11:37PM
Damn, his meeting had run over a few hours too much. He thought as a barely suppressed growl rumbled in his chest as he stalked out of the fifty nine story building that he had built from the ground up over the period of the past sixty or so years with the help of various, previously untapped resources such as Gimli's gold and diamond mines- three of which he had purchased well over a hundred years ago.
Along with Legolas, and his merry band of elven law advisors, and mercenaries. They were a fun group to have on his pay roll. They didn't really listen to anyone but Legolas and himself, and they were a roudy bunch. But the second someone stepped out of line and needed to be dealt with in a way that would make it look like an accident- bam! Automatic paid killers on speed dial.
Of course they would be easier for him to deal with if Legolas didn't so enjoy pissing him off by usurping his authority when he gave a kill order.
The pointy eared bastard.
Frankly he didn't know what the issue was with killing. They had been wiping people out since the days when Earth had merely been referred to as Middle Earth.
Besides, it wasn't like he killed people willy nilly or anything. He only did it when the situation- like the one from earlier when he had been trapped in a fucking six hour long meeting with some of his board members. The dumb fucks wanted him to step down as the leader of his company and allow them to put a 'puppet leader' in his office.
He wasn't stupid, he knew damn well that they were trying to push him out of his multi million dollar business so that they could take the reigns and manipulate his company and his people to suit their needs.
Well he would be damned if he ever let that happen.
Thank god he had forseen the greed of others as a possible threat to him and his own many, many, many, many years ago and had legal documents in place stating that if he ever left the building and his position as the founder and CEO- he would hand the company over to the most vile and blood thirsty person he could think of to keep it from other people's grasp.
He had picked Legolas as his future heir to the company. He figured that all that legal bullshit that the elf had learned in fifty years of law school would be good for making a lot of people suffer.
Sighing as he loosened his tie a little bit, he walked down the street towards a nice late night restaurant several blocks away where he was hoping to be able to grab something to eat since he hadn't eaten anything in hours and was so unbelievably hungry right now that he could cheerfully rip an elephant apart and devour it.
Fishing his keys out of his pant pocket, he slipped his finger through the key ring and spun his keys around his finger for a few seconds as he debated with himself on if he wanted to ignore any and all future phone calls for the next week or so- but then quickly squashed the idea since it meant ignoring Merry and Peregrin's phone calls too.
He could easily hang up on Sam, Frodo, Legolas and Gimli. He didn't like to, but he could if he felt the need. However he couldn't do that to Merry and Peregrin.
Especially since Gimli had left his younger offspring in their care for the next few years and the two tended to get into more trouble than they used to during the time of the fellowship.
Which was ridiculous really, but what could he do? If he tried to let them fend for themselves- they'd most assuredly die in some horrible fashion of their own making. Well okay that wasn't completely right. Merry would be fine. He knew all of the emergency numbers to call, including his own- as well as had enough items stocked around his home to manage to stabilize pretty much any condition that he or Peregrin may fall into.
Of course it didn't hurt that he now had three years of medical training under his belt.
It was Peregrin that tended to worry him and the others all white headed.
Like the time they all decided to do some male bonding and flew half way across the world in his personal jet to re enact their days in the fellowship. They had gone barely two days in the wilds of Switzerland and had settled down one night to make camp and poor, poor Peregrin had fallen asleep a little too close to the camp fire.
The next thing everyone knew he was streaking across the field that they had stopped in for the night, screaming bloody murder while his clothing burned right off of him while he and Legolas had chased after him and had finally tackled him to the ground to stomp him out.
He then had to spend the next month without any kind of covering for his backside.
And the rest of them had been so mentally scarred by the whole event- especially when he managed to walk ahead of them- that they had decided to finally end their trip early and just go drinking after he got himself some new clothing. And they had spent another month or so practically living in the local pub, drinking everyone under the table and only sleeping when they each managed to drink so much in excess that they passed the hell out.
He was like Legolas now- and had a difficult time even getting a good buzz from any sort of alcoholic beverage. Which was a shame. He rather missed being a blackout drunk sometimes.
Legolas was a more cuddly version of his former self when he finally got buzzed.
Gimli merely passed out and slipped into a coma.
Frodo was like a big cat. He needed and wanted attention and affection in exact that order. And Sam, who had been widowed about fifty years back- was his favorite person to cuddle up with. Which...wasn't exactly surprising.
They had always had a weird relationship.
Merry merely gave everyone a creepy grin whenever he was drunk- and somehow managed to pull really funny pranks on everyone almost as flawlessly as he could when sober.
And Peregrin...
They'd had to finally break down and wrap him in bubble wrap. Lot's and lots, and lots of bubble wrap just to keep his usual accident prone self from becoming fatally accident prone. Why they had even bought him a pair of goggles to protect his eyes, a mouth piece, and a helmet that he had to wear with the bubble wrap whenever they went drinking together.
Otherwise he wasn't allowed to drink.
Come to think of it, maybe he should call and check on Merry and Peregrin before he went to eat? He hadn't heard from them today and that wasn't always a good thing. He stopped spinning his keys on his finger and started to reach into his pocket again to dig out his cell when he caught the faintest whiff of something...pleasant?
Something that made him pause in mid step and tilted his head back so that he could take a deeper breath of whatever it was as a low growl escaped his throat. Taking a deep breath, he held the air in his lungs for a moment or two longer then absolutely necessary so that he could try and tell what the scent was.
It smelled like vanilla, peonies, honeysuckle, and a touch of peach.
It was an incredibly feminine scent... Tilting his head a little bit to the side, he could almost feel his gums beginning to ache as his fangs lengthened a bit in his mouth. His once human grey eyes changed to a piercing neon blue that glowed eerily in the faint darkness around him.
What was that smell? He wondered as a small frown crossed his finely sculpted features as he looked around for any trace of the scent's source. Whatever the smell was originating from was stirring his inner beast.
It's close. His beast whispered to him in anticipation. There was something about the scent that had the beast practically purring within the back of his mind. Which was all kinds of confusing to him since the beast that he'd lived with for so many hundreds and hundreds of years usually didn't purr for any reason whatsoever.
Stop thinking so much and hunt. We need to find her.
He blinked at the sudden sharpness and strength of his beast's tone. It's demand wouldn't be ignored. He couldn't ignore it without serious repercussions on his end. But the fact that his beast knew something that he didn't was unsettling.
Why had it said, We need to find her? Who was 'her'? And why did they need to find her?
FIND HER!
Alright, alright. Settle down before we wind up shifting right here in the open and get discovered by some human... Now which way?
Left.
"Alright then." He muttered to himself as he turned left and began walking again, this time away from his vehicle, and any real possibility of having a potentially warm meal anytime soon. He walked for the better part of twenty minutes before his beast began to howl in his head causing him to flinch slightly at it's peculiar behavior.
Sniffing the air again he noted that the source of the scent that he was tracking was coming from the inside of an abandoned and condemned red brick building just across the street from where he was standing.
Hurry! She needs us! His beast urged, causing him to react by quickly crossing the street and kicking the flimsy door down and then stepping inside the inky darkness of the building. It took a second or so for his eyes to adjust to the dark, but once they did he was able to make out the spray paint on the walls, the broken glass and piece of old furniture strewn about the floor and began moving through each room, carefully examining them until he was certain that the person he was searching for wasn't hidden somewhere within one of them until he finally reached the third room.
There laying in the middle of the floor, bruised, bloody and injured was a dirty little dark haired female. A human female by the smell of her.
Moving in for a closer look, he noted that she was wearing a sky blue dress with puffy sleeves and pink and pale purple satin ribbons. She was a tiny little thing, he thought as he silently knelt down next to her form and with one hand he carefully brushed her haphazardly cut dark hair away from her little face and then used a finger to gently tip her head so that he could see her face more clearly.
She was a haunting little beauty. Or at least she was if one could see passed the dark discolorations, and cuts and scratches that littered her snow colored skin.
She is ours.
"She is not. She is just a child." He said to himself, trying to reason with his beast. But he beast refused to listen and kept insisting that the child was theirs.
Frankly he felt that was impossible since he would have known long before now if he had accidentally sired any offspring. Of course this line of thought caused a violent reaction from his beast. Seeing as it not only snarled at him but managed to drag it's claws across the skin of his back in a physical manifestation of it's displeasure. Causing his breath to leave him in a soft hiss as his beast then retreated for the time being.
Leaving him alone to deal with his new situation as best as he could.