Night's Omen

 "No kidding," Mitzi muttered, her phone lighting up as Aimee mentioned them demanding phonecalls. She flipped it open and then rolled her eyes, texting something back with a thumb as she scooted away from the bar. "Let's go sit down somewhere not in the middle of the dram," she said, gesturing to the waitress being manhandled by a drunk customer. "I'm not in the mood," she added under her breath, almost darkly. Really, Mitzi enjoyed a very drama-free life up until recently, and she was very salty to the entire idea that there was no way back out of the rabbit hole someone else had thrust her into. Like if she'd have known all this shit about Midnight she would have moved somewhere else, not that it might have helped - but it could have.

  "Anything else new?" she asked brightly, the tone not betraying how angry she really was at her entire situation. Mitzi was expressive to an extent, but lately she'd been holding a lot of shit back because she really just saw there was no point in arguing. She didn't doubt if she told Zaine to drop dead he'd leave her to her own devices, but she didn't want it to get to that point. He was her friend, but he was becoming overbearing to the point where she hated him.

Darren honestly didn't know what was going on there, but he really didn't want to let it go any further once he saw Luke drop the glass.  It was like slow motion, the glass slipping from his fingers the instant it touched his lips, his eyes taking on that far-away look that he got whenever he started seeing stuff that nobody else could see, and Darren was on the move with no more than a quick shout towards the kitchen for Dave.  The man was a wolf, so he was confident he'd be heard, especially since he'd yelled the guy's name.  He hoped so, since he didn't prefer to leave the bar unattended on busy nights, and leaving it was damn important right then.

By the time he could push through the crowd (since he definitely didn't want to do something crazy, like shift or hurt someone), Luke was already grabbing Chloe again, which was downright weird.  He'd never seen the guy choose to touch someone or something bare-handed, and from the way the man reacted, he wasn't all that surprised.  Luke was apparently ridiculously fast and Darren hadn't known it, but he went down on the hard floor like a ton of bricks once he'd made skin contact.  It sucked that, even though he was prepared to jump in if she'd needed him to, it had turned out that she needed it.  Jumping in there was the last thing he'd wanted.

Still, she was threatening to really hurt Luke, something that Darren registered as he reached them, and that was another thing he was hoping to avoid.  He grabbed her arm to pry Luke's hand off, and in the absolute first second that Darren made contact with the man's fingers, Luke yelled and let go. 

It was a good thing Luke let go when he did, because up until that point he'd only been tightening his grip, something that was making Chloe more and more panicked. She'd just been about to hit him with a good jolt when Darren split them up, and she yanked her arm away like she'd just stuck it into a dirty toilet, cradling it.

  "What the hell is your problem, you psycho?!" she demanded, though she didn't stick around for an answer. Instead she pushed beyond Darren and grabbed her coat, heading straight for the door. "I'm going on break," she barked to Dave, and then exited through the doors into the city streets beyond. Tears stung her eyes as she tried to put her irrational anxiety back down into manageable proportion. She was pretty freaked out by the entire ordeal, and she began walking down the block towards the corner store to burn off some steam. She was angry at the man for having made her a victim, no matter on how small a scale. She was also pissed off that Darren hadn't gotten there sooner, but that wasn't his fault and she knew it.

Darren couldn't have pegged what exactly Luke's problem was, but he had a damn good idea, and given the way Chloe reacted to the whole ordeal, he was tempted to grab the man's bare hand, just to fuck with him.  It would have knocked Luke for a loop, and he'd have deserved it.  Darren truly believed that.  "Dude, foul.  She didn't do a damn thing to you," he snapped, glaring at the man and finishing the clean-up job that Chloe had started before Luke went apeshit on her.  Darren wasn't even sure that he wanted an explanation, and he sure as hell wanted to go after Chloe, but it wasn't like he could leave the bar for longer than it took to clean up the mess that had been made.  Someone needed to keep an eye on her, but Darren wasn't exactly the best choice, and he hated it, but he knew it.  If he went after her, it was just as likely that they'd both get jumped and killed as it was that he'd comfort her and bring her back in.  He shot Luke another dark look, just in time to see the man pulling himself back into his chair, and he got an equally pissy response from the man. 

"She's my niece.  I didn't know until she touched the glass, so stuff it, Meow Mix."

"You can stop fucking calling me that.  You're full of shit."

"When the FUCK have I ever been wrong, Furrball?"

Well.  Luke had a point, not that Darren wanted to admit it, and other than throwing the rag down on the man's table (in case Luke wanted to spaz out AGAIN that night), he didn't respond.  He had a bar that needed to be tended to, and a boss that needed to be informed as to their favorite human's whereabouts.  Fortunately, all it took was a short call up to the office, and the pale man was slipping through the crowd like a ghost stepping between raindrops.  He didn't know how Ash did it, but he'd have put money on the triste's ability to walk through the room without ever making contact with another person. 

He realized when he returned to the taps that the two pretty feline ladies had moved away from the bar, which meant that he'd completely lost his time with all three of the interesting females he'd wanted to talk to that night.  Damn it.

 Chloe hadn't any idea of Luke's revelation and frankly, she would have told him to eat shit if he'd clued her in. As it was, she was in a mighty hurry for that store, so much so that she slammed right into someone coming around the corner at an equally fast rate of speed. For Chloe, it felt like she'd slammed into a brick wall, and the impact actually sent her sprawling onto her ass with a gasp. The hit stunned her, and it took her a second to realize what had happened. By then, a hand was already being offered to her.

  "Are you okay?" he asked, his voice betraying little in the way of concern. It seemed more automatic of a response, but for this particular fellow, women weren't on the high end of his totem at the moment.

  "Uh, yeah," she said, taking his hand. She pulled herself up with no effort thanks to one firm tug from the man, and she brushed herself off. "Sorry, I wasn't paying attention," she confessed. She wiped at her eyes to make sure she wasn't still all teary, and then forced a smile. "My bad."

  He nodded to her. "No problem. Hey, might want to take it easy. You fell kind of hard," he warned. It was as though he was aware of the fact that somehow Chloe had repelled off of him, like he was made of steel or something. He continued on his way, leaving Chloe alone.

  She continued into the store, where she bought a soda and stood just inside the door, drinking it furiously to try and ease some of her frustration. She'd busted her ass running into a complete stranger, to top off the low point of her night. Awesome.

  "Now that is the face of someone thinking way too hard," a voice behind her said.

  Chloe turned to see that the voice belonged to a boy taller than her with hair that could have been the envy of many a high-school girl. He lacked that sad, pathetic "goth" thing that most boys with long hair had going for them though, and if Chloe had to have guessed she'd have guessed he was around her own age.

  "Maybe," she said. "How would you know?"

  "Because I do it myself. So, tell me, do you always run into people at breakneck speeds, or are you running from something in particular?" he asked, standing next to her in a way that was approaching but not invasive.

  She didn't know how to explain herself. "Well, I just took a break from work. A customer pissed me off so I came down here to cool down, and, well, frustration makes me pretty blind, I guess," admitted. She shrugged a little, spinning the cap off of her soda. It was chilly outside, and she needed to be getting back. "Break's almost over, anyways," she added.

  "Where do you work?" he asked, his head tilted with interest. He didn't see himself having any plans that evening; his friends were mostly busy, and his dad was at work, which meant he could stay out late and not risk any problems coming home. Hopefully the old man would be asleep when he did get there, and he could avoid the ordeal.

  "Hellcat's Hollow," she said reluctantly. "I'm a waitress there."

  "Well, Waitress from Hellcat's Hollow, I'll walk you back. I was headed that way myself," he informed her, holding out an arm. In truth, he'd been headed out to do something interesting and had stopped in the store to grab a snack and make a phonecall without having to stand outside in the cold wind - not that the cold bothered him a lot, but still, wind interrupting your call was irritating. The Hollow sounded just as good a place as any, and he was interested to find out what kind of a setup it had, anyways. He was going to whore his band out if he could help it.

  "Sure," she said. "I guess." Chloe wagered if he tried anything she could hurt him severely. She knew he wasn't human, but she couldn't tell what. She probably still smelled like the wolf she'd just t-boned, too, but she didn't know that, and the boy might have but didn't say.

Running out just to get out of the house was one thing, but finding this kind of excitement right off the bat was pretty damn awesome.  He'd gotten into the city, stopped for a snack because he'd totally skipped dinner, and there was Chloe.  She was instantly interesting, between busting her ass into that wolf he'd smelled coming a mile away.  Dude wasn't happy, and the scent rolled off of him in waves.  It made Tristan wonder if that was what he smelled like 90% of the time. 

He was almost surprised, but silently a little pleased, when she actually responded to his comments.  A lot of women tended to avoid you in the city, just out of a sense of self-preservation.  He couldn't blame them, but it really was a shame sometimes.  He didn't exactly look like the most dangerous individual when he wasn't scowling and furious over something (which was often), but there was something very obviously not-right about him.  It was like humans could pick up on the fact that he was a predator, and a big one, without him ever giving them a reason to.  He'd seen people react to his father the same way if London didn't specifically try to charm them, and he hated that he inherited anything from that man, but he was glad that it was something that could be so useful.  Now, he was trying to do exactly what his father did, and keep her from feeling threatened.  He could do it, and her reaction suggested it was working.  Besides, he could smell the wolf on her, but she was human.  She shouldn't be walking around alone, so for a little while, she'd be just a little more bulletproof.

It made him feel better, and then there was that added bonus of getting to check out the Hellcat's Hollow.  He wanted to get his band a few more live gigs, and Olivia had suggested the place.  Maybe they could even showcase both of their bands in the same show.  That wouldn't be so bad, and it'd get them both some attention.  Besides, her sheer volume and energy tended to balance his lower growl out pretty well, so when they did encores together, it worked out really well.  He was pretty sure he could sell the idea to the manager, if the guy would just give him a chance.  Naturally, his first priority was his own band, but if he could get Crimson Permanent Assurance in there, he would. 

"So, 'Waitress from Hellcat's Hollow', do you have a name, or should I just make an abbreviation of that title?" he asked after a minute or so, glancing her way.  "I'm Tristan."

 Chloe shrugged a little, eyes on her soda as she ran her long manicured nail against the cap, making noise as it crossed the ridges. "I'm just Chloe," she said. She seemed to have lost a lot of that steam she'd used to run down there, and most of it had happened when she'd run into the blonde earlier. It was like he'd absorbed her anger like she could absorb people's pain. Turning physical anguish into mental anguish was one thing, but she didn't know if she'd like to suck the anger off of people and keep it for herself. It was an ugly, ugly weapon. At least pain was reasonable, sourceable.

It wasn't even that she was shy, but she wasn't used to people offering to walk her around, either - besides Darren, anyways. Or Dave, if she whined. Her high school had been full of people who ostracized her because she was "weird" or she hung out with "weird people" or whatever new reason of the week they'd found, despite how pretty she was. Now that she looked like a typical club gal, people just spoke to her like she was stupid, which she also couldn't stand. She'd taken to acting like a ditz because it seemed to attract people to her, but they weren't ever people she wanted to talk to; just people who bought her drinks. She was economical, at least.

"Nice to meet you, Tristan. It was kind of busy in there earlier, anyways, so you'll have to forgive me if I lose track of you once we get inside. I wasn't technically supposed to go on break but I guess since I burned it early in the night I'll be made to suffer by constant running here and there for the rest of the evening. I'm like the poster child for Murphy's Law. At least I can get you hooked up with our bartender for a drink or something, for walking me I mean," she said, glancing at him.

"Good to meet you, too, Chloe," he said, going with the typical move and trying her name out now that she'd given it to him.  She'd done the same thing, so it wasn't such a stupid, cliched move.  It was funny that people always did that, even with common names.  It was like they felt obligated once they heard your name to try it out and apply it.  He never understood it really, but he was guilty of it all the same.  Oh, well. 

Mention of her unplanned, early break took his attention, and it made him think back to her mention of a customer pissing her off.  He had to wonder what had happened, and really, he wouldn't have minded knowing who the customer was if they were still there.  He was always looking for a good disagreement, and this customer sounded disagreeable.  Considering what he'd heard of Hellcat's Hollow, he wasn't so sure what he expected the altercation to have been, but he was pretty sure he'd be able to meet the manager if he got involved.  Not that he wanted to do so in that manner, but it was always an option if the person was really that irritating.  Naturally, he didn't know Luke or what the man could do, or he'd just be sure to touch the man a few times.  That's all Luke would need to want to peace out, but Tristan just wasn't privy to that knowledge.  Too bad, though it was in Luke's favor. 

"Thanks for the offer, but I don't know that your bartender would want to serve me.  First, I'm underage, and second, I'm a shifter, so it's not even like it'll do anything for me," he explained, shrugging.  He knew enough about the place to know that if she worked there, she knew about the supernatural.  His dad had mentioned the place before, bitching about it, usually.  "So, this customer.  If you don't mind me asking, what happened?  I heard that place had a pretty strict policy about behavior," he mentioned, and her answer would also let him know how badly he could push if he felt the need.  He really could go for a good chance to stretch his muscles and claws some. 

 At least he didn't ask her to repeat her name twelve times. Honestly, why did people have such a hard time with Chloe? She glanced sidelong at him when he just announced his shifting capabilities, and cleared her throat a little. "Well, okay then," she said, eyes widening as she spoke in that typical female fashion. She didn't really expect him to just put it all on the table out there.

  Ah, he asked about Luke. "Eh, he just got out of hand. He grabbed my arm because he's a germophobe or something and I touched his glass. I don't know what his sitch is," she said, taking a sip of her soda. "I'm really kind of over it; hoping he'll be gone when I get back in there. I'd steer clear if I were you. Total headcase. And he's a regular according to Darren, though I never noticed him. Stupid long-haired freak," she muttered. She glanced at Tristan, hoping he didn't think she have something against his long hair.

  "Anyways, I'm sure he'll be gone," she affirmed, reaching the door of the Hollow. She opened it and pushed inside, holding it with one hand for Tristan. When she spotted Luke at the same table, she just scowled. "Or maybe not," she said, tipping her head to the side as an after-effect "it figures" sort of motion. Murphy's. Law.

When he was told that Chloe had left the building, he was NOT a happy camper.  If there was one rule Anthony had, it was that he was to be told if there were any altercations involving any of the female employees (but especially Chloe).  He didn't care if they were busy, because everyone else could suffer for a few minutes while he handled it.  Having Chloe leave after having trouble with a customer was NOT cool.  He was going to let her know that later.  As it was, he didn't find out about it until he'd gotten the kitchen out of the weeds, his father having gone out to help Darren when the dude yelled.  Anthony left the kitchen and found out about Chloe being gone just about two minutes before she walked back in the door.

With a dude.

He didn't know who the dude was, which probably meant that he wasn't a regular friend of hers, and he sincerely hoped that she hadn't just picked the guy up off the street.  He also hoped that she wasn't planning on keeping him, especially when he pushed his way from the bar and got a whiff of cat from the guy when the door opening shot a burst of air his way.  Another cat.  Seriously?  He gave her a look like, 'really?' over the new guy, and renewed his hopes that she wasn't planning on letting the new guy hang around.  He only dealt with Darren as well as he did because he had to work with the guy and Darren had technically been with Chloe longer.  He couldn't exactly oust the guy without a damn good reason, and Darren wasn't likely to give one. 

Luke, on the other hand, was cruising.  Asshole.

"Find a stray?" he asked, tone conversational.  He really didn't have room to be mad, and he knew it, unless he pushed the whole, 'come get me when there's trouble' rule.  Since his dad would kill him if anything happened to her and he didn't end up broken in half trying to stop it, he could use that as a good reason.

Tristan wasn't any happier with Anthony walking up than the wolf was that Chloe had left the building and brought a stranger back with her, but he dealt with it well enough, all things considered.  He just instantly thought that Anthony was her boyfriend, and thought that it was a shame that she was so into wolves.  He didn't see the appeal, honestly.  If he wanted a wolf, he'd talk his mother into getting a dog, but that was probably something his father had said years ago that had stuck with him.  He didn't remember. 

Either way, the guy looked about ready to take a piss on her to mark her as his, which naturally made Tristan step up just a tiny bit closer to her.  He didn't make it obvious, not wanting the wolf to totally lose it and have an excuse to, but it was enough.  When the wolf countered that with calling him a stray, he didn't feel bad for doing it.

"Stray found her, actually," he returned, voice just a little lower than it had yet been in her presence.  He wasn't really expecting a fight, but he was going to win it if there was one.  He hadn't yet met a wolf that was bigger than a jaguar.

 Chloe didn't really like being put on the spot like that, despite knowing why Anthony was behaving the way he was. It still made her uncomfortable, but it even doubled when Tristan played into the game. She held both of her hands up, eyes narrowing at Anthony - more or less because he'd started it.

  "Okay, stop," she said. "Anthony, Tristan. Tristan, Anthony. Anthony, Tristan was nice enough to walk me back here and keep me company after psycho over there exploded on me, no thanks to Darren warning me," she said. She was still mad about that, actually. "Tristan has a band, and he's looking to get a gig here. I told him I could talk to Ash, since I know that Fawn's Ashes is going to attract more of a certain crowd," she said plainly. Fawn's Ashes was a vampire band, and vampires seemed to love them. Chloe did, too, but they played at the Cafe Sangra and Ambrosia - NOT at the Hollow.

  "Anthony, tell me why Darren hasn't ever broken that jackass's face before?" she asked, directing the topic to Lucas. She glanced around for Darren. "Where'd he go, anyways? I told Tristan I'd hook him up with something to drink while I try to find Ash," she muttered. She was too short to see over most people, but Darren had been right there a second ago.

He grit his teeth when she told them to stop, then tried to introduce them like having names would make it better.  It also didn't make it any better when she pointed out that Darren hadn't done anything to deal with Luke, but frankly, Anthony wasn't surprised.  There was a reason Darren usually waited on the guy, and that was because, for whatever reason, the leopard had enough patience to deal with him and his requirements (which Dave and Anthony didn't), and a less painful history than Ash.  Anthony didn't understand how he did it, but he knew why. 

"Go have a seat, cat-boy, and Darren'll get to you in a second.  Tell him I said," he offered, and that was only for Chloe's benefit.  He wanted Tristan gone before he tried explaining to her why Luke's face wasn't broken, yet, and he wasn't exactly looking forward to it.  Tristan seemed hesitant, but what was he going to do?  He wasn't going to get anywhere for his band, or whatever he was in need of, if he argued over something so stupid.

Anthony saw him debate, and gestured to an open stool near the edge of the bar, not too far away.  Hopefully, that would assure him that he wouldn't get lost in the shuffle, and from there, Anthony ignored him in favor of Chloe.  He liked her much better, anyway, and gestured her into the kitchen.  It was quieter in there, surprisingly.

"Darren's running around waiting on the tables that you had before you left," he explained, and not for any reason except because she asked, and it was true.  "You okay?  Luke's a jackass, but he has some crazy shit going on where he starts having ridiculous visions when he touches things.  Honest to God, heard it from Ash, and he can't get within a few feet of the guy without Luke losing it.  He's unpleasant, but he really doesn't mean anyone harm.  Darren deals with him almost all the time because he's the only one who can remember not to contaminate Luke's stuff."

He was speaking from experience, there.  The last time he'd waited on Luke, the man had gone off on him, too, and Dave didn't even try to bother with him unless Darren wasn't there.  He'd gotten the short straw once, and as soon as they'd realized he was any good at it, he'd gotten it every time since.  Darren did that a lot, actually.

Chloe went with Anthony into the kitchen, already silently moaning as he reminded her that she'd run out of there, leaving Darren to the tables. Nicole, it seemed, didn't come in for another hour, which Chloe only just now realized. She kept her mouth shut until Anthony tried to excuse Luke's behaviour. Then, of course, she got all fired up again.

  "No, don't even try to make the guy sound normal," she said, holding her hands up in a time-the-fuck-out fashion, making the little T so hard that she jabbed her palm with her nails. "No fucking way," she hissed. "Dude flips out and throws his drink down, and then whips off his scotch-bright glove and clamps down on my wrist like Steven Seagal. Fuck you that's "not meaning any harm", Anthony. He'd have left a bruise if I hadn't - hadn't had Darren there to pry him off," she concluded.

She'd almost slipped up and told Anthony that she'd been about to splinter his face open with the impact of a medium-speed car, like the pain she'd picked up a few years ago and had been holding on to, but she'd caught herself in time. Instead, she just fumed. "Sorry I ran out, but I was fine after I got out of here," she added. She reached out and put her hand on his arm.

  "I'm fine, he just really pissed me off, and I left before I like, did something crazy like you would do," she said with a small smile. "I wanted to pound his face in." If she'd known what Darren had heard, she'd probably have clocked out and gone home. Being related to such a horrible person wasn't very appealing - but then again, she didn't know Luke's story; now he just knew hers.

Darren hadn't yet gotten the chance to tell anyone about Luke's revelation, so Anthony was still in the dark about that one.  He understood things from Chloe's end and from Luke's, despite naturally leaning more towards Chloe than the asshole that he didn't like, either.  He just had to remember, and his father and Ash had both reminded him many times, that not liking someone didn't make them wrong.  It just meant that you didn't like them.  Well, Anthony didn't like that guy, but he'd heard enough of what was wrong with him to know that he didn't want to try a day in Luke's shoes. 

"Hey, I'm just going by his usual, cupcake," he told her, putting a hand up in a defensive gesture.  He'd been calling her that since he saw that obscenely pink cupcake-patterned hoody she liked.  "I wasn't there for it, and nobody told me until about 4 minutes ago that it even happened, or that you were gone, or I'd have pounded his face in for you."

He was mad, mostly at everyone else and a little bit at her, but she usually made it hard for him to stay mad.  He didn't know what it was, but she had that effect, and part of it might have been the way she touched his arm and smiled at him.  Little things.  "Next time, run into the kitchen, or behind the bar.  It's easier to back you up from there."  Really, he meant 'next time, run wherever I am and stay behind me', but wording it like that was just a little too much for him.  He couldn't help it.