Night's Omen

It was stupid, that much he knew.  He'd been alive long enough to know that nobody ever finds what they're looking for in a strip joint, and he'd certainly worked at this one long enough to know that (even if Melisande would argue that point; she'd met Drew here, after all).  That didn't stop him from trying, and it didn't stop him from sitting in a table near the corner, where the people who knew him wouldn't see him every time they crossed the room, and know that he was there for someone.  As much as he wanted to be above this, as much as he always had been above this, he couldn't stand the idea of not being there when the chance arose.  Not even his pride could keep him away with any real effect, and it was only his loyalty to Eden that had kept him at work some nights.

Every time he closed his eyes, he could see her.  She teased him the nights he was working, little touches that felt like they might take him right to heaven if he could just go with her, and she'd play with him by hinting at what they could be doing if he weren't so responsible, but she wouldn't ask him to go.  Really, she seemed to want him to stay at work, and he never thought it was so that his co-workers and employer didn't become more alarmed at behavior that just wasn't like him.  He thought it was because she cared, and didn't want him to screw things up for himself.

She did care.  She said so, with everything about her. 

He wasn't working tonight, though.  That was why he was there, wondering if she'd come in like she did on other nights.  She couldn't possibly only come in when he was working, could she?  No, that would be cruel.  She might not expect him to be there on a night he didn't work, though.  He was a fool for doing this, he knew it. 

That didn't negate the fact that he was there, waiting and wondering if she'd come to see him.  This time, he wouldn't be held back by obligations to others.  This time, he could go with her.  That was what he wanted, and he knew that what everyone else was saying was just nonsense.  They were paranoid.  He'd seen horrible people (Raphael), and she wasn't one of those people.  He knew what he was doing.

Ah, Diana liked to tease, it (and watching the reactions of those she teased) made the long centuries so very, very much less long. Honestly now, if it weren't for the various ways that she kept herself amused she doubtless would have died of boredom millenia ago. Quite obviously she hadn't, she was still alive and teasing others, alive and hunting and playing and everything else that she did, but humanity (how arrogant to call it 'humanity,' as though humans were the only ones who could be considered in the way that the word normally implied) and its infinite variation was enough to keep anyone occupied through the centuries, if only they learned how to do so. Everyone with their different personalities, their different social tics, their different habits and reactions, could be a wonderful study. But that in itself was almost a paradox.

Ah, but she loved to laugh. She loved to laugh and she loved power and control - she had Marius dancing like a puppet on a string (or she didn't, but how easily she could!), and watching him do so had been the most recent thing making her smile. In a way, however, he was right. She wasn't 'horrible' in the sense that, despite the fact that she was using him, it wasn't as though she didn't care about him.

He was, in a very real sense, hers. All wolves were hers, all dogs, and though she didn't bother to keep them on a leash, hers they remained. Diana loved her wolves, and loved them to love her. That's really all that was going on here. That's what went on when she teased him, and that's what went on when she laughed. She was a very possessive little thing, sometimes. He was hers, not that vampire's who the cats followed with their eyes. And tonight was his night off.

Diana didn't come at her usual time - she was later - but she did come, sliding through the door and glancing around as though looking for someone. She didn't have to look, of course not, she knew where he was, but look she did anyway. It was part of the game, part of the game of the ages, and if she didn't play what was she to do?

Did he truly believe that she had to canvass the room for him when she walked in?  No, absolutely not.  He wouldn't believe that she was unable to sense his presence, when he could feel hers so keenly.  He refused to accept that he might be so lost in her that he'd notice the instant she walked in and she wouldn't be able to pinpoint him.  She was a vampire, and a damn old one at that, so he knew.  She knew where he was. 

She was teasing him.  That was her favorite thing to do, he'd learned that already, so he wasn't too bothered by it.  He certainly had the pride to stay put, though.  However much he wanted to go claim her as his own when a few men throughout the room raised their heads to see her when she neared them, he remained where he was.  She was here for him, and not them, was she not?  He knew she was, believed it in a way that he shouldn't have, but he wasn't going to beg.  He was still a vampire, and he'd still been around awhile himself.  He'd been an alpha in life.  He didn't beg.

Apparently, he waited around later than common sense suggested for a woman to show up.  Was there something so very wrong with that, though?  There wasn't a woman worth having that wasn't worth waiting for.  As much as she played at looking around the place before going to him, he played at not rushing to her side immediately.  Instead, he merely watched her progress through the room, every move she made found by his dark eyes, and to anyone who couldn't read the eagerness and possessiveness in his mind, he would have looked the epitome of patience and aloof confidence.  In fact, she may have been the only one who could tell the difference, her and Elke, and he didn't really want it any other way.

And oh she considered it, considered how far to play with him, considered how much she wanted to tease. She considered making him come to her (not with any mind tricks, but simply by letting more of her power engulf him) because, though he may have once been an alpha, all alphas still answered to her when she called them, but....

But she hadn't in the end. That would produce easy reactions, all very predictable, and that wasn't a part of the game. In any case, she felt his eyes on her with every step that she took.

Finally (for doubtless it would seem like 'finally' to him) she found her way over to where he was sitting and smiled. "Fancy meeting you here."

Finally was a good word for it.  Very good, in fact, since he was starting to get impatient by the time she wandered her way over, and just a little jealous.  He knew she was there for him, but that didn't mean he had to like it when she interacted with others before him.  He just had to remind himself that she was slowly, inevitably, making her way to him, and that she'd been in there on other nights for him.  The other men were just to spice things up.  He knew that.  He could wait.

He watched her every move with that understanding, and she finally slipped into a seat close to him, smiling and offering up a casual little greeting that meant so much more to him than any human, just because it was her and she was there.  As much as he would have liked to let that on, that wasn't how this game worked.  This game, a game that he was bound to lose eventually, required something a little smoother and less...raw.

He leaned forward from his formerly casual position against the back of the corner booth's cushion, flashing her one of his best smiles, eyes all for her.  "Imagine that.  And here I was, thinking that I might have to settle for another one of Nikki's phenomenal drinks and a chat with a drunk again.  You have excellent timing."

As in, she'd sat down before his impatience got the best of him and he went to her.  That former irritation that came with the impatience had completely been soothed by her proximity, but there was no denying that it had been there. 

Diana wasn't there for him, for all that he might think otherwise; she wasn't there for anyone but herself. But then, she never was. She was old enough that she could afford it; far old enough to be able to do basically exactly what she liked whenever she wanted to simply because she wanted to do so. Diana tended to always do what she wanted. Not many people tended to argue with that sort of thing either.

"I wouldn't have thought you'd spend so much time here, not when you weren't working." She smiled. "Should I be concerned?"

She lounged, graceful and elegant and beautiful, her expression slightly coy, slightly teasing. She knew as well as he did that he was here for her - she knew possibly better than he did. She knew her power, after all, as he did not.

He thought she was there for him, and that was all the mattered.  If she decided that she was there for him for herself, that was fine.  He didn't care, so long as she was there, and paying attention to him.  That was what mattered, and what he wanted.  He had what he wanted, so as long as it didn't end prematurely, his night was going just fine.

"That depends.  What would you do if you were concerned?" he asked, his smile turning into something more amused instead of just generally pleasant, with more of a quirk up on one side.  "Because, I have to be honest, I was here hoping that this utterly gorgeous brunette would stop by, and everyone's telling me that it's an unhealthy habit."

It was probably true that she knew better than he did why he was here, and it really wasn't so funny that everyone was telling him it was an unhealthy habit.  It really was, but he didn't know it.  He didn't want to know it.  His saving grace was that he was a vampire, and if he trashed his life the way a mortal might, he stood a chance of fixing it.  Of course, there were always vampire problems, which were harder to fix, but he wasn't too bad at staying out of most of those.  Most.

"Let's see," Diana said, and her voice was teasing and ever so slightly seductive (but Marius would be used to that tone by now), "if I were concerned... I might try to lay those concerns to rest. And that could be such an interesting thing for me to try."

Diana grinned at his following words and leaned forwards across the table. "But of all the habits you could have, don't the ones that are unhealthy tend to be the most fun? Honestly, if that's what they believe of me one wonders at the arguments that they're presenting. In any case - you can take care of yourself. You've had long enough to learn to do so." She grinned again, showing more dazzlingly white teeth in something that was almost a visual laugh, and cocked her head a little to the side.

Yes, he was used to it.  No, he wasn't immune to it.  He liked every word, and he wasn't the sort to like hanging on the words of anyone.  He was picky about who had his attention and how completely, but this woman?  She was all that he cared about when she was around, and that seemed to be perfectly natural.  It was actually sad that he was quite as fine with this as he was, and to consider how much he'd very likely be fine with.  His pride should have been enough to bail him out, but it wasn't.  Not by a long shot.

"You're right, they are the most fun, and I think I can take care of myself," he agreed, and he honestly believed it.  Shouldn't he know if she was trouble?  He'd always been a good judge of character, and he liked her a lot.  That should be enough, but of course, he didn't understand the charm she had.  That power was way more than he could handle, especially in the doses she could present.  Even now, it was almost nothing.  Before, when she'd had him removing his clothes in a crowded room, she'd been able to block everything else out, leaving him only focused on her.  He hadn't cared.  In fact, he wouldn't have been against that again.  It had felt good, even if he didn't understand what it was.  It had still felt good, and those moments still had a pleasant ring to them in his mind. 

If he'd understood it better, and been able to think about it rationally, he'd have been repulsed, both by her power and himself.  He'd always pitied the snakes under Sigried's pull, but he couldn't ever think that Diana would do that.  Sigried was cruel, and she was manipulative.  Diana couldn't be like that, and she couldn't have that kind of power.  That was far too sneaky.  She'd tell him, like Elke, or lessen it and try not to take advantage.  Elke had that with the cats, and they liked her, but she didn't hurt them.  She tried to leave them with their wits.  Diana couldn't possibly be doing anything like Sigried.  Never.

"Well, maybe you should be concerned.  I'll do what I can to help you lay those concerns to rest, though," he told her, and he meant it.  Oh, how he meant it.  She wasn't the only one who thought it might be interesting for her to try.  "I'm curious about anything that would be as interesting as all that."

Oh, don't feel bad about your pride not getting you out of this one, Marius - it was a rare wolf indeed whose pride would do anything for them, even at this level of charm. Her power turned them into puppies lapping at her hands, but of course that was exactly the way she liked it. She wanted to keep them that way; it was a vanity, but Diana really enjoyed adoring worship. What better place to get that then from wolves?

"As long as you can I don't think there should be anything to worry about," Diana grinned, "and given what you are and what you do, I think you'd be able to take care of yourself very well indeed. Please don't think I mean them offense if I say overcautious fools, but being overly cautious is folly. Just imagine all the new and interesting experiences you miss out on of you're always afraid of the new?" Though this particular speech perhaps meant less coming from someone like Diana. She considered the world her playground because, at this point, there was very little that anyone would be able to do to stop her, to do anything at all to her. She could do almost anything that she liked and get away with it if only because of how very difficult she would be to kill at this point. Diana wasn't a person that you wanted really angry with you any more then she was a person you'd want to fight, especially not unless you knew what you were doing and really meant business.

As for thinking rationally - he was being perfectly rational. What sane canine wouldn't want to love her?

"It would be terribly interesting, I'm sure, but possibly not the best for the current setting," she said with a laugh. Which may or may not have been an invitation; it was sometimes so difficult to tell with Diana.

It didn't matter how powerful she was; if he ever saw himself like this, really saw and understood, he'd be humiliated.  He wasn't just a wolf, but a vampire, and that should have mattered for something.  If it did, it didn't matter for enough.  Fortunately for him (or unfortunately, depending on how you looked at it), his boss wasn't an idiot, and had taken to paying close attention to his vampiric bouncer.  It wouldn't have been surprising if Eden had cameras that would catch Marius' behavior (and had in the past).  The cobra was excruciatingly thorough sometimes.  Cobriana would wait until he thought it was important, or until he'd decided it was of use to him to bring it up, but he would.

Hopefully, Marius would listen.

"Well, one would think," he agreed, but even he knew that didn't necessarily matter.  There was the case of Raphael, and he still couldn't take that vampire on.  Autumn was an issue there, because Raphael knew to use her against him, and then there was the fact that Raphael was strong.  Marius was, but Raphael was centuries older.  It was a fact that Marius wouldn't be forgetting, since it was such a detriment to his attempts.

Diana was right, though.  He could generally take care of himself, and she wasn't wrong about the setting.  He might not be thinking entirely clearly, but he knew he didn't want a repeat of the insanity that overtook him the first time he met her.  Removing clothing in the club wasn't right, not for him.  "You're absolutely right.  Is there a setting you would prefer?"