Special thanks to Ayamari_no_Goshi for answering a bunch of folklore questions and to Jcotton42 for doing a quick beta read for me.
Written for Phic Phight 2022
Original prompt by SailorSakura
Danny sits at the bar alone, when Sam whispers in his ear. 'I'm so sorry but can you kiss me, my Ex is here and I really don't want to talk to him right now.' (PR185)
Danny rubbed the back of his head, trying to relieve the tension he was feeling. It wasn't likely to help, but anything to help calm down the ringing in his ears. Tinnitus had not been on the brochure of workplace health hazards, but it really should have been.
Then again, there wasn't exactly an orientation meeting.
There was a thud in front of him that made him jump. The bartender didn't react to his skittishness. Danny wasn't anywhere close to the first jumpy customer he had, and unless the bar burned down by the end of the night, Danny wouldn't be the last. "Whiskey, on the rocks. You opening a tab?"
"Nah," Danny said, pulling out his wallet, the bartender wasn't asking for an ID, so he wasn't going to give it. Instead, he just pulled out a wad of cash. "Here, and I'll take another."
Alcohol wouldn't help reduce the ringing in his ears, but it'd certainly make him feel better.
The bartender took the cash and counted it out. The man let out a grunt and then walked away.
Danny hadn't even had a chance to take a sip before a woman sat next to him. She leaned in way too close and whispered. "Sorry, can you kiss me?"
Danny was very glad he hadn't had an opportunity to take a sip, cause he probably would have done a spit-take.
He turned and looked at her. She was sporting a very weak smile with painted black lips turned up at the corners, but her eyes were pointedly not looking at him, but they were also avoiding a corner of the barroom. It was easy to track with the way her eyes popped out from the dark eyeshadow that painted her face. "Sorry, it's just, my Ex is here and I really don't want to talk to him right now."
It took a lot of effort for Danny not to look at whoever was making her nervous, though in this case, it was much easier than normal considering the beautiful woman in front of him.
He leaned forward. His lips were mere inches away from the woman's. "It's considered polite to tell someone your name before you kiss them."
The weak smile on her lips curled up into something a little more real and she ran her hand down his arm. "Well, mine's Sam." He noticed she didn't give her last name. She brushed some hair behind her ear, revealing a set of black diamond earrings running up along her ears. She leaned in just a little bit closer. "And what's yours?" Her breath ran along Danny's chin, causing him to shiver with anticipation.
"Danny," he said breathily. He didn't give her his last name either.
"Well, Danny? Aren't you going to kiss me?"
Danny closed the distance and kissed her. Intent on giving her a firm but quick peck to let her ex know not to bother her.
Sam however had other ideas. She reached up and threaded her hands through his hair and bit on his lower lip. Her breath smelled like beer, but there was a scent of perfume that powered through it, something smokey and dark, like incense.
She pulled him closer, he half fell off his barstool, and he had to brace himself against her. His hand landed on her lap, and he could feel through her skirt that the fishnets she had been wearing ended on her thighs. The other hand found her waist and he ran his fingers along with the corset that was acting as her top..
There was a cough, and the two of them broke apart. The bartender gave the two of them a less than impressed look. Danny blinked a few times as he got his thoughts in order because that had just happened.
But also the ringing in his ears was back with a vengeance.
The man grunted out and placed down the glass of whiskey that Danny had ordered earlier. "Whiskey, on the rocks." He pointed at the two of them. "And not at the bar. Got it?"
"Got it," Sam repeated, blushing. She took the whiskey and knocked it back, making Danny smirk as he admired the curve of her neck. "Thanks." She swirled the ice around the glass and held up a couple of fingers. "And two more for us."
The bartender let out a huff and turned around. "Sure thing, Sam."
Danny raised an eyebrow. "Huh, I couldn't get him to give me more than a few words. You a regular here?" He turned to face her, but also subtly cast his gaze about the room.
"Something like that," Sam said cryptically. She swirled the ice around the glass and glanced at Danny's whiskey. Danny knocked half of his back before she could get the bright idea of taking it. His job didn't exactly pay well, as gorgeous as she was, he wasn't going to give up both his drinks here.
That was totally a lie. If she reached for this, he wasn't going to stop her.
He paused when he went to set back down his drink as he caught sight of something in the mirror behind the bar. There was a man, frozen midway from getting up from his seat, glaring at the back of Danny's head. His red hair was cut short, almost to the point of him being bald, but his icy blue eyes were blindingly bright, even from here.
He also made the hair on Danny's neck stand up and the ringing in his ears got louder.
Danny put down the drink. "Your ex… he that redhead glaring at me?" Danny asked Sam quietly.
Sam jolted, and he could see her struggle to not look back. "Yeah, probably. Sorry, I didn't think about what he'd do, really. I just wanted to keep him away."
Danny let out a hum. "Yeah, I can see why." Sam frowned and ran her fingers along the top of the glass. She opened her mouth to apologize. "Don't worry about it, I've handled much worse."
Sam smirked. "Oh, is it a habit of yours to kiss women in bars to get their exes to back off?"
"I wish." Danny scoffed and finished his drink. "Getting kissed like that? Yeah, I could get used to it."
Sam barked out a laugh and covered her mouth with her hand. It was a paltry attempt at hiding her blush. The bartender came back around with their two whiskeys.
Danny held up a hand. "Hey, can we get some mozzarella sticks? And some garlic fries as well?"
The bartender grunted before turning around and placing the order.
Sam lifted her whiskey and smirked at Danny. "Garlic, huh? Well, I see why you don't get kissed in bars more often."
Danny raised an eyebrow and tilted his head in her direction. "Oh, so you were planning on kissing more?"
Sam didn't say anything, instead, she chuckled into her glass. Instead of draining it like the first time, she sipped at it. "Well… I would like to keep him away…"
Danny rubbed the back of his head. "Well then, I'll gladly do my civic duty then."
"You already ordered the garlic fries."
"I can get a to-go box."
Sam's laugh was interrupted by the bartender dropping the probably microwaved plates in front of Danny. The bartender grunted and glared at Danny. Danny chuckled and reached for his wallet. "Uh… can I get a to-go box?"
The bartender rolled his eyes but took Danny's money the same. He counted out the money and then said. "I'll be back."
"Sure thing, Arnold," Danny muttered quietly to Sam. He leaned on the bar and finished his drink. "Gotta ask, this does not look like the kind of place I'd run into someone like you."
Sam shrugged. "Honestly? Started off as something to get back at my parents, Arnold here," Sam said chuckling, "took a liking to me, and well, I've been coming here ever since I got my first fake ID." Sam nodded up at a post that had several licenses nailed to it. "I got four of them up there."
Danny let out a hum as he looked for them. Eventually, he found a few with Samantha Mason on them. That explained why she hadn't given her name earlier, he had just been passing through town but even he recognized the Mason name. Calling them rich was a disservice, insanely wealthy was more like it. "Yeah, those are pretty obvious fakes," Danny muttered to himself. Sam folded her arms and opened her mouth. "Out of state is a good idea, but they're missing the holographic that would mark them as real."
Sam narrowed her eyes and looked him up and down. "What are you? A cop?"
"No," Danny chuckled, grabbing a mozzarella stick and biting down on it. "Let's just say I had a lot of fake IDs."
Movement out of the corner of his eyes made him snap back into wariness. "I gotta ask," he began as Sam helped herself to one of the sticks. He pointedly didn't look in the direction of her ex who had just gotten around to sitting back down. "This ex of yours… anything bad happen while he was around?"
Sam shrugged. "He wasn't abusive or anything, if that's what you're asking." She frowned. "At least, while we were dating. He's been bothering me ever since we broke up."
That did make Danny wary, but he had already been on DEFCON 1 for a while now. "No, more like… bad luck."
Sam scoffed and knocked back the last of her drink. "I don't believe in luck."
Danny let out a hum. "Is that why you're wearing a protection charm there then?"
Sam blinked and looked down at her chest. She grabbed the charm, a metal cage holding a ball of resin with rose petals, and hawthorn flowers. "Is that what this is? It was a gift from my grand… ma…" Sam frowned and let the charm drop back down.
It took Danny a lot of effort to not follow that with his eyes, and to keep his eyes up.
Sam let out a hum and fiddled with an earring. "You know… I hadn't thought about it at all until just now. Soon after we started dating, my grandma got sick. She was in the hospital the entire time we were dating. It wasn't until we broke up that she got better." She worked her jaw for a moment as she scrutinized Danny. "She gave me this a week before we broke up. He had told me to get rid of it; I got rid of him."
"Next question," Danny said as the bartender brought two boxes around. Danny poured the food into the boxes, making sure the garlic fries were on top. "Any chance you had serious financial issues during that time."
"I mean, everyone was at that time, why?" Sam asked tersely.
"Call it a hunch for now," Danny began standing up from his seat. He held his hand out to Sam. "But rather than that, I'd much rather find something more fun to do with you than sit in this bar."
Sam hesitated, but when Danny's eyes flicked back to the mirror, she grabbed his hand. "Alright, wouldn't be the first time I left here with some weirdo."
"Hopefully, this will be the best time."
"Don't count on it," Sam said, sticking her tongue out at him.
Together the two of them walked out of the bar. The laughter on Danny's lips had died when they walked past her ex's table. Not even three steps past him, there was the squeaking of a chair sliding back and Sam stiffened. Danny gave her a comforting squeeze, but she didn't react.
There had been no windows in the bar, so Danny hadn't realized how much time he had spent in there. But it had gotten surprisingly late. When he had entered the building, the sun was up, barely, but now it was practically pitch black outside. The only light around was coming from the sign over the bar.
Danny sped walked to his car, and Sam was able to keep up surprisingly well in her platform boots. Danny braced himself, and couldn't help but notice Sam did as well. The two of them had half-turned back toward the bar when the front door slammed open behind them as her ex came storming out. "Sam!" he growled.
"Back off!" Sam shouted, "I told you we're over!"
"We're not over! I told you, you were mine and I meant it!"
"Dude," Danny began, gently pushing Sam behind him and taking the last few steps to get to his car, "Seriously? Are you hearing yourself right now?"
Her ex stormed over to Danny. Sam let go of Danny's hand and backed away, but Danny didn't budge at all. The guy put his hand on Danny's chest. "Look, I'm only going to say this once, get in your car, and drive away. Preferably, off a cliff."
"Isak!" Sam shouted.
Danny merely raised an eyebrow, especially as he felt something literally wash over him. "Oh wow, that was pretty strong," Danny muttered as he rubbed the back of his head. His ears rang as he felt his neck tense as he mentally fought back. "Damn, how much magic did that burn for you?"
Isak blinked and pushed against Danny. "I said-"
"I heard you the first time," Danny said, at the same time he threw the bag of food at Isak. The garlic fries on top spilled out over Isak. At their touch, the man jumped away from Danny and let out a horrific screech.
Danny pounded on the back of his car. The latch on the trunk popped open and Sam gasped as she took in just what was in the trunk. Machetes, knives, shotguns, and pistols were slotted into various holders in the trunk, enough to arm a dozen men.
Danny reached in without taking his eyes off Isak who was clawing at the sticky fries and trying to get them off him. "Let's see here, it should be… ah, got it!"
And he pulled out a super soaker.
Sam blinked as Danny pumped the water gun several times. He then leveled it at Isak and sprayed it a few times.
The screech that Isak let out was ear-splitting. Danny didn't take his hands away from the gun as he continued to spritz down Isak. "Yeah, yeah, keep screeching numskull." Dany took a step towards Isak. "You like that? Holy water is a bitch ain't it."
Isak jumped back fifteen feet and scraped off burnt flesh from his face. "Who are you?"
Danny shouldered his weapon and held his arms out. "I'm a hunter and I know what you are. You're a strigoi, aren't you? Been a while since I had to gank one of you."
"Holy water ain't going to do shit to me," Isak said, straightening his back and posturing. It shouldn't have been as threatening as it was, considering Danny was holding him off with a super soaker, but the insects pouring out of his open wounds definitely added a level of threat.
"Seems like it's working pretty well," Danny said, giving the soaker a couple of extra threatening pumps.
BANG!
The sudden noise made both Danny and Isak jump. Isak more, seeing as he now had a bullet wound on his chest. Danny looked back to see Sam holding a pistol. One that wasn't his, surprisingly enough. Danny probably should have recognized that she was packing heat earlier, but he had been a little distracted.
Isak put a hand up to his chest as blood and flies poured out. He looked up at Sam and bared his teeth at her. "Oh, you bit- "
Sam fired another round at him. Then a few more.
Danny stood awestruck as she narrowed her eyes and fired more rounds into his chest. Isak never fell, but when the last round pierced his chest she hit his second heart and with a last scream of rage he turned to ash. He looked back at Sam and let out a whistle as she reloaded her pistol. "Man, that's hot."
Sam panted and mechanically put her pistol back in the holster under her skirt. "I… I didn't believe my grandma when she said he was evil…" She rubbed her face. "God, she even called him a strigoi…"
"Hey, hey, hey, it's okay," Danny said, quickly throwing the super soaker back in the trunk of his car. He then quickly got her into the passenger seat, slid across the hood, and started it. "I'm getting us out of here. People are gonna come running after those gunshots." He pulled out of the parking lot and pulled out his phone. "Here, I need you to look up someone's number on there. Call Tucker. He'll start pulling strings and try to get any evidence erased."
Sam started tapping through his phone. "Is this why you can spot a fake ID?"
Danny shrugged. "Yup." There was no point in lying about this. "This is kind of the family business. I'll have to call my parents and let them know about the strigoi."
"Your parents are involved in this too?" Sam said looking up from the phone.
"I mean… family business implies they are."
Sam smirked. "You know what? You at least win for biggest weirdo I've gone home with from the bar."