title: "Last Night"
author:
Fantom Fox*Unedited. Deal or don't read.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The club was bustling tonight at the approach of last call. Every type of person that could enter was there. The dance floor was occupied with every denizen of he dark, swaying with the music as if it were the only thing left of Earth. In this place they could all come together, bloodsuckers and shape changers, changelings and mages, straight, gay, bi, other... everyone was out tonight. In this place it didn't matter. Race, color, or creed. Even in the deep southern tradition of New Orleans, everyone was the same tonight. The Crimson Velvet offered that kind of shelter.
"You liked the look of the purple bottle? Not the best vintage in our collection."
"Don't fuss over me. I know you better than that."
"True enough." A woman with long dark curling hair turned in her chair to face the waiting bartender. "You heard the lady. Luna di Luna merlot." She was dressed in solid black; velvet because this was her club. Her left eye was covered by a red eye patch with a sparkling lace pattern on it.
The man bowed slightly at the waist. Gold eyes flashed as he returned to the bar, a bounce in his step that made him look more like a great cat than a human.
The dark-haired woman turned back to her guest, folding her hands on the table in a very professional manner. "Now where were we, lovely?" Her smile showed no teeth.
Across from her sat another woman who could have been her mirror reflection. Also with long, dark and wavy hair, she was also covered in black, but her ankle-length jacket was accented in a bright blue. Her expression was harsh, but there was something in her dark eyes that was enjoying herself here. "We were discussing my possible return to Japan."
The owner raised a finger to her lips as the bartender returned carrying a purple bottle and two glasses. He poured the wine in front of the women, bowed again and left. The guest was about to speak, but the owner raised her hand again to stop her. "You also want to know about help in the future as well? You foresee trouble?"
The woman in the blue-lined jacket crossed her arms over her chest. "Something is going to happen in Japan. I know it." She slammed her hand down on the table suddenly. "I have to go back before it escalates too far."
The owner smiled. "Oh, Ekaterina..."
"It's just Somali now."
The smile widened. "Somali. You know the price of this favor you're asking?" The look on Katrina's face was not entirely pleasant. "My people already got you out of the hospital because you wrote me. You are already quiet indebted. Can you afford to have me send you back to Japan?"
Somali was struck to silence under the seemingly younger woman's gaze. She knew things about Katrina that would make grown men not be able to sleep at night. For a hundred years, there was no better assassin than the barely 21 year-old woman sitting in front of her now. Beautiful and deadly, but Somali hadn't gotten to where she was without some tricks of her own. "I can pay you how you like."
Katrina gave her a thoughtful look, then after a time, she nodded. Out of nowhere, a small silver vial appeared in Katrina's slender hand. She opened it and tapped it into her full wine glass. A white powder fell into the liquid and immediately started changing its color. When Katrina lifted it to her lips, the contents of the glass were thick and a deep, deep red.
Licking a drop of blood from the rim of the glass before she sat it back on the table, the younger woman smiled to Somali. "I will help you. But for half now, half on delivery."
Somali's head shot up, eyes widening. "What?"
"You heard me."
For a moment she was at a lack for words, just staring at her host. Somali cleared her throat and smoothed down the sleeve of her jacket. She picked up the wine glass and took a small sip. After a pause, she took a deep drink.
"Satisfactory, ma amie?" Katrina tapped the crystal glass with nails so sharp and so shiny they looked as if they were made of glass. They didn't look natural.
Somali set the empty glass down with a clang. "Yes," she muttered.
Taking a small drink from her glass, she glanced around the club. All the employees were deeply involved with their respective jobs. The dancers not on stage were in the back getting ready. The bartender was slinging out drink after drink with a practiced ease. The bouncer, slight for his age, was posted just outside the closed door. Hidden away, the security guard was watching the monitors in rapt attention. The VIP list was blank; only the locals tonight. "So the deal." Her attention returns to the other woman. "You give me my power, and you give me yours. Now. Tonight. And I can have you back in Japan by the time the sun sets again in the land of the rising sun." She tapped her glass again with her nails. "The monetary compensation comes after you meet with your contacts in Tokyo. You will take my pilot Jake with you until the money is received."
Nodding slowly, Somali started to reach for the wine bottle. She was an assassin as well, and a very good one at that. But sitting across from this woman made her hands shake. She'd seen too much.
Faster than she could blink, Katrina had the bottle in her hand and out of Somali's reach. "Allow me, ma amie. It's the least I can do for all you are about to do for me."
Somali bowed her head to her host and raises her glass. With expert flare, Katrina poured her another full glass before returning the bottle to the table.
It was Somali's turn now to look away and around the club. The music was pounding. So loud in fact, that she had no idea how they were able to have this conversation without yelling at each other to be heard. The thought entered her own mind just as it flitted across her thoughts. Telepathy will do that for you. Somali raised her glass to Katrina in a salute before taking another long drink. Katrina laughed.
This was going to be one wild night.
~*~
The music was fainter now.
Two floors below them, the party raged on as it would until the sun rose and the clientele had to return to safety. Either to the safety of the dark or the safety of their normal lives, they all went away when the dawn came. The light always seemed to chase the overindulgence of the previous night. Smoke, drink, sex, blood, death... whatever it was, the daylight pushed it back to its hiding place.
Somali thrown her jacket across an overstuffed chair in the corner and stood now in her zip-up bodysuit staring outside from between deep red curtains. "Don't you think it's a bit much?"
Having just entered the room, wearing a cape she wasn't earlier, Katrina gave the other woman a questioning look. "What do you mean?" When she walked, she didn't make any noise against the creaking floorboards.
"The red velvet curtains... even in all the bedrooms. Ever think that it's taking the theme a bit far?"
Katrina laughed. It was a very human sound. "Not at all. It reminds me of the old world. Besides," she said as she lifted one knee to rest on the black bedspread, "most people don't get to see more than one bedroom."
A smile shone in Somali's voice, "I guess I'm just special."
"More than you know, ma cher," Katrina purred. The bed squeaked a little as she leaned her weight into it. "Look at me." She waited until Somali did so, following the curl of darkness as she turned. Under this light, and not the dim and strobe of the club below, the women looked less like each other. Somali's hair was a brown, dyed-red, and her eyes were brown the color of chocolate. Katrina's hair was truly black, and her remaining eye was so deep copper it looked brown but shone with an inner light. Physically, Katrina was obviously younger but no less war-torn. "I knew you when you were a rookie. I taught you a few things before you left to join that organization. How old are you now? Twenty-five?"
Somali cleared her throat lightly as she took a couple of steps closer, closing the distance between them. "Twenty-seven just a month ago."
Katrina inspected her as if she could find the extra year on her. "Sit on the bed." She pushed herself off and circled to be on the same side as the other woman. Katrina's gaze was sharp, watching for any signs of reluctance. Seeing none, she proceeded, stepping close. "How old do you think I am? How old do I look?"
"Um," Somali stammered as she was truly not expecting the question. The caped assassin before her was obviously older than she looked. Obviously. But how do you guess something like that? "You were sitting so comfortably in your club tonight, so you must look at least 21. You're still young, so I'd say you barely make the cut." At a nod from Katrina, Somali continued, "But it's hard to say how old you really are. Your reputation precedes how old you look by a hundred years. Maybe two hundred?"
With a light touch to the clasp of her cape, it fell to the floor, revealing Katrina in a black evening gown that left nothing to the imagination. The moonlight behind her illuminated the young woman with a silver glow, and when she turned to profile, that same moonlight through the open window showed straight through the dress. The pink of nipple could be seen quite clearly through against all that black, and the darkening between her legs but paleness of her hip showed there was nothing under that dress but smooth deathly pale skin. "I'm just over 900 years old. And I've been awake for nearly 700 of that." She turned her head to face Somali, tossing a wave of black over her shoulder with the motion.
Somali's mouth opened with something like shock, but then she closed it. With the magical power that Katrina had collected, it was no wonder that she was so old. Still, the vampire's modern attitude amused Somali greatly. Not many who were born in the Dark Ages cold pull off a modern strip club so well under the careful noses of the vampire hunters in a city like New Orleans.
Katrina turned her body back to her, hands going to her hips. "It's not just a strip club, and you'd do well to remember that!" She wagged her finger at the mortal woman like a parent scolding a child. There was a moment before they both laughed.
Teasing one thin strap of her dress down her arm, Katrina knelt at Somali's feet and ran a hand up the brunette's thigh. "You don't mind being with an older woman, do you?" She pouted. "I'm afraid I might be too experienced for you."
Somali spread her knees and leaned forward, taking Somali's chin in her hand, leading their lips together. "And why would I mind that?"
Their kiss was sudden, deep and fevered. Somali's hand slid the remaining strap from Katrina's shoulder while Katrina ran her hands along the insides of Somali's thighs. Those sharp, glass-like nails ripped small tears in the bodysuit as Katrina dragged them across the skin tight material.
Somali's hands disappeared into the thick black of Katrina's hair, kneading into her scalp and earning a soft moan of appreciation. There was not the usual flush of arousal in the vampire's body. Instead, her skin was cool under Somali's touch, her lips and mouth warmed only by the press of the kiss. Cold fingers found their way to the zipper of the bodysuit and were slowly revealing the battle-scarred body underneath. A shiver ran through Somali before she could help it, and her eyes opened and widened when the kiss was suddenly broken.
"You want to warm me up, do you?" Katrina's hair shielded her eye, masking her expression.
Somali didn't have a response. At least, she didn't have a quick enough one. In the blink of an eye, Katrina was on her, riding her back into the bed and pulling the zipper of that bodysuit down so quickly it looked like she might have slashed the material open. Katrina grabbed a handful of Somali's hair and pulled her backwards, arching the brunette's body. In a quick strike, the vampire slashed those nails down the assassin's chest, earning a sharp cry of surprise from Somali. The cuts immediately started to bleed. There was a lot of red, but the cuts weren't deep. Dipping her head down, Katrina took a long slow lick up the longest burning cut. Navel to collarbone in a slow torturous motion. Somali writhed but was pulled back by the inhumanly strong grip in her hair.
Katrina hissed, "Don't struggle if you don't want it to hurt. Pleasure or pain, it's all up to you," before she dipped her head low to care for another of the fresh cuts.
Under the warming breath against her skin, Somali stilled and closed her eyes. She couldn't help but shiver under the soft touch of tongue, and these shivers ran like hot lightning through her body. As soon as Somali gave in to the will of the vampire, every touch was like liquid pleasure. The wounds on her chest closed with the mere touch of the other woman's tongue. The hand not massaging deep in the hair cupped one of her breasts through the material of the bodysuit. Sharp nails teased in circles around her nipple, now sensitive with the immediate and drowning desire. With the push of Katrina's telepathy against her own, the shields crashed, sending them both spiraling as the pleasures of blood and flesh swarmed and mingled. The push of power was barely contained by the room around them. Heat swelled like the tide, and then all was taken by blackness.
~*~
Lacquered nails drew the cigarette away from Somali's mouth as the assassin struggled back into her body suit. A titillating laugh echoed quietly in the room as she first missed the arm then fought with the zipper. Somali growled, "It's your own damn fault, woman."
Katrina took a long drag on Somali's cigarette then leaned forward to replace it in the other woman's mouth. "Why ever don't we do business together more often?" She copped a feel as she pressed her own bosom against the assassin's back.
Shuddering under the vampire's now warm touch, Somali sputtered out a laugh. "Because I wouldn't be effective anymore if you make it so I can't move. Evil woman."
"You only call me 'woman' after we share power. I don't think that's quite fair after all that we do for each other." There was a pout in Katrina's voice, but also the slow drawl of pleasure. "Besides, I barely even touch you. A scratch here or there and a little groping.... You can't withstand me."
Somali grinned. "Like you didn't jump at the chance to be with me."
"I believe it was mutual jumping. You came to me, non?" Katrina let her words drop, the silence ringing with double meaning.
It was Somali's laugh that broke the heated silence as she stood. "Pleasure doing business with you, Mademoiselle deNoircir."
"I look forward to working with you in the future," Katrina grinned, "and I expect the deposit promptly."
"Always." Somali stood. "Take care of them for me?"
"Every penny's worth, I swear it."
"See you around, Katrina."
"Adieu."