She doesn't sleep

The streets were like mirrors, reflecting the bright lights of a city center at night. Only a couple of hours had passed since the massively heavy rainfall that had made it near impossible to see through the pour and possibly been the death of a few less-than-up-to-date windscreen wipers of cars unlucky enough to have been caught in it. Not to mention the amount of shoes of unfortunate pedestrians ruined in the wet weather. Now, closing in on the shift from late night to early morning, the  sky had cleared up and left the city in an almost freshly cleansed state. The very distinct smell of dampness was in the air everywhere and had for a period canceled out the usual smell of city dwellings. Looking up, the sky looked a vibrant dark, black blue without the dark grey clouds. It was too bad, that the city emitted to much light pollution or the sky would likely have been completely covered in twinkling stars.

“Heh-ey, she’s like one of your, Duncan. A vamp. Would you look at those.” Without the opportunity to step further back unless dumping into the stranger standing firmly right behind her was what she wanted to do, there wasn’t much more she could’ve done to stop the guy in front from pushing a her upper lip up with a dirty thumb like she was some dog at a vet, getting her gums checked. Utterly uselessly, since it hadn’t work at all, she’d tried pulling away from his hand as soon as it had cupped her face. And therefor there she stood, Anichkava Khyznayakski, with her small retracted fangs on display for this Duncan to see. Instinctively, she pulled her shoulders up as the man behind her started to lean over and around her to get a look where he cracked a humored smile very similar to his friend with his finger practically in her mouth. “Right right,” the vampire commented before unconsciously running his tongue over his own - a pair a bit larger than hers only one pair.
“Ah said leauv meh ahlon,” Anicka abruptly yapped back upon finally finding courage to whip her free from the humiliating position. Urg! She could still taste the stranger’s finger and still feel the dry spot where it had been. She grimaced. This hadn’t been the schedule that night. The schedule had been to walk straight on back to the academy after finishing up her work over at the Bibliotheca. That was it! A B-line to and from like it always was. Uninterrupted unless she had a certain someone tagging his behind along. Actually, right then she couldn’t help but wish that she hadn’t been on her own. Then she wouldn’t have ended up like this; sandwiched between these two. What had even snowballed into this situation? An accidental pump with the elbow at when pressing the traffic light call button at the crosswalk? She’d done nothing more than that. They had probably not even noticed her standing there before then. Anicka didn’t really stick out in the crowd, after all. A sort of slumped posture - very average - and no characteristics that stood out apart from pale skin but at this hour of the night, you barely saw anything else in this country.

She made an attempt at escape - it shouldn’t be too hard since there was only two of them and she should, theoretically, easily glide out from between them - but as was stopped by a hand from behind grapping her arm just as she did. “Your accent sounds even funnier when you’ve got your mouth full. Say, where are you from? You shouldn’t be playing so hard to get. You should join us. How about it?” The front guy glanced back up at his friend and then returned to her. He was shorter and skinnier than his friend, who were towering over her with a lean built. “My friend doesn’t know many vamps in town so he’d love to get to know you, you know.” Starting to get more and more uncomfortable a clumps was also growing larger and larger in her throat as she turned to look over her shoulder at the vampire. Then at, what she’d guessed was no human himself - possibly a siren from the scent hiding under the smell of alcohol, damp leather and hairspray. Then fleetingly at their surroundings. They were basically standing in the middle of the sidewalk but it was barren compared to the streets in the day hour. “This is.. ehm, really not something I am interested in. I have somewhere else to be and..” She gulped. But it didn’t remove the urge that was pressing on. She really shouldn’t…

There was a heaviness surrounding the entire town as if the never-sleeping city knew that something big had happened, as if it was mourning together with those who were shocked by recent events. It wouldn’t surprise the silent giant if the town knew exactly what had gone down, and he couldn’t help but wonder just what secrets the city could tell if it could speak. Oh, but he reminded himself, the city could speak, and what wonders it would reveal if you were just patient enough. Patience, now that was something that the demon understood rather well; he had, after all, spent most of his time locked and intertwined with a woman that had murdered him. He hated that he had started to grow fond of her, but what could one expect when you were trapped inside another person's mind? Getting to know them, inside and out—and even if both Lucille and Bast might never end up talking again after this, they would never forget each other—that much was evident.

One could say that he had ended up walking down the streets, hands deeply buried in his pockets, head slightly titled down as a way to make sure that he didn’t look anyone in the eye. He had one goal: to get back to Archibald Barnes, to tell him that their plan had been successful and it was now time for him to come back. Maybe one could argue that he deserved some time off—but Bast had never been known to take a day off in those two hundred years he had lived. He liked the bustle of the street, having his ear to the ground while he stood in the shadows and schemed to make sure those he found worthy would rise to the top and thus—take him with them.
It also meant that he was in a state where he didn’t take much notice of the things happening around him. To be honest, he didn’t much care about others—he had never been the compassionate type. Even if a particular siren had hoped as much, those past years where she had sent him, lingering eyes stayed a little longer to make sure she could speak to him. She hadn’t been much more than a card on his hand. Not in a million years would he ever admit that he might have also developed feelings for her.
It wasn’t until his broad shoulder nearly knocked over one of the men standing with a little girl. (Even if she might be far older than he, couldn’t she look more than if she was eighteen or nineteen years old).”Oi, watch where you’re going, idiot.”
Bast looked up; he looked tired. The small wrinkles around his eyes seemed more profound than usual, the same with the dark circles under his eyes, that only made the eyes stand out more: Blue and piercing. For a moment, he wondered if he should just keep moving, let them do with her what they wanted, and yet—with a sigh, he rolled his eyes. “Or what, you’ll pail me straoight an’ narroo?” he huffed, flickering his gaze between the three people standing before him. “’oo abart yaouw both fock off, an’ I’ll let yaouw keep all of yaw teeth” a smirk blossomed over his lips—his hands flecking before he folded them together, pressing hard in such a manner where the knuckles started to turn white.

It shocked Anicka just as must who felt the fellow nightwalker behind her stumble a step back so to keep steadily on his feet. She hadn’t exactly used the guy as a back rest or anything like that - she’d done her very best to stay as must in the middle of the two as they made capable for her - but it was as if she also had been hit with the shove due to the abrupt nature of it, although she hadn’t even been graced. The vampire hadn’t even grabbed out to her for balance support which probably cleared up any thoughts that he wasn’t all that tough and strong as he gave the attitude of. Still she flinched and nearly staggered herself, continuingly not wishing to accidentally fall into either of the three men. Her eyes were on the demon just as fast as the two other turned their attention towards him instead of her and she couldn’t help but feel a chill down her spine which, when happened, was such a strange sensation considering her lack of natural body warmth. It felt more like ants crawling than a droplet of icy water, really. He was .. very large. Maybe he wasn’t the tallest nor the broadest but it was obvious - to her - how much space his presence occupied by just simply being there. Looking at you. He looked far meaner than any of the other men, who suddenly looked very unexperienced in life compared to this newcomer. She gulped.
He then opened his mouth and Anicka had to admit that she was lost from there on out. She caught on to none of the words. Even the ones that kept the universally known English sounds sort of drown with the rest and convinced her that he must be speaking pure nonsense. The siren, however, seemed to understand him, as he threatening turned away from her and turned to the demon instead, not showing sign of the same intimidation she felt. And then again.. He puffed his chest up a little too much. Overcompensating. Did his best to battle the demon’s smirk with his own ending in a faulting kind. Corners of his mouth that kept dropping and having to be picked up again. “Yeh? Two against one, old man,”he pointed out, for once, executing the mockery perfectly. He wasn’t that easy to get to back down. “I’ll say; give your best shot.”

What essentially drew her to it was very likely how far to the front she’d pulled it forward. Readied her tongue just in case. “Punch him,” she suddenly heard herself say with a familiar monotone tone. Her eyes hadn’t moved from the large man the entire time and in the moment of her influential  voice escaped her mouth, they almost looked more intensely at him. For no longer than a quarter of a second.

The next moment was awfully brutal as she, with a choked gasp, watched as the demon raised his already clenched fist and with absolute no hesitation sent it right across the sirens smug face, landing a punch that could make your head ring for days afterwards. She watched in horror as the siren collapsed to the side on the pavement. He wasn’t knocked out but he was dazed, holding a hand to a horribly thumping jawbone and looking like someone who’d not expected the punch, let alone one of that power. Anicka hadn’t had time to specify anything to her.. request so, she’d guess that innate brute strength had been used.
Once again, Anicka was left shocked and looked quickly between the crowd of three. At the siren on his knees, the vampire who’d taken a step back and the demon. The demon was the last one she looked to before courage - or cowardice - get control over her legs and without a word she made her escape. Taking advantage of the lingering surprise to back a few steps back and then eventually twirling around and walking with fast steps over the crosswalk she’d originally had been stopped and cornered ad. She clung to her jacket as she went. She never reached running speed, though, as if that a part of her mind insisted that it would just look too suspicious. As if everything didn’t do that already.
She hadn’t meant to! Not really… Maybe a little bit. Maybe a lot?.. At least it took care of thing. Right?

Something grabbed his mind, like a fog preventing him from understanding what was going on, and the next thing he knew, his fist was flying through the air connecting with the siren’s jaw. He could feel how it cracked underneath the pressure, not because his race was one of the strongest, but as he had taken great care of his mental state and this body being as new as it was; it didn’t take much to feel how bones separated where the knuckles had pressed against an unrelenting and decisive blow.
It wasn’t until he looked down at the poor guy gasping to get air into his lungs, the pained vail coming from the siren when he realised the damage that had been done to his pretty face.
Bast turned his attention fully to the girl; she had just used powers to make him do that—maybe she wasn’t as innocent as she had first seemed—But before he could do much else, she had taken off, clearly seeing this as an opportunity to get the hell away from them all. Not that Bast didn’t understand; if anything, he would have done precisely the same thing; maybe it was the underlying intrigue that made him walk in the direction where she had disappeared. He had only taken a few steps when he felt a hand on his shoulder. This was one of those situations where Bast could easily have made some words string together and give the vampire a warning; take your hand off my shoulder, or you’ll end up like the sniffling friend.
Instead, he just turned and let his eyes lock with the vampire; that was more than enough for the guy to realise his mistake and took his hand back as if he had just burned himself.
“Wise choice”, his voice was low and intimidating, then he turned and started walking. He wasn’t a man that ran, never was and never would be; the question was just if he would be able to track her all the way to where she would feel safe enough to relax. As for now, he sauntered down the road, his hand in his pockets, using the shadows cast from the lamppost to his advantage. Blending in and not letting anyone glance in his direction more than a fleeting look, where no one would really be able to give a detailed description.

It was with the heart all the way stuck in her throat, that she powerwalked down the street; taking the very first turn that she passed and quickly got out of sight from the scene of the crime. The crime she’d evidently had caused. She should’ve known better and regret was filling her like water balloon attached to an aggressive garden faucet. So much so that she was convinced that her cheeks had physically swollen up, although it being more possibly due to her teeth unconsciously chewing on them rather than her literally getting filled up. It was genuinely a miracle that she had yet to puncture the thin inner lining of her mouth. Had her ever visible sharp canine sat just a tooth or too further back, she’d have been tasting her own blood at that time for sure. And in all honesty; vampire blood didn’t taste all that great to her tongue. That it could be a delicacy to some other night stalkers was beyond Anicka.

After the turn, she began taking deep, calming – and possibly unnecessary – breathes as she went. Sucked air all the way into her lunges and made sure to feel the way her chest rose and tightened the dress’ fabric around her torso as a way to centre herself. Make sure that she was still there and that things were fine. She’d crossed a line that could’ve very easily ended her with an angry man chasing after her. Of course, that’d only be if she truly was unlucky. She had jumped straight to the worst conclusion that she’d been found out while it in reality was the minority that even noticed anything anyway. If she was being realistic, the crowd of men would either be distracted with a brawl by now. Too distracted to even spare her any mind. She’d probably been forgotten about already.
As insisting thoughts of rationality started to occupy her head, she also managed to relax little by little. And it certainly helped to get further away too. It gave her just enough peace to looked around and actually get orientated with her surroundings since she hadn’t really calculated her escape route before setting off. But it was fine. Her sense of direction wasn’t horrible as one would expect and it didn’t take long for her to realize that she was still nearing where she’d originally been going. She recognized the tall metal railing running along a street coming up head which meant that the portal she usually used to get back to the academy would be just down that way. Instinctively, she whipped her head around to fleetingly glance over her shoulder to check if someone were after her after all, but she didn’t see any familiar silhouettes other than that one person who’d passed her a second or so prior. Had she looked for a little longer, she might’ve caught on to the demon but she turned to looked forward moments before he took the turn onto the side street she was currently walking.

Anicka stepped off the pavement and crossed the street in a broad diagonal, that nearly had a passing car graze her as she did but ultimately, she reached the other side unscathed and then took the turn down the street with the recognisable metal fence bordering some smaller local park in the area. As a beacon of light, the blue phone booth stood out on the empty street. Lit up by a strategically placed lamppost right beside it. She silently sighed an expression of relief before resuming hast in her steps which she’d slowly lost as she’d felt more and more out of danger. She’d have jogged the last bit if she hadn’t had to fumble with her jacket to get into the pocket. And to find the right pocket where she stored the tokens for the portal.
So, as she walked the last few meters, she fully turned her attention to lifting and turning the coat with one hand and searching with the other one she turned off attention to her surroundings. Including catching smells in the air or hearing footsteps. And noticing slightly raised tiled in the pavement. Not lifting her foot enough, the tip of her shoe caught on the raised edge and stumbled her immediately. Inbreed reflected saved her from falling on her face but startled, she’d pulled her hand free from a pocket and in the process throwing a handful of the content up with it. A bundle of small bundle of keys hit the stone right in front of the portal booth together with smaller clinks of metal coins. Well, at least she’d successfully located her tokens.. Stretching her mouth to a thin, straight line, she squatted down – bothered – and started picking up her things one by one. She needed to calm down. For real. Things like this only happened when she was stressing.

One could easily mistake Bast for a man on an evening stroll. The way he casually sauntered down the street, looking at the windows of the occasional store that he passed. It was true; he wasn’t in a hurry. Even though the older demon felt like he had gone through more than enough this evening, maybe that was the sole reason why he was pursuing the little vampire girl. No one was getting away with using mental tricks on Baxter, at least not without repaying him–one way or another. Besides, what a little gem he had found, if he could convince her that she needed to use her ability for something far greater than making random pedestrians hit her assailants. He had seen people with vocal manipulation do far more damage, people stabbing themselves to death. He had once seen a very sick individual make a poor girl jump for hours, as high as she could. Confine a person to a bed in a manner that they had wet themselves, it wasn’t pretty things—now Bast wasn’t a man that did his business in the world where everything was painted in a rosy colour.

It took him a while before he understood where she was going. Even though he couldn’t see her, he could sense the aura around her; she clearly had some powerful ancestors in her family line. Otherwise, he would have lost her by now.
The dimmed light from the streetlights shining on the wet tiles of the pavement, his steps echoing a little louder than usual because of the connection of his shoe sole against the surface made by the storm that had poured down on the city a few hours prior.
Turning a corner, he saw her just as she fell. He lifted a brow, but his facial expression quickly formed into someone that was feeling rather tired all of a sudden.
With faster steps, he walked over to her “that was quite a fall. Are you okay?” he asked as he came close enough for her to hear him without having to rely on her supernatural senses—making sure that he sounded as correct British as possible, even though it was hard for him to disguise his accent coming from Birmingham. But he had always had an ear for languages and didn’t feel like it should be much of a problem, getting her to calm down in a false pretence—faking a concern for her as he squatted down and picked up a few coins so he could hand them to her. As soon as their eyes connected, a slight smirk formed over his lips. “An' before yaouw get anny bad ideas, if yaouw use that power on me agen girly, I ood be most upset with yaouw, understood?”

She’s caught sound of his footsteps shortly after he’d turned into the street she was and even though she was still on high alert, curiosity was favoured slightly above her fight or flight reactions so she looked fleetingly over her should as if simply to make sure that it wasn’t anyone, who was walking close. That it was just some other pedestrian who’d most likely pass her with nothing more than a glance at what some youngling was doing in the middle of it all, searching the ground like a street rat. But no. It would seem that Anicka wasn’t in her lucky circle that night. Even less lucky as he was already pretty close when she noticed his brute stature approaching. She’d frozen up, mouth partly hanging open as if in awe - or shock - but still when he reached her and moved around her, her head followed to look at him until he got down to her level. Right there. Right in front of her.

 
She closed her mouth and gulped nervously, clenching  up in her jaw. She had to muster up courage to speak but when she did she also managed to get somewhat out of her state. “I am fine. I did not actually ..fall.” Her eyes shot down from him and instead tried to distract herself by picking up more of her things. Only; the demon had been quicker than her, using his time while she’d been stroked with fear so all she could do at that point was look at his hand and after some time hold out her own for him to give her coins back, safe and sound. “..thank..s.” It was much more an automated response than anything else and she must’ve realized it just before the word passing her tongue because she spoke very softly and quietly. Like she wasn’t sure if that was still the appropriate thing to say. She looked up to check if it had been but then their eyes locked and what little calm his strangely kind gesture of help had brought with it disappeared.
The poor girl sucked air in sharply through her mouth and immediately tensed her shoulders. Once again she had a hard time understanding what he was saying at the time but compared to earlier, this time she made a bit more of an effort to go over the accent heavy words. And it certainly also helped a lot, that she had an idea of the issue at hand. “I-..I-.. I am so so sorry about that!” she blurted out and shot to the sky to stand up, taking half a step back, however she kept herself form further running away. “I did not mean to do that. I was just-.. I-..” She moved her coat in front of her and wrapped both arms tightly around it, pressing it into her chest. “I do not always have control and it just slips out some times. I saw your hand -” She glances back to his hands in that moment, either checking if he was readying them for punch or hinting to what she was talking about. “- and I thought to myself that I would not mind if you..” punched him. She folded her lips to stop herself from talking and plead mixed in with the anxiety in her eyes as they looked at him. What would be do if she dared look away? He was smiling, did that mean he wasn’t actually.. mad? Her hands started to feel all clammy. Especially the one clenching around the few metal tokens.

Bast narrowed his eyes when she stammered an apology—he could easily have thought she was just trying to weasel her way out of getting her ass handed to her by the incubus, but there was some way in the way the vampire behaved that made him believe that she was actually sorry—now that was something else, it wasn’t often you found powerful vampires that were apologetic about anything.
The demon hummed thoughtfully as he let his dark blue eyes glide over her facial expression. Explaining herself why she had done as she had done; “that yaouw wanted me ter hit him” he nodded, well, he understood her explanation, and it wasn’t like he didn’t sympathise with her situation if he hadn’t been the subject of her powers he might even be impressed. Which also made him question why she hadn’t just told the two guys to leave her alone, despite that she had said to him that she didn’t always have control—but surely, she would have to be more capable than she let on. He rose from the wet pavement, his silhouette cast in luminous shadows by the overhanging lamppost hanging just over his head.
For a moment, he didn’t say anything; he just stood there taking in the small girl—she was of old lineage, so much he could be sure of, she was probably on her way to the academy, so she was a student? She had to be; if she didn’t have her abilities under control, he could hardly imagine her teaching anything—of course, one should never just assume anything, but in this case, he felt fairly certain.
“Well Girly, we yav a problem because no ‘un does that ter me, so noo yaouw owe me”, and he didn’t mean an apology; he couldn’t use that for anything—but her powers, now those could be very powerful for Archie, so he just needed a very good reason why he shouldn’t just take her now, throw her over his shoulder and take her straight there. Well, maybe because he would much rather they could come to an agreement, ease her into it, make her think she actually wanted it.

Anicka nodded as well when he looked - and sounded - like he got where she’d been coming from. That was a good sign. A very good sign. If he understood why she’d initially done what she had maybe it wasn’t much of a problem anymore. Had she perhaps been too quick to judge him? He was scary to look at - even more so as he stood up again and grew like a wall curving slightly in over her smaller frame. He made her anxious just looking at him and there was always a feeling of not quite knowing if looking away from him would trigger something or if it would instead be triggered by her looking at him. But he didn’t exactly seem angry. His eyes - intense and demanding - weren’t filled with fury, she noticed as she nervously had decided to try her luck with the former of her triggering theories for the time being. Still, she kept from looking in them too deeply. That only built up her unease more. The demon also spoke so softly despite his rough, slurring voice. He’d asked if she was alright. Not to forget mentioning how he’d insinuated that he’d get angry only if she tried something with him again. Wouldn’t that mean that he wasn’t currently mad? But then why had he made effort to follow and find her?
Her eyes carefully glided away from him and had just been about to discreetly sent a glance down the street section behind her - thinking she might would be able to figure out if it was a simple coincidence that they’d taken the same turns. It did happen, after all! Coincidences.. But then he spoke of her owing him a debt and her head immediately spun back around to return her full attention to him.
She breathed in as if readying herself to hold her breath. It was such a silly thing; holding her breath. She didn’t need air like other creatures. But keeping air in her lunges created a pressure that helped. Sort of. She’d like to think that it did. “I-.. Of course! Yea.” As her mouth had already hung open for words to speak, her mind must’ve just desperately pushed whatever first came to mind because she instantly agreed to the pretty skewed logic he presented her with. She owed him, not necessarily for having him punch someone but more so having successfully played a trick on him. At least, that was how it sounded to her. Though, she was still not about to be defiant with him, so upon taking half a step back from him, she looked down and started fiddling with her jacket. “Is it money you want? Because I can absolutely pay you back for any damages I might have- ..eh.. - made you cause.” Maybe she could also pay him to stay quiet about it?

Her hands were shaking nervously as she manoeuvred awkwardly to find and stick a hand into the inner pocket. All the mean while the other hand was only as helpful is a fingerless lump at the end of her arm. Strategy to first put those tokens away before anything else hadn’t struck her. Not in the panicky haste of thing. And for some reason, the panic also kept her talking. As if talking made sure nothing else was going to happen to her. “But you are a little wrong, right? Not that no one did it to you. I did. So..” Where the courage to comment on it came from or where the courage for the little chuckle came from was unbeknown to everyone. Her especially! Maybe it was because she wasn’t looking straight at him as she said it. Or maybe it was because her mind was preoccupied with something else. She knew she regretted it right after. This was the worse situation for friendly small talk..
Finally she pulled a small, feminine wallet out.

His eyes followed her every movement. It was almost like a predator calculating the best way of gaining the advantage to ensnare the prey they had sought. As if he would be able to swallow the scared little vampire that seemed much more like a deer caught in the headlights rather than the vicious creature she could be. Not only had she the ability to make him do things with her voice, but she could also compel him to do other things with her birth-given abilities. It was a rather powerful little gem he had found on the streets of Gaia, Aston.
It wasn’t as if the demon was good at showing emotions; if he could get away with it, he kept himself from talking. He had always found it much more comfortable to observe and silently make moves on the chessboard, just like he did right now. So it seemed his silence and how he stood there almost towered over her as the rain started again. Not that it was as heavy as it had been earlier in the evening, almost like a drizzle keeping those unfortunate souls outside awake at this very late hour.
She started fiddling with one of her pockets after she told him that she could quickly pay him for the damages he had caused or, as she put it, those she had made him cause. He could, at this point, have told her that it wasn’t what he was after, but like everything else, it also gave him a sense of whom this little vampire was as a person. Timid and scared. Probably rich—since she thought she could solve everything with the debts in her pockets. Which she was right about, at least to a degree.
His eyes found the wallet, seeing how it was made for a woman. He had never understood why women’s wallets needed to be much bigger than males. Just like women could wear handbags but men couldn’t, such screwed views on femininity and masculinity had never really been something he had thought much about, and yet it clearly had some effect on him as he didn’t seem to understand the concept to as why people did put so much thought into it.
His brow lifted in a questioning manner, wanting her to elaborate on what she meant without asking her with words.

He didn’t say anything. He didn’t do anything. He just stood there; eyes unwavering on her and with an expression as if she’d just talked direct gibberish back to him. It fueled her unease immensely as she stood there for longer than, she’d have like and anxiously awaiting him to say or do anything that would choke out her conclusive theory. Surely she hadn’t accidentally talk complete nonsense? Right? The brow lift he did was ever so small a gesture but the impact it had on her was like a punch in the gut and the way she abruptly opened her mouth bordered that of a discreet gasp. ”I was just saying that you said that no one uses their powers on you and then-.. um. It is just that I had done that so that - you know - it is not entirely true what you just said,” she stupidly tried again. It agonized her to her core to having to explain herself. It was worse than explaining a joke to a crowd that hadn’t found it funny to begin with. Even worse than the pity laugh you’d get afterwards. It a different kind of torture, it was. And yet she forced herself through it as if she couldn’t stop herself. Words escaped her throat so easily when the first one had gotten the chance to break the barrier. Not to mention the excess use of the same words over and over again. She tried making it sound and feel more light-heartedly and casual with a stiff shrug and tilt of the head. Very awkwardly holding the wallet - a woman’s undoubtedly but only really large enough to fit into a coat’s inner pocket; a rectangular cut of quality dusty dark green leather that was then folded to a square and held together with a clipped-strap of brown weathered leather - she first chuckled entirely devoid of actual genuine happy emotion but then she gulped once more and her dark brows curved even more so to almost create a half circle. Just - only the lower half of one. It represented more just a bowl with a slight tilt towards her temples. “Was that not what you said or..?” It was a sheepish save she tried her luck with. “I mean it is pretty hard for me to understand what you are saying when you speak and I just assumed that was what you had said. I was not implying anything. I was not making fun of you. I can assure you, that is not what I am doing.” The more she talked the quitter her speech became, more panicking and apologetic. Had her heart beaten like any other living being it would’ve started beating faster and faster as well. Reverting her back to a similar state when he’d first confronted her.

Anicka was probably one to talk about accent. She had her own very prominent one, after all. One that, while she could be from anywhere in the East European area it was obvious that she was from around there. And not Gaia. Must like him. But at the very least she’d think her English being easy to understand. She purposely spoke the pronunciations as clearly as she could. Didn’t even - or so rarely - tempted faith with the contractions of which this demon did it more than enough for the both of them, anyway. They were in complete opposite ends of the spectrum so she should some right to poke at it.

Her mouth stood open for a few more ticks but then finally zipped as if she’d run out of anything to say. She looked down from in, down at the wallet which she’d unconsciously fiddled with and she clipped it open to the display of cards. “H-How much?” The vampire didn’t carry a lot of cash so instead of even bothering with the few bank notes in the sleeve of the wallet she went straight to pushing a hard plastic card from its little pocket - with some fumbling as raindrops had made the surface more slick.
Rain - and just as she’d thought she’d missed it. It had rained to much earlier that she’d even thought that the sky must’ve emptied and exhausted itself from more tears. Like when she cried.

Had he not had complete control over his facial expression, her rambling would have managed to tug in the corners of his lips, lifting them slightly upward. Because even though it wasn’t evident, her way of being around him was something he found immensely amusing. She was right, however, with her way of seeing that he hadn’t been correct in what he had said; and had he been anyone else, she might have ended up getting a slap and a pointed finger in her face, telling her not to disrespect him in that way.
He kept the silence going; however, his arms moved, breaking the statue-like position he had put himself in. They folded behind his back; his hands found each other and gently rested against his backside. He waited till she was finished. Enjoyed seeing how terror and fright were rummaging through the tiny body, almost as if he had been brutal in his way of handling her. He could have pushed her up against the wall and threatened her. The only thing he had said was that she owed him—but not what she owed. She herself had come to the conclusion that he wanted her money.

When she finally stopped her words from stringing together in a mass of nonsense that he didn’t give much thought to, he opened the wallet and asked how much he let his right hand fall from the left and reach forward. With surprisingly gentle movement, he pressed her fingers together and closed the wallet again. “Doy want yaw monay”, he said and gave her an almost tired look “, but the’er moight cum a doy or a toyme where I need yaw abilitoys, nothen that ood put yaouw in danger, but I ood be a fool fer such a special girl ter move along with ‘her loife wiouten exploren just what she can does” he added, saying so much more than he would normally ever done, and then, something almost magical a smile appeared over his lips. Making him almost seem human in a way. “Does I scare yaouw?” he chuckled, finding one of the many masks he could easily find and put on—one didn’t get where he was without being a skilled conman.

Anicka froze while he took liberty to guider her hand to clap the wallet closed again. His hands were very large next to hers. Broad finger with strong and distinctive structure. However the movement itself was no doubt the biggest surprise. Nothing like the brutal punch she’d had him perform on the siren a few block from there and she could only imagine the innate control over his demonic strength that he must have. She’d not had a chance to look properly over so she’d already just assumed that be was of the strongest of the hellish beings. He looked the part - not that she’d actually had the chance to mingle as much with different kinds of demons though.
Dumbfounded she lifted her chin to look up at him. He did stand rather close to her. Not even at arm’s length. Maybe by her arm’s standard but definitely not by his. But most of all; he didn’t want her money? Had she heard him right? “Bu-..” Of course she didn’t get a chance to spend more than a bleak moment in belief that he’d just let her off the hook before he laid out his actual demands on the table in front of her and she was quite quick to wish that she didn’t understood him right. He hadn’t taken time to debunk her theory about having heard him wrong beforehand so the possibility for it having happened again this time wasn’t totally out of the question. Getting called ‘special girl’ sent a chill down her spin and had her face cringe as if she was constipated and on the verge of tears all at the same time. This was what she’d tried to avoid. This was why she hadn’t done much about the two individuals before. “I am sure what I do is not that useful for you,” she quickly managed to led over her tongue while attempting a smile and a dismissive shrug that moved her entire upper body. It was a lie. She knew what she was capable of. She wasn’t oblivious to the world. It just made her anxious when the world looked at her. “I am of course not saying that you are a fool - Bože nie!(God no!) - but you should honestly just.. let me move on with my said life. You would be a fool to linger!”

Does I scare yaouw? “Nie!(No!)” she hastily blurted out as if her timid behaviour hadn’t already proven to him and anyone that had the opportunity to witness the scene that it was another lie. A big one. The demon terrified her! Helped along with her overthinking and jumping to conclusion like how he’d sure to leave her as a smudge on the sidewalk. Silly thing, really. She wasn’t exactly physically weak. And she knew her reflexes and instinct would kick in the moment he’d reach a hurtful hand towards her.
“Nie nie (No no),“ she reworked her reply into and broke yet another strained smile that even got a follow up by a breathy, nervous chuckle. Flashed hints of her visible fangs. A Khyzhnyakski wasn’t scared. It wasn’t in their DNA. “I am startled still. From those two. And - you.” She glanced longingly toward the blue phone booth behind him. There was enough room to easily walk around him, it wasn’t like he had her trapped in a corner in anyway, but his size and presence really felt like a wall. She had the tokens ready in her hand. A quick sleight of hand and she’d be out of there. She just needed the courage to do it.