Warnings: Murder, swearing and goriness.
Thank you guys so much for the response you had to the first chapter; I was kind of worried that people wouldn't be interested in this one.
"Oi! Mir, over here!" As the vampire re-entered the bar Russ waved him down. He seated himself opposite the man in a booth. "You took your sweet time," The thief pointed out. "Where the hell have you been?"
A quirk of the lips indicated Mir's signature smirk as he thought of Erin. She hated him, delicious, pulsing loathing – and he was eager to discover why. "New housemate."
Russ frowned, "with you and Chey? Isn't that totally awkward?"
The vampire shrugged, "Cheyenne understands, and it's worth it." His gaze hardened. Four months previous, he'd woken up in the pouring rain, soaked in blood and in immense pain. Any knowledge he'd take to find out what had happened.
"Is it to do with…" His companion tapped his forehead, "…you know what?"
Russ was a damn good lockpicker whom Mir had met the night he'd woken up. The criminal handled his current income and provided a steady source of work. Mir trusted him – with his human secrets. His companion wasn't ready to learn about vampirism; especially since the vampire knew little himself.
"Yeah. She knows me. Hates me, in fact."
"Does that mean you were even more of a twat before you lost your memory?"
"Apparently." He rested his arms on the table and put on his business face. "You said there was a job?"
Russ nodded. "Snake's bringing four men over for one but I want you involved – pretty sure one of those little twerps is a turncoat."
Mir huffed. "The man's a cold bastard; he'll probably screw us over again." Ugh, he hated jobs connected with Snake, the name suited the slimy weasel and it always ended badly. "What's the heist?"
"Bank. You and one of Snake's guys get in and you do your infiltration crap, we got one driver at the ready, then three of us take the vault –we get in and out before the sun's up."
"Got it. When are we doing this?"
The thief glanced towards the backroom where their briefings were normally conducted, "tonight if these scrubs are as good as Snake thinks they are.
"Let's do this then."
Jesse, Kira, Dean and Aiden were Snake's men and boy, they were annoying. Red-haired Jesse was pissed that Mir was accompanying her to deactivate alarms, and dark-haired Dean and Aiden were informing Russ that they were leading this heist. Kira was busy boasting about her driving skills.
The red-head rubbed at a black eye. "Sure you're gonna be sneaky Mir? You got a rep, and it ain't in our favour." Of course Snake's men would only know about his failures – the vampire had more perfect heists than most criminals that weren't in prison. Jesse lolled her head "don't look like that, I know you got some skill – just want you to keep it low key."
"Like you've got it perfect," Mir snarled. "I haven't even heard of you."
"Least cops haven't got my name." She shrugged. "So how are we gunna go in?"
"You can't be serious!" Jesse hissed in his ear. "That meat sack isn't going to be attracted to your wily charms; let me try him."
A tall blonde buzz cut stood like a stone model in the corner of the bank, surveying the comers and goers. Mir winked at his fellow infiltrator. "You'd be surprised." Just a few words and the flash of the eyes would leave any individual, no matter how strong in will, jelly in his hands. Jesse's lips parted in a snarl but he had already started towards the guard, blowing a kiss in the red-head's direction as he walked.
"Take me to the security office." His eyes glittered gold and the guard's jaw went slack. Chey had described experiencing his hypnosis similar to a bad LSD trip she'd had in her youth. Mir wondered if that was what going on in the titan's head.
Sharply, the security officer walked down a corridor, the vampire following close behind. He shot a glance to where Jesse started flirting with the bank teller and was delighted to see the red head's furious expression.
"2 minutes." He mouthed, prompting the infiltrator to scowl, but nod anyway.
The security office was empty aside from Mir and his thrall. Perfect.
The hypnotised human stood rigid by the door and he contemplated letting the guy just stand there, but as he slammed the fragile skull of his unwilling minion into the concrete wall he decided concussions were far more fun.
"Russ," he barked into his phone as his fingers slid over the keyboard. "Back entrance is clear; I'll send Jesse down there to get it unlocked."
The thief's voice crackled down the phone line. "Almost there."
Russ, Aiden and Dean had set to work on the vault. Mir and Jesse were left with the witnesses.
Mottled scarlet smouldered around the rope on the bank teller's wrists from where she'd struggled against the pillar they'd bound her to. Mir's guard was still unconscious from the beating his head took.
"Y'know we will have to kill them or make them forget somehow." Jesse nudged the buzzcut with her foot. "Got any ideas?"
"You have the silenced pistol, you do it."
"How do you-"
The phone Mir had tucked snugly into his pocket buzzed and squawked. "Mir!" Russ barked. "We're in!"
"Got it, Jesse and I will just finish up here." He turned back to the red-head and nodded at her belt, where a silenced Glock 17 rested under her blouse. "Go ahead." He told her.
Jesse shrugged, pulling out the weapon. "Didn't think I'd need it." She glanced at him as she cocked it.
At her dishonest words Mir's cold blood ran glacial. Before he had a chance to kill her, Jesse flicked off the safety and fired three shots.
The vampire hit the icy floor with a crack, flickering eyes linking with the dead teller and guard.
Snake had betrayed them again. And Russ was in a vault with two, possibly three, traitors whilst Mir bled out on the floor. His body needed to heal before he could act.
The fresh blood leaking from the two casualties would do.
Mir had never been this messy before. Well, he'd never been shot before, nor had he ever been so concerned for Russ' safety before. With a bloody chin and throat he sprinted down the corridor, silent as a jaguar, and listened.
"Mir's dead. Now get on the floor, Russ and put your hands behind your back." He heard a grunt as someone, the speech suggested Jesse, punched his friend in the gut.
The vampire leaned around the corner, night eyes analysing the dimly lit scene.
Russ was on the ground, Aiden and Dean were loading bags with money from the vault, and Jesse… The red-head's pistol was levelled at the back of Russ' skull.
Mir reacted immediately and went for the gun-toting murderer.
Snatching the glock in one hand and grabbed her head into the other he bent the barrel in half and repeated his maneuverer with the guard on her. This time, he didn't hold back.
Jesse's skull exploded against the steel wall, splattering Mir with red. He ducked under the crowbar Aiden had swung at him and punched the brunette in the gut.
Aiden hit the far wall and Dean charged at him. The vampire took two right hooks to the jaw and responded in kind with increased force and latched onto the conscious traitor's jaw.
For a single moment Dean was forced to look into Mir's crimson eyes before the vampire's fangs were buried in his throat.
"Shit." The curse curled from Russ' lips in a whisper and Mir released an exsanguinated Dean. Dark eyes stayed wide as the vampire offered a bloody hand to the thief. For a moment Russ' mouth hung open. "Shit-shit-shit!" He shuffled backwards, away from Mir with all his speed.
"Russ..." He tried to reason but he didn't expect a positive response. Russ ever coping well with the discovery of his vampiric nature was something he couldn't imagine. Sighing he snatched the discard pistol from the floor and examining it.
The barrel had been bent at a ninety degree angle by the force of his attack and the clip had slipped out some time in the assault. He righted the barrel and tossed it over to where Aiden was unconscious.
He took one more glance at the pale and swearing Russ. "See you at the bar." To the thief, he vanished into thin air.
The vampire should have just flitted straight into the shower, but out of habit he appeared at the door and stormed past Chey and Erin to get to the bathroom.
"Is that blood?!" "Vlad!" his two housemates said upon seeing him.
In response he grunted, eased himself into the bathroom and locked it behind him.
Vlad's breather had an annoying habit of staring, specifically at her. Perhaps it was logical as she was Vlad's girlfriend and there was another woman in the house but this irritated Erin. Immensely.
After the vampire in question had disappeared off into the shower Cheyenne had told her to leave him but she needed to find out if this was the Vlad she wanted dead, and if she could kill him. The thought intimidated her slightly. That through the slayer's crazy experiment on the Chosen One he may have become even harder to kill than before, and she'd worked so hard to trick him! Vlad would not fall for the same trick again and Mir, the persona he'd become without his memories, was certainly not going to with his inbuilt lie detector.
The shower turned off and Erin considered how she could possibly trick him.
For now, she'd tell the truth and hope he didn't ask the right questions.
Mir exited the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his midsection.
"Vl-uh- Mir." She inwardly cursed at her vocal fumble. It had been awhile since she'd seen that pale chest and the deep bullet scars that littered his torso reminded her of the slayer's unsuccessful attempt on his life.
"Erin."
At the vampires acknowledgement she started to analyse him. "How much do you remember?" She asked innocently, working hard to keep her voice free of any trace of motive.
"Nothing." He shrugged. "Just my name: Vladimir." Neither of them mentioned the fact she knew him by the first four letters of his full name and he went by the last three. She tried to compare him to the Vlad she knew.
Cosmetically they were identical: Pale, black-haired and possessing of striking sapphire eyes. Perhaps there were a few extra scars that she'd noted but hardly anything that distracted from his handsome appearance. It was the inside which had been reworked.
"How did you know you were a vampire then?"
"That's nothing to do with memory." The vampiric instinct Erin possessed was nothing to that of a born vampire and as Vlad's eyes flickered back she wandered just how much her Vlad had repressed of his true nature.
There was no compassion in Mir's pits of azure, nothing she recognised and loathed, he was far more like Ingrid in the state: volatile, harsh and blasé.
"Why are you asking, Erin?" The vampire's lips twisted into a curious smirk. "It's not like you care."
Ok Erin, tell the truth. "I wanted to see how similar you were to the person I knew."
"So, am I?"
She linked eyes with him. "Not in the slightest."
"I don't like her." Cheyenne glared at the vampiress relaxing in their living room. "She's calculating. And downright nasty." Mir's need to discover his past was understandable. She just wished it didn't involve the blonde bitch on their sofa.
"But you think I'm not?"
"At least you don't look at me like I'm food," She pushed her fringe out the way of her face. "I mean: how long is she going to stay with us?"
Her eyes bored into his and she was sure he knew what she wanted. Just turf her out. Her whiskey eyes said - get rid of her.
"She'll stay as long as it takes."
Damn it, Mir.
To be honest: I felt like the first part of that chapter was utterly pointless but meh – you're getting it anyway.