Manhattan - Decades
Stairs with shiny metal railings lead down into the club, ending at a long glass landing that leads down more stairs on either side to the wooden dance floor. Decades is well lit with blue and pink runner lights on the stairs, allowing patrons to find their way, even when the club is shrouded in darkness.
The walls are a black, with little to no decorations allowing the club to become whatever it wants to be at a moments notice. State of the art varilights and floods reflect off the mirrored doorways on the DJ stage. The DJs booth is lit up in front with lights that change color based on the music that's playing.
Around the dance floor, separated by glass partitions are several couches and tables for lounging. More formal seating can be found on the above with proper tables and chairs, also partitioned with glass to allow those needing a rest to still enjoy the dancers on the floor below.
A bar can be found on each floor, both black with mirrored fronts to reflect the lights from the dance floor. Behind the bar is a high-tech, mirrored drink area with glass shelving. Various libations, ranging from alcoholic beverages to fruit juices and sodas line the shelves.
Every third weekend, Decades is decorated to reflect a different decade theme; costumes are required on these nights, and the music fits the theme.
Characters
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| Bryn Blackwell | Kevin Curtis | Serafine Roche |
It's the reviving that's always the hardest. Those first few moments where the world comes rushing back with the speed and impact of a freight train, air forcing its burning path into lungs that don't need to bleed, nerves sparking and firing every signal to every cell along every path, a cacophony of sound and sights and smells and sensations that threaten to overwhelm and drown.
The pain bleeds in from the edges, slowly at first and then in a rush the same as blood flows rapidly from an open vein or artery. It's agonizing really, the twisting and tightening of her insides, of skin, muscle and sinew trying to knit back together and heal her to completeness. It's a time when Serafine is at her most vulnerable, lying on her back in the dirty alley, trying to focus on the shifting and blurring stars overhead and not the large metal pipe in her gut. Not the shaft of wood going clear through her shoulder, splintered in the muscle there, but far enough away that the shards won't go near her heart.
She has no idea how long she lies there before she's able to try and get a grip on the metal pipe with her good left arm, the one that isn't useless due to the long bit of broken crate, and yank it from her abdomen.
The scent of blood is strong - and it's not all hers - and she surrenders the struggle of maintaining her human composure. Thus far, the alley is empty… deserted. Her only company the sound of papers and loose debris being swept about by the wind, the buzzing of traffic along the street and the steady throb and pulse of the bass coming from the club.
She half crawls, half limps to the prone body, lying where it dropped so gracelessly from the hold of the uncontrolled vampire. Blonde curls matted with blood, eyes staring vacantly up at the sky. Blood - still fresh, still warm - pools beneath the body.
Serafine growls and recoils, catching herself before she lowers her mouth to the open throat wound. Scampering backward on her bottom, not caring about the further damage to her shoulder, or the fact that her healing broken bones are being snapped and twisted again, she puts as much distance between herself and the body.
But she can't leave. She can't leave it like this. She can't leave the poor girl like this for someone else to find.
Wedinging herself into the small, dark space between two dumpsters, she yelps when something brushes her leg. Her purse, still attached to her wrist. Fingers fumble and scramble, and she gets out the phone, only half aware of who's number she's dialed.
"There's been another one. Decades. I tried to stop it. I'm with the body." The words come out in fits and starts, deep gasps taken as her body struggles to heal.
She puts her head down and waits.
~*~
The call is quick, and almost disconnected before Bryn can say that he's on his way. He's got no clue where Decades is, but thankfully the driver he's hired happens to have a GPS unit, and he can easily type it in so they can get on the right road. As they drive along, he dials Ashcroft first to let him know what's going on.
Then he dials Kevin.
"We have another one," he says quietly. "Miss Roche is with the girl now." After leaving the details with Kevin, he dials Serafine's number again.
"Serafine, what happened? Are you alright? We are on the way, but if we need to bring anything above and beyond the usual, I need to know now."
~*~
There is a good deal of cursing when Kevin gets the call from Bryn. He'd really been looking forward to a quiet night. Alone, yes, but what else is new? Alone is better than poking around the crime scene of yet another unsolved murder.
He wonders if he should feel bad that he hopes it's another hooker.
Considering the location, it's doubtful, and Kevin braces himself for things to get uglier in the near future.
~*~
It takes a moment for the familiar ring tone to penetrate the fog of Serafine's mind. When it does, she manages to draw it to her ear with a quiet, "Oui?"
Without blood, the healing is a painfully slow process. One hand is pressed to the gaping wound just above her navel, and she tries hard not to move the shoulder and work any more shards of wood free.
"I saw him. I followed him. But I didn't know. It's just the girl was … protesting and - he seemed new and - he wasn't stopping. Her heart was stopping but he … wasn't stopping."
Focusing on her thoughts around the pain is difficult, but she's really trying. Even as she shifts and groans as quietly as she can. "I tried to stop him. But … there was someone else. He was older than me. Faster. Stronger."
Leaning back against the wall, Serafine closes her eyes. Her laugh is bitter and sharp, "I got my ass kicked. I'm so not alright." A young, new vampire she could have handled easily enough, but the elder one came out of nowhere.
It's not lost on her that she's lucky to be having this conversation.
~*~
Bryn wants to yell at her. To tell her how stupidly foolish, and brave it was for her to follow him by herself, especially if she realized that there were two of them due to the way the bites were on the last body.
"Serafine, hold on. I will be there… ten minutes tops. I will see to it that you are taken care of, do you understand me?" He waits for an answer, then pulls the phone away from his ear long enough to text Kevin and tell him to bring a cooler of blood with him.
"Just rest and focus on healing. I promise you that we will get this bastard." When they do, he knows precisely what he wants to do with him, but he knows that the Priory in the 'new world' won't be as medieval in their desire to torture those that cause issues for other supes.
~*~
The night has just gone from bad to worse. Kevin has a ton of questions he wants to ask, including how and why there's blood needed, but knows that he won't get any answers right away. Maybe with any luck Sera took down the bastard and there's nothing left but a pile of ash.
Yeah, not likely. Blackwell would have said something. Still, there's hope, text messages are for being direct.
Kevin texts back that he has it covered, and that he'll be there in fifteen minutes. He's not far from Priory House, and they stay stocked for emergencies. By the time he's pulling back up in the driveway, he's called ahead and Doris is coming out with the cooler.
"Thanks, Dot." She hates that, but Kevin does it anyway.
"You know I'd only do this for your girlfriend, right?" Doris asks in retaliation.
~*~
The vampiress waves off his concern, even though he can't see it. She's been in worse shape. Granted, it has been a very, very very long time. It's funny, though, she's just realized that she called him instead of Kieran. She acted on auto-pilot and somehow Bryn Blackwell's number was the first one she dialed. There's irony in there somewhere, she's sure of it. Just not focusing on it right now.
"I'm not … going anywhere. Promise." It's a poor attempt at a joke. She's still in no shape to go anywhere, not until the wood is out of her shoulder, and even then she'll have to get someone to tend to the splinters.
"Resting," Serafine says quietly, closing her eyes, but keeping her attention trained on the alley. She's pretty certain she's out of sight, but you never can be too sure.
~*~
"Good."
Beat.
"I will be there shortly, Serafine, I promise." Bryn disconnects the call, and tells the poor driver to speed the bloody hell up. It takes less than ten minutes to reach the club, and once he does he casts an illusion to blend himself in with the surroundings so that he can get by unnoticed. The spell is dropped once he reaches the alleyway, so as not to surprise Serafine, or have her think the attacker has returned.
Bag over his shoulder, he quietly calls out, "I am here, Serafine. Make a noise so I know your general direction."
~*~
With the cooler of blood secured, Kevin is back in the car and on his way to Decades. His mind tries to play out scenarios, but fails to come up with anything worthwhile, so he stops. He'll have answers when he arrives.
~*~
Serafine has been blissfully still since getting off the telephone with Bryn. Head titled back against the wall, nothing but a few stray cats and a cooling body to distract her. Her eyes pop open - had she drifted off? - at the sound of a heartbeat before she hears the familiar voice.
In her weakend state, the heartbeat is a beckoning, summoning drum and she gnashes her fangs against her lower lip in a struggle for control.
It takes a slow count, she makes it nearly to seven, before the fangs retract and she hits the side of the dumpster with the flat of her palm. "I'm over here." Between the two dumpsters and the wall, as far from the scent of blood as she can get and not leave the area.
~*~
With the noise and voice directing him, Bryn makes his way between the two dumpsters. What he sees causes his brow to furrow, and his lips to curve downward in a deep frown.
"Serafine Roche," he says, voice quiet and even, "Next time I do not want you to chase them. Follow at a safe distance." Dropping down to his knees beside her, he surveys the damage and growls at her. "At least is seems as though he was trying to slow you down and not kill you, or that piece of wood would have been a little more to the right."
A pair of surgical gloves are removed from his bag and quickly snapped onto his hands. "Detective Curtis is bringing blood for you, but right now I am going to pull this out of your shoulder, alright?"
~*~
Kevin's arrival is not heralded by flashing lights, or anything else. He doesn't have the luxury of a privacy spell, but he does have a badge, a gun, and skill at fast talking his way into and around places. Fortunately, it's still early via nightclub standards, and no one pays attention to a man disappearing in an alley with a cooler.
"Only in New York," Kevin mutters.
Entering the alley proper, he looks around, making out the sight of a pale leg near a wall, and faint sounds as far from that leg as it can possibly be in the narrow alley. As he ventures closer, Kevin has a good idea of why.
"Sera? Blackwell? I've got blood." His voice is quiet. Bryn might not hear him, but Sera will.
~*~
"I didn't know." Another time and another place, Serafine would be mortified that Bryn sees her looking as messy as she knows she must look. Her neatly straightened hair is a tangled mess that can't decide which direction to go in, and her form fitting white dress is no longer white. Though the drying blood is helping it to fit a bit more tightly and plastered to her skin.
"I really thought that it was just a new vampire without a guide, making neonate mistakes." Something must be healing, her ribs or her diaphragm because talking is easier. "I wanted to stop him … from making a mess of things."
"It worked," Sera snorts mirthlessly. "I'm slowed way down."
As Bryn comes closer, presumeably to remove the wood shard, Sera closes her eyes. It's not so much the pain as she wishes to not be faced with that fluttering pulse in his throat.
~*~
There is a moment, possibly two where he actually considers just shoving his wrist at her mouth before he pulls the wooden splinters out of her. The only issue with him doing so is that she'd heal around the wood, and that would make things worse for her.
Bryn takes a deep breath and gingerly begins to remove the pieces of wood from her shoulder. "Call for backup, Serafine."
Freezing as he hears footsteps in the alleyway, it takes him a moment to realize it's Kevin. Exhaling a sigh, he waves a hand from between the rubbish bins, and motions for him to come over where they are.
~*~
The hand signal takes him to where Bryn and Sera are, and Kevin's poker face slips. He's seen his share of crime scenes - domestic abuse, bar fights gone bad, gang fights gone worse; werewolf maulings, vampire bites and dead bodies. What he has never seen, in all the time he's been with The Priory, is Serafine Roche looking as beat up as she does.
What's scarier is that his brain rushes in to remind him that this is her state after she's been healing for a while.
"What the fuck, Sera?" He jerks his attention away from the woman and pops open the cooler. "Is that wood?"
~*~
"I am backup. I can handle one baby vamp," Serafine argues, though the argument is only half-hearted. She keeps her eyes squeezed tightly shut, but that doesn't prevent her from hearing Bryn's heartbeat. The drum-thumping as the blood pulses through his veins, the scent of it beneath his skin enough to make the fangs descend again, to make her eyes shift to obsidian beneath her closed lids.
Serafine grits her teeth against the lure of blood, and not so much the pain, both hands clenched into tight fists.
Kevin's arrival just doesn't help. The two heartbeats, the scents and heat of warm bodies making her fangs just ache.
She's never been quite so grateful when the blood bag drops into her lap, though she doesn't pick it up and tear into it immediately. She does wrap a hand around it and hug it to her midsection as though it's a life line. In a way, she supposes it is.
~*~
"Except for the fact that it was not just one baby vamp," Bryn says gently, still pulling the splinters from her shoulder. He curses a little as he realizes that one of the splinters is wedged too deep for him to be able to just gently pry out. "Miss Roche, I am going to need to cut your shoulder a little to get this last splinter out."
Without more warning than that, he's got a pen knife out and is slicing into her skin. Once he's made the area around the splinter wide enough it pops out easily. Setting it atop the pile with the others, he reaches down to the bag of blood and attempts to yank it away from her.
"You need to drink that, Miss Roche, not cuddle it."
~*~
"I'm going to carefully check the body. Arrange a transport to come pick her up." Kevin has no need to watch Bryn clean Sera's wound. He's not squeamish, but there are other things to be done. This is another scene, although apperantly they have a witness this time. "When you're ready, Sera, we need to talk. About anything and everything you can give us."
He leaves the cooler, nudging it closer to the vampiress with his foot, before he turns to canvas the area.
~*~
"I'm not a child," Serafine grumbles, aware of the irony of her words when she sounds quite like one. "I already said that I didn't realize it was a pair. I was just trying to stop -" She cuts off with a series of curses in French Creole. It causes her eyes to jerk open, and then she closes them again, biting her lip until Bryn is done.
Her hands instinctively tighten on the bag of blood, and a soft growl comes from her throat as she tugs it back. It's all instinctive, and she's made no move toward the man, but she reacts like a dog with a bone.
Raising the bag to her mouth, she glares defiantly back at him, and purposefully sinks her fangs into the bag.
~*~
"It is either the bag or my wrist, Miss Roche, and at the moment, although I do appear to be covered in your blood, I have no desire to be covered in my own." Bryn locks his eyes to hers, trying to stare her down until she actually sinks her fangs into the bag.
Smirking, he reaches out to pat her on the head and murmurs, "Good girl."
It's really not going to earn any points with her, but he needs her to not look so broken and bloodied.
Pulling himself to his feet, he presses a kiss to the top of her head and murmurs, "Thank you. I will leave you to drink until you feel better, Serafine. I had best go help Detective Curtis."
Turning to go, he knows what he's going to wind up doing, and it's likely to earn him frowns from Ashcroft.
"Detective. I do believe Miss Roche spotted our killer. From my understanding, she attempted to get the neophyte to stop drinking, and was taken down by whomever the older vampire training him was."
Beat.
"Apparently, they are both male."
~*~
"She took them on by herself?" Kevin asks with a frown. He glances back toward where he knows the vampire is, even if he can't quite see her. "Who does she think she is? Super vamp?" It's a rhetorical question. Honestly, he's never really thought of Sera as the 'action' type. He knows what she is, but somehow, the thought of her in a fang fight is not something that has ever popped into his head.
"That's something then. More than we've had in … a while." Like since this all started.
Beat.
"She can probably give us a description when she's healed up." Kevin knows enough to know that if she's in pain or needs to feed, she's not entirely focused.
~*~
If she wasn't swallowing moutfuls of blood far more enthusiastically than she would like, Serafine would tell the sorcerer that she wouldn't want his blood anyway. It'd be a lie, because she's not picky at all at the moment, but she's not going to give him the satisfaction. If it wasn't for him she wouldn't even have been here tonight. She's here because she's trying to get the damn man out of her mind, and out of her system, and now here he is again, right in front of her being all charming and -
Sera glares at the pat to her head and then practically chokes at the press of his lips to the top of her head. It's unexpected, and even worse - she responds to it, her whole body warming and a tingle going from the roots of her hair to her toes.
This time, the growl is one of utter frustration as she grasps blindly at the cooler and lobs a blood bag at his bag.
Frustrating, annoying man!
~*~
"Apparently," Bryn answers Kevin in a dry manner. He's not pleased that she did it, and he can't help feeling a little guilted by the fact that had he actually called her this week, had he allowed that small bit of distraction, he likely would have been here with her and she wouldn't have wound up hurt.
Serafine has good aim, and the bag hits his square on the back and explodes. He can feel it seeping into his jacket, which he quickly removes, and folds up. It is quickly placed into his bag, as is the blood bag. No point the clean up crew needs to tidy up after a tantrum.
"I do believe she is starting to feel better."
~*~
Kevin misses the toss of the blood bag, but he hears and sees it's impact. He blinks several time in surprise, his gaze darting between the sorcerer in front of him and the vampire across the alley. His brain is trying to make sense of the interaction and byplay, and comes up at a complete loss. As far as he knows, Bryn and Sera don't know one another well enough for that sort of byplay. Kevin has seen Sera in a pique of temper or fit before. It's only been a handful of times over the past years and those reactions have always been limited to her Maker or her "cousin." It's a curiosity, but one for another day. She is a bit out of sorts right now, and Bryn's patronizing and formality could put her more on edge, he guesses.
"Good," Kevin nods, trying not to smirk as he watches Bryn put the coat away. "Because she's our only eyewitness so far. Unless you're counting ghosts."
Beat.
"And no, I haven't heard back from Graves yet."
~*~
It's true, Serafine is starting to feel better, but she would have thrown the nearest object the least likely to do him harm anyway. First he ignores her, then he shows up here, and instead of being professional and detatched, he actually appears concerned about her wellbeing. Bryn Blackwell is a huge conundrum and Sera is having trouble handling his back and forth, one hundred eighty degree behaviors.
They say women are finicky and fickle.
She listens to the conversation between the two men as she breaks into a second blood bag. A deep breath is taken between swallows, testing her ribs and chest muscles, and she rolls her shoulder a bit. That brings a gasp and a wince; healing is faster than a human, but still a slow process when she's this injured. Still, she's able to slowly push to her feet and try to move around a bit after quickly draining the second bag and moving onto the third.
"I didn't recognize them, either of them," Sera says as loudly as she dares. Luckily, the ambient sound doesn't carry with the building vibrating beside them. "You've been talking to Lilith Graves?"
~*~
Bryn has, admittedly, been busy and distracted by the case. He's got Callum looking up all possible instances in other places in the world, during different eras, of the same sort of case. It could give them a lead as to who has created this neophyte. He's been scouring research, making calls, hitting up old contacts — some of whom he really wishes he hadn't contacted.
"Would you recognize them if you saw them again, Miss Roche?"
Beat.
"Not that I wish for you to get too close to them again, but if you happened to see them in passing would you recognize them?" He's aware that vampires can glamour other vampires, but he's not sure if that is the case here.
"Detective Curtis ran into the woman at the last crime scene."
~*~
Kevin looks over toward the vampiress, glad to see her on her feet. She's a bloody mess, literally, not in the sense that Bryn would use the term, but she's upright. That makes him feel a little better. Giving her a once over, a non-sexual once over, Kevin returns his attention to approaching the body of the girl. He kneels, not far away, pulling out a set of gloves and snapping them on. No doubt Ashcroft has a team on the way already.
"Her purse is attached to her wrist. At least we can identify her." Another one that isn't a nameless, faceless hooker.
"Graves was at Mandy's murder scene. Talking to Mandy Lockhart. Mandy was a bit freaked out though, but guess I can't blame her for that."
~*~
Lilith Graves has also been talking to Kieran. Leaving messages for Kieran. This is one of those times when Sera really dislikes being caught between the two groups, and she holds her tongue out of loyalty to Kieran. They need to work with The Priory to solve this before a shit storm comes down on Kostas' court, but the Master of the City is still playing things dangerously close to the vest.
Serafine doesn't dare venture any closer to the body than she has to. She's had blood, but she's still weakened and healing, and the scent of it is bad enough. Getting closer just isn't a good idea. At least she's no longer being distracted by Bryn and Kevin's heart beats.
"I would recognize the younger one. I don't make promises about the older, but I could certainly try. There are ways." Kieran could do it, get inside of her 'dreams' and pull up the memories, a bit like hypnosis, but then the information goes to Kostas and won't be shared with The Priory. "I'm a terrible sketch artist, but I can try to draw them both."
~*~
"Get the identification, Detective Curtis. We should get started with notifying her family, and cleaning this mess up as soon as the crew arrives." Bryn is torn between going to help Kevin, and checking on Serafine.
Serafine wins out, and he takes a few steps back toward her, not removing his eyes from the body.
"Miss Roche, you have had a rather long and trying evening. You do not need to stay. I can have…" He glances toward the far side of the alley and sighs. "I can see you home safely if you would like, and ensure it so that no one notes the messy state of your dress."
Beat.
"If you recall something in the interim, I will be right there to talk to."
~*~
Kevin nods and crouches beside the body. He reaches out a hand and closes the poor girl's eyes before going on to retrieve her hand bag. "You know, it's not your fault, right, Sera?" It's the cop instincts coming to the fore. Humans feel that sense of hopelessness and helplessness when things go to crap like this. Sera is more human than most vampires. No guarantee that she's feeling guilty, but the words come anyway, just in case she is. "You did what you could, and you're lucky you weren't killed, too."
Bryn seeing her home isn't a bad idea. She looks like she just walked out of a murder scene, and they'll need to talk to her later. If she disappears into the Undercity to nurse her wounds, they might not see her for days. Same if she goes to her Maker or to the Dunamis Estate. They need the information that Serafine has and that means someone does need to stay close to her. Usually that task would fall to Kevin - staying close to the victim - or to Kayla or Doris, but he thinks Bryn can handle it. Even if Sera doesn't seem to like their British import much.
~*~
"Of course I know that," Sera answers a tad too quickly. Her gaze is purposefully focused away from the girl's body, and it's not just because of the blood. Kevin was reading her mind just then, and she doesn't like it.
It's on the tip of her tongue to tell Bryn that she can see herself home, but she's worried about her ability to do a proper glamour right now. Waiting for a taxi, getting any passerbys and then covering the driver as well … it's already making her tired and drained.
"Alright. That's fine."
~*~
"Kevin, you have my number if you need anything. Tell the Colonel that I am sorry for not sticking around, but this takes precedence." Bryn knows that it's going to make both Kevin and Ashcroft question his abilities as a leader, not delegating taking Serafine home.
He doesn't care.
Taking another step toward the vampiress, and reaches for her hand. "Miss Roche, please give me your hand so I can lock the illusion onto you." He can do it without touching her, but then he wouldn't be able to squeeze her hand in a comforting manner.
Once she complies, he murmurs a few words and squeezes her hand tightly. The dress looks clean once more, her hair looks like perfection. All Kevin will see is that she looks beyond good.
~*~
Kevin isn't questioning Bryn's decision. The man is still new to the city and the Priory, and he probably does things differently. Kevin wouldn't have objected to babysitting Serafine, but he's not going to question the man who is unofficially in charge of the scene. The vampiress called Bryn first. Not Kevin, not Ashcroft, so she at least sees him as being trustworthy. It must be the accent.
Later, Kevin will wonder about the blood bag tossing, but he has other things on his mind right now.
He gives a glance back as Bryn completes the spell and gives a low, appreciative whistle. "Is that how you started the night? Looking good, Roche."
~*~
Serafine shows no hesitation before she holds out her hand to Bryn. Somehow she manages to hide her surprise at the covert affection, and she's too tired to get too worked up about the confusion he causes her to feel. Maybe after he's dropped her off, she'll be able to have a long shower, a glass of wine and try to make sense of everything.
"Thank you," Sera whispers softly. She wants to kick herself for the way that she holds onto his hand for a moment longer than required, that even in this state she's still reaching out to him and craving whatever bits of attention he throws her way.
At Kevin's words, she smiles, though it doesn't quite touch her eyes. "Just something I threw on, Curtis."
The smile slips, the wind blows just a bit and the scent of copper and death is stronger to her senses for a minute or two. Serafine looks to Bryn and bites her lower lip, "Can we go now?"
~*~
"Yes."
Bryn has the mobile up to his ear, and lets his driver know that he is ready. He begins to lead Searfine out of the alleyway, but after a few steps, he stops. Turning, he nods his head toward the Detective. "Thank you, Kevin. Next time we hit the pub, the drinks are on me." He will owe the man after this, especially as once he gets Serafine settled, he's going to be calling and harassing Kevin for details.
Once they're out of range of Kevin's sight, he suddenly grabs the vampiress and pulls her in for a tight hug. "Serafine Roque, I swear to bloody hell that if you ever scare me like this again, I will throw you over my knee and spank you."
~*~
Serafine is stunned by the unexpectedness of the hug, and the intensity of his words. She stands there for a few seconds, unaware that her arms have automatically encircled him until her cheek is brushing his shoulder.
Her head jerks up and she gapes at him. "Scare you?" Serafine finally manages to find words. "I didn't even think you still knew my name."
~*~
"Just because I am preoccupied by a son of a bitch who is going around murdering young women does not mean that I have forgotten you, you foolish woman." Bryn hugs her a little more tightly, and then releases her slowly.
"Come. Let us get you home. I imagine you wish a nice hot bath and some privacy. Though I will stay if you would like me to."
He can work on the laptop just as easily at her flat as he can the penthouse at the hotel.
