Making a Break for it

It had been two nights since Khalid had noticed that he was being followed. At first he'd waved it away, simply thinking it was a surveillance squad sent by this Blood Ark to ensure he stayed out of trouble. But he began to notice that each night they grew bolder and bolder, following him closer and closer to his home before splitting off. They were planning on killing him, that was clear as night to one as schooled in assassination as he. So he did the only thing he could against a threat like this. Gathering up what he could, he decided to flee the city once and for all. Perhaps a place this dominated by politics and factions simply wasn't the place for a young vampire in search of some freedom. Was independence really all that much to ask? To not be dominated by one elder or another, lectured at and ordered around and directed until his last goddamn night on the Earth? Khalid struggled not to put a dent in the steel of his car, frustration boiling up in his very vitae as he climbed in.

His hands clenched tight around the wheel as he backed out of his parking spot and with that sped off down the street with only one thought in mind. Escape, yet again he was running away from the presence of an elder vampire. In Egypt it had been the phantom of Al-Mualim, the dreams and visions that had turning him into a shivering wreck in his lair. Now here it was something much more concrete, the machinations of the Blood Ark. Those authoritarian controlling conniving kalb that had driven him to this. The very thought of them sitting in their ivory tower drew a venomous rage from the young assassin. He could stay the rage told him, stay and grow stronger, gain influence, fight back as best he could, rip those prissy bitches from their ivory tower and sentence them to assassin justice. How great it would feel to slash a claw across one of their throats and see the blood splash to the ground! A dark smirk came over his face as he envisioned it in his mind, and for a moment he almost listened to it, almost gave into the thoughts of the beast within. The blaring horn of another car snapped him back to reality, as he quickly swerved to avoid hitting the curb! What was he thinking?! No no that wasn't him talking, that was the beast, that was the teachings of mualim, the deadly ways that had been branded onto his undead gray matter! He didn't want that for himself, not anymore..he needed peace, he needed freedom not another war. He'd killed far too many, and for far too long. So again he pressed on the gas, and kept on driving.

Soon he had reached the edge of the city, towering buildings and alluring clubs faded to dive bars and run down ethnic restaurants, and eventually simply to ruined buildings. Khalid kept a wary eye as his black sedan crept down the street, it payed to stay vigilant at all times in this part of the city. Dangerous things crept in every ruin, and spirits were far more bold out in the ghost town. Which is why he could almost feel his dead heart sink as he heard the coughing sputter of his engine going out. Ya Allah, the vampire muttered a short prayer to a God he was beginning to believe didn't like him very much, and climbed out of the car. It didn't take him long to realize that the car was pretty much fucked for now. Muttering another quiet prayer he grabbed all his stuff from the trunk, stuffed what he could into his backpack and began to with unnatural strength push the car along the road. He didn't need to worry about the Veil around here, anyone who lived out here was more than familiar with the paranormal regardless. In fact as he pushed the car down the seemingly empty street he began to feel something he hadn't felt in quite a long time. Anxiety, or perhaps fear, red colored sweat began to run down his neck as he kept pushing along, the feeling of eyes on his back, or perhaps the scope of a rifle. Were they still on his tail? Even now as he tried to escape? He couldn't exactly decide whether it was just his own mind playing tricks or if there truly was something eyeing the night walker.

His anxiety was broken, much to his relief by the sight and sound of an italian restaurant just down the road, and speeding up he quickly pushed his car into it's parking lot, making sure to do so away from the windows. With that secure he made his way to the entrance of the restaurant, sure it was gonna close soon but that didn't mean much to him. He was hungry and was hoping he could perhaps score a meal off the proprietor of the place. As he entered, the ring of the bell echoing through the empty place he called out "Hello? Anyone here?"

Out of the back came a pale figure with cold blue eyes, no heart beat, pearly white perfect teeth, he was breathing but that was something a lot of vampires opperating around humans did for show; this was a vampire but not one he had seen before which was a bit odd in a city with a population, and society like this one, few vampires were reclusive enough to avoid every single meeting of the blood ark, but indeed he was sure he had never seen this tall Ivory stranger before. This one who obviously wasn't expecting him, but didn't seem all that bothered or threatened in the least by the young vampire's presence either. Jessie wasn't opposed to a vampire showing up unannounced at his restaurant on principle, but such a thing rarely brought anything other than bad news. Yet he had survived more than his share of bad news, and feared not what a little more might bring, so remained seemingly casual and unguarded by vampire standards when he spoke to the strange vampire upon reaching the counter of his empty restaurant "If you're with the blood Ark or those new clowns here to ask if they can run illegal business out of here get the hell off my property, otherwise... what can I do for you youngster?"

Well this was, unexpected..But Khalid had dealt with vampires older than him all his unlife and found no reason to fear this one " I was hoping whoever was running this place would be human, so I could feed. That is clearly not in the cards so I'll ask for this instead, sanctuary. I'm being pursued, hunted by the Blood Ark, I didn't bend the knee, so they wish to kill me...I only need time to fix my car, and then I'll be out of your turf." His tone was polite but firm, and his eyes were fixed more on the street outside than Jacob himself.

"So what you're asking me is... if I will shelter you from the most powerful vampires in town, and after that you're  gonna run off, and I'm gonna be left high and dry with the consequences to myself and my business?" Jessie asked after taking a second to consider what the other vampire was suggesting he do out of the goodness of his cold dead heart "You got stones kiddo I'll give you that" The older vamp chuckled and considered the offer, perhaps surprisingly from someone who had lived so long he said "Sure why not, fuck those assholes coming here with their rules, and regulations I'd love to stick a thorn or two in their side."

"Good to see at least one other kindred in these parts has some sense." He replied with a relieved and sincere grin as he extended out a hand to shake "I do not plan on leaving you out to dry either, if their agents arrive while I'm here I'll kill as many as I can myself." He couldn't help but feel a sincere gratitude for the other kindred, it wasn't often that others stuck out their neck for him let alone vampires "Thank you."

"Yeah no worries, it's Jessie by the way." The vampire said and shook the hand before taking a couple steps back, leaning against the wall, and watching out the window. "Don't tell the health inspector, but I keep a couple blood packs in the fridge in the back. They taste like shit if I'm being generous, and you can't live off em, but they can replace a meal every now and then." Jessie offered since he'd mentioned he needed a drink "Personally i'd skip it, but if you're expecting trouble you'll want to be at your best, while you're drinking you can tell me how exactly you made it one those fucker's shitlist.."

He was far too thirsty to refuse a drink right now, and politely made his way past the elder vampire to reach the fridge, grabbing up on of the bags and sucking it dry in seconds. Licking the excess blood staining his lip he then replied "I found out one of them was spying on me, and managed to convince him for a time that he was working for a bunch of pyramid scheme bastards. This alerted them to me, and they've wanted to eliminate me ever since. Despite the fact that since then I've just kept to myself." He replied bitterly "I know it's a bit boring but I haven't exactly been trying to draw attention to myself since I got here.....I am Khalid by the way."

"And the person you convinced is dead?" Jesse guessed after hearing the story, one couldn't really blame the vampire for not  having guessed the level of ridiculous the situation had gotten. No one who hadn't seen it could have been rightly expected to guess it.

"I wouldn't know, haven't seen him since." He replied calmly "For all I know they could've killed him." He replied with a tone implying a small amount of guilt. "What I'm concerned with now is staying free and staying 'alive' if alive is the right word for it." He concluded as he made his way back to the windows " Shit...They're coming." He announced grimly as he turned to look Jessie in the eye "If you want I'll just draw them off, get them away from here so you don't have to get involved. I owe you for the drink it's the least I can do."

Jesse looked outside for a moment, and shook his said in his thick southern accent "Nah I've been bored out of my mind lately anyway, really i should be thinking you for a chance to bust some heads. Why don't you get under a table or something, strike when you can catch em off guard." He really loved hitmen, with most creatures he felt a bit of an obligation to kill them quickly, but hitmen? Shit you could do whatever you wanted to those poor fucks, and never feel bad in the least. Jesse just smiled and waited by the door for his upcoming "Guests".

As he reached the window he quickly caught sight of them. The hitmen numbered three, climbing out of a classy black station wagon that looked like it was out of the roaring twenties or something. On the right was a large vampire, dark skinned, tall, with a chilling smirk and orange eyes that would have been unnerving to a younger vampire. In the middle was a smaller male, pale skinned, wearing a three piece suit and a newsboy cap, this one wasn't a vampire though. To the far left was a skinny, craven looking creature, androgynous ad with a wild look about them, their clothes that of a vagrant. Wasting no time each drew out a gun and without warning or ceremony opened fire on the restaurant, a hail of bullets crashing through the window and sending blades of glass dancing in the air!

"Always forget fully automatic is a thing." The frankly frighteningly unconcerned blue eyed vampire murmured as he dove down and took cover under the bar, grabbing and cocking his shotgun. "Aim's a bit off boys, don't tell me this is your first time..." Jesse called out in a jovial tone when the gunfire finally stopped.

As the vamp crouched behind the bar he saw Khalid quickly dash into the back of the restuarant to find a hiding place. "Ooh the target's talkin' shit...I like it." A deep voice replied as, to Jessie's probable surprise a grenade landed right next to him behind the bar.

Jessie unfortunately for them was a telekinetic, not a strong one who could tear them all in half, but a skilled one who sent the grenade flying back along its arc, right towards the would be assassins. "You bring all this for me? I'm flattered, but you really shouldn't have." He said, and knowing they would be have to deal with that grenade real quick Jessie popped out of cover and fired a 12 gauge slug at the first one of them he saw.

The big vamp moved with unnatural speed, quickly grabbing the 'nade out of the air and throwing it down the street where it exploded.  Quickly the other two advanced towards the shop, the creature dodging his shot and leaping through the window with a crash! Whilst Newsboy slinked off to the side of the building to come through another entrance. It was clear they were experienced and each had their own separate role in this operation.

Jessie gave a little chuckle at the newsboy trying to sneak around him, and transformed into ethereal mist right before the bullets hit him, a moment later newsboy was propelled into the shop by a boot to the spine splintering the side door with his face along the way. Jessie ducked in right after, whistling to himself "You know I had heard about falling standards with today's economy, but damn..." Despite his bravado it was clear he was dealing with professionals, if things came to a direct up close and personal confrontation between three of them, and him all by his lonsesome he'd be screwed, he'd been avoiding that so far, and he hoped with the kid ready to strike he could continue doing so indefinitely.

The newsboy gritted his teeth as he hit the ground, and rolled to blunt most of the impact. Hissing with anger at the taunt the creature leapt right at Jessie, hoping to tackle him and shred him apart. But before he could there was a crash of glass and a heavy thud as a blur of black slammed into the creature pinning it to the wall! Khalid had no intention of letting the older vampire fight alone and quickly he and the feral vamp began to brawl. Undistracted by this the newsboy picked himself up and rushed straight for Jessie, two daggers in hand.

While this looked to be going well at the moment, Jessie knew that big bastard was probably either out lining up a shot on him or moving to flank him. As the news boy  felt a telekinetically bottle of vodka smash against the back of his head, and a stool slide beneath his feet to trip him up. Jessie quickly glanced out the window to determine which was the case.

He got his answer in the form of a pair of arms gripping around his body like the strangling coil of a python! With monstrous strength he began to compress Jessie's body, hoping to crush his very bones before he could transmute to mist form!

Despite being a bit smaller, Jessie was still a Vampire, and the big guy had just made a mistake a lot of stronger vampires made in assuming that overwhelming strength made it safe to grapple with another vampire, unfortunately their weight ratio was never up to the task. Jessie swiftly demonstrated this by grabbing the big guys arms, and yanking him forward in a swift front flip that end with the vampire's spine slamming hard onto the small yet sturdy back rest of a steel chair.

The chair collapsed loudly as the vamp crashed into it with a pained grunt. But before Jessie could finish the big vamp off, a stake flew right for his heart, thrown from the hand of the newsboy.

"Much obliged" Jessie said, as he spun the big vamp around him as a shield, instead of his chest the stake sunk into the large vampire's abdomen, who he proceeded to throw at the newsboy. "Not a bad arm on ya..." The old outlaw said casually approaching the news boy, and quite wounded big vampire. "But I've been dealing with your type for a long time indeed..."

The newsboy dodged, but it wasn't just that, his body almost...twisted to avoid his flying compatriot in inhuman fashion, flesh turning where it shouldn't. Face stoic and cold as the grave he got into a fighting stance and prepared for the next strike. It was clear attacking hadn't worked and, now paralzed from the stake big man was of no use.

"You know I could stand here all morning..." Jessie said, and flashed the newsboy a wicked grin, he wasn't going to take the bate and attack, not just yet at least; his face was neither cold nor stoic but bent into the cruel grin of a joyful killer. Jessie casually slid his hands into his coat pocket making himself comfortable for this little waiting game should it become one, while also implicitly mocking the news boy with his lack of regard.

A shock of pain suddenly ripped across Jessie's back as vampire claws digged into the undead flesh of his back! The creature pounced, quickly wrapping it's legs around his waist as it tried to tear his back to ribbons!

Khalid growled as he got to his feet, the damn thing had cut him across the eyes to get away! Using a small portion of his blood stores he healed the wound and looked for any weapon. As his eye caught on to a broken chair leg he couldn't help but smirk.