Up all Night || Eifa & Reza
rezathevamp:
The Bloody Stake was as charming as ever, the noises and smells intolerantly overpowering. Reza hated coming in here, and he hated even more when he was on a mission like he was now. A mission that would inevitably end up with someone in here being less undead and more dead-dead. A saving grace was that Reza’s shitty part in all of this would only be confirming the target and making sure his slayer ‘friends’ got the right guy. Because they were all about the morals, obviously. It was a fairly slow night, which always worked in Reza’s favor since it meant slimmer odds of him running into someone from the past. That was a whole bag of trouble he was willing to keep closed for the rest of his undead life; it was wishful thinking that he could avoid it forever but he could live in that illusion for now. As long as he hurried up and got the hell out of there.
As per usual, the urge to stop by the bar and calm his nerves nagged him, like an incessant itch at the back of his mind, begging to be noticed. Begging to be scratched with a beer or five, if the nagging had its way. Fists tight inside the pockets of his leather jacket, Reza did head for the bar but with a different purpose in mind. “I heard there was someone dealing in slayer blood around here,” the words felt bitter coming off Reza’s tongue, directed at the vampire with the blown pupils who was sitting all alone at the end of the bar. He looked almost familiar - the two of them had probably been at the same party on at least one occasion but it was no wonder that the vampire wouldn’t recognize Reza now. The husk of a human he’d been a year and a half ago couldn’t have looked different from the vampire he was now. Not to mention that the guy was drugged halfway to nowhere.
Despite the strong influences of a high that looked similar to nectar (and boy, did Reza’s forearms tingle forebodingly at the thought) the vampire proved useful. It had pointed out another man mingling over by the juke box; presumably the guy dealing slayer blood that the Anarchs wanted dead. Which meant Reza’s job was done.
Texting ‘Vlad’ a description of the guy, Reza escaped back out into Amity’s evening air, warming with every passing day. His foot had barely touched the curb outside when his fingers nimbly dug out the pack of cigarettes and a lighter, legs taking him anywhere that wasn’t right outside this bar. Yeah, the guy ‘Vlad’ was going in to slay was probably scum but still; Reza wasn’t exactly dying to hang around and witness his death.
He’d been waiting for what seemed like no time at all when ‘Vlad’s’ obnoxious face filled Reza’s periphery and he sighed. “Are we good?” The stub of the cigarette was dropped on the sidewalk, the last of the smoke smoothly escaping from Reza’s lips - up until the heavy slap on the back from ‘Vlad’ forced every bit of air from the vampire’s lungs. Dick. “We’re good, little vamp,” the slayer replied, his real name still a secret to Reza for some stupid reason. Code names were ridiculous. “Unless of course you pointed me to the wrong guy, in which case I’m calling you back out tomorrow.”
Reza rolled his eyes, annoyance building with every second he spent around this guy. There was still a bit of ash clinging to ‘Vlad’s’ sleeves and Reza’s stomach sank just a bit. Reminding him just how dangerous this guy was, insufferable attitude put aside. So he meekly didn’t snap when rude hands slid into Reza’s pockets, stole a cigarette and lit it up. The pack was carelessly tossed back into Reza’s hands, who barely caught it. And ‘Vlad’ was now walking away without so much as a goodbye, leaving Reza just brewing in his anger and guilt as he eventually gave in and lit up a second cigarette. Yeah, he’d smell even more smoke-y than usual but if he was going over to Noah’s later, he’d just have to change. The cigarette was necessary to calm the angry shakes in his hands.
She had of course hoped that the slayer would lead her to his home, preferably one he shared with other slayers (for, if there was one thing she had learned, it was that being in a group made everyone more stupid). At that home, she then could have dropped off presents during the following days, leftovers from hunts she’d have to go on in any case, to get a rise out of them and lead them to make mistakes. So first, Eifa felt sorely disappointed when the slayer only took a few steps, down another back alley which made the area around the bar feel like the horror movie set Eifa had dreamed of for so long.
Eifa wasn’t disappointed for very long though. She first didn’t recognize Reza in the all too dim light that marked the hours when vampires and thus also slayers were out and about, but for lack of something better to do Eifa stayed put, and then, once the word “vamp” passed the slayer’s lips, her curiosity had won over, and then his following words did the rest to tell her that she had just witnessed a deal, a deal that was part of an agreement between a vampire and a slayer that had just resulted in a vampire death. A deal in which a vampire was apparently blackmailed by a slayer.
She wasn’t entirely surprised by this, one of the reasons playing with slayers was so intriguing was that they could be incredibly cunning and that they knew their way around vampires’ weak spots. Nor did she feel the vampire’s behavior to be treason, for the centuries had undone in Eifa any remnants of the “us vs. them” mentality that humans were so prone to. But a vampire in a position that was already compromised was a welcome target for her, all with the ultimate goal of course of finding the slayers. So when the slayer walked off, it didn’t take Eifa any deliberation whether to follow or to stay put.
She waited until the slayer was out of sight before she stepped out from her hiding place, trying to fill the alleyway as best as she could, and giving a cheerful “’ Evening!” as a greeting, before gesturing to the vampire’s cigarette. “Would you have one for me too?” And now that she’d had a few seconds to see his face from up closer, recognition set in: Reza, the one full of warnings. Well, no wonder that. So he was a vampire.
“I guess you’re probably wondering now how much I heard?” she continued, trying to keep her voice as neutral as possible even though excitement was already trying to fight its way to the surface. “So I’m going to tell you right away that I heard enough to realize that you just helped whoever that was kill someone I had a nice conversation with just a few moments earlier.” Which wasn’t true, but personal touches, she’d found, always made explanations better. “And I know what he is, and I know what that other guy was, so I think we’re both too smart for us to pretend that this was some kind of drug deal.” As she took a step closer, Eifa forced her face into an expression of caring, even though the excitement made even that harder. “I’m Eifa. We were writing about Amity Road just a few days ago? And you seem to be such a worldly and smart vampire with such a good head on your shoulders, so I can’t help but wonder...why? What are they doing to you to make you do this?”
