Blood of The Rose

Chapter 13: Just Visiting

Santa Monica

The Asylum

Ruby stood in the entryway for the dance club for a moment, grinning widely at the heavy beat of Ozzy Osbourne's Perry Mason. A bit before her time, but some of the classics she really liked. And Ozzy was just all kinds of awesome in any case.

Spying the bartender, she squared her shoulders and took a step over towards the long counter stretching the length of the area below the balcony. Time to see about getting an audience with Therese. Before she could proceed further, though, she spied a green-haired girl who was watching her anxiously, as if afraid to approach.

"Reese!" she called out happily over the music.

Now that she'd been noticed, the taller girl skipped over, stopping just short of tackling the diminutive vampire.

"Hi!" the punk-looking girl greeted her somewhat shyly. This evening she was wearing torn jeans and a dark purple hoodie in much better condition than Ruby's old one had been, along with dark skater shoes. "I wasn't sure you'd, um, remember me…"

"'Course I did!" the brunette grinned. I really should feed too, it's been awhile…

The other girl was looking down at the floor with an absolutely adorable blush, and Ruby had to fight down the urge to squeal and immediately glomp her. Play it cool, tryin' for an air of mystery and all that… "So, um, you wanna maybe dance for a bit?"

"Y- Yeah, I'd, um... I'd really like that…"

Ruby smiled, enjoying her newfound confidence. It seemed as if it was bolstered somewhat by how bashful Reese was acting, but she'd take what she could get at this point. Grabbing hold of the green-haired girl's hand, she dragged her over to the dance floor.

Once she relaxed somewhat, Reese was actually a pretty good dancer, certainly better than Ruby was. But with the way she kept glancing at the brunette, and how her bright green eyes would quickly dart away once she made eye contact, it let her know that she was still a bit on edge.

I wonder if she's wanting me to feed from her again? I guess it must've felt good for her too, the way she reacted… Well, let's take the plunge, as much fun as I'm having I really gotta see Therese tonight.

Heh. Plunge.

As the music switched tracks, Ruby moved in close. Her grin widened as she caught Reese eyeing her cleavage from up close, dusting the turquoise-haired teen's cheeks a bright pink.

"Hey," Ruby murmured, leaning in close enough their bodies were pressed up against each other. "Do you wanna maybe find a corner to… talk?"

"Oh, fuck yes!" Reese gasped, blushing even brighter. "I mean… um, yeah, p- please… I'd love to…"

Laughing lightly, Ruby took the girl by the hand and headed over towards the darkened side, far away from the strobing lights on the dance floor itself. Likely set up this way on purpose, since it's a Kindred-friendly club.

"This okay?" the brunette asked, turning and leaning back against the wall. She pulled Reese in close to her so that her feeding wouldn't be obvious.

"Yeah," the teen sighed, smiling hesitantly. "C- Can I ask you, um… What's your name?" she finished in a rush.

"Ruby," the brunette replied with a wide grin, reaching up to cup the green-haired girl's face. Reese closed her eyes in response, smiling softly as she leaned into her palm.

"Can you… make me feel like you did the last time, please, Ruby?" Reese asked with a quiet sort of wistfulness.

"I'd like to, yeah. You'll have to bend down a little again, though."

"S- Sure, yeah, o- okay…"

Ruby held her tight to her body as she breathed in the other girl's scent, sweaty from the dancing but also with a bit of vanilla undertone, maybe from her shampoo. And then she sank her dainty fangs into her neck, drinking down her essence greedily. All the while, Reese moaned softly while wrapping her arms around her shoulders.

She didn't take very long to feed as she didn't need all that much, and in any case she was quite cognizant of not harming the girl. Reese stayed in her embrace for a little while after she licked the wound closed, swaying gently with her forehead resting on the brunette's shoulder and a soft smile on her face.

"Thank you, Ruby," she eventually breathed, nuzzling into her neck and placing a quick, bashful kiss where a pulse should have been. "Can I… Um, that is, when will I see you again?"

"Might be a couple nights," Ruby replied warmly, drifting her hand up to cup her cheek once more. "But I'll definitely be back, okay?"

"Okay." Reese smiled, her eyes half-closed as she slid to the side and leaned up against the wall. "Take care."

"You too, Reese."

She headed back towards the bar, a bounce in her step, both from the euphoric feeding and from seeing the turquoise-haired girl again. She's startin' to grow on me.

As she stepped up to the bar, she accidentally bumped into the shoulder of a brunet man standing there wearing jeans and a dark leather jacket. Ruby snickered to herself as she spotted the cartoony smiley face with fangs on the back of the jacket.

The man turned around, his brow lowered, but the brunette fledgling raised her hands in apology. "Whoops, sorry about that, didn't mean to bump into ya!"

The brunet man, though, just gaped at her for a second, any irritation erased from his face. "Aw, man! Wait. Say that again!"

"Ummm, okay…" Ruby looked back at him bemusedly. "Er, sorry about that…"

The strange man broke out into an odd sort of jig at that before whirling back around to her. "Aw man! You… You're a vampire, aren't you?"

"W- What? Vampire?" Ruby sputtered, suddenly off-balance. "What the hell are you smoking?"

"C'mon, you are too! Oh man! Don't bullshit me, girl, just come clean! I ain't gonna tell nobody. It's okay! I just wanna talk!"

The brunette looked him over warily. Though he seemed relatively harmless, in an overly excitable and exceedingly cheerful way, he also appeared to be either hyped up on drugs, or possibly missing a dosage for his ADHD. She shrugged, obviously he knew about Kindred in some manner, so she figured that, for now, she'd humor the fidgety and high-strung man. "Yeah, alright then, let's talk."

"Hell yeah!" he cheered, doing another little dance but in place this time. "Oh man, I knew it! I just… Oh geez, I knew you were, I could just tell! Oh man, this is great! And th- then I saw your teeth an- and I was, like, damn! It was like I could just sense you. The name's Knox Harrington. Pleasure to meet you! Aw man!"

Ruby shook her head ruefully. Definitely hyped up on something or other. "Wait, how can you possibly know all of this?"

Knox gave her a cheery grin. "I'm a ghoul! I didn't know about any of this stuff until a couple months ago… when this guy just appeared and, well, all of a sudden - bam! - whoa man! - vampires are real and right there in front of my eyes." He lowered his voice in wonder. "Blew my goddamn mind."

"Uh-huh." You are one strange little man. "Um, you said you were a 'ghoul'? What's that, then?"

"Well, the way it was explained to me, whenever a vampire lets a human drink some of their vampire blood, the human gains a little vampire power, can heal up quick and that kinda stuff. Binds the human to the vampire and all that. Geez, oh man! Then they're a 'ghoul', and ooh, watch out!"

The brunette fledgling suddenly had a terrible sinking feeling in her stomach. She was unsure whether or not she could still throw up as a vampire or not, but at that point in time felt kind of like doing so anyway as she reflected back upon the girl from the clinic. Ooooh, this could be bad, this could be really, really bad…

"Uh, yeah, I see…" she responded to Knox with a weak grin. "So, um… what's it like?"

"It's awesome! Man, after that first taste of vampire blood… it's like the best drug. Aw man, I'm tellin' ya, it's like… well it didn't mess me up, just made me feel like I was better at everything. I felt like a god, just suckin' on that nasty dude's wrist."

Yup, definitely feelin' queasy right about now… "So who was this, um, 'nasty dude'?"

"Oh man!" Knox grinned goofily. "His name's Bertram Tung! He's a Nosferatu, y'know?"

Ruby finally had the feeling that this whole conversation might be worthwhile, other than informing her of her impending doom if it ever got out what she did back at the clinic. "No kidding? Small world, I'm looking for him, too. He around, by any chance?"

Knox's grin slipped a little, became somewhat more forced. "Aw man, I wish I knew where he was. I'm getting antsy waitin' around for him. I need to tell him some stuff, ya know. I dunno where he is or stays or anything. Aw man I- Whenever he needs me he just… y'know… appears."

"What do you mean, 'just appears'?" Ruby frowned. Knox was beginning to act a little more 'off', unable to meet her eyes when he spoke and fidgeting even more, like he had to pee or something. Hmm, methinks somethin' smells fishy...

"It's crazy, he just appears out of, like, thin air." The brunet man's grin grew a bit sickly. "The first time he appeared - bam! - like to give me a goddamn heart attack. Aw man! Especially how he looks, blech."

Ruby nodded warily. "And what is it you do for Bertram, exactly?"

"Aw man! Well, Bertram had me keeping an eye on this guy, this Asian dude who's been pokin' around Santa Monica. Bertram thought he might be a vampire or… something like a vampire, I dunno."

Okay, so far seems like the truth, but why is he so edgy? "Sooo… what's the problem, then?"

Knox nodded rapidly. "Aw man, this guy, this… this thing… got wise to me. Now instead of me watchin' him, he's watchin' me, you know. I see this guy appear around me all the time, like off in the distance watchin' me, he'll… warp up next to me… aw man… then 'whoo' disappear."

Ruby sighed softly. Yep, bullshit meter is pegged, I'm gonna call him on it.

"Something about your story is a little... off, Knox."

"O- Oh, um… What are you talkin' about?" The man shifted his stance nervously, beads of sweat now standing out on his forehead.

"Look, Knox," the fledgling smirked. "Tell the truth, and I might actually help you."

Knox took a quick look around the club anxiously, as if he were afraid of being overheard suddenly. "Wha-? How did you know? Uh… look, ha, man. I don't know what you're talkin' about. I mean, why should I tell you anything, huh?"

Ruby leaned in and flashed her fangs. "Because of what I am."

Sighing heavily in anger, Knox looked down at the ground, abashed and deflated. "Okay, okay, okay. Dammit, Knox, damn! Oh man, alright, look… I messed up, okay? I'm just doing what I was told, though!"

Her smirk widening, Ruby just rolled her hands in a gesture to continue. The brunet man sighed once more and finally looked her in the eyes again.

"Bertram knew you were comin', knew you'd come by here." Ruby nodded to herself as he confessed. Makes sense, if he knew I'd need to find him, I'd have to come here to talk to Therese first. "He planted me and told me what to say about the Asian vamp, but it's true, I swear. And everything else is true too. This Asian guy needs to be taken out. Aw man! I can't do it, so Bertram needs you to."

The brunette fledgling snorted and rolled her eyes, already exasperated with how most Kindred seemed to want to operate. "He could have just asked me himself, you know."

"Nah uh uh, he can't stick his neck out like that. He doesn't deal directly. His way, I guess. So can you do it?"

She chewed on her bottom lip, lost in thought, but winced again as she actually pricked it this time. Dammitall, I really, really need to break that habit.

"I dunno, Knox… Why would I want to do you a favor after all of this? Why should I do anything for Bertram if he can't even come right out and ask? I mean, I know this is the dumbass way Kindred think they gotta operate, but…"

"Seriously, no really, this thing is here and it's bad news for all of us. Bertram says there could be an army of 'em show up any day unless we show 'em we mean business." Knox looked at her pleadingly, his hands clasped together at his waist.

Oh for fuck's sake, he's actually giving me puppy-dog eyes… Fuck fuck fuck. I should apologize to Yang for all the times I did it to her, it seriously sucks being on the other end.

The thought of her sister sobered her as it always did, sadness tinged with an ever-increasing amount of anger and resentment that she always tried to push to the back. Does it even matter anymore if I'm never going to see her again? "Fine," she finally gritted out harshly. "I'll take care of it."

"Hell yeah! Right on! Okay, like I said he's some kind of Asian vampire… thing, ya know. The only clue I've got is this driver's license that he dropped once while I was tailing him. I've been so freaked out that I haven't even had a chance to check it out."

Ruby looked up at him skeptically, wondering if she was missing something obvious here. "Uhhh… Driver's license? Shouldn't that tell you who he is?"

"No," Knox scoffed derisively, tempting the fledgling to just punch him and be done with it all, puppy-dog-eyes be damned. "The picture on the license isn't him. I don't know why he had it, but… well it might help you find out where he is and what he's doing. Here, take it."

As Knox passed her the California license, Ruby glanced down at it. The ID read as belonging to a Virgil Crumb, per usual of poor photographic quality but definitely not a dude of Asian descent.

"Alright," she sighed in resignation. "Fine, like I said, I'll take care of it. Somehow. Don't expect anything soon, though, okay? I've got entirely too much shit on my plate as it is."

"Right on!" Knox cheered excitedly. Guess the meds are kicking back in. "Just come back and let me know the job's done so I can stop freakin' out. Oh man! Maybe I'll see Bertram by then!"

"Yeah, okay, Knox. Just… Clear off, okay? I gotta go talk to this guy about, um, going upstairs."

"Ohhh, gonna see the Head Vamp of the city, eh?" Knox snickered as he stepped to the side. "Yeah, good luck, girlie!"

Ruby shook her head at the obnoxious man's retreating back, the vampire smiley face looking incongruously cheerful, and turned to face the obese bartender who was regarding her curiously while leaning on the mostly-deserted counter. Seemed most folk wanted to dance tonight, not drink. In any case, the fledgling was very glad she didn't have to breathe as she couldn't imagine what the sweaty man might smell like.

"What can I get you, beautiful?" the bartender inquired as she approached.

She put on her best and most winsome smile. Not that it had really been getting her anywhere lately, but what the hell. Law of averages and all that. "I'm looking for Therese," she began with a chipper voice. "Where can I find her?"

"Therese?" The fat man frowned slightly. "She's upstairs. She said she had business to attend to, but I could hear her and Jeanette bickerin' from the back room. Why do you need to see her?"

"Um, well... I need to talk to her."

"Yeah, yeah. I hear that from everyone, sweetheart. She expectin' you or something?"

Ruby smiled nervously but still tried to instill as much authority as possible into her voice. "Yep. That's it exactly. She's expecting me. Sure is, she's expecting me upstairs. I mean, up the elevator… Y'know. Thataway." Oh for fuck's sake just stop talking Ruby you huge freaking moron...

The bartender rolled his eyes, obviously unimpressed. "Alright, look, I'll cut you a break cuz we're busy here. I'll buzz Therese, tell her you're comin'. Take the elevator over there up, use the code 4-5-1. But if I hear that you're not supposed to be there, you and me are gonna have a little heart-to-heart, you hear me?"

Ruby grinned innocently at him. "You betcha, won't hear a peep, 'cause I'll be on my best behavior! Like a Girl Scout! Well, if I knew what a Girl Scout acted like… which I don't, honestly, because I never was one. Had a friend once who was, until they kicked her out for stealing from the cookie stash. Those were some damn good cookies..."

"Kid?"

"Um, yeah?"

"Get the fuck outta my sight."

"Right, right! I'm off, then! See ya!"

With that, the brunette fledgling vampire skipped over to the elevator, her new red cloak trailing behind her, and pressed the combination into the keypad there while pushing down on her anxiety.

Okay, so now I just have to survive meeting with the most powerful Kindred in Santa Monica… Nooo problem, no problemo at all...

A/N: Yay, we got to see adorable blood doll Reese again. D'awww… FYI, in the game a blood doll refers to a person you regularly feed from, usually by 'unlocking' them via Seduction. Kinda like a pet, I guess, there's one in each club, but where's the fun in using the ones from the game? Especially the really annoying one in Downtown LA, ugh...

For the rest of this chapter, though, we dove straight into the gameplay once again, not much to mention about it, other than the fact that Knox irritates the hell out of me. And then in the next installment, we get to meet Therese, Queen Bitch of Santa Monica!

One last note, the chapter title, Just Visiting, was kind of a play on the Jail space on Monopoly. Ruby's just passing through, not ready to be committed to The Asylum yet...

Cheers to my talented Beta and collaborator, Live to anger the World, and props for my lovely reviewers: Sharkdude5, AntonSlavik020, zerosabers, SirSpangler, djjohns94, Nicodemus Cain, kaiju62, and noone297. And also apologies for not getting to respond to many reviews this time around! I was initially afraid I'd miss the next chapter as I was getting a little behind while finishing up Pearls on a String, but I managed to get another one done over the weekend. Hopefully my Beta can get to it, but as she's back in college again, I might be intermittently flying solo, so I apologize profusely for typos that make their way in.

Stay shiny!