"That was before she flipped the switch, Tommy." She heaves out a sigh, watches him as he circles her - but she makes no move to break the pattern, simply sitting and waiting for him to make his big show, make his big play. It's coming. It has to be.
She sucks in, clicking her tongue against her teeth as she does so -- This man.. Lara wants nothing more than to remove his blackened heart from the cavity in his chest, but she'd promised. It's not hers, it's Birdie's win. It's Birdie's life.
"Not a problem." Very much a fucking problem. She leans forward, glances over to where Birdie's hiding and then turns her attention back to grabbing her phone out of her pocket - cracked screen and all. Instead of dialing the number herself, she slides it to the middle of the table.
"There. She'll answer if it's my number."
"You want me to call her? Announce that I'm here? From your number?" That's either cold or devious, but it makes his face go sly then, because he feels like there's an angle here - one he's maybe missing. He walks over to the door, puts a hand on it like he's feeling for the heat of a fire on the other side.
Then he locks the door - from the inside.
"Makes me wonder - but for why? So unattached you wanna give me her teeth like trophies but you won't set up an ambush? That math ain't mathin' Rivs."
He steps back to the table, and picks up a glass - no liquor, just ice, and eyes it for a second. "You know - took a lot of doing, getting my hands on this thing." He pulls a knife out of his jacket - nothing new, or flashy, or modern - it's something very old looking. "But I'm assured it is... just absolutely nightmarish for Vampires. Real hardcore witch shit. You know what werewolf bites do to us? All of that, but none of the dead. I want her to know that it's me who gets to put the quit in her, yeah?"
He turns it, sheath and all, over in his hands. "But it occurs to me - any witch trying to hock this kinda shit - hardly seems trustworthy right? So how about - I call Birdie, but only after I figure out if this thing works a advertised.
Before he's even got that last word out, he lunges, the old athame leaving its leather envelope and lashing out for her. He feels it bite into something drag on skin and bone, before he brings it back inwards and he's on her again, pinning her up to the wall, pushing the knife edge into her cheek. "That hurt? It's about to hurt worse." He presses the blade in again, drags it down her brow, over her eye. Along her cheek. "What should I send in the text, Lara? What piece of you'd look best on a fucking OLED, hm? Maybe that other pretty eye? Hm? Maybe an ear, yeah? Maybe your fuckin' nose, hm? You feel that sick in you already? That's wolf spit putting you in your god damned place."
He stares into the CCTV camera in the corner of the office. "Birds, hear her screaming for you? Don't that tickle the pickle a little bit? Make ya think of Santa Barbara?" He redoubles his grip on Lara. "I wrote this fucking playbook, Lara."
—
minutes previous...
Birdie's got her arms folded over. Something about seeing him - knowing he's this fucking close. That SHE is this fucking close, makes her feel electric fast and sloth slow all at once. She knows the signal. 'Silver'. That'll be the queue.
There's a sort of twinge somewhere in the back of her mind, listening to how well Lara's selling that's she willing to throw her under a bus. It makes her lip curl. Lara's given her the run of the camera room for the evening, even if the club itself isn't closed.
So it comes as a surprise when the door opens. She turns just in time for a set of knuckles to drag across her face - thick with the scent of Vervain as she feels her skin tear under the glamour.
Birdie feels her chin hit the ground and feels teeth snap through the meat of her tongue for the trouble, and she's almost up to her knees before she feels wood bite into her back, feels it peel just to the side of her heart before someone catches a fistful of her hair and hauls her up by it before pummeling her again, one, two, three, times.
"Get her up. Deac says she gets too froggy just dust her."
Another vampire pushes a stake-loaded shogun to her back shoulder. "He says he wants you to see this."
The other one pulls her swaying face up, lands a few more heavy cracks against it, then holds her there, making sure she can't take her eyes off the screen.













