The 4 A.M phone call had her packing a small duffel and taking off with no word to anyone. Those who knew where she lived, who find a note "Gone Walk-A-Bout. Be back soon."
That was about a week ago. The note would be withered and torn a bit when she returned and plucked it off the door.
She'd been recalled to the compound for a mission that had gone six ways sideways from sunday. She was returning home bandaged and her arm in a sling. Bloody nasty vampire nest feeding on a town that at one time sported over two thousand people. They were down to one thousand twelve. She still has a few days of recoperation to go, but it wasn't anything that would completely slow her down.
While she was gone, she had asked a lot of questions, met a few shifters where now she can tell the difference in flavor of a few. Wolf, rat, and leopard. She'd figure the rest out. She also asked about a few vampires in the area. Amazing what the elders know, bitch that they didn't tell her before she went. Bastages.
Now armed with a bit more information than she had before, she figured it was time she saw a certain vampire, give apologies, well, as much as she can without being snarky, and answer his questions.
What did one bring to a vampire? She got her best canister of 0 negative paranormal, volentarily given of course, and went back to the Garden District.
Back in the shady restaurant where Ren had first met with the vampire named William, Santino would be found. He had his goals of knowledge and understanding, but there was also the fact that he wanted to get the vampire community in this city organized. Finding someone powerful enough to be the Master of the City was among his list, and sadly William had proved two things. He was not powerful enough to lead the whole cities' vampires, and that he was a detriment to the entire notion.
Back in the restaurant, he sat and spoke with the man, and he was continually beligerent. The man silently commanded his many other vampires to encircle Santino in the restaurant, but Santino remained calm. Such a thing caused the one known as William to feel like he was getting the upper hand on Santino.
"I am simply making you an offer, William. Submit your vampire, and yourself, to the new Master, once one is found. Help me in finding them, and I'm sure they'll reward you as well."
"I will not submit to anyone's orders."
"The council will not like that."
"Bah, again with this council. We don't need any council, we are our own rulers."
Santino shook his head. "What a shame. Well, I tried. You are not worth the bother of the council, so I shall take care of things myself."
"Impudent whelp!"
William's vampires started around him, charging at him. Santino merely stood up, and stuffed his hands into his pockets.
"You charge me, when the floor around me is made of stone?"
Tiles of the floor began to change, breaking down in bits, till the stone was ground down into sand. The sand gripped at the legs of the charging vampires, till they froze in their places.
William stood, and with a growl, lashed out at Santino with his power. As if an animal's claw had materialized in the air, a slash struck out at Santino's jugular. His head tilted back, and William snarled. Slowly, Santino turned his head back, the slash marks making his neck appear scratched, but no blood poured forth. Instead, grains of sand fell from his skin. The stone floors once more began to break down to sand, inching up along the bodies of all the vampires there, including William.
Santino would turn, push his chair back towards the table, and depart the place. The sand would eventually form back to stone, as it sunk inward on its inhabitants. A scream that would normally be deafeningly loud echoed out for a moment, muffled by the stone, and drowned out by the sound of spraying blood. The floor would eventually right itself, and the bodies of all the vampires would lay on the ground; holes in all of their chests, right above the hearts. In time, the bodies would turn to ash, and dissappear, leaving nothing behind in the room other than a few splashes of blood.
In the night air, Santino took a deep breath, and started down the street. Such messy business. He hated having to do it. He returned to the restaurant he had been in when he had spoken with Ren, after leaving Will's place, and sat down in a corner. He ordered a martini, for appearance's sake, and sat back there in silence, merely for some time to think. Those that looked his way would feel a wash of his power. He hid himself in that corner, keeping the crowd thinking that there was no one there.
-- Edited by SANTINO on Friday 23rd of September 2011 11:27:43 AM
Bold as brass she walked in, like nothig had ever gone amiss between the two of them. Ren was never one to flinch. Why should she? She was older than dirt, and had the same abilities as vampires on the base level, earned her power levels, and still retained her humanity.
Spotting Santino, she moved through the folks like she belonged there more than they did. Ren stopped before him, bandaid on her forehead, arm still in the sling, and a few bandages here and there.
"Seems I owe you an apology." She began. And this was a big deal for her, she never had a problem admitting to herself when she was wrong, but when it came to telling other's she was wrong, well that was another story. Reaching into her sling she pulled out the canister of woohoo juice and held out the peace offering to him.
Now, lets see if he accepted.
-- Edited by CANDRA RENDALL on Friday 23rd of September 2011 11:20:02 AM
Santino would extend the veil of his powers, lest it seem like Ren approached an empty seat, and began talking to someone that was not there. On top of that, handing something to noone. She too would be concealed in the shroud of his mental power. He leaned back in his seat, and looked up to her.
"An apology? I suppose it's a start." He said, his eye twitching a bit as he looked at what she offered him. His hand would reach out and take the vial, and inspect it. He would tuck it away into a inner pocket of his business jacket, and scoot over in his seat, before patting it with his hand.
"Sit." He said, not in a commanding tone, but it certainly held a similar connotation to such. "What's happened to you?"
She knew he was working his mojo, but didn't know the extent of it. She could see through most of their games, and in her actions show she didn't know the trick he played on her. Which is probably for the best.
Ren sat, when invited, and spoke in answer of his question. "Ran into a mission that went fubar. Alls well that ends well, for I'm still kickin'." She adjusted the sling. It wasn't due to broken bone. Those healed like a vampire. Instantly. It was the damned vamp that gnawed on her arm that had it in a sling. A stake in the eye, twisted and wiggled does a good enough job of scrambling the brain until the final kill.
Her lingo had him confused. "Fubar?" He questioned, raising a brow, unfamiliar with this word. "Kickin'?" She was sitting down now, and her leg appeared quite docile. He was definitely lost.
Despite such confusion, he continued to listen to her, and when she asked about his questions, he merely raised a brow.
"Why should I believe you are more willing to answer now than you were before?" He shifted a bit in his seat, and cast his eyes upon his drink. With a tick in his mind, he'd lower the veil of his powers, letting the two be seen again. "Do you wish for a drink?" He'd ask, but without waiting for an answer, he'd wave over the waitress. The waitress seemed a bit shocked, perhaps confused at how she forgotten he was there, and wondered when his company had arrived.
-- Edited by SANTINO on Friday 23rd of September 2011 11:43:11 AM
Ren smiled a bit. Yeah she knew he may be leary, recognizing she was a bit of a bitch.
"Fubar means Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition." She explained. She was use to it with some of theoldr members of the compound, and use to explaining it without making the person feel foolish.
"I brought you a gift, and I came to you." She added. As if that made everything better. "I promise I will answer as much as I can - bear in mind it will be as much as I'm comfortable with."
"Very well." He'd respond, taking the explanations as simply that, and making no further comment on them. Nobody liked to listen to crotchety old grandpa complaining.
After the waitress came by and took an order for a drink, if Ren wanted one that is, he would go on.
"What about this mission then. Care to talk about that?"
Ren ordered a white russian. Always out to try something new. After the waitress left and Santino asked his question, she thought a moment then nodded.
"Rogue kiss being naughty. A group of us were asked to eliminate and exterminate. The kiss turned out to be much larger than intel provided. We lost some good men."
There was a glint of a shadow of sorrow in her eyes. Burden of loss.
When the drink arrived, she'd take a good swallow right off the bat.
Santino reached back into the inner pocket, and took the gift Ren gave him. It was an odd gift, one thing he had never received from anyone before, but nevertheless...
The contents of the vial were emptied into his glass of martini. He would then slip the vial back away, lift the drink, and take a swig of it. Blood Martini, he could get to like this.
After setting the glass back down, he'd return his attention to Ren. "Well, signorida, if you ever need a hand in such matters, you may feel free to call upon me. The matter of rogues has bothered me since I came to this city. This city is a mess, and not just from hurricanes."
"Noted." She said with a nod. "New Orleans seems like a hodge podge of preternatural activity."
A more dignified sip was taken from her glass as she looked over at him and watched him trust her enough to put the contents in the glass. Brave man. Braver than she.
"Well, yes, there are a lot of supernaturals here as well, which is another thing that makes it so serious."
He drained his glass, downing every last spec without leaving any sign in the glass that there had been anything in there, except of course for the toothpick that had a single olive on it. That too, he'd pop into his mouth, merely so that it would not be left behind.
"So, what is this group you were with on this mission?"
It grated on her to divulge information to anyone, and here she was playing nice with a vampire. A vampire!! But she'd been issued her orders after the debriefing, and it was deemed that Santino was "A good guy". Whatever that ment. She was more of the belief that everyone lived in shades of gray. Her jaded thought patterns always a source of speculation at home.
"I lived on a compound after discovering what I am. Some like me, some different. A group of us who are trained, on occassion, are recalled to work a mission here and there, from our regularly assigned duties."
Being that was almost a speach for her she downed the rest of her drink, wiggling the glass to catch the waitresses attention for a refill.
He didn't order a refill on his own drink, and would instead wait till the waitress departed to get such a refill for Ren.
"I see, when was it you discovered such?" he'd ask curiously. He was a stickler for really getting to know those around him.
He did however get to know the levels of her openness with information. When she 'spoke at length' he'd notice such, and file it away in his mind. He'd make it a habit to do his best at keeping her at this level of comfort, so he could get the answers he desired.
Her own past was something she didn't like to talk about much, especially that particular tid bit. And it showed. Her spine stiffened slightly, and her grip on her drink showed white knuckles. Though she had enough control not to crush the glass in her grasp.
"I was sixteen when I noticed that there were oddities about me." She took a deep pull from the glass. "Stronger, faster..." she continued. "Nineteen when grew into what you see before you." Puberty set in, changes began, and her status as a dhamphir came full circle. "It wasn't pretty picture."
He could understand not liking to talk about one's past. At first, he did not like remembering what his life had been like before he became a vampire. And of course, there was the stress of war around it. But it was during the events of the war that he met up with the Council. He returned to Italy afterwards, but he had made frequent trips back to Paris to meet with the Council.
He would nod, to her words eventually, and take note of it all in his head. "It never is, is it?" He said in a soft tone, before settling back.
In an effort to help her feel more comfortable, he would change topics. "So, the rest of your group views me as a ... good guy?" He inquired, arching a brow, and quirking a grin as if it were a humorous fact all on it's own.
"No, it never is." She tilted her head, regarding him once again after he asked his question. "As good as anyone sporting fangs and no pulse can be I suppose. Truth be told," she added, was her drink empty? Almost, she still had a drop left that was quickly done away with. "I personally, can see the true face of the vampire. So in you, I know that your intent is not " air quote "evil. And before you ask, I've never heard of any other dhampir with the ability, its believed that its mine alone."
It was a tricky puzzler. But none of the others had that particular ability. It seemed, each dhampir had a unique ability that was there's alone. Ren would kill for a few that she'd seen in action. But her's allowed her to do her job with no mistakes. Its why she had no trouble morally with dispatching those vampires when she first arrived in town. Nor the others that had been more discretely handled since.
The empty glass was pushed to the side. Ren folded her hands on the table. " What else can I tell you?"
