OTA

[jageskro]

Sometimes, bar fights just didn't happen the way you wanted them to. As in, they were cut short before you got much more than a bruise and a cut on your cheekbone. Jag was pissed off as he stumbled away from the bar, holding a kleenex to his cheek. With his other hand, he was fishing his mobile out of his pocket. Who knew, maybe Coby would be in the mood for a little mutual pain tonight. Or even just a blowjob, Jag wasn't going to be picky.

He threw the kleenex in the gutter and scrolled through his contact list, but before he could find Coby, he found himself shoved up against a wall in the deserted street. By a woman. A really fucking strong woman, who licked his bleeding cheek before telling him, "You're delicious."

"And you've got weird kinks," he muttered, eyes flicking away from her and at the nervous-looking girl behind her.

"Are you sure you should be doing this?" the girl asked, switching from foot to foot. "The sheriff -"

"The sheriff isn't here," the woman cut her off, then grinned at Jag, baring bloody fangs.

Before he could think anything of it, pain lanced from his neck as she buried them there. "Fuck," he muttered, not exactly sounding as if he disliked getting his blood sucked out of him. Not as long as the pain of those fangs didn't go anywhere, anyway.

"Just, maybe don't kill him?"

The vampire pulled back from him with a roll of her eyes, still holding Jag against the wall. His neck was still hurting beautifully. "Of course I'm going to kill him. I'm tired of being on a leash. Do you want a drink, or not?"

Right, okay. Wonderful pain was one thing. Being drained dry, another. "No one's killing me," Jag muttered.

"Oh yeah?" The woman snorted. "The food thinks it's got a say in..."

She never finished her sentence, as Jag's fire washed over her. Jag expected it to hurt the fuck out of her, and make her back off. But apparently vampires were extremely flammable, because she caught on fire properly and was reduced to ashes within seconds.

"Fuck," Jag said again. He looked up at the girl vampire, who screamed and then ran off, faster than his eye could track. "Fuck," he repeated, and began to sag to the ground now that no one was holding him up against the wall.

Comments

[vampcharmante]

The last thing Janette would do was get an ambulance, but she couldn't leave him out here bleeding on the pavement either. "Of course you will. Get a drink in you and a bandage for your neck and you'll be fine. But I doubt you'll find either sitting there inviting another attack."

[jageskro]

"Let them try," Jag muttered, although even he could see the sense of getting off his arse. "Just... give me a minute, yeah? I was just attacked." He eyed her curiously. "How d'you know about them?"

Anyone who didn't would already have rung the emergency service.

[vampcharmante]

Janette obviously wouldn't take this kind of threat back to the Lenore, but they were still on the street and not far from the bar he must have come out of. Too public for what she might need to do.

"I know what I saw," she told him, which was true, but nowhere near all of it. "And what I can see now. There are all kinds of strange things in London, as there were in Paris. But I've never seen fire act like I saw tonight."

[jageskro]

"Yeah, I'm a fucking wonder," Jag wryly replied. He didn't even feel a little bad about what he'd done; she'd been going to kill him.

[vampcharmante]

"You are certainly something." Janette looked deeply into his eyes as she put a hand on his elbow to urge him to standing, and the rhythm of her words synced to the beating of his heart. "Let's get you away from here, hm? It isn't entirely safe for you here."

[jageskro]

Jag hadn't really wanted to move, but suddenly it felt like a great idea. He pushed up to his feet, remaining standing with her help. "Yeah, I should get home."

[vampcharmante]

He likely wouldn't even notice how much of his weight Janette took as she started walking him around the side of the building and off the street. "Let's start with you letting me take a look at your neck, and you tell me what you know about... them," she said, the suggestion all he would need to go along with her.

[jageskro]

"Well, I didn't know they were that inflammable," Jag answered with a wince, leaning heavily on her as they walked. "I don't know much, really. They like blood?" It wasn't really his problem - until they attacked him with the intent to kill, anyway.

[vampcharmante]

Once they were off the street, Janette leaned him against the wall. Well, leaned... pinned, almost the same thing. "They do like blood, yes," she agreed, "but there's nothing to be afraid of." Her eyes flashed to yellow-amber as she moved the handkerchief away so she could get a look. The blood was slowing, but the wound wasn't healing on its own, and she couldn't make him forget about vampires or the attack, if there was proof of it there on his neck for him to see and feel.

She'd have to heal him. "This won't hurt at all," she said, keeping her eyes on his as she nicked her thumb on a fang and dragged her blood over the bite. The marks healed in a matter of seconds, not leaving so much as a bruise.

[jageskro]

Jag knew, distantly, that he should have cared, but really, none of it mattered. Whatever she said went, and it didn't hurt. He was leaning back against the wall, waiting for her next words.

[vampcharmante]

"That's better, isn't it? Tell me, how did you burn the one who attacked you?" As long as he was under her control, he shouldn't try to burn her. She hoped. But she wasn't going to give him a reason to feel she was a threat.

[jageskro]

"With my fire," Jag answered, still placidly holding her gaze. "I didn't mean to. I didn't expect it to burn her up like that."

[vampcharmante]

"She was trying to kill you." As Janette would have needed to, if the man hadn't been so suggestible. To protect the community. "Tell me more about your fire? Are there others who wield it as you do?"

[jageskro]

"Not quite," Jag answered, his breathing even. "There's one wanker who can control it, but he can't create it." For once, there was no heat to his words as he mentioned John; he still sounded completely dazed.

[vampcharmante]

"Where can I find this... wanker?" Two of them. Wonderful. His blood didn't carry the scent of magic in any form Janette recognized, and she wasn't sure what he was, beyond a threat. She wondered if the sheriff was aware there was someone, two someones, with such command over fire living here.

"He doesn't sound like a friend at all, and it's better being friends."

[jageskro]

"I don't know where he lives," Jag answered, although he distantly wished that he could tell her. "But you don't want to be his mate. He's a psycho."

[vampcharmante]

If Janette was upset he couldn't tell her where to find the other man, it didn't show. She would simply have to remain aware. She gave him an encouraging smile, not that he needed it when he was being so cooperative. "But we're friends, you and I. Good friends, who look out for each other. Which is why I'm going to get a cab and see you home safely now."

[jageskro]

"We're good friends," Jag echoed in agreement.

[vampcharmante]

Janette thumbed away a smear of blood from his neck, then put her arm in his to walk the few steps to the street as she called for a cab.

Waiting, she held his gaze again. "You drank too much tonight and your new friend saw you home. You won't remember the attack or what we talked about, because vampires do not exist."

[jageskro]

"Of course they don't exist," Jag agreed easily. "They're just a horror story."

[vampcharmante]

The cab arrived then, and Janette loosened her hold on her fiery 'friend'. She didn't want to draw too much attention to them. "Please tell me you're not too drunk to remember your address. We haven't been friends long enough for me to be any help with that."

[jageskro]

"No, I know where I live," Jag answered, now sounding more like himself - albeit drunk. His friend here was just going to see him home, because he was drunk. But as she loosened her hold on his mind, the curse reasserted itself, and he stopped after opening the door to the cab, looking her up and down. "I reckon I might need to be walked to my bed."

[vampcharmante]

"Let's get you home first. Then we'll see about bed." Janette waved him into the cab and then followed, wondering if she should've kept up the whammy longer. She certainly wasn't going to let him take her to bed, but he didn't need to know that now.

[jageskro]

"So you're no fun," he remarked as he settled into the cab, then gave the driver his address.

[vampcharmante]

Janette laughed, almost a purr - because she could. "Oh, you have no idea how much fun I can be." The address she'd remember, in case she needed to track down the young man with the fire sometime in the future.