Blood in the Canals (Venice and Vampires)

[Kage]

"Because I usually end up getting a headache after three hours of fist-pumping, and loud screaming." Vezio called back at the same level of loudness. He could feel the beating of the bass through his chest, something he always seemed to love when loud music played. "And besides," he began. "I normally don't have anyone to go with. Most of my buddies just like a good bar." He turned his head and grinned at the girl, his thumbs still in his pockets as he tapped his foot on the floor, following the beat of the music. It was some sort of techno mix, and by the way his whole body vibrated, there was a ton of bass thrumming through the speakers beside the DJ.

Vezio suddenly turned towards Raven with a quick spin on his heel. "There seem to be a lot more Americans here than there are Italians. Am I the only one that finds this odd?" Vezio spoke in said larger group of peoples' tongue, his accent clearly leaning towards Italian more than American, but was still very clear and understandable. He got a rather narrow, yet seemingly seductive stare from a girl sitting on a stool at the bar, a glass of some sort of clear alcoholic drink in her hand.

"Oh, now they want the Asian, right? Feh, I see how it is." Vezio waved a hand in the air nonchalantly and put it back in his front pocket, his feet tapping to the music still. He really wanted to dance, now.

[Purple]

"You don't need someone to go with," she replied, laughing, "You can make friends when you get here." It was what she usually did when she was unable or two lazy to find friends to go clubbing with her. People were usually friendly to a pretty girl in a club, even if they did have their motives. Raven looked out across the dance floor, which was tiled with flashing lights. There were plenty of people out dancing and plenty standing around like Vezio and herself, most of them sipping drinks.

"Si, si," she said when he mentioned the Americans before switching to their tongue, "This isn't known as a tourist hotspot, but it's not far from the popular hotels. Americans like to come here hoping to pick up Italians." Her own accent was more American than his but still had a distinct Italian flavor. She had learned English alongside Italian as a baby, thanks to her American mother, but she hadn't spoken the language regularly in years, and all that Italian had left its mark on her accent. She followed his gaze to the girl at the bar, laughing at the look on her face when she noticed Raven watching. Italian girls would rather have American guys, but American girls almost always went for Asians, it seemed. The dark-haired girl shook her head and took Vezio's hand, leading him out onto the dance floor.

"Come on, let's dance." she said, still using the other language.

[Kage]

"Alright." he said, allowing himself to be lead away by the girl once more. It wasn't long before the two managed a spot on the dance floor, the white of Vezio's shirt glowing from the dim lighting, but also reflecting the many different colors of the rotating and flashing lights on the ceiling. "I'm warning you now, once I start I can't stop." The boy said with a sharp grin, putting his thumbs in his pockets rather than his full hands.

Once a worthy enough song came on Vezio's feet sort of glided against the floor where he was standing beside Raven. He tried not to move to far from her, because then he'd be bumping into people, so he stayed in a small, enclosed and invisible circle of his own. The vampire gave a spin before returning to the tricky fete motions, his hands now out of his pockets and held up slightly from his sides to keep his balance.



((* Shuffle --> youtu.be/4tma4Ng6jDs Much more like the first two, less like the last guy (not jumping around as much). this was the only one I could find where people weren't either in a flashmob, or battling it out with different dances XD))

[Purple]

"Don't even worry about that," she said with a laugh, "We'll just see who falls down first, youngling." Raven waited for a moment after Vezio began dancing, watching him and nodding her approval. Soon she was dancing beside him, doing a dance much the same as his, though her style was a bit bouncier, a bit more dramatic. Soon a bubble had formed around them, the other dancers not wanting to get in the way, though it wasn't so big as to invite competition, thankfully. The dark-haired girl continued dancing as one song faded into another and she began to lose track of how many had passed since they entered the club. She hardly cared to keep track of time. It was too much fun just to dance, though she would admit it was more fun having someone to dance with for a change. Raven's feet just kept moving, still going strong when many of the humans around her had tired out and quite, the grin never leaving her face.

Her happiness seemed to crash and burn in an instant as a scent passed by her, a scent that any vampire would recognize despite it's design of being hard to detect. Slayers. Of course neither she nor Vezio had done anything wrong, so there was no reason to think that the Slayers had come for them, and this was a popular club, so it was possible they were just there to have a good time. Still, Slayers and vampires didn't belong in the same place. It only ever led to trouble. Her dancing didn't quite stop, but her limbs gradually moved slower and slower until it was obvious that she it was completely half-assed. She was focused on more important things. Her eyes scanned the crowd, looking for the Slayers she had smelled. She knew most Slayers' faces, even if she had never met them, from looking over reports and through databases. It wouldn't be good if one of them recognized her. They would have no reason to attack her, but they would do their best to pick a fight, that was for sure.

"I don't like this," Raven muttered, slipping back into Italian out of reflex.

[Kage]

"Oh come off it, I'm not that bad!" Vezio said through a happy laugh. The young vampire hadn't been told about the scent difference between humans and Slayers, and although he did smell a faint aura in the air, he passed it off as a strong drink at the bar. The person that created him wasn't keen on giving him hints or intelligence on anything that could harm him; only a small speck of information on Slayers was what he had to run off of.

It wasn't until he slowed his own pace to a very subtle swaying with his feet, hands back in his pockets, that he looked at Raven's expression. His own changed at the look of her own. Even though he was barely panting for air, Vezio inhaled deeply with a slightly open mouth, not only smelling that different scent, but tasting it on the roof of his mouth. ".... What is that...?" He said, stepping a bit closer to the older vampire just so that his shoulder was touching the back of her own left one. He wasn't as calm and comfortable as he had been before, he noticed. His muscles seemed to be locking up and loosening, almost like a cat ready to pounce- or run. He also felt that his fangs kept pricking the inside of his bottom lip, like they were fighting with his body whether or not they wanted to stay extended.

"....Raven...?" He stepped closer to the dark haired vampire, almost like a scared child; his brown eyes scanned the people, trying to figure out the odd smell swarming around his nose and sticking to his mouth.

[Purple]

"Slayers," Raven growled, halting in her dancing completely as her body began to tense as she imagined his must be. Vampires often gave this involuntary reaction to the Slayers' scent, even when they had no idea what it was they were smelling. It was built into them. Slayers, like vampires, could sense when one of their own kind was near, and while the change had dulled that sense in Raven, she would still know a Slayer when she saw one, which was what had her scanning the crowd furiously. Finally she found them, a man and a woman, dancing not far from where they were. They seemed to be there just to have fun and hadn't stopped moving, but she had no doubt that they were keeping a careful eye on the two vampires.

"We should go," she said softly, still staring at the Slayers. She knew their faces, could have found a name if she fished for it, but she didn't know them personally. They hadn't been colleagues or friends of hers, just names and IDs on reports. They weren't the best Slayers, if she remembered correctly. Likely they would be smart enough to leave the vampires alone for the time being, but still, it was best if they just left. Raven knew she would be too on edge to have fun here anymore. Rather than wait for an answer she turned and led Vezio out of the club by the hand, taking a side door out into the relative safety of the alley. The cool air hit her face, refreshing after the hot club and the recent nervous feelings.

"So much for burning stress," she muttered bitterly, then added to Vezio, "Sorry about that. They probably wouldn't have bothered us, but we'd have been on edge all night with them there." The girl ran a hand through her dark hair, leaning against the wall of the alley and letting out a heavy sigh.

[Kage]

Vezio was still very much frozen stiff, his muscles locked into place even as the cold hair rushed against his seemingly hot skin. There was a moment of silence before a very choppy exhale escaped through his clenched teeth. He didn't like that feeling... and he suddenly didn't want to be anywhere near that club- not even outside. He knew he hadn't done anything wrong, from what he knew about Slayers they tracked down those vampires that had done wrong and killed them, but it still left Vezio nervous.

".....I didn't like that... feeling." The younger vampire murmured, his muscles finally relaxing slightly. V took a steady breath before speaking again. "The man that 'created me'," air quotes were used here. "wasn't very fond of telling me about Slayers. I think he thought it was some sort of game with me.... He only told me the tiniest of things about them- how it was bad to pick a fight with them, or to break the rules. And about... the decapitation. That was it... he didn't tell me about the... the feeling of being near one, though." Vezio flexed his fingers a few times. "It was unsettling."

[Purple]

"Well you're doing quite well, then," she replied, wishing she could track down his "creator" and give him a good punch in the face. "Most vampires with that level of explanation are slain within a year or so." It was irresponsible vampires like him who created newborns and then gave them next to no information that gave vampires such a bad name. Vampires were required to teach their offspring the three rules under Slayer law, though there wasn't much of a punishment for it, so it was hard to regulate. Many of them did that and that only. They didn't warn them of anything, and vampires like Vezio had to go through their new life figuring things out as they went. Raven had never had it explained to her. The vampire who created her took off before the change was even complete, but then he knew she was a Slayer. She didn't really need much explanation.

"Come on," she sighed, pushing away from the wall. "Let's get out of here." The girl left the alley and turned onto the main road, crossing the bridge over the canal and heading back towards her usual cafe. Eventually they came to the place, passing the bridge where she'd left the American. Luckily he was gone. That was just one more thing she did not need to worry about tonight. Once they were seated at a table outside, Paolo came over to take their order.

"Buonasera, Signorina," he said, "Coffee?" Raven nodded.

"And a bottle of the Barolo, per favore," she said.

"And for you, Signor?"

[Kage]

"Chianti," Vezio muttered as a reply, folding his arms against the table and laying his head down on them. His eyes were covered by his arms, so he wouldn't have seen his hands shaking like they were. Granted, they were only shaking the slightest bit, but they still were. "Auh... I feel like shit." He murmured quietly to Raven, voice muffled a bit by his arms.

"Well... at least I'm not dead in the middle of an alley way, right?" He lifted his head and rubbed his hands together nonchalantly, ignoring the shaking they had been doing like it hadn't happened. Vezio began muttering something very quietly, possibly so quiet that Raven- even with her boosted hearing- wouldn't be able to make it out. It wasn't in English, nor in Italian, however, it was the third language he knew. He knew it as well as Italian, spoke it fluently, and could understand it perfectly if it was spoken to him, however, he wasn't as good with English as he was with what he was uttering through nearly pursed closed lips. Korean.

The young vampire rubbed his hands together a few more times before closing his right hands' fingers over his left hand, making a large fist and pressing his forehead against it with closed eyes. God he didn't want to think about what Slayers could do to him if they wanted to right now. Why did that jackass of a person leave him with so little information to run off of!? It was like he wanted him to just slip up and find out the consequences for himself! Gah!

[Purple]

Paolo looked at Vezio, raising an eyebrow as the boy put his head down on the table. Raven just shook her head as if to say, "Don't ask," and the waiter went away with a shrug. She sighed as she looked at V, who hardly needed to tell her that he felt horrible. A vampire's first encounter with Slayers pretty much always sucked. They could have no idea of how having their natural enemy near would make them feel, even if they had been warned ahead of time. Even in a situation like this, where there wasn't any shown hostility it was bad. When vampires saw Slayers their fight or flight instincts kicked in. It got easier to control with experience, but the basic urge was still there. Oftentimes newborns would attack Slayers coming to investigate a human disappearance, getting them killed automatically, or run, making them look suspicious and thereby hunted and killed soon after.

"The first run-in with Slayers is always rough, but the thing to remember is that they're just as scared of you as you are of them. They only pick fights the way they do because they don't want you to know how intimidated they are," Raven said, reaching across the table to rub his shoulder in a way she hoped would be reassuring. "If you can show them that you're not bothered by them, they'll leave you alone, but the surefire way to avoid trouble is just to leave. Luckily, they don't know how tense they make us. If they did, they'd probably never leave us alone."

The dark-haired girl thought for a moment, studying the boy carefully. His creator had done him no favors, hadn't taught him hardly anything. That didn't mean it was her responsibility to do it, but still, the information she had would be useful, and it was likely more than any other vampire could give him. She sighed again. She didn't want to talk about Slayers exactly, but he needed her to. "Listen, if there's anything you need to know, about Slayers or vampires, just ask," she said, "I'll do my best to answer it."

[Kage]

The boy flinched slightly at the girl's touch to his shoulder, his brown eyes staring at her hand for a moment. "....Then tell me why," he began, his fingers clenching tightly around his balled up hand, "I get the exact same feeling when I'm around you...?" Vezio stared at the older girl, his eyes piercing as he looked at her face. "Granted... it's not as strong... but it's there... as a small little speck- it's there." His shoulders tensed for a moment before relaxing again, though his eyes never left Raven's. "...Why do you know so much about Slayers.... You talk about them like you'd know one personally."

Vezio hadn't said anything, but when Raven had spotted those Slayers in the club, he had this ungodly heat rallying in his stomach, one that made him want to just lash out and strangle one of them. He was glad he hadn't, because from what he'd just heard Raven tell him, he probably would have died in no less than an instant- as well as cause a mass panic outbreak with the humans swarming in the club.

[Purple]

Raven winced at his words, withdrawing her hand slowly. He confirmed what she'd been fearing for a long time, that a bit of the Slayer aura still lingered about her despite the change. She had noticed that other vampires usually felt uncomfortable around her, at least before they got to know her, and she wondered if their instincts were telling them to run. It seemed this was true. Her vampire friends had been around her long enough to either get used to it or learn to deal with it, but those she met it passing often kept their conversations short. Vezio had been somewhat stuck with her, long enough to put a finger on the feeling, but not long enough to learn to ignore it. And now he was asking questions, questions she would answer in spite of herself. She stared back at him, unable to look away even if she'd wanted to, wondering if he could see the pain in her eyes.

"I did know one personally, quite a few actually. I know so much about slayers," she said, "because I was one, before I got changed." She left it at that for the moment, watching for his reaction. Raven hadn't told many people this "secret" of hers, though it wasn't really well guarded. She just didn't bring it up, and most people didn't ask. Granted, most people didn't get so much information all at one time, so her knowledge didn't seem so out of place. She hoped he wouldn't pull the whole "Get thee behind me, Satan!" thing that was some people's first reaction. There really was no point in shunning her immediately like she had the plague, and not just because vampires couldn't get the plague either. Obviously she was no longer a Slayer if she was a vampire, which he would know from her behavior in the club. The Slayers would never allow a vampire to work with them, no matter her history. Even if they had, she wouldn't have done it. She'd been weary of the Slayer business long before she was given an excuse to quit.

[Kage]

"So that would explain why I feel the need to punch you right now." Vezio muttered, his left hand's fingers twitching once as his shoulders tensed yet again. He had a feeling that the tensing and relaxing of his muscles wouldn't go away for a while. One thing was so certain, however, and that was that his fight sense was a bit higher than his flight sense. The boy literally had to keep his right hand holding tightly to his left fist as to keep from lashing out at the older vampire in front of him now.

".....-Where's my wine?" He suddenly turned his head and looked around with his eyes only inside the little cafe for the waiter that had been out there earlier. He had to admit that he was a good bit uncomfortable now that he knew (after much thinking with the short time he'd spent with her) that Raven had once been a Slayer. Vezio was quiet for a moment longer before heaving a loud grunt of a sigh. "..... How do they find out if we kill someone...?" He suddenly asked, a question that had always driven him insane on the inside since he'd found out vampires would be tracked for such a crime. How did the Slayers know?

[Purple]

"That would be why, but I don't recommend trying it," she said. One reason was because it would make a scene and cause all sorts of chaos among the nearby humans. The other was that she still had the Slayer's instinct to take down anyone who attacked her, and if he acted on his instincts, she was sure to act on hers without feeling any remorse. She couldn't help but laugh when he asked about the killing.

"That's actually way more hit and miss than we're led to believe," she began, pausing when Paolo came with their drinks. He set Raven's coffee in front of her then uncorked the two bottles of wine and poured the respective glasses, leaving the bottles in a bucket of ice. The dark-haired girl sipped her coffee and waited for the human to leave before continuing. "Slayers try to keep track of all the humans in an area, and they'll usually patrol everywhere they can, trying to make sure they notice if one disappears. Obviously they can't possibly keep track of everyone that way, so they spend a lot of time going through police reports and things like that. They actually work with the cops a lot of the time." Raven sat back and sipped her coffee, occasionally taking sips of the wine as well. This was certainly an interesting night.

[Kage]

"Faaantastic." Vezio muttered, swirling the wine in his glass before leaning back in his chair and tilting it to his lips. He began to drink a second glass. Then a third. Then a fourth and so on from there. It was going to be a long, short nap of a night it seemed.

----TimeskipOfHolyShitness----

He didn't know why it had happened, or why he'd done it, or even when it started. But it happened. And oh boy did it happen hard.

Vezio hadn't seen or talked to Raven for the passed few weeks (four to be accurate), but that wasn't because he was avoiding her (that was only partially why), it was because he'd been busy. No seriously. The boy had actually been over to Korea (a gift from his parents) for the first three weeks of his disappearance in Italy. He had gone those three weeks without a meal (of course eating the foods he had once enjoyed and loved before they all became as tasteless as dirt), and his temper and all together mood hadn't changed. He loved seeing the majority of his family all well, and he loved visiting old friends, and old places while he was there as well. Everything seemed to wonderful, and he was really considering moving back there sometime. But of course, he didn't want to leave Venice so soon. He was raised there, after all, since he was two years old, and his life changed in Italy as well (as most tourists say before they go), however, his change wasn't as corny as theirs might as been ("My life changed, I've tasted the best wine,"). He'd been turned into a vampire- now if that wasn't something tying him down to Italy, then there was nothing holy in the world. Of course there wasn't anyways, but still.

It was when Vezio (formerly given the original name of Koujai upon birth, changed when they moved to Italy- something he would never tell anyone unless they were extremely close to him) returned to Venice that things went bad.
Of course he'd returned home after the third week of being in South Korea, and he had held himself up well with his thirst, but by the time that he'd stepped off that plane he felt near ready to collapse. He was tired, and he thanked the ungodly being of whomever that most people just saw it as jet lag. It was because he was so tired that Vezio wasn't thinking as clearly as he usually did, and what caused him to- with a fake seductiveness around himself- pick up a hooker from the street corner. It was dark, late- very late for Italy, most people actually sleeping now- and the young girl (maybe a year or two younger than himself) didn't seem to protest being lead by such a man as himself into a dead end alleyway.

It was there that he kissed her neck once (as to keep her somewhat calm) and then part his lips and sink his long, extended fangs into her throat. His red eyes were low as he inhaled, sucking the blood into his mouth and swallowing it in heavy gulps. Not but five minutes later did Vezio's pupils seem to dilate the slightest bit, his left hand reaching up to the girl's face and suddenly, very harshly, clamping down on her face. His palm covered her lips and mouth, restricting any struggled screams she began to make, and hsi fingernails (as sharp as they were) began to dig into the flesh on her forehead and beside her eyes. While this was going on, the vampire began to drink the girl's lifeblood more eagerly, his right hand hooked into the back of her neck tightly, threateningly. Another moment passed by as the girl gave more silent, muffled screams behind the vampire's strong hand, that Vezio bit down harder into the girl's neck and suddenly jerked his head backwards. The sound of tearing flesh reached his ears passed his sudden rage of blood lust that he gave another jerk and felt his fangs tear into the main artery inside the young woman's neck.

The hooker thrashed out and tried to back away as a last resort, blood pouring out everywhere, but it was useless. Another large inhale from Vezio and he became rather full off of the red substance, tearing her throat out like a wild animal and tossing her to the side. She fell dead, her brown hair fanned out around her tilted head, blood pooling around her neck and shoulders.

Vezio blinked. He looked down at his bloodied hands and just... stared. There was a very, very long (or so it seemed to him) pause before he looked down at his white shirt, blood dripping from his chin and jaw as his fangs bit into his bottom lip.
"Oh..... O-oh my... my god...." The boy backed up, his fingers twitching before he turned on his heel and bolted, using the extra speed he'd obtained from being changed five years before.

There was no hesitation in his choice, he went straight towards the familiar house, stepped up to the door and knocked with a rapidly hard pace. He waited, but he was becoming rather jittery and impatient and knocked more urgently on the door this time (as if the last wasn't urgent enough). Vezio was wiping his bloody hands on the bottom of his shirt (not any better, he would say, as it was all white fabric). His mouth and jaw were still dripping with the stuff, his neck and collarbone covered in that young woman's wholesome lifeblood. Another set of quick knocks rasped against the vampire's door, Vezio changing feet as he looked around with wide, scared, and paranoid eyes.

"Raven!!?"