Lauderhill seek and destroy

Slumped up against a back alley wall, Abner clutched the skin around their open wound and glared down at the ground. Their black converse were resting in a puddle of leaking dumpster water, adding a nice layer of sludge to cloud out the blood. They hadn't bothered changing clothes back at home, just shrugged a jacket over their shoulders and called it good. Their shirt was shredded at the stomach, crusted at the ripped edges with a mix of shifter and vampire blood. Their eyes were more sunken and dark than usual, which was saying something.

They hated needing help, it was fucking humiliating. But they could keep oozing out onto everything while trying to sew it up themself, or have the boytoy healer do it quick. Both choices would cause pain! Pain of body and pain of spirit. Ugh.

The anxious scowl on their face only lightened when they remembered the trophy in their pocket, and rolled the cat's claw about between their fingers.

Riddhi arrived alone, expecting Kaida wouldn’t be far behind her. Left arm partially healed, bandaged and in a sling, she peered down the alley, almost expecting an ambush. Surely, Abner wouldn’t lie to her, right?

Right.

She stepped into the darkness, eyes adjusting only slightly to the lack of light, she could smell blood. Two different types of blood, to be exact. Was Abner alone or with someone?

"Abner?" Riddhi called quietly down the alleyway as she approached, eyes finally landing on him and their awful state. She grimaced a little, unable to help herself.

"You look like hell."

He sensed the approach before he saw her, long before. It was a bigger presence, not the same as the last time he'd seen her. Stronger. It was a strength that would make most clutch mates feel safer, but not Abner. Not in this fucking clutch. And if Riddhi was strong, Kaida was too. It felt like a given. It felt like a problem, it made them sit up a little straighter. Posturing as something more than a wounded animal.

Her voice broke the anticipation, Abner's head cocked back against the wall behind them, their eyes followed Riddhi. Her arm sat in a sling, and Abner found a pleased comfort in that. When she got close enough he bared teeth in a biting smile. "Thanks."

"Where's the healer?"

At some point her stomach had started to ache a little. Arm too. Nothing drastic, nothing she couldn't ignore. Definitely odd, but what the fuck did she know? Plenty, but little enough firsthand about being a true domina. A daywalker. She hadn't let go of consciousness in a little over a hundred hours; was that what this was? Something to figure out and avoid, but she wasn't going to check out yet.

Kaida didn't run from a little pain.

Good thing, or she'd have missed Riddhi's call. Abner hurt. Heh, good. What a prick. But her prick, so she'd help. Magnanimous. Or just pleased to flex new power and bank a debt. Why not both?

It wasn't both. It was entirely column B. But whatever, she was still helping.

There was a level of curiosity as well, strange anticipation. Kaida had long heard that the healing energy exhausted a domina; she hadn't felt exhausted in, what, eighty years? How wild would that be? Soon to find out. Kind of looking forward to it.

She hadn't needed to travel far, already in Lauderhill. Easy enough between the address and sense of her distraught and hurting vampire, a beacon in the night. But she was supposed to meet Riddhi here too, and she wanted the regent present. The witness. Look at what your domina can and will do for you. Yeah, yeah, sweet little Gabe could do it too. Maybe an angle to take care of, but she wouldn't be rash. Not anymore. She'd probably need healing too before long.

Anyway, she posted up on a rooftop nearby, far enough away to not be sensed by her lessers. Let Abner suffer a little. She fucking had. Wasn't like there was any risk of bleeding out.

Riddhi arrived quickly enough, and Kaida rose. On silent wings of her own will she drifted across the way, still high enough to avoid easy detection. Low enough to pick up the scant conversation.

And to recognize her opening.

Cutting loose from her power, she plummeted into the alleyway, catching herself with a cushion of rapid deceleration before colliding with the asphalt. In billowing black she descended upon them, an outfit selected for just such an entrance.

It was dumb as shit. She knew this, would've fucking rolled her eyes at anyone else doing it. But she wasn't anyone else. She was Kaida fucking Tsumura, a goddess of the night, and she was here to save the fucking day. Or something like that.

"She's right here," came her dramatically understated response, rising from the one knee she'd dropped to to further soften the fall. Dumpster water now decorated her gown, but no regrets. Her wardrobe was much more disposable than her aura.

---

look

This smug vampire! Innards practically seeping onto the road and they were smiling at her!

Riddhi could have scoffed.

Instead, she was interrupted by their domina. Feeling her presence before the very "just okay" arrival. Okay, fine. It was cool. It was really fucking cool, Kaida.

A smile broke across her features as she looked from Kaida to Abner before echoing:

"She's right here." Jabbing one thumb over her shoulder to point towards Kaida's current location.

She floated down from the sky like a fucking black hole, a shroud of darkness against the sea of black sky and hazy light pollution. And she looked stunning, dramatically so. She was the domina, not the ducissa, and she brought every bit of that power with her tonight. She was elegant and melodramatic and dangerous and fucking annoying.

And when he realized that she reminded him just so vaguely of Petronilla he decided he would never fucking forgive her for it. They hated that they watched the whole entrance before looking away and rolling their eyes. That bitch.

Abner was practiced at scowling, the kind where the amusement on his lips didn't meet his furrowed brow. Even in pain it was easy to come off dutifully unperturbed. Their eyes snapped to Riddhi as she spoke, unable to hide at least that small sliver of wariness.

"Hi," Abner sighed, finally settling their eyes back on Kaida.

They were impressed. She couldn't actually tell, both as good as she at not broadcasting that kind of embarrassing shit. But she'd decided, and so she believed. Why fucking wouldn't they be, for one. There was some wish it'd get shown a little, but it was fine. Whatever. She didn't care anyway. It was fine.

Heedless of the filthy locale, Kaida stepped her petite frame past Riddhi, brushing fingers along her evidently injured shoulder lightly enough to—probably—avoid aggravation. Something else she'd need to see to? Didn't Riddhi fucking live with Gabe? Why the hell would-?

Whatever, it wasn't her problem.

"Who did this to you?" she inquired of the seated vampire, ignoring the greeting and taking full advantage of the uncommon opportunity to look down at them. Her tone was conversational, like she was asking how the weekend was while clearly not caring. It might actually matter; if there was some violent shifter or something of the sort prowling Lauderhill, she'd sure like to know. Oh, and causing her vampires trouble. That mattered too, she guessed.

It didn't stop her from halfway planning to interrupt whatever answer came. Just to be a shit.

Riddhi felt her domina brush past her injured arm, and she grimaced a little before stepping back to give Kaida and Abner room to work. In that brief moment of touch, she heard something. Low but distinct enough to be Kaida's voice:

Didn't Riddhi fucking live with Gabe?

She frowned and redirected her attention to the scene before her, trying not to think too hard about what just happened.

Riddhi was here to listen more than react and was very curious about what happened to Abner.

---

probably skippable unless addressed, she's just going to be watching for now

Abner didn't appreciate the position they were in, sitting while the others loomed over them. They'd been in this position several times before, but the ones above them were trusted, friends. And no offense but they weren't that yet, thoughRiddhi was more understood than Kaida. His Domina. Blegh, the word tasted like a spoon full of salt.

But he needed her now, embarrassingly so. So he didn't try to get up. He just played into her power, aiming their gaze to expose just the bottom white of their eye. "Some shifter, big cat in the woods up north," they still toyed with it's bloodied claw in their pocket.

Just kidding; I don't give a fuck. The loose plan, but she never pulled the trigger. Had she already hit Abner with that one at some point? Kaida couldn't recall. Shit. Didn't matter; it didn't feel... good, at least not as much as she'd hoped, when the moment came. And went. Something about...

She'd made a flippant shitty joke of it to herself, but when the answer came and confirmed it was some violent shifter who'd hurt her fucking vampire, desire to maximize petty enjoyment of Abner's pain got quickly replaced with vicious indignation. How. Fucking. Dare.

"Mmm," she hummed thoughtfully, dropping into a crouch and allowing more of her gown to be sullied to let uncommonly gentle fingers slide under Abner's sharp chin. Lift that gaze a little, see if she'd be given eye contact. It wasn't anything she needed fear with them, for the first time. An interesting dynamic shift, but it didn't much matter at the moment. She just needed the physical contact to begin the process.

It was... instinct as much as anything. Some notion that she could help and how to flip that new switch. Some nights later it'd occur to her that maybe that instinct for how had come packaged with the alien protective impulse. She'd be pissed about that, hate the implication that she was being influenced by anything but her own will. For now she was too focused on the healing.

And the cat.

"This cat," she mused, crimson gaze darting slightly back and forth from Abner's right eye to left. The healing began as a trickle, a little soothing and a little sealing. "Were they all lanky and spotted?"

A dumbfuck longshot, but it was the only cat shifter she knew of directly. Sassy bastard she'd thrown through plate glass. Good times.

Abner always made a point of avoiding eye contact with other vampires. Except for the weak and impressionable who were worth the risk. Abner was a cautious creature. And Kaida, of all that he knew, had made the impression of someone dangerous, slightly impulsive and yet calculated. Not someone worth the risk.

And yet when her cool finger tips met his chin his eyes darted towards hers. The lightness with which she touched him was so foreign, so long forgotten, for a moment he was thrown out of his composure and into a wide eyed shock. Rare blown pupils and soft brow, and then back to nothing, the moment was just a shiver, an instinct.

Expression drawn once more, Abner held her gaze with a slight indignance but didn't pull away from her. "It was a cheetah," they drawled in response, as the open wound across their stomach began to tingle and the pain pulsed instead of burned.

A cheetah had attacked him. Riddhi frowned softly, wondering if there were shifters after them, specifically big cats.

"A jaguar attacked me. I wonder if it's related?"

A question posed to their domina, specifically.

A cheetah. Kaida knew, in broad strokes, what a cheetah looked like. Like a lanky spotted cat. But not one with stupid pointy tuft ears. Not the image she had in her head, anyway. Were there subspecies of cheetah? Fuck if she knew. Hardly mattered anyway; if it was the same prick she'd run into however long ago, there wasn't much she could do about it. Maybe safer to assume someone else. The result would be the same if she found them.

"Mmm," she repeated, voice soft as her touch. Though not for the same reason. She was starting to feel it, the drain. As the energy flowed out of her and into Abner, the promised weariness began to seep through her limbs and her mind.

Then Riddhi was chiming in, drawing Kaida's eyes away from where they'd briefly locked on Abner's. A jaguar. Everyone real fucking confident what brand of big cat they were getting into slap fights with. Maybe they had conversations first. "I'm a cheetah and I'ma fuck you up." Maybe all her vampires were just way too overconfident. She did tend to attract a type.

The type like herself.

"You wonder if a jaguar's related to a cheetah?" she asked incredulously. Not because she'd actually misunderstood Riddhi's intent, but because already the exhaustion was making her cranky. A cranky Kaida twisted words to make other people look stupid.

A jaguar and a cheetah were not the same thing. Abner knew that, Kaida knew that, and Riddhi (probably) knew that. It was stupid, this all felt stupid. Who cares about a fucking cat in the fucking woods? Abner wasn't interested in their little aside. As the regent spoke and Kaida broke her gaze from him he took the opportunity to draw his eyes across her face instead, to search for the exhaustion. A point of weakness on her solid expression.

Frustration was close enough to that, and maybe she'd feel them crack a light smirk beneath the touch of her fingers.

Eyes shifted to Riddhi, "I doubt it, this one was all animal." He'd crept into it's sleeping mind and found nothing but creature sounds and darkness. Like tuning in to an empty signal and being met with a loud static.

These fucking pricks.

Riddhi grunted in response to Kaida’s ridiculous question, frustrated by it. She obviously meant the situation, not the species!!!! >:[[[[[[[[

Pouting, Riddhi glanced at Abner who seemed sure the cheetah didn’t have a human brain inside it at the time.

Anyway, she nodded, and let the two continue their healing session.

---

back to being skippable unless addressed

Yeah, she felt the smirk, the tightening of skin around Abner's chin. But at that moment she was eyeing Riddhi, the nonverbal response to her little barb. Pissy. But fine, okay, maybe she shouldn't have. Riddhi hadn't done anything. Well... sure as fuck wouldn't apologize. Not with company and not for something so meaningless and maybe not ever anyway. But. She'd say something nice before the night was done. Scales balanced.

Anyway, it was easy enough, turning back to the wounded, to interpret the smirk as sadism aimed at the regent. On brand. Whatever. She felt the flow degrade to a trickle and cut off entirely a moment later. That was it. Everything she could do tonight. Better fucking appreciate it.

And it wasn't so bad. A little annoyed, but she often felt a little annoyed. It was fi-

Kaida moved to rise but found her legs wobbly for the first time in almost a century. A wave of woozy disconnectedness accompanied, and suddenly she was sitting unceremoniously, splashing slightly as she fell from her crouch onto her ass.

For the moment she was too confused and exhausted to be angry about it.

With Riddhi adequately antagonized the three returned to silence, a quiet that Abner was keen to fall into. No more questions for now, he wanted this whole thing to end before he could feel too weak or stupid in front of them.

It ended far quicker than expected. The warm comfort that trickled through her cool fingertips dripped away, and the pain from his wounds made itself heard again. Far better though, entirely inconsequential (to a stubborn prick like him). Her hand pulled away from his chin and he started sitting up, leaning forwards into the chill of the alley just as Kaida stumbled down.

He'd drawn her energy like a parasite, though she'd been a willing but perhaps unprepared host.

Hmm. They'd wanted to feel stronger than her and Riddhi all night, and now that she was smaller than them again, they didn't know what to do with it.

Too much discomfort in compassion, so they waived it in favor of standing up and wandering, staggering, a few steps away. Let Riddhi get closer, Kaida would probably prefer it anyways.

Whoops. Down Kaida went. For a split fucking second, Riddhi wanted to smirk and let Kaida linger in humility. After all, she'd seen this before with her last domina when being healed by them. It took a toll on the leader, even if the toll was only temporary. She probably should have said something.

Oops. O:)

As Abner moved away, Riddhi frowned and moved towards Kaida, offering a hand.

This was fucking bullshit. No fun and novel, "ooh, I feewl tiwred, teehee" head floating weirdness. Nothing remotely fucking enjoyable. Just "my legs don't goddamn work and I think I have a headache?!" Which was an exaggeration; her legs worked, but not as well as she wanted. Not as well as she was used to. Kaida felt something she hadn't for a while. Something she couldn't abide.

She felt weak.

Physically, in a way she hadn't felt since the night she'd been beaten to death. And in front of an audience no fucking less, the same audience that she'd definitely just wowed two fucking minutes ago. Goddammit!

Goddammit!

Swiping ferociously to slap away the helping hand, she at least made contact. Which forestalled the need to, I don't know, spontaneously combust?

"You want to help? Go get me a fucking meal," she snarled or hissed or whined, depending on your point of view. "And take that goddamn giraffe with you," was thrown with a jut of her chin toward Abner.

She wanted to be alone, to not be seen. Not like this. And where the fuck was Gabe? Wasn't this his goddamn job? Ugh.

---

hit for slappy cranky bullshit

Ouch.

Kaida was no longer in a generous mood, Riddhi's helping hand was slapped away and Abner had clearly made the right choice in stepping away. They wanted to smirk at the pitiful scene, but that might be treading dangerous waters. So they just watched, aching but amused.

The giraffe did have to crack a smile at that though, giraffe was a new one. His eyes fell upon Kaida, wallowing in her weakness, and he replied, "Thanks." For the healing, or for the name calling. She could decide.

Riddhi's pride was quickly taken down a notch the moment Kaida fucking SLAPPED her hand out of the way.

She was being ordered around like someone's servant, and she didn't care for it. Her lips pursed, and she bit back the urge to tell Kaida to fuck off and looked back at Abner. The Giraffe.

With a nod, she stepped over Kaida's legs to reach him, taking one last look before she muttered a, "c'mon," to Abner. She glared at him a little, a stare that challenged them to say something to her or laugh then was off into the night to find their fucking domina a meal.