undergrounds | Fight like the night (OTA)

A Day

If anyone is up on current popular forms of social media, they’ll have noticed a certain trending topic on Instagram. Several pictures of two men beaten up and lashed to a lamppost have been making the rounds. If not for various injuries, one could almost mistake it for a frat house initiation hijink. Those knowing the signs will recognize several of their injuries as vampire bite marks. What makes the pictures quite extraordinary is that the two men are hunters. In another photo, there’s a picture of an unconscious female hunter also beaten to a pulp. While whoever took the photos is nowhere to be found in frame, he’s left several taunting messages at the bottom of each one. “Hillingdon: 0. Me: 3.” reads one. “All hail the mighty Hillingdon hunters,” reads another.

Cooper’s busy looking them over for about the fiftieth time, snickering as he does so. He’s sitting out on a park bench, taking advantage of his temporary immunity from the sun in a T-shirt and shorts. Anyone who gets close to him will notice the dilated pupils and disheveled look he has. He can’t remember the last time he slept. Not that he needs to, hyped up like he is on the fae blood. He glances down at his phone, flipping to another picture, letting out a cackle as he does so.

B Evening

The restless energy he can’t seem to shake hasn’t left him by the time the sun starts to set. There’s only one thing to do. He pulls his little BSA M20 out of the garage and takes it out for a spin. Cooper speeds recklessly all over the city, letting his energy get left far behind as the wind whips past his motorcycle. There’s nothing that soothes his mind like riding around.

Maybe you’re scrambling to make your way across the street just as he comes to a noisy, screeching halt. Maybe he spots you on the other side of the street and recklessly pulls a U-turn so that he can pull up next to where you are. Maybe he’s idling at the curb, waiting for you to come out of a shop after catching your scent. Any way you look at it, there’s a vampire sitting on top of a motorcycle who’s taken quite the interest in you.

C Night

Long after the last light has faded from the sky, Cooper knows he needs to feed. The problem is that he’s not craving human blood tonight. After accidentally tasting Will’s blood, all he can think about is fae blood. He resists the urges as long as he can. Alas, eventually, his will crumbles. He takes to the streets, stalking his prey. What he wants most of all is going to be hard to find, but in his current strung-out state, he’ll take anything and everything he can get.

Skulking down alleyways and climbing over rooftops, he’s not the perfect silent predator he usually is. People that he’s following will feel a prickle on the back of their necks, some sixth sense warning them that somebody is watching them. If they aren’t careful, he’ll strike them down and feed without pity.

D Wildcard

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The fur on Heiji's back was standing on end; the deterioration in Cooper's appearance and behavior was hard to miss. He'd never actually met a vampire coked up on fae blood, of course, but the reek of it might as well have been seeping out of Cooper's pores. The thought of this creature, engorged like some overgrown tick on the lifeblood of another fae, repulsed him.

At the same time, Cooper looked terrible. Like really, honestly terrible. A cloud passed over the moon as Heiji regarded him. Fae blood was supposed to be poison to vampires, or so he'd heard. It was obviously having deleterious effects already. He felt a bit conflicted, but he needed to decide on his course of action sooner rather than later.

"You look like a dumpster," he said finally.

"And you look like a meal." A great big fluffy meal. The fox shape makes it easier to disassociate the guilt he'll have later on then he would have if Heiji was in human form. Right now, all he could think about was the blood coursing through those veins.

"Stand still and I promise not to drain you dry." He thought he could still stop himself if he really wanted to. He hadn't drained Will completely, tempting as the thought was after dealing with the little shit. Whether or not he could was an entirely different question.

"I'm not so sure you can keep that promise," Heiji said. His tails curled and uncurled; the air seemed to have become charged with energy.

"Have you looked at your reflection recently? That blood meal isn't doing you any favors." Not that he'd just roll over and cooperate even if he'd been convinced that Cooper could control himself. He was a fox, not a blood bag.

"Can't help it. I need blood." Even if the toxicity of the fae blood was going to be the end of him. He could have pointed out that this wasn't entirely his fault. He would have never fed off the hunter had he known he was a fae. The blame he felt was being distributed an even fifty-fifty.

He could have said this, but he doubted the kitsune would have been interested in hearing it. Instead, he made his move, running at Heiji with all the speed he could muster. His fangs were out now and he sought to grab the fox before he could leap away.

Physically speaking, they were about equal, though Heiji reckoned he had a bit of an advantage in that Cooper was unlikely to have fought a fox before. He moved, feeling Cooper's hands run through the guard hairs in his coat -- the ones currently making him appear larger than he was.

He bared his long canines and went for the back of Cooper's neck. In a way, they were after the same thing. In a way they were not. If Heiji caught Cooper, he'd shake the vampire with his jaws until his neck snapped.

Cooper dropped to the roof, rolling as he did so to avoid Heiji's snapping jaws. He wasn't going down that easily. He made a wild grab, trying to go for one of Heiji's tails. Those things were long and he's had enough of them to make for a good target. The vampire was too focused on the thought of blood to be at full fighting prowess.

Whether through skill or circumstance, Cooper was able to grab the white-furred tip of one of Heiji's tails in a pretty solid grip. Only... what was he going to do with it?

The end of the tail erupted in a blaze of supernatural blue flame as Heiji curled his body back around to snap at Cooper. Hopefully Cooper had the presence of mind to let go before he turned crispy.

With a startled yelp, he let go of Heiji's tail, coming away with a burnt palm for his trouble. "Hot fox! Hot fox!" He yelled out nonsensically. Fire was one of the few things he was vulnerable to. He wasn't going to be able to heal quickly from an injury like that.

He stood up, right hand curled in protectively towards his chest. Time to rethink his strategy. Strength wasn't going to work against an opponent as big as a loveseat. Time to use speed instead. He dashed first one way and then the other, approaching Heiji in a zig-zagging manner. Let's see if the fox could keep up with him.

Far from feeling satisfied for burning Cooper's palm, Heiji now felt a little... what was the word? Guilty?

Nahhh, couldn't be. Cooper was a bloodthirsty vampire ambusher who'd just as soon bleed him dry, after all. All the same, seeing him reduced to this state didn't exactly stir Heiji's killer instincts to the surface.

He leapt up between the floors of a nearby alleyway fire escape until he reached the rooftop of a higher-level building. "It's going to kill you if you don't get a hold of yourself."

Cooper stared up balefully at Heiji. He was reminded of an old saying. A fox that fights and runs away lives to fight another day. Oh, he was not going to stand for something like that. "Coward! Get back down here 'n fight fair!"

Taunting the kitsune was all he really had at this point. By the time he got up to where Heiji was, the fox would most likely be long gone.

"You don't want me to do that," said Heiji. Well. Doubtless Cooper did. But win or lose this particular altercation, Cooper would ultimately lose out.

He debated trying to incapacitate Cooper -- maybe until that frenzy of his died down. But how would he do so? The only methods Heiji could think of were completely inhumane. They didn't have detox for vampires, as far as he knew, and he had no idea how long it might take for Cooper to get the blood out of his system. Days? A week? More?

The rooftop access door shone at the seams with a brief and unearthly light; it swung open, revealing a way through to some other world. But before he left, Heiji looked back down at Cooper from over the lip of the roof. He was a pretty good mimic when it came to the accent:

"If I ever get that stupid about power, please push me out inta the sunlight."

As soon as he sees the door light up, Cooper dashes up, running as fast as he can. It's too little, too late. As predicted, Heiji is long gone by the time he gets up to the rooftop.

His own words thrown back in his face only serves to stir up his anger, mostly because the fae is possibly right. That's it. No holding back next time. He's not going to drain that kitsune of blood when he finds him again. He's going to get himself a nice, new, extra-large fox skin rug to put in his apartment.

Fight like the night (OTA)

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