I hate not being able to reply to anonymous reviews, soooo…
Demonic-Chaos: Thanks! I'm kinda just going with the assumption that every culture has their own myths and whatnot to go with it. Glad you like this, 'cuz I know a lot of people don't, haha. XD
Cyrosian: Glad that my characters up to par; personally, I thought they were a little blah, but I'm working on 'em. And I don't know if Aja will be saving him anytime in the near future…I hadn't planned it, but…*sniff sniff* Hmm, I smell a plot twist. ;)
Disclaimer: Seriously, if I owned the Predator franchise, things would be bad. Apocalyptic-type bad. You can all rest safely with the knowledge that I have no influence on it whatsoever.
*
"Just a Miller tonight, hun," Nelson said. Aja cocked a brow at him with a teasing smirk as she snapped the cap off the bottle and handed it to him.
"Only one? Are you wussing out on me already?"
"Nah. The wife's got me on a beer budget: two per week," he sighed, eyes downcast.
"Ouch," Aja winced. Then she held up a bottle of Apple Pie enticingly. "She say anything about shots?"
Nelson gave her a crinkly-eyed smile, dull blue eyes lighting up ever so slightly. "Nope, but I'm not gonna push it. That couch is killing me," he laughed, only half joking.
Aja smiled sympathetically. "Alright," she assented and went back to scrubbing down the bar while Nelson silently sipped at his beer.
The lapse in conversation was undesired for Aja. The last vestiges of alcohol in her system had dissipated, leaving her in total mental clarity. And she knew that what she had experienced just a few hours earlier was no drunken hallucination. Something really was following her. She didn't know what she was going to do; if she couldn't see it, she couldn't fight it, regardless of how strong the thing's smell was. You can't hit an odor.
Worry must have been obvious in her eyes, because Nelson suddenly asked, "You alright there, sweetie? You seem kinda jumpy."
Aja smiled weakly and shook her head. "It's nothing. Guess I'm just a little tired." Nelson's aged stare never wavered. Aja sighed and leaned her elbows on the bar, chin cradled in her cupped hands. "I don't know what it is. Honestly," she relented.
Nelson continued to stare at her but made no move to question her, returning to his drink in thoughtful silence. Aja quirked a quick smile at the middle aged man and returned to the other bar patrons.
Both Serafina and Anita had called in sick, which meant that Aja was stuck by herself attending to dozens of half-drunk humans. Life was just dandy.
At least the bar was completely packed; mixing drinks provided an excellent distraction from paranoia. Juke box throbbing with the lively beat of Cowboy Casanova, some women in the crowd really getting into the dance, others hooting at them and cat calling; the dart league playing in the corner with the board's obnoxious comments at their poor scores; it was enough to take anyone's mind from the most solemn of subjects.
Too bad closing time was in less than an hour.
Aja's heart skittered frantically in her chest at the thought. Breathing deeply, she centered herself, calming her nervous energy and opening her mind to practical options. She could always bunk with someone else for the night and return in the morning; everything seemed less intimidating in daylight. But she was a full blooded vampire now. Sunlight would greatly weaken her and leave her more vulnerable than if she were to return tonight. Besides, she was a Master. Masters don't back down from challenges; they embrace them. And, aside from Sol, no one was stupid enough to initiate a fight with a Master. Even the Ancients kept a respectable distance from them for the most part.
Something inside her said that her status would be irrelevant in this case.
She didn't know what that smell was, but it whatever carried it, it wasn't normal. Certainly not something she had ever encountered before. It was terrifying but, on a baser level, exciting. New challenges were always welcome to one who had been living in monotony. Granted, her life was more hectic now than ever with Sol giving her new assignments every damn week.
One of these days… Aja swore.
"Yo, you want some help back there?" A heavily accented voice broke her thoughts. Aja smirked as a short woman forcefully shoved her way through the crowd, occasionally barking out curses in Spanish when they didn't move fast enough. Aja couldn't help laughing out loud when a particularly bold young man reached out to grab Serafina's butt, causing her to yelp and whip around, planting a harsh slap to his face and shouting every obscenity known to man. Serafina turned on her heel, her long ponytail slashing at the startled man's face. Aja had to clutch the counter to keep from falling to the floor, she was laughing so hard. The small brown woman stalked to the bar and halted in front of Aja, her hands on the swell of her hips and an aggravated frown scrunching her black eyes.
"You want my help or what? I'm supposed to be shopping right now, but I figured I'd lessen the weight on my conscience and come to your rescue." Before Aja could say anything, Serafina quickly twisted around to face the crowd. "Damn," she exclaimed, "this place is packed. Did you promise to flash them?" Aja growled playfully and snapped the dirty rag at the Spaniard's face. The little woman jerked away, shrieking in disgust.
"It would have been nice a few hours ago," Aja chided. Serafina shifted her weight sheepishly. "Closing's in twenty minutes, so you can help me clean up."
"Fair enough."
For the next ten minutes, the two women poured drinks and chatted airily with the patrons, Serafina's constant string of verbal jabs ensuring the entertainment of the customers.
Ten minutes to closing time, Serafina hopped over the bar with a megaphone in hand and swam through the crowd, wrestling her way to the juke box. She forcefully yanked the cord out of the wall. Turning to face the bewildered crowd, she shouted through the mega, "Alright, people, fun's over! Y'all need to shove off!"
The mass of people grumbled, but most snickered good naturedly at Sera's predictable bouts of audacious behavior. A few finished off their drinks and left right away. Stragglers littered the corners of the now spacious room, but they soon left under Sera's promises of bodily harm.
"Now," she said sharply once they were alone, "tell me what's been on that moldy mind of yours." Black eyes probed Aja's veiled ones. Apparently not masked well enough, then.
Am I really that obvious?
Aja mentally huffed at Sera's brash nature, shrugging outwardly. "Nothing. Just thinking."
Sera gave her a dry stare. "Yeah. And I'm as pale as a damn snowflake," the robust woman grumbled and went to clean the tables.
Aja sighed in a confusing mixture of relief and longing. The good thing about her acquaintances-only lifestyle was that no one she met really cared about her well-being very much. Not that the people were inconsiderate or selfish. They just didn't know her enough to care one way or the other. It wouldn't hurt to just have someone to talk to every now and then, though.
After a swift cleanup and a brief farewell, Serafina flounced out of the bar. Leaving Aja alone.
Normally she would have welcomed the solitude with open arms. Vampires were naturally reclusive, and Aja was no exception. But tonight she would have given anything for a shoulder to lean on. An extra body to brace herself against in the midst of a crisis. Sadly, Sol was the closest thing she'd had to a partner in centuries, and their union was by his force, for his benefit.
Aja had no one.
She shook herself from the sullen thoughts and sighed in dejection. Shoving herself off the counter, she reluctantly shuffled to the staircase. Now or never.
*
Rai'ken was positively thrilled. Not only had he successfully tracked his specimen to its abode, but he had also disclosed many of the stories' theories on how a blood drinker lived. He discovered that vampires do, in fact, need sustenance outside of blood, or at least kept it around. The refrigerator, as the humans called it, carried a number of food items. Several bottles with iridescent red liquid were also found; his stomach had roiled in revolt at the sight, and he hastily moved away from the appliance.
The tales he had read that mentioned a common garden herb that supposedly warded off the creature proved to be false as well; he had found the pungent substance in a container on the table in the eating area.
One of the stranger presumptions had been something about mirrors, but he couldn't remember what it was. Nonetheless, he had found plenty of the reflective surfaces in the vampire's home, so it must have been false too. He halfheartedly chastised himself for making assumptions in the wake of a creature so lethal. But he was much too preoccupied in his search to really take heed.
The most predominant ideas was that vampires were soulless, that any contact with a religious symbol, namely a cross, would cause them physical harm. This was cited a number of times in his sources, but he hadn't quite comprehended the meaning. How could one be soulless? How does one define being without a soul? What was a soul in the first place, really? Either way, he hadn't found one of the symbolic little trinkets. He placed a mental check later on that particular area of interest.
He had also learned about this female specifically, though it hadn't been his original intent.
Apparently, she shared Rai'ken's love of knowledge. In what he assumed was the main living area rested tons of books. It seemed the female's goal was to cover every inch of wall in reading material or some other form of art. Paintings littered the walls as well, though he couldn't make out the true colors with his mask on. And that wasn't coming off anytime soon with the vampire's scent already distorting his senses. He involuntarily shuddered at the thought.
Focusing on the books, he searched the titles, wondering if the vampire would have anything of reference to her kind in her own personal library. Not likely, considering she had herself for her own reference, but it was worth a try. The female was very organized, he vaguely noted. Science in one area, philosophy in another, poetry here, fiction there…This creature certainly had a lot of time on its hands.
He easily sniffed out the small collection of mythology and poured over it at a rapid pace, skimming for any mention of the blood drinker, finally putting to use his knowledge of the humans' language. Rai'ken grunted in frustration when he came across a few tomes in different dialects. Could the vampire even read these? Check later. He flipped through another large stack.
Nothing at all.
On to science, then…
She certainly seemed to favor the subject; it took him an ample amount of time just to glance at all the titles. Nothing of relevance. He clicked his mandibles in frustration.
At a loss, Rai'ken turned to the fiction area, though if there was anything there, he probably would have read it already, courtesy of the material inherited from the patriarch of his line. Of course, as luck would have it, there was nothing remotely useful. He did find something amusing, at least; the female must have been of the lonely variation because smut stories seemed to appear most frequently on the shelves. Trilling to himself in mirth, he went to the next section.
Several hours were spent in this fashion, him toiling through article after article. Still, he found nothing of importance. There had been a whole section of personal journals, though. That would have been perfect; information directly from the source. He would have eagerly snatched them up too, but it just didn't feel right to look into the inner workings of someone's mind.
His head suddenly jerked up, dreadlocks rustling against the metal of his armor. Were those footsteps?
Oh, c'jit…
*
A/N: I know that this is going horribly slow, but bear with me here. I'll get to the action stuff in a bit; I just have to build it up to that point. Meanwhile, you can let me know how much you LOVE this story (haha) by reviewing! =D Even if you don't like it, let me know! I'm not a vegetarian; I can take some BEEF. XD
Oh, I've been doing some snooping in the Aliens/Predator archives, and I was crestfallen to realize that "Aja" isn't the product of my mind only. So -even though I didn't know it and she'll probably never read this- credit goes to Yeyinde for the name. I didn't mean to steal it, honestly. =(