(no subject)

[thenorthman]

Eric was not having a good day.

He'd noticed that there had been some money missing from the Diamond accounts; someone was stealing from him (and had been stealing from Clarke before that). Someone was going to have to answer for that, and pouring over the books to figure it out (who could he trust with this?) might have given him a headache, if vampires had been prone to them.

And obviously, this had to come up the night he was supposed to meet Kersen's oh so interesting human. Eric had closed the books and pushed them aside when they were shown into his office, and shoved all of that aside to focus on their conversation. Michael Corella worked for Cesare Borgia, and that was a connection worth cultivating.

Things had been going well when someone opened the door to his office without knocking. Jamie - one of his managers - looked surprised to find three pairs of eyes on him, and stopped in the doorway. "I was looking for..." He trailed off, but his eyes had strayed to the books on Eric's desk, before snapping back to Eric. "I'll leave you to your meeting."

"No," Eric said, strolling over to the door to invite the other vampire in with a gesture. "Come in." Jamie had worked for Clarke, too, and Eric closed the door behind him. "Kersen. Do you remember that list of staff you gave me when I took over? The ones I might be able to keep on? Jamie was on it, right?"

Comments

[kersen]

Kersen for his part had been pretty tense through the entire meeting between Michael and Eric, partly because he could think of things that either one of them might say that could seriously piss off the other. So far the conversation had mostly focused on Cesare, but even that was likely to cause problems, if the questions veered to territory Michael didn't want to answer...

So he was grateful for the interruption, honestly. He looked up at Jamie, who looked vaguely familiar. "Yes," he said. "Though as I noted then, more for lack of information than anything else. Jamie here knows how to keep his head down."

[thenorthman]

"What do you think, Jamie?" Eric asked, eyeing the vampire as he stepped away from the door, although he still stayed between him and it. "Can I trust you?" He turned to Kersen again, glanced at Michael for a second. "Someone's been stealing from the club."

[kersen]

"That's... unfortunate," said Kersen. He had a feeling he knew where this might be going. "Now would be a really excellent time to prove your loyalty, Jamie." He glanced at Michael too, mostly wondering if they ought to leave in case this got ugly.

[thenorthman]

Michael had no intention of drawing any attention to himself, and he stayed still and silent where he was, watching the scene with an intense gaze.

"I don't know anything about it," Jamie answered with a shake of his head.

"You handle the books," Eric shot back, stepping up to him, towering slightly over the shorter vampire. "Tell me now. It'll be easier on you."

"I don't know anything!"

"So you're simply fucking incompetent?" Eric pressed, stepping closer still.

Jamie took a step back, panic clear on his face, and then moved vampire fast, heading for the only heartbeat in the room. He had him up on his feet in between himself and the other vampires, hand around his neck, fangs bared and ready to tear his throat out. "Everyone knows how much you care for your human," he told Kersen. "Help me get out of here."

Michael's eyes were as calm as ever in moments like these, and he held Kersen's gaze and didn't say a word, although one of his hands inched inside his jacket.

"Kill him and you're dead meat," Eric evenly answered.

[kersen]

If Kersen had had a heartbeat of his own, it might have stopped for a moment. It all happened very fast, and then suddenly Michael was inches away from death. And in such a stupid way.

Kersen was sure he was faster than Jamie. He could kill him, and almost certainly do so before Jamie could do anything to Michael. But... with Eric here, with the Authority in charge... this was a new world. Kersen couldn't kill vampires to save humans, at least not in the open anymore. There were some members of the Authority who considered that an executable offense.

"There might be room for negotiation," Kersen blurted, even as he saw Michael's hand go to his jacket, and holy shit this was about to be bad no matter how it went...

[thenorthman]

Eric had seen it too, and he smiled with dark amusement. "I don't think there is," he answered, and vampire-fast grabbed a paperweight off his desk to hurl it at Jamie's head.

It was all Michael needed. He moved human-fast, but that was still fast enough, in his case. As the vampire moved to dodge the paperweight, which smashed harmlessly against the wall, he saw his chance. He spun around, arm extended to make the silver dagger draw an arc through the air, neatly slicing the vampire's throat. It was a matter of life and death, and Michael did not need to think as he followed that up with a stake to the heart.

He didn't expect the vampire to explode into a mess of gorey bits, however.

[kersen]

It all happened so quickly.

Kersen barely had a chance to react, and then there was a dead vampire... and then, the sound of a doorknob turning.

Later, Kersen would think that he was kind of impressed with himself for thinking so quickly. Or maybe it was that it was instinct and it wasn't thinking. But, vampire fast, he was beside Michael and grabbing the stake and the knife out of his hands.

As the door opened and one of Eric's vampire employees walked in.

"We'll need a cleanup crew in here," Kersen said, voice flat. But drawing attention to himself and not to Michael. He wiped the bloody knife on the side of his trousers. (Ruined anyway thanks to the explosion.)

[thenorthman]

"Go," Eric added, when the employee just stared without moving.

At that, they snapped out of it and hurried away to make that call. Eric closed the door, faced Kersen. "You know what this means."

[kersen]

"Yes," said Kersen calmly, looking at Eric and not Michael. Though he did speak for Michael's benefit. "I just killed a vampire. Which I know is a lot of paperwork for you, but on the bright side it's likely to end in less bloodshed than if, say, a human had killed a vampire in front of London's Sheriff." Because Kersen sure as hell wouldn't have let Eric hand Michael over to the Authority (or just kill him himself). And he neither wanted to fight Eric nor put him in a position to ask for favors. He would have, if someone hadn't walked in. But it was too late, and there would have been no lying about it. Someone had to take the blame.

[thenorthman]

"I'll have to call in a Magister," Eric agreed, still talking to Kersen rather than Michael. "You won't run." Not a question, really.

[kersen]

Kersen nodded. "I will not. And thank you, Eric." Because he was still, after all, offering to be complicit in the lie. "And if I can ask anything else of you it is to provide a full accounting of the rest of the context." A Magister was more likely to care that a vampire was stealing than that he had threatened the life of a human, after all.

He looked to Michael. "We should go. I'll explain."

He also hoped that Michael showing such, well, competence, made him valuable in Eric's eyes rather than a threat. But that was something he could suss out later.

[thenorthman]

"You may clean up in the bathroom," Eric stated, nodding towards the door at the back of the office. "I'll have the knife and stake."

[kersen]

... right. The blood. Kersen's head was a bit jumbled now and he hadn't even thought of it.

He had a feeling Eric might have some clean clothes in there as well. So he brought Michael, still quiet and stoic as always despite whatever he was feeling, into the bathroom with him.

Once they were alone, he looked at Michael. "Everything's going to be all right," was what he said, but it sounded incredibly stupid.

[trustearned]

"You just took a bullet for me, and you don't know what it's going to mean," Michael replied neutrally, and set the tap going. He didn't think the running water would be enough to stop Eric from eavesdropping if he wanted to - fuck those vampire senses - but it was instinct, and there was blood and gore all over him anyway. So he turned away to start cleaning up.

[kersen]

"I... that's true," Kersen managed, at least glad that he didn't have to explain what he'd done or why he'd done it. "But it's almost certainly going to mean less for me than it would have for you."

There was, of course, still a chance that the Magister would choose to kill him, but that seemed unlikely. Worst case scenario was probably being bound in silver and buried for a few months. Maybe years, depending on the Magister.

[trustearned]

Fucking vampires. Michael said nothing to that, but kept on cleaning himself up. There was a lot to work out of his dark clothes, but soon enough he was presentable enough, if you didn't take a close look at him.

[kersen]

Kersen felt a bundle of emotions at this whole thing. It hadn't quite caught up to him yet. But one thing he felt was tired. He thought he'd been done with this kind of thing. And the worst part was dragging Michael into it... again. And once again, he had no idea how Michael was feeling. Not that that was unusual, but it would be nice to have an inkling right now so he could react appropriately.

Kersen finished cleaning himself up, finally giving up on his button-down shirt and disposing of it, leaving him in just a white undershirt.

He tentatively put a hand on Michael's arm. "Michael..."

[trustearned]

"Not here," Michael cut in, turning to Kersen to emphasise that with a look.

[kersen]

Kersen looked stricken as he immediately pulled his hand away.

"Then... we'll go," he said. "Wherever you like." Including if Michael wanted nothing to do with him at all right now.

Kersen opened the door to the bathroom, and was unsurprised to find someone already there to clean up.

He looked at Eric. "I'm sorry about the mess. Let me know what you need from me, later."

[thenorthman]

"It's Clarke's mess, and mine," Eric answered, and nodded. "I'll be in touch."

He watched them leave impassively, then headed into the bathroom himself. He hadn't escaped the blood and gore.

[kersen]

Kersen kept close to Michael as they made their way out of the Blood Diamond.

"Where do you want to go?" he asked once they were outside.

[trustearned]

"Let's go to your place," Michael stated, and flagged down a cab.

[kersen]

Kersen assumed that meant his house and not the bar, so he gave the driver the address when it arrived, and it wasn't long before they were at his house.

"I need a drink," Kersen sighed. "And... the other kind of drink. And a hot shower. Not necessarily in that order."

[trustearned]

Michael was silent during the ride, staring out the window. He walked into the house behind Kersen, instinctively checking that he locked up.

"What the fuck did you go and do that for," he simply asked once Kersen was done talking, although he barely inflected it like a question.

[kersen]

Kersen had thought that Michael might at least let him get one of those things done, before he started.

He winced. For Michael, that was basically an explosion.

"I... if no one had seen it would have been another story, but..." Kersen was fumbling. "You killed a vampire in front of the sheriff. Eric and I might be allies but he wouldn't have been able to just ignore that, not without risking the Authority coming down on everyone."