Children Of The Night (Danny)

[Mylène]

Mylène licked the last drops of blood from her lips as she emerged from the shiny, racy car she had just spent the last hour in. Backseat affairs… not her favourite type of getting what she wanted, but that guy had been worth it. Sweet and hot on the outside, even sweeter on the inside. Now he would hopefully sleep for a while and awake with a hammering hangover headache that would convince him the more sassy and weird details of his conquest had been a figment of his drunk imagination.
“Yeah you defintely had too much to drink, Cole … or was it Chris?”, she muttered while tapping the door almost fondly. “Hope you sleep well and soon forget about those two nasty punctures in your neck. Maybe I’ll even seek you out again…”

Then she turned down another street, smoothing out her short tartan skirt she was wearing over black tights and black ballerinas. The innocent schoolgirl look, got the guys every single time! Only later they discovered that there was something far more ferocious about her than they first had thought, but then they were either already so ensnared they didn’t care or they couldn’t help it anyway. Mylène liked to think that she always gave them fair choices. She didn’t force herself on anyone, it was their own mistake if they suddenly wanted to become… close and then they simply would have to pay a small price. Cause small it was in her eyes, a mere peccadillo, as she never killed her victims. In her eyes, killing them was causing more trouble than it was worth, because you could think nothing of a weird hangover and some wounds, but you could think much of repeatedly found corpses.

Whistling tunelessly, she wandered down the nearly empty street, checking her watch to measure the time left until sunrise. Still a little nice something. There was ample time to find a new place to stay for the night or to return into this derelict building downtown she had used last night. For now, she could just savour the cool night air for a little bit longer, no longer antsy now her primary needs had been stilled. Maybe she could even pay the Boardwalk another visit?
“Go and quench your new thirst, drink the blood of the innocent…” she suddenly started to hum lowly, quoting one of her favourite musicals, “those who are without sin… taste the sweetest of all…”Though... I so cannot agree with that..." Yes, there was no denying it, Mylène was more than content, she was even happy right now. So far, Santa Carla was a grand place.

---

Outfit: here!

[Danny Clement]

Daniel had been established in Santa Carla for a few years. He had discreet but solid control of a town full of vampires. Of course, there was the occasional bad apple he had to deal with, but for the most part everyone followed the rules and he was able to keep his group in line.

But, every once in a while some out-of-towner blew in and left a trail. Even the careful ones. Daniel wanted nothing more than to stay under the radar so he could live his life without having to fend off over-zealous citizens with stakes and garlic. When he became aware of a new vampire passing through the area, he liked to make contact and set a few things straight early on. If a vampire from the outside was going to cause problems he liked to take care of it earlier rather than later.

He smelled the blood before he came across the car. It wasn’t difficult for him to track the scent and he followed it to the vehicle. He peered through a window and saw a man lying unconscious in the back seat. At least he was breathing and didn’t seem to be in any distress. He supposed there were worse ways for a vampire to feed. It was a little less than discreet, though. Anybody could stumble onto the scene and find this young man. And who knew what he thought had happened to him?

Daniel rapped a few times on the window and the young man gave a start. Daniel smiled and motioned for the man to roll down the window. He leaned across the seat and turned the crank to roll down the window.

“Good evening,” Daniel said. “Are you having some car trouble?”

The man blinked and looked a little confused.

“Huh? Uh… No…”

He reached up and touched his neck.

“Jeez, what did that chick do to me?”

The man’s words were slurred and Daniel could smell alcohol on him. He wondered how much of the night he’d remember when he woke in the morning. He decided not to take a chance.

“Someone did something to you?” he asked.

The man blinked, staring off through glassy eyes.

“I don’t know…”

Daniel decided to take a different approach, adopting a different persona almost immediately.

“Sir, could you step out of the vehicle, please?”

The man looked confused for a second, then his eyes widened.

“Are you a cop?”

“Sir, step out of the vehicle, please,” Daniel repeated.

He didn’t want to outright lie if he didn’t have to. The guy cursed under his breath and got out of the car, swaying a little as he stood.

“How much have you had to drink tonight?”

The man groaned.

“God, I had like a couple beers, alright?”

“I’m sure you did,” Daniel muttered. “You said someone did something to you. What did you mean by that?”

The guy shrugged.

“I don’t know. I met some girl. I think she’s a little kinky…”

Daniel stifled a laugh. At least he wasn’t running through the town screaming “vampire.”

“So she didn’t assault you or anything of that nature?”

“No, no. Nothing like that.”

Daniel nodded, keeping a stern expression on his face. He could see a bite on the man’s neck and a bit of blood on the collar of his shirt.

“Are you sure about that?”

If there was any doubt at all in this man’s mind, Daniel wanted to find it and get rid of it. The man looked thoughtful and shook his head.

“Yeah… I’m pretty sure… I mean…” He laughed. “She kinda bit me, but you know. It happens.”

Daniel nodded.

“More often than people think,” he agreed.

He put a hand on the man’s shoulder.

“Well, listen, you probably shouldn’t drive home in your condition. Where are your car keys?”

The man blinked.

“You want my keys?”

“Yes.”

He frowned and looked hesitant. Daniel sighed.

“I’m trying to give you a break, but I’m losing my patience. Either you give me your keys or I’m going to get irritated and this is not going to be a good night for you.”

The man stared at him for a moment and Daniel waited for him to make some kind of decision. Finally the man nodded toward the car.

“In the ignition.”

Daniel looked through the window to make sure he wasn’t lying and nodded.

“Good. There’s a motel down the road, toward the beach. You should be able to walk there easily unless you pass out somewhere. Get yourself a room and sleep it off. If anyone gives you any trouble, tell them Danny sent you.”

He opened the driver’s side door and reached in to take the keys from the ignition.

“You can get your keys at the front desk in the morning.”

The man stared after him in a daze as he headed down the road. Now he had two things to do: find the vampire and drop this guy’s keys off at the nearest motel. Neither would be a difficult task. He only had to follow the scent of blood, still fresh in the air, to find the vampire, and he knew his way to the motel all too well by now.

[Mylène]

Soon after she had walked past a few blocks, Mylène had put any thoughts of the previous encounter out of her mind. For all her success in getting men to follow her out of bars and clubs, she didn’t think much of them. There were few whose names she actually remembered and even fewer whom she thought about with even so much as a fond memory. They were cute and they were yummy, and that was the end of it. As soon as she had taken a few rounds around a town’s usual places to go, she had to leave the city anyway. If she thought a few persons or happenstances worthy of blossoming into some memorable action, she adopted a lower profile and actually stayed around long enough to make friends. Although she did not know yet whether Santa Carla would fit into that certain kind of job description, she had a good feeling about this place. Grand things could happen here, and there was injustice everywhere, a thousand threads she could take up.

Be it the managers of a restaurant who treated their servers and other staff like slaves, or an overeager police force, there was always trouble to stir up if you found the right words to say and the right strings to pull, and Mylène found she had some sort of natural talent for both. The born instigator or so to say, but always ready to move on in case things got too… heated.
She didn’t even bother about any potential trail she could leave as she continued down the street. Human noses were so very dull when it came to the simplest of smells, and she hadn’t even drawn that much blood from Cole/Chris, after all he was still alive, right? You could practically push a human’s nose into a puddle of blood and he would only refer to a certain ‘odour of metal’ or something similarly ridiculous. Mylène on the other hand still feeded on the faint smell around her nostrils rising up from her lips. It made her giddy all over again, full of life and vigor. This was how it was supposed to be, she had never learned to feel any shame for who she was and how she behaved. At least for that her creator had been an apt teacher.

Still with a certain skip in her step, Mylène rounded another corner, just to find herself in one of those typical blind alleys. Rolling her eyes she took a few steps inside, thinking: So much for a direction sense or anything cool of that sort we vampires are attested in those innumerous movies and books. Well, since when is life how the stories are?
But turning back was for losers, so the vampiress walked until the very end of the alley and examined a possible way out. The wall shutting the alley off at this end was only about ten to twelve feet in height, probably leading to some garage or storage building, an easy way out for her. She might have to look out not to ruin her fine tights, but that just added to the challenge, right? Starting to hum another vampire-related song just for fun, she crouched low and took a negligent glance over her shoulder, not really expecting someone to be there anyway. She would have heard a human from miles away, but it was always better to double check if she didn’t have any audience.

[Danny Clement]

Daniel strolled casually down the street, twirling the young man’s car keys in his hand as he went. He didn’t hurry. Whoever had fed on him wasn’t far off. All he had to do was keep following the scent and he’d end up right where he needed to.

There were a lot of sounds and smells in the air. Most people – even most vampires – couldn’t sense all the things Daniel could. He could smell the salt water drifting from the sea and all the decay it brought with it. Anyone who said salt air was lovely didn’t realize half of what they were smelling was made up of the rotting corpses of the sea-dwelling creatures washing up on shore. And then there was the more pleasant smell of the sweet crab grass. The scent of sugar and fried food drifted over from the amusement park. Collective shrieks of laughter and excitement far off in the distance echoed in Daniel’s ears as he walked. He thought about whistling, but he didn’t want to announce his presence to the vampire he was pursuing. Instead, he walked in silence.

As he approached the alley he walked quietly, doing his best to make as little noise as possible. He held the car keys firmly and kept them from jingling as he made his way to the opening. He could hear the low sound of humming and someone moving just around the corner. A scrambling, shuffling noise. Daniel wrinkled his brows thoughtfully, wondering exactly what it was this person was doing.

His curiosity was soon satisfied as he peered down the alley to see a petite female begin to climb the wall at the other end. He supposed that was one way to create a shortcut. His footsteps were quiet as he began to close the gap between them. He was about halfway down the alley when she glanced over her shoulder. He paused in his stride, then he smiled.

“Hello,” he said.

There was still some distance between them, but surely her hearing was sharp enough to hear his voice clearly. He took a few slow steps toward her to begin to close the gap for the sake of normalcy, should anyone else happen by.

[Mylène]

Mylène most of the time didn‘t care that her methods and actions were a bit unconventional to most eyes. She knew she was quirky and sometimes even celebrated that quirkiness to excess, simply because she found it funny. If mere humans could be found doing steeplechase all through the city, jumping gaps, climbing walls and the like, just so they never had to turn and find a way around their obstacles, whyever shouldn’t she do the same, as she was far better suited to the task after all. Not only had she done breakneck acrobatics for nearly all her human life, but now as a vampire, stunts like this were a piece of cake. She just had to make sure no one raised an eyebrow all too much, that’s why she always double-checked.

--He was there, literally out of thin air like it seemed, standing casually a few feet away, simply watching her. That alone could be considered creepy. A simple ‘hello’ and that was it? But more importantly, why hadn’t she heard him approach? She should have detected him even walking on the street before he turned the corner. Humans didn’t even know how noisy they were, so even if they thought they were literally tiptoeing, Mylène had always been able to hear them before they came into view.
“Sapristi saucisse!” she exclaimed impulsively , “you have one way of sneaking up on people!”
Outwardly she resumed her calm after that, but inside the vampires the thoughts started to race. Who was this guy?! Didn’t he look somehow familiar? Not that she could attach a name to him or anything, but she had that distinct feeling she had seen his face before somewhere and that feeling never failed her.

So, should she know him? There was only one person that had ever been able to fool her like that, who had always been able to catch her off guard – but of course it wasn’t him! HIM she would have been able to detect behind every mask! So, that still left the question who this guy was… and WHAT. Mylène simply couldn’t believe he was human, or she would have to spend her remaining days in eternal shame. No, even she couldn’t be so reckless as to be taken off guard by a human!
Well, there was only one way to find answers to all those questions, and as she felt utterly stupid hanging there half way up a wall, she simply let go and landed safely on her feet, absorbing the impact like a cat. That could be still called mere skill, not necessarily superhuman.

Straightening up, she now leaned casually against the wall, shooting the mystery a sweet smile. “And hello to you!”

[Danny Clement]

The vampire seemed a bit rattled to find Daniel standing there, even with his non-threatening greeting. She made an excited exclamation in French. Its English translation would not have conveyed quite the same meaning, but in its context he understood he’d caught her off guard and startled her. She recovered quickly and commented he had a way of sneaking up on people, her tone merely observational with only the slightest hint of something like irritation.

He took a few more steps toward her, recognizing her face from somewhere. He’d probably seen her around town somewhere. He didn’t trouble himself trying to place her face with some brief past encounter. He now only placed her with the young gentleman she’d abandoned in his lovely little sports car.

She dropped down from the wall with no more effort than a human would hop off the last step in a set of stairs. She smiled as she leaned against the wall, her demeanor casual and relaxed as she returned his greeting.

Daniel glanced over at the top of the wall.

“Interesting choice of travel,” he observed. “You’d rather climb a wall than go around?”

He placed his hands casually in his jeans pockets, slipping the car keys into his right pocket discreetly, not wanting to reveal them just yet. His goal was to get an idea of this vampire’s motives, not necessarily to scare her off… yet.

[Mylène]

There was something shady about this guy… something she really would like to place, but couldn’t. Was he a vampire or not? Or anything else superhuman? Mylène had seen too many things in her countless travels to still hold on to the belief that vampires were the only non-human species out there. But as long as she was in doubt, she could not be open with him on any terms, not that she really had planned to. This was a rather unexpected meeting and he had caught her doing something rather unusual, for which she needed a good cover story. It was a good thing Mylène never had thought much about lying and had developed quite a skill for it over the last two hundred years.

She still thought she knew him from somewhere and somehow it was connected with music, but at the moment she had other and more important problems to deal with than her bad face memory. Though it was a rather hot face and that alone should have made it easier. Oh well… like she had thought before, the night was still young, maybe it would come to her once this conversation was prolonged a little. For now, she needed to appease this man so he wouldn’t grow all that suspicious of what she might be. Better safe than sorry!
”It is, is it not”, she agreed with a little bashful smile. “I really didn’t expect to have an audience here, that’s why I train in the night.” She spoke matter-of-factly, then gave a fake start and a chuckle, grinning this time. “Geez, I’m such a nerd, you probably won’t even know what I talk about. Ever heard of Street Jumping? When crazy boys and girls vow to never turn back and climb or jump all obstacles in their way?”

Perhaps it was good she had thought of that crazy sport just a few moments ago, or else she might have not been so quick to come up with this at least halfway plausible excuse. Tentatively, she opened herself up a little and felt if she could detect any shock, unease or suspicion around him – but in fact she felt nothing at all. There was a tight block to anything, as if she was staring at a blank white wall.
Now THAT was interesting too…

[Danny Clement]

After commenting on the young woman’s choice of travel, Danny observed her reaction. She didn’t seem all that rattled now that the initial shock of his appearance had worn off. She said she hadn’t expected an audience and that she trained at night. He tilted his head curiously at that. She trained? What exactly was she training herself to do?

“Geez, I’m such a nerd, you probably won’t even know what I talk about. Ever heard of Street Jumping? When crazy boys and girls vow to never turn back and climb or jump over obstacles in their way?”

Daniel gave a small smile. He had heard of such a pastime. Mostly reckless humans took part in it, but he knew several vampires who were quite fond of the “sport,” as they called it. Daniel had a hard time giving many modern day practices the title of “sport.” The sporting events he witnessed and took part in as a human man had been far more strenuous and dangerous than almost anything practiced today.

“Ah, parkour,” he said, “l’art du déplacement. I have heard of it.”

He chuckled.

“I thought it was only practiced by overly ambitious, adrenaline-addicted young men. That’ll teach me to make assumptions.”

He wasn’t sure whether or not her explanation was truthful, but it didn’t really concern him. He was pleased to know that she seemed to want to be discreet and keep a low profile. It was always difficult to place the motives of a vampire, even within his own family. It was even more difficult to place the motives of outsiders. Those who were more inclined to cover their tracks were typically easier to deal with.

[Mylène]

To any outsider this conversation might appear like nothing but a casual meeting between two strangers, starting to talk because they had nothing else to do and didn’t mind company. But Mylène doubted it was as simple, though she could not quite place where that suspicion came from and what it was fuelled by. Was she slowly getting paranoid? But why couldn’t she figure out his emotions? Most humans were an open book to her in case she really cared to pry and test, and even many of her own kind were. It irked and confused her quite a bit and she wondered if that was a sign of power or just of some special skill only on that department. Because this young man surely was capable of emotions, he was no zombie.

And what on earth did he want with her? Casual conversation in a blind alley? That was so not what Mylène was used to. If people started to chat, it was because they had met in a bar or when waiting for a train, but most of such conversations were hold in daylight. Nighttime conversations usually had a very precise purpose, but she would be damned if she figured out the purpose of this one! For a second the picture of Chris/Cole lying on the backseat of his car flickered in her mind, but she dismissed that image quickly. If he had been found she would now be alarmed by sirens of police cars and the like. At least she was safe from that.


“Ah, parkour,” he said, “l’art du déplacement. I have heard of it.”
He seemed to be confused at her statement first, but then when she explained he understood and even seemed to buy it. Very good! When words in her native tongue reached her perked up ears though, she raised her head in surprise, looking at him for a second. Of course she knew that another name for Parkour was L’art du déplacement, but she had been totally taken off guard by the way he spoke French. It rolled so easily off his tongue, with no accent even she could detect. Usually all English Native Speakers were horrible at this accent!
“Your accent is really good! T’es franҫais? Ou simplement un ami de cette belle langue?”¹

“I thought it was only practiced by overly ambitious, adrenaline-addicted young men. That’ll teach me to make assumptions.”
That comment sent her laughing her chiming carefree laugh. Oh he had humor alright! That definitely was a good start to whatever this might turn out to be. For the moment Mylène didn’t care as all her primary needs had been satisfied in the previous hour, but it didn’t hurt to keep a few other doors open as well, right?
“Hmmm, let’s see”, she mused with a little wink. “Overly ambitious? Check! Adrenaline-addicted? Check! Young man? Well hell of a NON-check. I’d say you live and learn, my dear…?” she let the sentence trail off with an audible question mark, hoping to get his name through that.

---

¹: "You're French? Or just a friend of this beautiful language?" (LOL don't feel offended if you understood that even without the translation, I just thought I'd make sure xD)

[Danny Clement]

The woman’s entire demeanor changed for a moment when he used the French phrase. Daniel had lived in France for a time and was quite fluent in the language, though he used it rarely these days.

“Your accent is really good!” she exclaimed. “T’es franҫais? Ou simplement un ami de cette belle langue?”

Daniel could tell by the way the words flowed naturally for her that French was at least a familiar language for her. He smiled.

“Non,” he replied. “Mais le français est familier.”₁

When he commented that he’d assumed parkour was only practiced by adrenaline-addicted young men, the woman laughed. His humor was subtle and sometimes lost on people, but she seemed to appreciate it just fine.

“Hmmm, let’s see,” she began. “Overly ambitious? Check! Adrenaline-addicted? Check! Young man? Well hell of a NON-check. I’d say you live and learn, my dear…?”

She let the sentence drop, a questioning tone toward the end. She didn’t know how to end that statement. ‘My dear… who?’ Normally Daniel needed no introduction to a Santa Carla vampire, but it was clear this woman was not native to the town. He was fairly certain she didn’t even know he was a vampire… at the moment.

“Daniel,” he said. “Et vous, mon cher?”₂

He inclined his head slightly in inquiry.

---

1 - "No," he said, "but the French is familiar."

2 - "Daniel," he said. "and you, my dear one?"

[Mylène]

Hmmm… alright! With every minute that passed, Mylène felt herself becoming more at ease about this weird situation. It felt odd to figuratively float in space like this, with no guide to keep her grounded, as to what might be his motivation or what he felt towards her. She simply would have to rely on her other instincts to be fast enough to kick in the minute she should be careful. For now the man seemed alright, not exactly ready to fling himself at her any second to try and rip her throat out or what, he appeared to be genuinely interested in a casual conversation. Well, she could give him that! All the more as it now steered towards a subject Mylène did extremely like.

“Non,” he replied. “Mais le français est familier.”

Ah, bummer, not a countryman after all then. But the way he spoke, Mylène was fairly sure he had had to spend some time in France. He sported a mix of various accents that made her wonder just how much of France he had seen. Her own French was mostly the Parisian accent, but mixed with some slang she had learned in different places as well. Also, it bore a slightly antique touch which had given her some odd eye or the other before. Maybe she should venture on a trip back to Europe soon? She missed this typical French flair, the ‘savoir-vivre’. One day, she would say “Goodbye America, bonjour ma douce France”… but not yet.

“Vraiment, semble-t-il c’est très familier!”¹ she lauded him with an appreciative nod of her head, then decided to switch to English again, even though she would love to continue this further. Well… maybe some other time…
“I was born in France”, she told him, grinning almost proudly. “Grand place, is it not?”
Allowing a little triumphant smile to flicker around her lips for a second, she acknowledged his name. So it was Daniel… again that sounded so familiar… together with this face, why wasn’t she remembering? UGH, it was annoying!

“I’m Mylène”, she answered with another sweet smile. It’s been long since anyone had called her ‘dear’ in her own language. Of course it was only a figure of speech; it still felt kind of nice though. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Daniel.” She would stay civil as long as he did, too. Simple. So far he hadn’t done anything nasty, so she might as well be overreacting. In case she was not, there was enough time to escape him, or even fight him. When it came down to it, Mylène thought she was very well capable of holding her own.

---

¹: "Truly, it seems like it's very familiar!"

[Danny Clement]

The woman seemed excited to hear Daniel speak French. From the way she spoke, Daniel gathered the language was quite comfortable for her to wrap her tongue around. He wasn’t at all surprised when she revealed she was born in France. He did wonder when she was born, but he could decipher that later. She said her name was Mylène. He smiled.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you as well,” he said.

But was it really? So far she didn’t seem hostile. Then again, they rarely did at first. He could have revealed his nature right then and dropped the act, putting an end to this little conversational tennis match. But he’d find out less information that way. No, it was better to remain mysterious and keep the conversation going until he could determine something more about this woman.

“Have you been in Santa Carla long?” he asked.

He guessed not, but he hadn’t gotten where he was by guessing. He had sources all over town. If she’d been in town long he would have known. At least he should have known before stumbling onto a bloody young man she’d fed on and left for anyone to find. If his network of sources had dropped the ball on this there was going to be some serious hell to pay.