Path of the Vampire forum

The sun was well down as Cliff rumbled back in town on his new black harley street glide. He hadn’t been back home in years, but much had changed. Cliff decided first thing to do was take a drive around the town, let people who remember him see that he was back.

Cliff pulled over, his brows furrowed. A fadebeast? Shaking his head, Cliff slide off the bike, and loosened the leather vest he had on to give him more freedom to fight. It didn’t take him too long to dispatch the creature.
Reaching into one of the pockets in the vest, he pulled out a pack of cigarettes and lit one up, placing the filtered end between his lips. His eyes darted around, looking for more things to battle, but came up with nothing in the current area.

Cliff slipped out of his vest on the way back to the bike, examining it for tears, and making sure all four patches remained. The top rocker declared which group he was currently with, and it read “Tattered Remnants”. The middle patch held the emblem of the group. For him, it was a tattered non descript flag with a skull in front if it. The bottom rocker only read “nomad”. The last patch was on the front. It was a black diamond with a 1% in the middle.

Seeing everything was in place, Cliff climbed back onto the bike, and continued making his way through the city, only stopping twice more to dispatch fadebeast.

Cliff found his way to the saloon,parking in the front and made his way in, phone in hand as he fired off messages to everyone he knew, telling them where he was at.

Cliff slid into an empty booth and finally signed onto the crownet to the family board, announcing his return there as well. With that being done, he lit another cigarette, placing the filtered end between his lips again.

He probably stood out in there now, in his biker vest, sleeveless black shirt, blue jeans, and boots. On his right hand, he had a single ring with the figure of a winged angel on it. His guardian angel.

Suzette Broussard was a loner. She always had been but after the fall of her father's empire, she had become almost a hermit. She ran her own businesses very successfully and worked on her fighting skills a couple of times a week, but otherwise, she stayed home with her cat. No better conversationalist could be found, at least not on this continent.

One of the few places she would go besides work and home was to the High Noon Saloon, and that was only because of Pru. Prudence had at one time somewhat 'adopted', Suzette. The two seldom ever seemed to spend any time together... however, Suzette still used the backroom of the saloon to spar in every so often.

Tonight had been one of those rare occasions and after a satisfying few rounds of kicking each other in the face, the sparring partners had all parted ways. Suzette didn't even know any of their names, nor did she care to.

Having taken herself to clean up her face before leaving, her nose wrinkled in distaste upon exiting the restroom. Someone was smoking. INSIDE the bar. How utterly foul. Wasn't there a law against that sort of thing?

Her eyes followed her nose and saw where the grey cloud of stink hovered not far away and with her stick firmly up her arse and swearing in French under her breath, Suzette Broussard marched right over to give whoever was smoking a piece of her mind.

"Excuse me," The petite brunette said haughtily, not even bothering to look directly at either vampire or she would have recognised Cliff; "But you are aware, are you not? That you may NOT smoke in here. No?"

Cliff listened to the chatter around him, knowing that most of them were talking about him. A few of the older regulars may even remember him from years past, but no one dared approach him. Cliff didn't smoke the cigarette, just let it rest between his lips, staring down at the phone, awaiting a message back from anyone that he used to know. Maybe they all got new numbers? Even Marty didn't respond.

Cliff glanced up and towards the back room, wondering if anyone was still using it. His mind wandered to all the fun fights that happened back there between people. He missed the real fight. A fight between two supernatural creatures. Not these petty fights he had with rival bikers which ended quickly, even though he was holding back most of the time.

The crowd seemed to shift once again, and he overheard talk of a blue haired girl. His interest was peaked for just a moment, but his phone went off. Marty had finally replied which made Cliff just a little happy. At least someone he knew was still around and wasn't dead. He fired a reply back, letting the man know where he was, and that he had returned, and that he would be requiring his services again.

Cliff hit send just as a voice that was directed towards him reached his ears. He looked up and took note of the woman who sat at his booth now, and his eyes narrowed. Cliff reached up and pulled the cigarette from between his lips, a frown clearly on his face. He glanced from the cigarette to her face, and back to the cigarette. A thought of shoving the cigarette into her eye crossing his mind, but he refrained for the moment. “Who I am? I'm Cliff of the line Worthington. Co-owner of this Saloon.”

Cliff leaned back to watch for a reaction. She was a pretty girl, but could she fight? She must have been turned since he had left the city. He knew the majority of vampires back then, but her name didn't ring a bell at all and with that color hair, she would have stood out. He was curious about her, but he wouldn't let it show. His cold eyes lingered upon Verena's face until a voice tied to a few memories of his past broke his gaze. Cliff glanced at the woman, and for the first time that night the corner of his lips curled up into the slightest of smiles as he rose from his seat.

“Suzette Broussard” His voice was rough and deep. “You might take better care of looking at who you are speaking to, before you tell someone what they can or can not do.” He replaced the cigarette between his lips, still not actually smoking it. His eyes raked down the woman's form, taking in the familiar sight before offering her a seat at the booth as well. He had always liked Suzette. Not only was she pleasing to the eyes, but she could fight and had a good head on her shoulders.

"Bien sûr, je savais que c'était toi, Clifford. Qui d'autre serait si égoïste..." She said with a wave, as if to dismiss the idea that she hadn't known to whom she had been speaking.

Cliff had been absolutely right, of course. But there was no way Suzette would ever admit to that. Instead, she arched a delicate eyebrow at the larger killer and rolled her eyes when he offered her a seat. But less than a minute later she did take a seat all the same. "and you are not even enjoying it, all you are doing is stinking up the air." She scolded him, once she realized he wasn't inhaling, her voice thick with disdain.

The brunette gave Cliffy the stink eye but the corners of her lips were twitching with the effort to stay still, as she was mere seconds away from actually smiling.

”Well, it has been rather interesting talking to the two of you, but I almost forgot a crucial factor at work.”

Suzette blinked and looked up at the strange female who had risen from her seat, and to whom Suzette had never spoken. She narrowed her eyes to say as much, with her nose stuck up in the air. A sharp retort was on the tip of her tongue but remained unuttered, as the unknown woman made her exit too quickly to exchange any barbs.

"Était-ce quelque chose que je disais?" She muttered, with a delicate snort, and then turned to address Cliff directly."And I was just about to criticize you for your failure to make introductions. Tant pis. There will be plenty more opportunities to come, j'en suis certain.

Visibly flinched at being called Clifford. He hated that name. He hated that people assumed that was his name. He wouldn't correct her though. His eyes turned to Verena as she spoke her dismissal and promptly left. Cliff shrugged it off. Maybe he scared her? He could be quite frightening at times. He was amused by this. Thinking about tracking her down and just being a pest, an unholy nightmare for her.

His eyes flashed to the woman at the table remembering she was there, then glanced down at the cigarette. He plucked it from between his lips, crushing it in his fist then dropped it on the table before him. “Habit. It helped me blend in while I was out and about,” It was an excuse and untrue. He was already reaching for another one, but had to remind himself it wasn't needed.

“As for the girl, her name is Verena Crow or something. Literally just met her right before you appeared, Doesn't look like the type who would come in here.“He look towards the door again, once again thinking about tracking her to find out more. Cliff mentally shook himself, focusing on Suzette again, a smile tugging onto the corner of his lips. “First night back in Harper Rock, and I've ran into three fade beasts, didn't miss those ugly things one bit.” He leaned forward now, his face growing serious. “What all have I missed. What do I need to prepare for. What is the situation in the city.” All questions he needed answered quickly before he returned to life here in Harper Rock.

Her eyes narrowed as she read Cliff's body language and she filed away his reaction to being called Clifford for future use, then gave the male her sweetest and most innocent smile. Another wave of the hand and the subject of the blue headed woman was dismissed from her thoughts. There had been nothing about her that Suzette found interesting and apparently she wouldn't be of any use to tease Cliff with, either.

A sculpted eyebrow arched up at the man's talk about the fade beasts he claimed to have slain and Suzette chuckled. She had never seen one herself and didn't care. "What have you missed, my friend?" The brunette tutted prettily and shook her head from side to side. "I'm not the news lady now, am I? I've been barely back myself but a few weeks and between getting my businesses back up and running... and working on my training, I haven't paid much attention to... current events."

It was true. Suzette had zero interest in anything that didn't affect her directly... or offer her an opportunity to make money.