The word 'Pub' is almost too kind for this place. It's more of a dingy dive bar, full of stressed out mages and thirsty looking vampires, even at noon. I guess time is mostly irrelevant when you're living underground.
We find ourselves a nice table in the corner, and a smiling young server comes over almost immediately, fresh vampire bites visible on her neck and a glazed look in her eyes.
"Hello ladies, what can I get you to drink" it looks like an automatic response, but she doesn't seem to be processing anything. I ask her for two pints of the Safe House's home brewed beer.
"I think we need to talk to Narishma" Lala whispers to me, and I see my relaxing day fading into a distant dream.
I send a quick message on the base messaging app, telling the boss to drop what she's up to, as she's needed here asap, but I get no immediate response. There's a large table full of vampires in the corner, flirting with the waitress as she goes to get our drinks, and I'm trying not to judge them too harshly. Ingrained prejudices and all, I don't want to go overboard just because they're blood suckers. Maybe she's one of their girlfriends and it's all within the realm of respectable?
Despite not messaging me back, Ari is joining us at our table in under a minute. She just sits quietly as the waitress brings our drinks and apparently doesn't notice her, returning to her duties.
"I've hidden my presence from the other vampires. I heard the new arrivals were causing trouble, but it's only been 2 days, I haven't managed to catch them in the act yet. Looks like they've fully mind controlled the waitress though, she can only follow their orders. They don't see me, so she can't react to me."
"Want me to cause trouble?" I ask with a little grin. Oh how I like causing trouble with vampires.
"If it's not too much trouble. Don't start anything, let them dig their own graves. Pardon the pun."
A bouncy new R&B song I've never heard comes on and I drag Lala out to the dance floor.
"You know how to dance right?"
"Sort of?" She responds "The only dances I've learned were seduction dances fit for my position"
"That's actually perfect for this scenario" I smiled "Now, I'll dance with you and lets wait for the trouble makers to cause trouble."
Little did I know, trouble was already on its way in the form of 4 of the young vamps from the table. One had blood on his lips, but I'm not sure if it's from a drink served or the waitress, I didn't manage to get a good scent on her over the smell of smoke and spilled alcohol in the pub.
"Hey little girls, want to have some fun with a real man?" O M G, could this guy get any more cliché? I mean, white v neck shirt, stone wash jeans, distressed look boots and way too much cologne. It's like he climbed straight out of the set of grease and onto the dance floor.
"If you see one, let us know" Lala smiles up at him, grinding against me.
Oh, he did not like that at all. His eyes flash red and he reaches to grab her before his friend stops him.
"Now ladies, just look at us, we're not bad guys" The other cuts in.
I look up at him and feel a pressure on my mind as he tries to take control. I feel Lala go a bit limp against me and I pinch her tail, snapping her out of her reverie.
"Funny, nice guys get girls without mind tricks, didn't anyone ever tell you?"
Great, now they're both mad, and the two behind them aren't in a much better mood.
The one who tried the mind control lunges for Lala's neck, obviously going for the bite, while the other 3 try to grab me. They're not fast, barely better than human, so they must be young vamps from a rather diluted bloodline. I wonder what they're even doing here?
I knock the first few grabs away before a pair of hands locks around my shoulders. Silly leech, didn't anyone teach you to fight? My knee goes directly for his groin, landing with a sharp crack and a shrill scream, hen a deeper scream sounds from behind me. Oh no, Lala can't fight.
I step back to help my hopefully unharmed friend, to find Ari has acted and has the bite happy vamp by the hair, dangling him off the ground with an extended arm.
"Now gentlemen, you're going to sit down at your table and explain to me exactly how you got on my base without informing me or the vampire council" the compulsion is heavy in her voice, the vampire equivalent of an Alpha command.
They don't even look scared, all expression is gone from their faces.
"Now we'll start with the easy part, which master sent you to the safe house, and why?"
"We weren't sent, we're students at the university"
"I don't recall this many vampires on the student roster. In fact I don't recall any male vampires among the mage students at all" at this their mouths started moving to answer, but no noise came out.
"Compulsion" Ari informed us. "I think they might have been turned here, or on the way here, which is why they're out of control. I've had over a dozen reported attacks and attempted attacks in the last 48 hours since they arrived. They're newborns without anyone to guide them."
"Who else is here for Vampires though? You and Jasmin and who else?" Ari is tapping at a tablet in her hands as I talk.
"According to the security sweep, there's these 6, me, Jasmin and one unauthorized vampire on base right now. You girls care to have a bit more fun on your day off?"
"First let's finish that dance" Lala pipes up "and maybe take the compulsion off the waitress, it's creeping me out"
Lala drags me to the dance floor just in time for Beenie Man's King of the Dancehall to come on. It totally doesn't fit the ambiance of the place, but whatever, it's something we can dance to.
Within seconds, every eye in the bar is on us. This dance Lala is doing is so hot it's like watching live sex on the dance floor. I can smell the lust rising all over the room by the time the song ends, and dozens of burned out mages stand up to cheer for our dancing skills.
"See, I told you they'd dance again if we put a good song on" a quiet voice sounds in the back.
"Great, loved the dance. But now that you've gotten to see them dance, do you even have the guts to go up and say hello?"
"Well, uh, maybe in a minute? Or you could do it? You're better at talking to pretty women than I am."
Now that I'm listening, this voice seems pretty young, he might be one of the students.
Lala's ears perk up and she whispers to me "Maybe we can say hello once we finish finding that mystery vampire?"
"Keep your cool Bunny, if they're brave enough to introduce themselves we'll talk to them for a bit before we go. It's an unwritten rule, he's got to make the first move when he notices you first."
Lala nods, taking in the social rule I've imparted.
I see the two get up from their chairs, trying to look casual, but I can see that the older of the two is dragging the younger with him. Just as they reach us though, Ari finishes with the vampires at the table. They're all cuffed to the furniture and seem to be out cold.
"Oh, Donovan, Pascal. Good to see you" she greets "How's the topiary botanical plan coming along?"
"Very well thank you Commander Narishma" the taller one she indicated was Pascal replies "We'll have an updated plan for you by the end of the week, we're just waiting on the food crops team and the ground level vegetation team to submit their preliminary lists to us so we can ensure there's not too much overlap."
"You guys do pretty flowers?" Lala asks and they both start laughing.
"Well, yes actually we do. But we also do trees, vines, shrubs and more. Before the city plan we were in charge of the parks and gardens within the Safe House base. Or well, our department was. We only recently arrived as students from the university."
"As much as we all like flowers, ladies we've got a hunt" Ari cuts in before we get too far off track. Lala loves flowers, all sorts of flowers, and anything soft and pleasant smelling.
"How about I grab your messenger numbers and I'll contact you both when we're done? Maybe get together for an evening walk in the gardens?" Lala looks pretty stoked, and the guys have happy grins on their faces.
"For sure"