Are you kidding me

Dedicated to @Ace

DATE | 15th of September 2021
TIME | After midnight
WEATHER | Raining
PLACE | An apartment at Oakheart
OUTFIT | Dark jeans, and a darkblue bra, Nicklas is wearing sweats and a plain white t-shirt

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The tired head was kept up by his own hands, hovering it over the book he was in the middle of reading when he had fallen asleep. He had been rereading something about the femur bone and how it could rotate, because he had gotten a patient with some complications, and it had been a while since he had had something similar. He had no clue how long he had been sleeping, but it had definitely gotten darker since he had been reading. His phone couldn’t recognize his face for the big red spot in his forehead from where it had been held by his hands. He unlocked it with his fingers, and right after his phone rang. He took a deeper breath in before he took the phone. Nicklas “Hello?” He tried not to sound too tired, but his voice was quite rusty. He complained a little about the time before he then agreed to come over and look at some bullet wounds.

It didn’t take him long to get there and eventually he knocked on the door to be invited inside. He had caught the smell of the blood on his way up to the apartment. “You could’ve told me it was a fairy,” he snarled bitterly under his breath. It wasn’t really a problem to Ace, but it could have been a while since he had gotten any blood, which would have made this a much more complicated.
He had a handheld suitcase in his hand and went over to the girl in the chair. “You’ve done well, huh,” he said sarcastically before he kneeled down in front of her to open the suitcase. He pulled up a syringe and pulled up some painkiller both locally and globally. “Name’s Ace.” He said and looked over at her while he pulled some up. “I’ll be your doctor for the next hour-” he looked at her torso again, “Or two,” he mumbled. “How do you feel about needles?” he wondered as he pulled the syringe off the medicine bottle and put the bottle away. He looked at the syringe before he looked over at his patient for the night.

She could hear how Nicklas walked around in the small apartment and found a glass and poured something to drink into it. The small annoyed sighs and groans let her to believe, that she should just keep her mouth shut at this very moment. As it knocked on the door, she cracked one eye open and looked towards the door as it opened. The aura of a vampire hit her right in the face, and it was hard for her not to just get up and leap out the window. It would be easy just turn into her true form and fly away. But given her circumstance it wouldn’t be that easy and she needed help.
Nicklas just shrugged his shoulders “Didn’t think about it, as you’re such a professional Ace” and took a sip from his whiskey “want some?” he asked as he walked towards the kitchen again finding a glass and poured some of his finer whiskey into it.

Hope narrowed her eyes at the vampire as he walked straight towards her and looked at the wounds and then kneeled. “Yes, it’s my specialty” a quite dry voice told him, she even had her own stitched up wound on the other side that still wasn’t fully healed. The one she had stitched up herself, probably would be fine if she didn’t constantly reopen it by not sitting still. A soft chuckle left her, she couldn’t stop herself, but the smile didn’t last long on her lips before her eyes looked seriously at her doctor. “I’m fine, I usually stitch myself up, but both bullets are stuck” she breathed pain clearly in her words as she tried to sit a little better. Nicklas just sighed as he looked down at his so-called friend. “Hope here have a tendency to always get herself in trouble, isn’t that so Hope?” she hissed at him for telling the vampire she didn’t trust her name. Not that Ace needed someone to tell him that, the many wounds on her body should be enough to tell the story just how much in trouble Hope got herself in.

But she did understand why he had told her that Ace might be able to help her. Her blue eyes wandered back to the man in front of her, if he could keep himself from drinking her blood then there could be a good chance that he was her ticket in. But it was all a question about if he had the right connections.

Ace took a bigger breath in through the nose as his friend said he didn’t think about it since he was such a professional. Of course. “No thanks, working professionally,” he replied to his friend. Maybe vampires didn’t really feel alcohol, but he still didn’t want to drink when he was going to be working… Unless it was blood, but for goodness’s sake, he couldn’t do that. He should’ve done that before he went to this place.

Ace pulled an equally dry smile to her dry voice that said it was her specialty to get hurt well. He even chuckled once. While he inspected her wounds, he noticed older wounds and scars. One of them wasn’t even that old and it looked like it would get a nasty scar the way it hadn’t been able to heal. “You’re not fi- Sit still, lady,” he was in the middle of correcting her when she started to move around, and he hissed a bit of her. She was definitely not in touch with her situation. Nicklas presented the woman in the seat. Hope. Well, the name suited to her thoughts about herself, but the way she moved around carelessly and in pain, Ace didn’t think the name suited her condition. He put the syringe down to get a glove on his left hand. “I’ll get a little closer, alright?” he said and looked up into her eyes to assure that it was okay. There was no sign of vampiric traits; no bright eyes, veins, teeth or alike. He then leaned in and placed his left hand near one of the wounds. He glanced up at her as he was about to place the syringe close to her body. “This is going to be the worst part, baby, so you might want to hold onto the armrest or my shoulder,” he said and without further warning, he let the needle sink into the open wound where he would fill it with, he painkiller, which actually was mixed with antibiotics. “First one,” he said and pulled the needle out, “One, two,” the needle went in to the other bullet whole and filled that. “Good girl,” He took the needle out, not really minding what she had chosen to grab onto, as long as she hadn’t moved her torso too much.
Without looking for his suitcase he threw the syringe with the needle on into the suitcase. “Who the hell did you slap to get these wounds?” he wondered and let his eyes keep still on the wounds. He started to push around the bullet wounds and would hush her if she complained. He pushed around the wound to make sure what he had injected got all around and eventually leaked out of her.

Lady? But his words made her sit still as her blue eyes finally only looked at him. Not with the same distrust as it had done before. This time it was more intrigued, maybe she just had something for people putting her in her place? “mmhm” she hummed as he told her he would come closer; it was clearly to make sure she knew that he wasn’t trying anything. Like putting his teeth in her neck, not that she would put it past him. She didn’t care how old or in control a vampire was, she knew just how much fairy blood was worth for a vampire, which also meant that there were a lot of vampire clans that hunted down fairies for that. Baby. She heard how Nicklas snorted and handed her the glass that Ace had declined. She took it without moving her torso, or at least not that much. She placed the glass to her lips and took a sip before handing it back. She then moved her hand and placed it on his shoulder. Her eyes had still not left him.

It wasn’t fair really. Vampires and their scent and aura, the one that drew you in and made you realise your mistake only when it was too late. Nicklas looked a little pale as he watched how Ace placed the needle in the skin of Hope, and how the fairy didn’t move a muscle. He turned around and walked out of the apartment. “I think you should have asked him about the needle and not me” she said almost breathlessly. She was sure girls and men would be lining up to be with him, if that was how he talked to people he had only just met. She would be lying if she said it didn’t influence her. Not that it showed in how she acted.

A small laugh left her as he asked who she had slapped. “Flagged down a couple of hunters that apparently thought that killing an entire village of fairy’s wouldn’t get them on a high target list” She made a very small hiss as he started poking around, but the numbing effect took a hold and she suddenly didn’t feel a thing. “So, what did you do to become friends with that jackass” she nodded towards the door that Nicklas had left out off. “Got something dirty on you, since you just show up like this, fixing up poor fairies without getting anything in return?”

A pure smile formed on Ace’s lips as she said that he should’ve asked Nicklas about the needle. Maybe he should have. “He should’ve seen it coming,” he said with a slight humor to his tone. Ace wasn’t really a people person, but he still worked with them, or most often they were in full anesthesia.
He glanced up at her as she mentioned what she had been doing, only to let his gaze travel back to the wounds. He shook his head a little by the explanation, not of her, but of the hunters. They should’ve known better than to kill a whole village. “Did you lose anyone?” he asked. To him, all of these questions were important to her healing – unless he was going to use her magic on her of course. Resources were important for healing… But the way the other wound looked, he probably had to work his magic.

As it seemed like the numbing had started, he let his hands find the suitcase, listening to her question. He picked up a scalpel. “It’s going to be a minimal cut, alight,” he informed. He had to make it just slightly bigger so everything could fit, and the bullet would be able to get removed. He placed his hands still around the tummy before he made small incisions by both wounds. Shortly after he put the scalpel away, “The only dirt he has on me was how my sister was trying to get into his sister’s pants,” he said and found a tool to spread the wound a little and something to dig and pick with. “You know, normally my patients would be lying down,” he said slightly teasingly, but not taking his eyes of the work. “My sister got something for girls and, well as you may have noticed, we often get to do what we want,” he informed and looked up at her once. His voice had been slightly breathy as he confessed to the fact that they could do what they wanted to. “She would totally do you,” he confessed and looked back down just in time to grab onto the bullet. “Besides from that, there’s no dirt. I’m probably the cleanest vampire you can find, honey,” he said while he pulled the bullet slowly out of her numbed torso, only to let the bullet fall onto a metal plate and cling a little. He dug into the next wound. “The gay ass tried to do the same as Aria did to his sister, but on me, and as I told him no, he just got friends,” he explained sighing a bit from how this bullet was more difficult to find. “Eventually my sister got a hold on his sister, and I had to do some stitching on her… And that’s how he figured that I could resist blood and that I’ve studied medicine for many, many years,” he explained and held his breath for a short moment finally catching onto the bullet. “You’re a god damn mess, sweetheart,” he informed, mostly hinting at the damage the bullets had done. “This might hurt compared to the other one. Don’t bit your tongue off, please,” he said. The bullet had cracked a rib and he knew that as soon as he removed it, it would hurt like hell. Broken bones were always bad news.
“Ready?” he asked, but without waiting for her reply, he quickly pulled it out. Without asking her he grabbed her thighs and adjusted the stool, so she was laying more down, and he sat between her legs. He was working – as a professional as Nicklas had said, so he didn’t think at all about how the position looked like. He had pulled her to make sure she didn’t spill the precious blood onto the stool or carpet. Instead, he found some gauze and placed it on top of the wounds, sitting upright and pressing onto the wounds – almost as if he tried to hold her down. He looked from his hands up her torso until they reached her face, “What was it you said? I didn’t get anything in return?” he frowned a little, “Dearest, I’m not doing this for free,” he said, with his voice almost resembling honey and milk, soothing a throat.

She licked her lips as he asked if she had lost someone, she wasn’t sure but there was a good chance she had lost her parents and sisters. Not that she was going to tell someone she had just met about that. So, she just took a deep breath in, and let the silence speak volumes.
A small nod gave him the indication that she had understood that he was about to cut in her. But because of the anaesthesia she didn’t feel anything. Her eyes couldn’t stop from seeking down to the wound that he was starting to poke around in. It was a very weird sensation that moved through her body. Normally she didn’t’ have anything fancy and had closed stab wounds herself without any pain killers. It was quite handy to have someone you could just call like Nicklas had called Ace. And what a talker the vampire turned out to be. Not very secretive about the details what had let him here. She was about to be very cheeky and tell him that she couldn’t speak before she had seen her sister, but right now she was more interested in what he wanted. But she bit down her tongue instead and a smirk formed on her lips as he kept on telling his little story. “Was it his sparkly personality that threw you off? I mean, sunshine and love can be too much for even the best of us” she teased liking her lips.

She knew he meant that her body was a mess, but she couldn’t help the dry laugh leave her. “You should see what is inside my head, then the statement only becomes truer” but her sarcastic demeanour didn’t keep as he pulled out the bullet before she could say if she was ready or not. Her hand squeezed down on his shoulder as a breathy “bloody hell” left her. But he again didn’t give her much time to dwell on that feeling as he grabbed her thighs and pulled her down letting her back hover between the seat of the chair and the back of it. Her eyes went big, and her breath was caught in her throat for at second. What the hell.

But he didn’t do anything other than try to stop her from bleeding. But how his eyes travelled up her body almost made it catch fire. Her brows furrowed. Not doing it for free, then, what was he getting out of it? “So, what are you expecting in return?” she asked quietly, as her body was washed over by a wave of chills. Now here she was, thinking she could bribe him. Didn’t go very well now, did it?

The silence from his question was a big enough answer for him to know that it was a sore topic about maybe having lost someone. Maybe she didn’t know yet.
“No it’s not his personality, nor the sunshine or love,” he replied slightly colder. For a second he was tempted to explain to her, that he didn’t do love, but again it was a little too personal, though he had just presented his sister by her name.

He clenched his jaw a bit as she mentioned to look inside her head. He was tempted to do so, but then again, he didn’t work for free. He was working like any other professional – with money the state knew nothing about. “I don’t want to mess with your head more than my presence already does,” he spoke almost monotonal.

He noticed how she held her breath, and he didn’t know if it was from pain or just shock, because it could’ve been both. “A favor could do, but if you think that’s too dangerous for this…” He could almost sense how every part of her body had caught on fire, and allowed his eyes to look dangerously falsely flirting down her body, “Fragile body of yours,” he looked back up at her quite quickly, “Then you better speak up,” he said and started to work his magic, with speeding up the healing process of all of her wounds from the inside and out. Eventually he removed the gauze and grabbed a special set of tweezers to open up the old stitches and remove them. “You got much to learn,” he said and looked back up at her from where he had been focusing on the stitches. The wounds were almost healed up.

He raised a brow as she said she did just fine. He disagreed on that. She clearly didn’t do well when her wound kept on opening up. Sure, she could’ve been dead a long time ago if she had done worse, so maybe she was doing alright. He took his hands completely of her and slowly he pulled away from her while she talked about the payment he had suggested. It was Nicklas that owed him apparently. He looked at her slightly annoyed by that fact. He noticed how she bit her lip only to right after talking about how she needed help with another problem. Nicklas owed him so many favors by now, that Nicklas just did whatever Ace asked of him. It was as simple as that. But that didn't meawn that he wasn't going to talk with Nicklas about the payment, because he was tired of just working 'for free' for him, it wasn't like Ace asked for favors that often. “And what is it you need my help with?” he wondered with a slight sigh and started to pack his things and throwing things out.

Supernatural females had disappeared. No witches and werewolves, so probably a vampire clan. He tried to follow her train of thought, but he hadn’t quite figured out what she wanted, so he let his eyes look up from his suitcase to look at her. He took a deeper breath in as she explained that he had good control over his hunger for blood. When she had been bleeding like that, it had also been quite difficult – it was easier now that she was closed up – except for the ruined t-shirt which was laying somewhere. He turned towards her as she mentioned that she would pay him well and that she was quite valuable when it came to favors. “I don’t need your money, dearest,” he said and licked his teeth a little thoughtfully. “So, you want me to be a part of a clan, so I can take you inside looking like a bloodbank with legs?” he frowned a little at the plan, “You’ve got be crazy to think that I would walk into a clan with you under my arm. It’s a suicide mission for you and-” he looked at her realizing that she was crazy, and it was some part of her plan that they should be going together. He crossed his arms, “Elaborate.”

She didn’t necessarily mean money. He picked up her gait and wondered what she was trying to get out of that gait. It couldn’t possibly be how she walked normally. She seemed so happy about the plan she had. He almost enjoyed how she scrunched her nose in disgust about talking about herself as a blood bank. He nodded a little, raising his brow as she explained something about hacking into a system.
So, what was his price?
“Just this once time?” he wondered only to be followed up by a frown. “Wait this weekend?” he rubbed his forehead. He knew he had heard Aria ramble about something this weekend. He breathed out quite exhausted and let his hand glide from his forehead down his face until it could hold his jaw. “It’s going to be a massive waste of my time to spend so much time with them,” he said, almost as if he knew who it was. He took a bigger breath in considering his price, “A couple of blood bags and a favor,” he said. He wanted more than just a favor when the deal meant that he might run into family, “You can swing by my place some days later and I can make them,” he suggested. He had the materials after all.

She agreed to the deal and leaned close. He didn’t even move a muscle, but only let his eyes follow her. It definitely sounded like a juicy date the way she almost whispered to him, but he knew it wasn’t like that. He just had to help her. God, why was he so generous? “Won’t be,” he replied letting his eyes follow her as she moved away and got dressed. He raised his brows as the friend tumbled in from trying to eavesdrop the conversation. He didn’t want to reply to her, even though she wasn’t serious about doing it another time. He just let her disappear. She would probably just get his address from Nicklas and if not, that would be her problem.
He walked over to help his friend up and patted him on the back a little harshly. “This was your plan from the start, right?” he questioned. “And you owe me another favor – she didn’t seem like she wanted to pay for her treatment,” he patted the guy again before he went to grab his suitcase so he could leave.