Path of the Vampire forum

Syn paused for a moment to lean back into her seat while her pale blue eyes flickered over the laptop’s screen in front of her. The numbers didn’t quite add up and so an error had to have been made along the way. It was either her error, or someone else’s and she had made it her mission to find out who’s fault it was. She had seated herself in a café, one that seemed to cater to late night owls and she had decided to get out of her hotel room, to pretend that she needed anything other than her laptop. Truth was, she could lock herself in her hotel room and not need to come out. The woman had internet connection and a laptop. Anything else was not really a need. Although, sometimes, she went out of her way to find a human male and satisfy a physical need for contact.

While she could simply sit there and stare at the screen whenever a problem didn’t seem possible, a change of sights and sounds helped her to focus upon the real issue. Often, watching others go about their business, gave her an idea to help her own problems. People, they erred in every way. Their emotions sometimes also played a role in such errors, especially when it came to their work. It seemed, Syn had come across such an error, for the only person who could have possibly made it, was an administrator. The woman was glad that she wasn’t hindered by such things as emotions, simply because it probably would have made her adjustment to her vampiric life, harder. However, she didn’t have to worry about it. The only thing she did have to remember, was to drink enough blood to satisfy her needs and she kept a couple of blood bags back in the freezer in her hotel room to fill a glass and drink whenever she needed to.

Her fingers lightly picked up a pen and tapped it against the table that she sat at and the waitress dropped by with what seemed to be a fresh pot of coffee. Syn managed a smile and nodded to the cup that sat beside her laptop abandoned and still full. ”I get very distracted by my work, so it would be rather pointless to serve me another cup M’dear.” The waitress nodded and moved off to serve another customer. The fledgling had seated herself in a window booth so she could view the street whenever she bothered to look up from her laptop, however rare that was. Her phone buzzed beside her abandoned cup and her gaze flickered to its screen and viewed the name that appeared upon call ID. Lucy Laceflower popped up and she reached over to slide it to ignore. Her mother seemed to be calling far more often than normal, perhaps it was only due to the fact that she had decided to move to a different city.

However, she was starting to see interaction with others as a simple option that she could brush aside. There really was no need and she didn’t exactly want to tell her mother for the fifth time that she just wanted a change of scene. Telling someone the same thing over and over again, was time wasting. Her blue gaze returned to her laptop and she noticed a slight reflection that wasn’t her own. A reflection of a man in the booth behind her reading a newspaper. It was strange, she thought that she had seen him from before, but she brushed it off and returned to the numbers that flickered before her. That was until the man from behind her rustled his newspaper and she heard him place it down. She then listened to him stand and heard his steps take him from his booth. It was then that she listened to the steps approach her booth and she lifted a hand to lightly grasp the screen of her laptop and she slowly pressed it closed just as soon as the man pressed his hands to the tabletop before her.

“Do you come here to work often beautiful?” Enquired the man and she angled her head so then her blue gaze could sweep over the man’s form. He wore a business suit, paired off with a dark red tie and a black trench coat. His black locks gently brushed his shoulders and finally her blue gaze found his deep chocolate brown eyes. One of her hands lifted to rest upon her laptop as she pursed her lips. ”Occasionally. It helps me to… Think.” She said as she watched the simple cocky smirk caress his lips. “Surely you have some time for some… Other things as well,” The man said as he leaned in and press a hand over her own that sat upon the laptop. His other hand lifted to gently slide a couple of fingers underneath her chin so then his lips could press to her own.

The woman felt his hand slide along her neck so then it could lightly grasp her chocolate brown locks, but she really wasn’t about to just simply satisfy her physical needs right in public and leave her laptop behind. A laptop that she was aware that he also had a hand upon. Syn twisted her head to the side and drew a breath. ”Leave, I’m busy.” The hand in her hair loosen and moved to grip her chin then and she saw his chocolate brown hues turn into hot chocolate. “Then you won’t mind if I take your laptop,” He said softly and she realized then that this so called business man, wanted to use her laptop for business information that she had stored upon her electronic.

Slowly, she pulled her hand from her laptop so then he would let go of her chin to pick it up and take a step back from the booth. As he did so, she too stood and stepped towards him. ”Actually, I do mind.” Her hands lifted to grasp his shoulders and she brought her right knee through to knee him in the crotch. He let out a cry of pain and slowly bent over while his free hand moved to his cover his crotch. Syn finally reached forwards and grasped her laptop, tugging it from loose hands as he stumbled back away from her. “You’re a heartless *****,” he said as she listened to him stumble to the door. No, she didn’t watch him leave, instead, she simply moved to seat herself back into her booth. ”So I have been told,” She said softly as she opened up her laptop again. Indeed, the one thing that she did benefit from being emotionless, was she didn’t have to care about another’s pain.

Ever since he came to the city, he'd been having trouble sleeping. At night, he felt as wired as if he'd drunk three shots of expresso. He'd tried to sleep for a bit, lying in the darkness and hoping that the hum of the electronics lull him into sleep.

No such luck. His mind wouldn't stop working, turning over all the questions that he had no answer to: how he was going to find a job, how long before he could stop crashing on Danny's couch, whether or not Joseph had been lying when he'd said that there were no ties between them any more. Jake had tried counting sheep, but when he reached seventeen, he started wondering what Alexis was doing, if she was in bed or if she'd headed out to a bar or a night club. And if she'd gone out, had she headed back early, like she had the night they'd met?

He needed some air.

Jake grabbed a coat and slipping out the door. The insomnia wouldn't leave him alone, the couch was giving his back a cramp, and if he stayed here in the dark, enclosed living room, he might start thinking seriously about trying to contact Alexis again. Crazy and pathetic: he'd left one of those things behind and he was trying hard not to be the other.

He shouldn't have headed toward the cafe, considering the state of his bank account. But the lights looked inviting and his stomach was rumbling. Since he'd wandered here anyway... at a certain point, it was hard to remember what the point of making good decisions was.

He ordered a decaf coffee and a cookie (a late night deal that the waitress assured him was still good). He'd settled in one of the booths, pulling out his phone and browsing through the employment ads. Who knew, maybe he'd stumble upon the one job listing looking for an IT guy who dropped out of college and hadn't obtained any job experience he could put on his resume in the five years since. That thought made him laugh at himself.

The sound of conversation to his side brought him out of his thoughts. No, not conversation: harrassment. He glanced up, frowning, and what he saw was enough to make him rise to his feet.

Any action on his part turned out to be completely unnecessary, though, as the woman coolly and expertly kneed her assailant.

"Damn," he murmured to himself. The waitress gave the woman a thumbs up as the man staggered toward the door: Jake shared the sentiment.

"That was impressive," he said to the woman. He sat back down, picking up his mug of coffee. "Do you take martial arts?"

"I'd recommend taking a class if you can," he said, taking a sip of his coffee. "It's fun, even if you don't ever end up needing it."

He couldn't help being surprised by her response, though. For someone without any martial arts training, she'd moved very well. Maybe she'd taken one of those self-defense workshops or just been lucky. Though it was more than that - she hadn't freaked out at all. As far as he could tell, she was thinking more about whatever she was typing than about the man who'd assaulted her.

More than she was thinking about this conversation, too. Clearly, she wasn't interested in talking. He glanced down at his phone, and that was when she spoke again, inviting him over with a smile.

He frowned, studying her. He words were friendly enough, but something about the way she said them made him eye her with caution. It wasn't that she seemed like she was lying; it wasn't that she was forcing herself to be polite. Something was just out of alignment between what she said and how she acted, as if she didn't quite care.

Or maybe he was being an unfair asshole and judging her for being reserved and probably tired out of her mind. This was a late hour to be working.

"Sure," he said. Bringing over the mug and the cookie, he took one of the seats beside her. It wasn't as though he could throw stones at anyone for being a little strange. He was the one with freaky magic tattoos under his coat, for ****'s sake. "I wouldn't mind a bit of conversation myself."

"What have you been working on?" he asked her, glancing down at the laptop for a moment.

He studied her with surprise when she called over the waitress and offered to order for him, a frown crossing his face. He appreciated the offer, but she hadn't even asked if he'd wanted anything first.

"The egg sandwich sounds good," he said to the waitress. Like hell was he going to let the woman he'd just met pay, though.

As the waitress left, he glanced back at the woman, intending to let her know that he appreciated the offer, but really, he could pay his own way. She'd picked up her phone in the meantime, listening without comment to whoever was on the other side of the line with an expression so apathetic it couldn't even be called bored.

Right. For someone interested in conversation, she sure wasn't acting like it.

He bit into his cookie, waiting for her to finish her call, trying to shake off a feeling of awkwardness.

It was a damned fine cookie, though.