Caught Off Guard

Who: Olivia and Corwin
When: Just before midnight
Where: Streets of Marquette

She had made all the necessary phone calls. Well, almost all of them. She left a voicemail for Herbert, though she wasn't sure he knew how to check voicemail, so she sent him a text as well, asking where he was, if he was okay and if so to lock the apartment doors and windows, magic or not. She knew it was late, so there was a chance he was sleeping, but she also knew it was the weekend so he could have been out with one of his friends. She knew Judi would be home and safe, and probably (hopefully) asleep, and she didn't want to worry him by calling and waking him up. She knew she would go to his apartment after checking on Herbert anyway. She called and left a message for Mathias as she was walking out the door of Babylon, hoping he was okay and not out in... well, whatever the hell was going on. She wouldn't put it past him to be out in the midst of trouble, but hopefully one vampire bite was enough for him to keep his distance from it all. She doubted it. Maybe she would go by his house on her way home, just to make sure...

She didn't see anything, or anyone, out of the ordinary as she left Babylon, but she kept her steps brisk and purposeful. Turning the street corner, she mentally mapped out her route. If she got to Trowbridge, she could just cut through the park and cut the walking time in half. And maybe whatever mayhem was going on was done for the evening, especially with the sirens in the distance. She imagined the police were out in full force tonight. Feeling a bit better, Olivia reached into her bag. She found her lighter and gripped it before she began to dig around for her cigarettes. She spotted the folded tissue that held Mathias's necklace. She had taken it off an hour ago when she'd realized some shady guy in the corner of the bar was eying it whenever she walked by his table. Paranoid by thoughts of telekinetics somehow stealing it from her, she'd pulled it off and placed it safely in her bag. Now Olivia went to pull it out and put it back on when she realized how quiet it was. The sirens had faded, and she heard absolutely nothing. Nothing at all. Maybe it wasn't anything to worry about. It was late, and surely people were at home locking their doors. Glancing over her shoulder, she didn't see anything, but the silence unnerved her anyway and she began to walk again, keeping her lighter tight in her palm, everything else forgotten.

If Olivia paid close attention, she would hear the sound of quiet footsteps, matching her own, somewhere behind her. Whoever it was was either barefoot or wearing soft-soled shoes: there was no click of heal or thud of boot, just the occasional soft padding sound and whisper of fabric. Olivia was, indeed, being followed, shadowed, even, and whoever it was could very well have been doing it for a long time.

She kept walking, sucking in a small breath and holding it. She listened for sound other than her own footsteps and then there it was. That distinct, subtle rhythm of someone walking behind her. She ignored it as she kept her eyes ahead, destination planted firmly in mind. Olivia was determined not to run, or show fear. The sounds seemed to get louder and she huffed and turned on her heel, eyes sweeping along the street. There was nothing she could really see. "Okay, asshole," she called, gripping the strap of her bag tightly and pulling it off her shoulder. It was heavy. She could swing it and try to knock someone out. Maybe. "I've got a gun and if you don't fuck off, I'll use it." She didn't have a gun. Though at the moment, she kind of wished she had bought one.

There was a moment of silence that had a strange feel of surprised amusement to it, then a shadow stepped into the light of a streetlamp: a small, grinning woman was Olivia's shadow. "I ain't afraid of yo' little gun, sweetheart," she said.

And then she wasn't there anymore. The woman was practically a blur as she rushed Olivia.

Before Olivia could respond, she was being knocked into with surprising strength. What she had been able to see was that the woman had been small, but she was clearly not human. Her breath rushed out of her lips at the force, momentarily stunned as her chest constricted and her oxygen got stuck in her throat. "Bitch..." Olivia wheezed as she fell hard to the ground. She found some strength to swing her hand up and flick her lighter on under the woman's - the thing's - chin. Or at least what she thought was it's chin. Everything was moving so fast she could barely see.

The assailant was atop her the instant she went down, head diving down-- and right into the lighter. With a brief screech, a powerful arm knocked into Olivia's, to knock the lighter away, and the woman-- vampire; up close, there were definitely fangs in that mouth-- made another lunge for the place where neck joined shoulder, mouth agape.

Olivia tensed and tried to jerk away, though it didn't do much in the way of protecting herself. Sharp teeth sunk instantly into her skin and the bite was horribly, mind encompassing painful. She had read about vampires who brought pleasure with their bite. This one was clearly not one of those vampires. Olivia screamed at the contact, though the sound was strangled in her throat. She tried to jerk herself away again but it only forced the thing's teeth deeper into her flesh, ripping another scream from her lips. She knew she ought to know what to do. She had read all about vampires over the last few years. But being in the position she was in now? She couldn't think about anything else but that she wanted the pain to stop.

For a long moment, it didn't end-- no death came, and no relief, either-- but then there was a sharp, sudden, but clean pain as the teeth were literally ripped right out of her shoulder, making jagged tears but taking away the unnatural feeling of agony.

True to the message he'd left on Olivia's phone while she was at work, Corwin showed up at Babylon around when he thought Olivia would be getting off. It seemed even more important, now, after everything he'd seen and heard, that he make sure she wasn't walking home alone in the dark. He got there a couple minutes after midnight, only to find that she wasn't anywhere to be found. He'd apparently just missed her. Which meant she was walking home, alone, in the dark, when there were murderers and arsonists running around-- and apparently a lot of them. Murders, arsonists, maybe vampires... or maybe not. Probably not. Please not....

Regardless of who or what was out there, Corwin wasn't letting it get Olivia, and so he hurried along the shortest path towards her apartment, hoping to run into her. Not the most lighted one-- knowing Olivia's confidence about demons, he doubted she'd waste time with lights just to feel safer-- but the shortest one.

The scream not far ahead was what made him break into a run, turning a street to find two figures down, one straddling the struggling other and bent over her throat. He didn't pause to think, he just bolted down the street, grabbed the attacker by the back of her clothes, and hauled her away with all the strength he had.

It hurt, but the intense pain was gone, leaving behind an acute throbbing in her neck and shoulder. She gasped, rolling onto her side, instinctively lifting one hand to the wound. She cringed at the feel of torn flesh and blood starting to flow over her fingers. Blinking, she looked over to see Corwin and the woman vampire. Corwin was much bigger than she was, though Olivia knew that didn't necessarily mean anything. She winced, sucking in a deep breath and dragged her dropped bag to her side to search for something to help. She was beginning to feel woozy, but managed to dump her bag upside down. There were her cigarettes. She reached down to try and find something as quickly as her dizzy mind would allow, ignoring the blood oozing down her neck.

The vampire thrashed around, momentarily trying to get back to her victim, then she tried turning the tables on her own assailant-- only to find there was nothing on his person uncovered. Not his hands, not his arms, definitely not his neck-- just his eyes, which were of no use to her. There was nothing she could bite without going through at least one layer of fabric and more often two or three. Snarling, she tried clawing at him, but he shoved her hands back clumsily but with angry effectiveness; she tried wrenching away, but he held her clothes too tightly.

Putting on another burst of speed, the vampire spun and lunged, this time right in Corwin's face, and the speed, taking him unprepared, brought him crashing down, too. She scrabbled at his scarf, pulling it away before he could shove her off, and let out an angry hiss between clenched teeth. "Fucking Strigoi!"

Olivia inhaled again to try and ease the pain, and grabbed the small can of body perfume spray that she had bought at the drug store. It smelled like peaches, she recalled and got to her feet, wavering and then stumbling forward to get her lighter off of the ground. Where the hell were the cops? She'd heard sirens earlier, but then nothing. Olivia picked up her lighter and regained her balance. "Hey... ugly... bitch," Olivia managed, waiting until the vampire looked up from Corwin. Olivia lifted the spray to her lighter and flicked it on as she pressed down on the can. Fire engulfed the vampire's face and and hair, but it didn't last long. The lighter almost instantly burned her fingers, and Olivia hissed painfully through her teeth, dropping the spray and lighter on the ground next to Corwin. That stuff worked so much better in the movies, dammit.

Trying to shield her hair with her hands, the vampire let out another scream and wrenched herself free from Corwin's now-loose grip, retreating away from the flame and holding her burned hands to her head. Corwin, startled and no little afraid of the fire, himself, scrambled back and away from both of them, still half on his back. The vampire was distracted and in pain-- though healing... far too fast; Corwin felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his dead stomach, knowing what that meant-- and this would be a perfect time to do something about her, permanently.

Except what vampire carried stakes on their person? Certainly not Corwin. He didn't have anything sharp, either, that could possibly get her head off. If he could even stand to do such a thing-- which he doubted he could. Not in cold blood.

"A stake," he told Olivia hurriedly. "S-something sharp and wooden. D-do you have one?"

Even hurting and a few feet off, the Acherus heard that, and Corwin only barely managed to grab her ankle before she lunged at the more vulnerable of the two, Olivia.

Olivia stumbled back when the vampire lunged at her. She managed to get out of the way, but fell on her ass regardless, her breath whooshing from her lips again as she hit the ground. Fucking hell, it hurt. Everything hurt. And she was going to have bruises. But what was he asking for? A stake? Sharp and wooden? What the hell would she carry around that was sharp and wooden. Olivia turned toward her pile of things from her bag and scattered everything around, ignoring the burning ache in her fingertips, before she found a sharpened pencil from the diner. Would it even work? Jesus, she had no idea.

Olivia saw a white blanket settle over her vision, and she placed a hand on the ground to keep from falling over again. Her shirt felt wet and she looked down to see blood seeping through the blue blouse from her wounds, making the blue turn into a dark, midnight color. Was she bleeding that much? It didn't feel like it, but it looked like it. Blood was hard to get out of fabric, and she really liked this shirt. Double dammit. She looked up at Corwin and held the pencil up questioningly, trying to move quicker than her body would allow. She tossed it instead, hoping he would know what to do, because she was feeling like she wanted to lay down and sleep for awhile.

Managing to hang on to an angry Acherus vampire was one of the hardest things Corwin had ever done: he braced his feet against the curb-- his fall had taken him out into the street-- and held on to her foot for all he was worth as she thrashed and yanked and snarled at him, and then finally turned and started pummeling and clawing at him, herself. He wound up with jagged, bloody fingernail marks all across his face, and he was going to bruise for at least an hour, he knew it. Probably more. He couldn't heal as fast as an Acherus could.

Olivia holding up the pencil out of the corner of his eye gave him a little hope. He wasn't sure that would be enough, if it would break on contact, but if it was all they had, it was all they had.

Her tossing it his way, however, very nearly made him panic as he tried to fend off blows and scratches and the occasional fang trying to rip through his clothes. He knew what to do, certainly-- if only because it'd been drilled into him to never let it happen to him-- but oh, god, how could he ever bear to do it to someone else? Acherus or not? He couldn't kill Jace, he couldn't kill Eric's father, he certainly couldn't kill Theresa's husband. How would an Acherus be any different?

The sound of sirens in the distance finally came, and Corwin could only pray it would make the Acherus give up and flee.

It didn't. It made her pounce for Olivia again.

Olivia had no clue if a pencil would work. She wasn't strong enough to shove it through anyone's body, let alone a vampire's. Corwin, however, should be strong enough. She hoped. Otherwise she wasn't sure what they'd do. She grew unsteady again and lurched forward. She heard a screech and felt weight throw her back, her head hitting the ground painfully. There were nails scratching at her shoulder, digging into the already open wound and tearing it further. Despite her weakening state, Olivia heard herself scream again and she flung her arm up to hit the vampire in face, even if it was a weak attempt, but she dragged her nails across the flesh, tearing at the cold skin.

She was rescued yet again, this time before much more damage could be done, as Corwin yanked the vampire back and, before he had time to think about it-- too panicked that Olivia would be hurt worse, or killed, and that the police would see him and blame him or know what he was or, or, or-- he had her flipped onto her back, struggling and spitting curses at him, but while she was faster then him, he was stronger than she was, and her speed didn't count for much when she couldn't use it. The pencil was in his hand, and then it was jammed roughly between two upper ribs.

The pencil broke.

"Shit!" Corwin cried, and scrambled back again.

The vampire didn't even bother getting up, she just lay there and laughed, as if it was the funniest thing in the world. The police lights were visible in the distance, now, and definitely approaching. Corwin hovered for a long moment, uncertain, but then he gave up on the Acherus and scooped up Olivia, cradling her to his chest protectively. He paused another brief moment, trying to decide on whether to wait long enough to gather up some of her things.

The Acherus was pushing herself to her feet, still giggling, and the police were getting steadily closer. He really didn't have time. Corwin bolted.

Olivia had the distinct feeling like she was being lifted. But there was no more teeth or scratching, so she didn't really care. There were sirens, and laughter, but they faded. Looking up, she realized it was Corwin carrying her. "Are you... okay?" she asked weakly, that overwhelming desire to sleep coming back again. She wondered if he killed the bitch. Her entire chest felt wet and sticky and her neck throbbed something fierce. She felt tears spring to her eyes as the adrenaline that had fueled her vanished and pain settled in. She felt like a big baby, but it hurt. Bad.

To Corwin's mild surprise, they weren't pursued. He looked back behind them briefly to find the other vampire bracing herself and grinning wildly in the flashing red and blue of the police lights. There were muffled radio-voices broadcast from the cars at her, but Corwin was getting to be too far away to tell what they were saying. Thank god he didn't have to breathe to run; he was already exhausted, and being out of breath on top of it would be misery.

Cutting into the park and hoping against hope that no Acherus vampires were hiding in there, Corwin answered, "I'm fine. A bit beat up, but fine." He smiled faintly down at her-- his stride was a little off, from the fall and the Acherus's attempts at kicking, but it'd be healed up just fine in a few minutes-- then gulped a bit and looked back up. There was blood everywhere. Thank god, too, he'd already had dinner that night. "We're almost to your place," he added, trying not to look down again.

We do not eat friends, he reminded himself.

Her place. Good. She had to check on Herbert. Olivia's eyes closed and she managed to lift a hand to her neck. She could feel the sticky, warm blood, could feel where her flesh was torn. She winced, knowing she ought to go to the hospital, but she didn't want to. She could bandage herself up, she was sure. As long as she didn't pass out. Which certainly felt like a possibility. "I think... I need stitches," she rasped. A band-aid wasn't going to cut it this time. She clamped a hand over her neck the best she could, though her arm felt incredibly heavy and it kept slipping away from the wound. "I'm bleeding all over you... I'm sorry. Are you okay?" she asked again without even thinking about it. "She didn't bite you did she?"

"I'm used to it," Corwin said, a little dryly, his voice bouncing as he jogged along, only a little limpingly. "I can probably stitch you up, but it will hurt." That, he could do. And had done. More than once. God, it was weird to say, that he could do that. "I'd take you do the hospital, but I kind of left my scarf, and they won't take well to... to, well, someone like me." And he didn't think she could make it there on her own. "If she bit me, I didn't notice. I've got too much clothing, I doubt she could get through." He'd have had a hard time of it, anyway, and his fangs were quite a bit longer than hers.

She understood. Or at least she thought she did. He could have probably been talking about flying teddy bears and dancing pigs and it would have made perfect sense to Olivia at that moment. She wondered if he could get into her apartment. Herbert mentioned magic and wards. "My... place has wards. Against you." She made motion to her teeth. "Vampires... can't come in... Judi's sleeping." Or she thought he was. She hoped he was. She didn't want to get blood all over his couch. Olivia settled her head against Corwin's chest and closed her eyes. She was ready to sleep.

Corwin didn't recognize the name, but he did slow and stop, looking uncertainly between her face-- getting paler and paler, actually; that wasn't a good sign-- and the apartment complex he could see in the distance. "I could-- take you to my place." He had surgical thread and everything there, at least.... But he certainly couldn't wait that long to stop her bleeding. All that blood... couldn't be good for her to lose. She looked bad. It was just so far to his place. He should've taken the van, but he just hadn't thought about it.

Olivia murmured a response, not caring anymore. Any place that had a comfortable surface for her to sleep on was just fine with her. She cracked her eyes open to see his coat was dark with her blood. Crap. He saved her life and she got blood all over him. "I'll wash your clothes," she promised, her voice barely audible before she gave into the exhaustion she felt and fell into the pleasant abyss of nothingness.