Into the Night

[Myna]

She paced around her little apartment, books lay out and on the table between a black ancient looking book and a leather bound book with a strap comming out from the inside and wrapping around to keep the thing closed, it looked like a well used journal, there was papers, laying out, pictures, notes, printed sheets filled with typed information. Above that mess where her two sai's which looked like they had been carelessly dumped there.

"Stupid Stupid" She said as she made another lap, she continued to mumble to herself before she finally sunk down into the worn sofa and dropped her head into her hands. She was currently dressed in a black sweater and her usual jeans.

She could have afforded a much nicer place but she didn't like to waste what she didnt need. This was meant to be for a week, two at most, a few days to scope him out a week at most. Then another two to plan it, then she would make the attack, catch him when he was not prepared then collect on it.

So why the hell was she considering his offer? Why was she considering going rogue and just not fulfilling the contract? She would have blown it off as mind games if she didn't know he couldn't control her from such a distance. That their impact did have limits. She was finding herself acctually caring and she still didn't know why. She got up and started pacing again.

[merik]

Silently Merik runs his gaze over the side of the apartment building. he knew this area, this complex. At the thought of Myna living here, in this squallor a small frown made it's way over his lips. No she deserved better then this and he was aware that she knew it too. His gaze tracks to where he knew she would be, as he had took the time to make sure he was aware exactly where her apartment was located.

Looking around to insure no one was watching he puts on a burst of speed, feet moving as a blur as he ran up the wall. He was silent as the night itself, not making the slightest of impacting sounds yet somehow even as he slipped in through her window as quiet as the best of assassins he knew that she was aware he was there. He doesn't mve fully into the apartment, instead he perches on the sill, one hand reaching into his coat to withdraw a cigarette which he lights, insuring that the smoke flows out of her window.

For Several moments he just watches her, lets his gaze wander up to meet her own "Well, good evening then Dear Myna, Pacing i see? I do hope i am not interupting but after you came to see me, i figured turn around was fair play"

[Myna]

She frowned, stopped dead and grabbed her sai's off the table, the second she felt the presence move into her range, and as she got a clear reading she just tucked them into her belt, just incase, she did not trust easily, regardless as to what was said to her. Careless hunters where stupid hunters, and stupid hunters died.

She felt like grabbing her hair and yanking until she had a migrane but she didn't and she stopped pacing to look out her window as he appeared in it. It was unimaginably frusturating, to feel she could trust him not to hurt her and at the same time not trusting him for one second, and then her head telling her she had to kill him and not being sure she could do it.

"Hello Merik, as long as your not planning on starting a fight. Why don't you come in?" she rose an eyebrow "And if you are planning to start a fight I wouldn't, I really am not in the mood to kill you today" she said it so casually it sounded funny, even to her mind, but she turned her back on him something she rarely would do and grabbed a pepsi out of her refigerator. She didnt bother offering him anything she didn't tend to have stockpiles of blood. Well none that would benifit him anyway. She doubted he wanted a sip of werewolf blood.

[merik]

Laughing softly he steps in through the window stretching out to his full height once he was inside "you don't feel like killing me today hmm? Well thats good i suppose. I also don't feel like killing you. I don't know that i ever will honestly" He shrugs moving further inside so that he can take a look around calmly raking in the surroundings "My god, Myna i know i am not a venture, but this place...." He shakes his head sitting down on one of the sofa's "You can afford better, we both know you can. So why? Hell move in with me if you want"

He lowers his lashes looking up through them at her "Consider the possibilities! You could have fun relaxing..extracize" he winks "Anytime you want, pretty surroundings and if you got tired of it? Well" He gives her a grin, steepling those skilled long fingers of his together to settle his chin onto them "you could always make your attempt to kill me" He said it in such an off hand not caring kind of way that she would know instantly that though he liked her, trusted her to an extent and meant her no harm he was as always prepared just in case

[Myna]

She shrugged taking a gulping drink of her pepsi that it made her throat burn but she ignored it. Pain was...inconvenient but not something she couldn't block out or was unaccustomed to.

"Eh, its fine. Why waste money on a real place when I am only staying here a few days?"

Sure she could afford better, she wasn't exactly poor, though her funds where starting to fizzle down a little bit, nothing to make her worry over however. He would if she carried through that was..bring her a good 2 maybe 3 million. Marks like him where worth a fortune. She wasn't called in often, but when she was it was a big deal and an expensive one too.

"Besides theres nothing really wrong here, its got a couch, a table, a bed in the other room, and a kitchen table. Theres a fridge and a stove in the kitchen and there are no bugs or vermin. So whats the big deal?"

[merik]

His lips curl in distaste as he looks around again "It has no style, no flair, no...sense of life really" he shakes his head stepping even further in until he is about four inches from her. A slight smile crossing his lips "How convenient it is to, you ignoring the comments i made about you moving in with me. It was a serious offer you know" His fingertips raise, stroking her cheek softly "After all then you can save whatever funds you have remaining. I can assure you that in four hundred years of life i have managed to not be a pauper my dear Myna"

Chuckling he drops his hand to his side taking another small quick drag off his smoke "No indeed, Quite far from it i would say. Not in the class as a venture i know, but well off enough"

[Myna]

She walked away from him not even trying to hide her frusturation, she didn't know how to, she didn't know how to deal with this. She had never had a conflict of intrests before. It had always been simple, Kill, get paid. Move on. There was no emotion, there was no nothing it just was what it was.

"I can't, you can't..." she growled low, a ferral sound. "It's complicated enough as it is. I either kill you or die trying. Or I don't and I get killed anyway. I already told you, there is no out for me. Sure it would be nice to have the choice but I don't." she looked away and muttered under her breath.

"Tool's don't have the right to choice" she knew somewhere in the back of her mind he would hear her where anyone else would not, he wasn't human and vampires where one subject she was amply familiar with.

[merik]

A feral growl rips it's way from his throat and when he speaks it is in a calm sort of throaty tenor "Well i am going to do something now that perhaps should have been done a long time ago" His body blurs into motion until he is standing infront of her again. Quickly he grips her moving back to the couch to place her across his knee. His hand rises falling onto her behind with a hard direct smack "We do not refer to ourselves as tools" His hand riss again to fall once more "You are not a tool, you are a person. Besides" He lets her go his gaze locking with her own

"There i always a choice, you could join me you know, When i ask you to join me surely you are not believing that it is to be for the simple thirty to sixty yars you might have remaining" He keeps his gaze on hers, a single eyebrow raising "No, When i ask you to join me it is to join me for all the nights yet to come, and believe me. Hunter he may be but even your father would not be foolish enough to move against the council of seven"

[Myna]

She didn't back down from him as he just appeared in front of her, vampiric speed was no stranger to her and she had delt with those faster than he was. He was still fast but she could react to him before he got to her if she was so inclined to. Still she didn't however she didn't quite manage to with hold the yelp that escaped her throat as he..of all things. Spanked her. Sure it stung but it wasn't..that bad. The yelp was more out of surprise than anything else.

When he let her go she tore away giving him an icy glare that was layered with embarassment.

"Do that again and I will slip werewolf venom into your drink the next time I see you" she threatened lightly, it was mostly hollow and she hated the way she knew the threat was just that, hollow, something she wouldn't do. How the hell was she supposed to kill him when she could barely abide the thought of hurting him.

"I know what you mean...I am trying not to, believe me but I know. I don't know however how plausable that even is. Completely ignoring that your kind either fear me or hate me. It wouldn't go over well with your community. That aside yes, he would go against your council, whatever they are. He doesn't know about them so yes he would, and he would go after you, with a vengence and not necissarily head on."

She sighed and peered away from him again, when she spoke it was soft and calm once more.

"You cannot guage what I know about your kind as a cornerstone to what hunters typically know." she moved over to the table and picked up the volume before walking over to him. The ancient black book she held with tender care.

"No one not even my father knows I have this. Heck he wouldn't even know it existed. I bet you do though. Its why I know what I do know about your kind." She paused once more just for a moment "Lamia nox noctis"

[merik]

He takes the book fingering the spine gently before his gaze moves back to Myna again a small smile tugging at his lips "A spoil of war from a previous victim? If so then i must really congratulate you. Very few possess this particular literary piece, and thought some humans aside form you have seen them most take it as a masterful work of fiction or the bible of a cult" Passing it back to her he leans back on the couch "However let me put it to you this way. The council of Seven are the leaders of my clan, I can assure you that given the choice between eliminating a hunter and embracing one, especially one who knows so much? They'd choose the embrace for sure. For the simple fact being that you bring with you strength and knowledge of the hunters. We could learn more"

He shrugs "Personally i have my own reasons, some of which you know, some you do not. As you are not inclined to tell me everything nor am i inclined to tell you all...not yet anyway" Again he stands walking to slide his arms around her waist "Funny situation is it not? I doubt you have ever before had a problem with the thoughts of killing a mark, and while you can surely doubt my word if you wish i can assure you i am in no way mystically affecting your frame of mind. I did it once, and only once as a demonstration. A promised demonstration at that"

His smile was a bit teasing, his eyes twinkling softly with amusement "To our mutual gain i do believe"

[Myna]

She frowned at him and she let him hold her for a moment.

"I aquired it from a rogue hunter I was sent after" she gave him a half of a smirk "He had grown soft towards a female vampire who went by the name of Elinda. About half your age and power. I managed him, found him with this, then took out his vampire while she slept." Sadness crossed her face then.

"I have no idea what she was I only knew the name because he begged me to spare her. Foolish notion, would have been better off to not say a word about her. Vampires are harder to sense properly when they are asleep or using that thing that makes them invisable" she didn't know what the skill was but she knew it existed. "Anyway, this is why it would be too dangerous for us...you would not be taken while you could defend yourself."

[merik]

He laughs softly shaking his head "Well i will admit it is quite hard to defend yourself while you are sleeping but my dear Myna, DO yu think me totally defenseless? I am Tremere!" he steps abck raising his hands into the air "Do you think my haven undefended? My personr esting chambers exposed and easily entered? No we are seen as the utcast of the Camerilla for a reason" His gaze twinkles, white teeth glinting in the light "Magic my dear, Blood magic, mind magic, rituals. My chamber is protected by glphs of power placed for me by the council of seven. Granted it is not much, a warning system and a sealing rune. However"

His grin becomes feral "it guarantee's whoever is coming after me is slowed down, and that i am awake and ready when the do finally get in. With me awake?" He grins once more "That trick i did to you? It is not limited by target, i do not have to touch you, i do not even have to be in the same room as you, in the same city, Hell in the same damn country"

He sits back down again "As long as you can hear my voice, as long as anyone can hear my voice? I can do to them what i did to you, direct their actions, control their paths. it is draining i admited, but all i need is brief confusions to aid me, and one on one?" he grins again "I need not even that slight advantage for the most part"

[Myna]

She sighed shaking her head, it was good he had some protections but his arrogance made him weak. Well weaker, it was that which hunters exploited in the older ones. That which could be used to destroy them, she wondered if his over confidence made him blind as Damien's had. He had hurt her sure but she had still won that fight.

She remembered back, she hadn't been able to take him while he slept, that sure would have been easier, but he slept in a haven surrounded by others of his clan. It would have been impossible for her to do that. So instead catch him while he was distracted as his clan tended to become easily. Each had their weaknesses, the point was to exploit them, once you did that, they where not so difficult to kill.

"And if I said sure, go ahead, we will face whatever consequences come when they come. What would you do then?" she asked exasperatedly.

[merik]

He allows a single eyebrow to raise, Oh he knew what she was thinking, anyone after his lines would immediatly think arrogance over self confidence. No he knew his limits, where his weaknesses were. It was the reason he had worked long and hard to have the defenses in place to prevent those weaknesses being expolited. besides he still had his dagger, full ofl ife force waiting to be drained into healing strength. It was one secret he planned to keep, for now anyway..perhaps forever "Well i would not bit einto you and change you at this moment. That would be completely foolish. First I'd get you back to my home, take you to the level of it you have not seen yet,and will not until the decision is made. You would be stripped naked in my apartment, so that any tracking items on you would be left behind. Then you would be scanned for any that might be under your skin or elsewhere"

He leans back against the wall flicking his smoke out the window and into the night "Then i'd take you into my true haven at night fall, for the change. Where we would stay until you had reawakened and had enough time to get used to your new form. I'd be well stocked on blood packs, because for the first week or so you'd need to feed almost constantly, and the beast is ahrd to control at first. Typically my kind does not kill when we feed. Most humans we feed off of walk away a little wousy but remembering the experience as quite pleasurable"

He gives her a wink "I am not a rash person, nor am i particularly unthoughtful about my plans my dear. When i speak i speak only fact. No Fastious boasting, no pitiful bullshit lies.There are some i am sure that would call me arrogant. I am not. I am not the strongest of vampires, or the smartest, or the most refined or the best looking to be sure" His lips quirk into a smile "What i am however, is one of the oldest, and the reason for that is because i am one of the best prepared"

[Myna]

She listened in silence, turning away to look out the window at one point though he would know she was still listening to him intently. She was just thinking while she did so. She gathered the dark pink blanket she had laying on the couch and wrapped it around herself, it didnt seem to fit in here. The room was drab and gray and it was a lovely dark shade and of superior make. It had probibly cost her quite a pretty penny to buy, but she obviously valued it and he could see the slight shiver that she suppressed. She moved over and kicked the heater which apparently had decided to stop working. It sputtered then turned back on with a hiss, then dulled to a hum.

"I do not believe there are any trackers under my skin" she said when he had finished a slight sense of humor under the words and the tone. "However at least you are thought out. Tell me one more thing. Aside from the fact that my knowledge as a hunter, and my knowledge of your world. Why would you even want me?"

[merik]

Laughing softly he reaches around her to wrap her in a soft embrace making sur the blanket stays in it's current location "To answer that question is to learn more about me personlly. My history, As it is, would take much longer then a single night to impart onto you. However i will give you a brief synopsis. You my dear Myna, Remind me of my sire" His arms tighten a bit a small sad smile crossing his lips "She was a hunter at one point in her life too, turned by a vampir who felt it would be the worst punishment he could ever give her. In truth, like you at that time she had simply known no other way. She was also raised to fight the kindred, to kill them. Except back in the dark ages some of the clans were just as your father described them. Brutal heartless monsters who cared nothing for the mortals that sustained them"

He shrugs lying his chin on her shoulder "Did you know I was a knight at one point before my vampire days? That i fought in the crusades? I was with king richard when he deperated england for the s called savage lands" His lips curl into a smile "I had taken an arrow to the left side, While back then i had no idea of what i do now, well..I know now it had pierced a lung as well as slashs my liver. So i was bleeding out anyway, surely going to die"

Again he shrugs and this time he steps back "She saved me, when she did not have to, and now? Well" He grins "I want to save you"

[Myna]

She listened in silence, and when he wrapped his arms around her she did not tense, she just stayed as she was enwrapped in the warmth of her blanket. When he released her and stood back she turned around slowly to look at him, to assess him. Her face was hard if not impossible to read, she looked so calm so much of the time, as if emotion escaped her. However it raged deep down, it raged with a fury she had just learned to keep it boxed away.

"I am not hurt, nor even dying. What exactly are you planning on saving me from?" she asked softly still watching him. She was so uncertain, she didn't think she could kill him, but if she didn't she would be killed. Well they would try anyway, if she went rogue she would be all but impossible for her father to track, she was the best he had. However if she took him up on his offer...well she would have to stay here with him, which wasnt so bad to her mind but it was dangerous. She had never stayed in one place for long.

[merik]

He laughs "There are all kinds of deaths Myna. Death of the body, death of the mind, and death of the soul" He reaches up softly stroking her cheek once more "Your soul is dying, killed a little more every time you are made to do something you do not agree with for a measure of the freedom that should be yours by right. I want to save you from that. The existence i offer is a good one if you are intelligent, and you are Myna, you are very intelligent. I have no doubt that not only will you live, but you will thrive. If need be? I can hide us away fro years, decades, even a century"

He grins "How long will he live Myna? How long can your father keep a grasp on his mortal shell? You? With me you can be here enjoying life, seeing the world advance long after his bones are dust and his name forgotten"

[Myna]

She hated that her eyes watered as he spoke, hated that her throat thickened and she had to take a moment to push for control. Was marginally relieved when it came.

"Saying I believe, that I agree. And I am not saying I do...but saying I do, you can't just do that. I may not know you well, I may not know all the truths of your world for I am not as much of an idiot to think I know all there is to know. Nor to say that which I do know I fully understand. However you have responsabilities I am sure. To yourself, to your clan...Tremere did you call it? And god knows what else. I am but..." she forced herself to shut that down before she said something she would regret. "but a human, even if you where to turn me it would not change who I am. Why would you sacrafice for that? It makes no sense for you to put yourself out for some hunter who stopped by your club to scout you out before killing you."

[merik]

He laughs lightly "Just some human hunter who stopped by my club are you?" His left brow raises "Tell me Myna, How many times do you walk with a target to their private offices? How many times do you allow them to draw a weapon without your own going into your hands? How many are you going to trust enough to know that when their word is given that they will not attack that they indeed will not?" He shakes his head

"No, you are not just a human, not just a hunter. I am not sure yet what there is about you that draws me except the link to my own Sire, but i know your special. There is a reason you are better then the other hunters and at such a young age. And " he holds up a hand "Do not tell me it is because of all the training, becausei am sure there are others who have been through the same type of thing who did not develop half your skills. Like it or not you are special. First as a weapon to your father, now as a possible companion to me"

He turns back to the window, presnting his abck to her but he does look back over said shoulder giving her a smile "it is your choice though, Weapon or partner, prisoner or freedom. Even were we to be killed the question, My dear that you must ask yourself is this. Which is better. years in a cage or minutes in the sky?"

[Myna]

Frowning she watched him, she was a good hunter and that's all she had ever been, she had been able to live with that. Happiness wasn't something that existed for her, but being able to live with the situations she was in was enough. Would...could she be happy with him? The question remained the one he had not answered that she wanted to know. Would she just be a tool to him with more freedoms than her current situation but would it be that different? Or did he care enough too? Was it just some reminder of some long lost love? What sort of consequences would that bring?

"Alright" she said holding her breath for a minute as her stomach fisted into knots. She said it again this time much softer. "Alright"

[merik]

Stopping he turns back to observe her, the sngle eyebrow raising once more "Alright? Alright you want to join me, Alright lets fight now, Alright the sky is black?" He gives a theatrical smirk and sigh "Really Myna you do need to be more eleborate with your words and your agreements to whatever it is your agreeing with" he sits back down on the window sill watching her

"If you have any questions, anything you wish to know then now is the time to ask those questions. If you do join me, if you become a vampire then the only way out after that is either at the hands of another vampire, a hunter of an early morning stroll in the bright dawn's light"

[Myna]

"I know what I am agreeing to. Your not talking to a civilian who just found out vampires where real last week. I may not be arrogant enough to say I know everything. However I am not exactly ignorant either." she said with a slight bit of pride straightening her back.

She paused moving a couple steps closer to him then stopping, forcing herself to stop.

"However I do have one question. Am I just a reminder of a loved one long gone? A recreation to you?" She had made the decision but she needed to know this. She needed to know where she stood before she gave everything up, what little that acctually was, but still. She needed to know.

[merik]

He laughs softly shaking his head "Are you a simple reminder? No Myna, you are not. The resemblance in both looks and history is what got me intrested i will admit but what kept me intrested was the experience, the calmness, the skill, the willpower and despite it all, underneath it all that bright and simple naive innocence. The keep it all outside barrier you have erected to protect yourself" His head slowly shakes left to right

"Ask the real question, are you replacing one master for another, going from one chess board as a pawn to another, though admittedly better board as yet another pawn" He moves closer stroking her cheek "That would be a definite no, You are going to be a partner, my friend, my confidant, my helper the reciever of my aid" He lowers his head until his lips are but an inch from her own "My passion, my flame, my lover, my focus. If you must be compared to a chess piece then very well. However you shall not be my pawn, More over on my board? You'd simply be the queen" He smirks stepping back

"Any other immediate questions my dear?"

[Myna]

She resisted the urge to smile at his words, kept them off her features, something she was at least good at doing. She was sure the variation in natural human reaction would give away some of it but there was only so much she could control after all. She shook her head.

"No that about sums it up I suppose" She paused and did something she never thought she would do. She held her hand out, a gentle offering to a vampire and she let the walls shift, to relax just a little bit. Praying she would not regret it. "I will be yours if you want me"

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