at hulking mountain of a man that was given all the room the hallway could offer to move in pursuit of the runaway package currently in the possession of Yakov Smirnoff. She was being rather quiet as well. Maybe it was because no one was moving except the one with the package. That finally changed. A hand appeared and the man sank further into the apartment instead of emerging and taking action. Her left brow shot upward in surprise.

Seriously? That was her initial thought. So this is back on me? My *** is going to be chasing it? It wasn’t like she had to but she still had this sense of jumping in the middle of what was wrong and trying to make it right. She knew where it came from. It was ingrained in her and a hard habit to break.

Dominique grumbled while pulling out HOPE from her pocket. In that moment she was preparing to hand the courier next to her the bag he just delivered for safekeeping. The vodka man was going to be getting a surprise jump. That was until a female appeared with a gun and raised it. Instantly she raised up her colorful arm leaving a rainbow streak of flesh as she moved quickly stepping in front of the male beside her. The shots fired while her fingers reached behind her back only to find she left her gun back in the apartment. Her eyes fixing on the female shooter ranting about wanting her rat's back for her snake deprived her of the sudden appearance of what had to have been there moving without notice.

The young shadow did a quick double-take between the gun wielding woman and the second male she had not planned on crossing paths with. It was becoming grand central station on the seventh floor of Sanctuary apartments. The package went up in the air as the man’s hands wisely lifted. HOPE lifted to her forehead and her thumb and her index finger pressed hard at each temple. The shadows saved the hour and delivered with all the charm one would never expect. No want or loss was allowed to be the result of a rather eventful and spontaneous fifteen minutes. Her hand dropped and she smiled a little in disbelief shaking her head.

“And there you have it.” Dominique hiked the canvas bag full of parts over her shoulder while her hand gestured to the box that was handed over. “Have a good night.”

If she could make it to her apartment without a something unexpected happening she would be pretty content. She glanced over her shoulder while reaching for the doorknob. She would get the parts in where they would be safe. If the blonde wanted to talk he would know where to knock. Once she pushed the door open she glanced around. She wondered how long the Houdini of shadows had been out there. Long enough to see the impromptu zumba performance and the female cop she danced for like an idiot. It reminded her shadows just like her could be anywhere. She lifted her heel and tapped back at the door sending it to close. Hopefully the action parts she needed were inside the bag.