working under these conditions

It went without saying that Hector had his favourite employees and also his least favourite employees. Lawrence balanced towards least favourite, after finding out about Hannya and him, then his little disappearing act the previous week. The only reason he kept the other vampire around was because he’d been there since it opened. Same with Hannya. Sometimes, he felt as if Kit was the only competent one of the lot, but he had a feeling the werewolf wasn’t overly keen on vampires. Hector didn’t really care though, it wasn’t as if he was a huge fan of werewolves. They were here to serve drinks, not fight.

Hector sat in his office, trying to make his way through last month's invoices, only upstairs of course. Everything downstairs was sent elsewhere and there was no trace of it in his office, apart from the monitor that flickered CCTV. He pulled his eyes up as he heard something downstairs, watching as Kit stormed through the bar, throwing an ice cube tray across the side. He sighed quietly. Hector had told the downstairs staff to use their own ice cube tray and now he had to listen to Kit complain about it. To him, it wasn’t a huge deal. It was an ice cube tray, but to Kit it was something.

Then the door opened and he heard Kit’s voice travel up the stairs. With a groan he pulled himself from his chair, slowly making his way downstairs. He glanced at the other staff for only a second before looking over at Kit. “A body?” He exclaimed, his eyes shifted between the staff. Kit explained something about being on parole when Hector took over the club. The werewolf never really explained what he did, but it didn’t take long for Hector to find out. A quick Google search revealed a few things, but it wasn’t hard to find out more with his connections. He wasn’t one to cast judgement though, after all he had killed countless people over the years. Some for no reason. “If you’re messing with me I will remove your spine” He pointed at Kit before moving past to make his way to the back room.

He flicked the freezer open and sighed. This could be his final straw,“Who the fuck is this?” He bellowed, looking down in the freezer at whoever the male was. He leaned a little closer for a moment, inspecting the body. No bite marks at all, in fact it looked like murder. Immediately he thought it could have been Hannya. Hector reappeared in the bar a few moments later, “Please… please tell me the body doesn’t belong to any of you” His question was directed at Lincoln and Lawrence, “Hannya!” He yelled, knowing the demon would be somewhere in the bar.


KIT CLARKE HANNYA LINCOLN CROWNE LAWRENCE MURPHY

For all the freedom he had, even with the daylight ring Cassie had made him on his finger, Linc might as well have been in a coffin. He could stroll around town with the sun beating down on skin that still remembered the brief scorch of the summer sun that would have freckles spreading over unprotected skin and his shoulders peeling for days afterwards but he couldn’t get out. Especially not out of here.

Linc glanced around Emerald City as he hefted another crate of bottled beer out of the storage nook – the donkey work was always left to him down here while Lawrence played kissy face with Hannya. The door from upstairs had slapped open a few minutes before, Kit heading past him without a word, but the place was quiet otherwise. It was a cliché but the things on the membership list here tended to keep night time hours, which meant that he was fucked if he wanted to switch out to daylight shifts. Stuff the ring magically making everything feel human in his life again.

His throat burned instantly at the thought, his eyes darting down to his hands as sound erupted from the back of the floor again. Spotless. No rusty drip of fresh blood down his throat like water for a lost traveller in a desert.

Control. He’d lost it that night, had almost … He’d bolted from the shop then, running away from what he’d done, leaving Magnus and his old friend to come looking for him like he was a ticked off six year old leaving home.

The drift was dangerous, always cranking his thirst. The job had been a distraction since he’d come back. Linc hefted the crate, heading for the bar area. Stacking the bottles wouldn’t be one for more than two minutes but that was how you did it, taking each minute at a time, every one you didn’t spend ripping someone’s throat out a reason for celebration. Each bigger distraction the same.

Kit tossed the ice cube tray down in front of him. The scent of blood rose immediately, tiny droplets of thawing blood spattering out, miniscule flecks of it dotting the hands he’d had on top of the bar. Linc wanted to groan low but that was an alarm bell for Hannya. He ducked his head between his braced arms instead, gums aching, eyes squeezed shut as the whining started. Kit had gone to get Hector, hollering up as he fought his own worse instincts.

By the time Kit was stalking back, he was shoving it away. Whine. Whine, whine. Hannya’s lax standards – and Lawrence’s by default – usually left him scrambling. Maybe he hadn’t taken all the trays back – how the hell was he meant to scrub blood out for that without … this?

Linc frowned as he looked up. What was the matter with them? So fucking much. Starting from the top up with Hector’s threats. Latching his teeth in his bottom lip as the freezer opened again and more blood scented the air, Linc grunted. ”It’s not mine. I’m not the one who gives the heart attacks in here every other night.” His eyes slid to Hannya, no names necessary, as she sashayed in. Dumplin’. Almost another quiet bark of laughter. ”Not. Mine.” Linc said, gritting his teeth as his fangs popped for just a moment. ”Unless its throat’s torn out and you lot haven’t told me about vampire alzheimer’s?” Forget souvenirs. Baby vamp with a conscience still equalled ragged wounds and that keening horror at what had been done that still haunted his dreams.

Tagged: LAWRENCE MURPHY , KIT CLARKE , HECTOR DACRE & HANNYA * Word Count: 599

Suddenly this felt like it was Kit, Hannya and Hector against Lincoln and him as tension ran high, although mainly from Kit and Lincoln. The pair seemed so tightly wound they were ready to snap anytime soon. “Always quick to blame the vampires.” Lawrence quickly retorted, feeling himself getting pretty riled up as well. Kit was trying to shine the spotlight directly on the two youngest vampires, probably too scared to blame Hannya and Hector. The guy only posed a risk at the full moon. Twelve nights of the year Kit could take Lawrence down. “If you must know I was busy trying to get someone to flip their humanity switch back on.” He paused for a second, “And why the fuck would I bring a dead body back here? I’d toss them in the river, bury them in the woods, throw them off a mountain…. not store them in a fucking freezer a work.” He felt the rise of heat in his chest, but before he spoke again Lincoln jumped in with his tiny violin. Acting like he was the only one in the bar who did any work.

His anger subsided a little as Hector spoke, defending the vampires and Hannya wasn’t blaming them either. So it was just Kit displaying classical werewolf behaviour, throwing hate toward the vampires.

Lawrence reached over the bar, grabbing a stirring spoon, given it was the only thing lingering over the other side. He ripped the lid off the ice cream as he listened to Hannya and Hector speculate between themselves on who it could be. “I arrived just before sunrise and I haven’t seen anyone unless they came in last night.” He scooped a spoonful of ice cream out of the tub, placing the long spoon into his mouth as he spotted Hannya raising her eyebrows at Hector. “Do you know something we don’t know?” He pointed the spoon at Hannya before returning it to the tub of ice cream. Ah yes, CCTV was here to save the day again. First with his missing daylight ring and now to find out who the body in the freezer belonged to. “Whoever has put them in there probably wants to preserve the body… maybe part of some weird ritual.” Maybe it belonged to one of the witches, although he couldn’t recall a single spell that required a dead body so long after death.


KIT CLARKE HANNYA LINCOLN CROWNE HECTOR DACRE

It was easier to control a bunch of savage murderers on his ship than the staff in his bar. He though he’d managed to establish his dominance from the outset, yet stuff like this kept happening. He remained silent as Lincoln complained and Kit and Lawrence bit at each other. Moments like this he would have forced the problematic crew overboard, leaving them to fend for themselves against the waves and whatever lay below in the darkness. It was a strong message to the others. Stay in line or get thrown to the sharks. Sadly there were no sharks around for Hector to toss his staff to.

There was nothing stopping him from killing one of them though. Hannya and Lincoln were off-limits. One was the devil reincarnated and the other was playing families with Magnus.

“If you two have an issue with each other then resolve it like real men. Go outside and fight to the death. That’s how we did it back in my day.” He shot a look at both Kit and Lawrence. Obviously, Hector had successfully fought off all his enemies.

Although it was somewhat amusing to watch the pair bicker, especially when Kit was snapping at Lawrence for killing people, Hector’s figures were probably triple the young vampires.

Hector caught Hannya’s eye for a moment. Something that could pop in and out as they please. Witches or “Bloody reapers.” He spoke through gritted teeth. He’d never dealt with them before but since moving to Mystic Falls they were everywhere. Granted, it was probably because of the bodies that were being dropped everywhere but they were slowly moving up the ranks towards the most disliked supernatural beings, underneath hunters. “I’ve told them to stop teleporting in and out of the bar.” Like they were above the rules set in stone by Hector. “I thought it was their job to deal with souls, not store their bodies.” His question was mainly rhetoric, assuming the others didn’t know the answer. Maybe Hannya did. “Do you know which one might be behind this?” His question was directed towards the demon, considering she seemed somewhat friendly with the reapers. Always guiding them to the back rooms.

One sprung to mind for Hector. That small blonde one who clearly didn’t like following any rules and had an ever-growing bar tab along with a bad attitude.


KIT CLARKE HANNYA LINCOLN CROWNE LAWRENCE MURPHY

Last time it had been his cowardice they’d all picked up on. The baby vamp who wouldn’t speed down a hallway filled with light in case he got a little crispy around the edges. Ball-less. Hadn’t stopped a fight, certainly hadn’t started it. One screw-up – a slip most of them didn’t have a clue about and suddenly he was the one leaving bodies stuffed in the freezer like he was either trying to hide what he’d done or he’d stored nuts for winter – cause what vampire didn’t want to break a fang on a frozen body.

Blue eyes flicked up to Lawrence before Linc squared his shoulders. Lawrence might not exactly have been bigging him up here, but there was solidarity at least. The two youngest vamps – they were never gonna blame Hector, not with him being in charge – had to be one of them. Linc’s throat still burned, despite the wash of cold beer. He scraped a thumb over the label, looking back and forth between Kit and Hector, swerving clear of Hannya in case she saw something in them and pounced like a cat after a fat, slow mouse.

That mouse scowled as Kit flipped what he’d said around on him. He made a small sound, his face screwing up. Like Kit didn’t have the smarts to figure out that going ‘OMG look at this’ was the perfect way to throw the blame on everybody else first. He wasn’t entirely wrong though, most of the responsibility for the shit work seemed to fall on the two of them. ”We’re not that stupid,” Linc echoed weakly, like their alibis weren’t enough to establish that fact. His brows puckered at the mention of helping someone flip their humanity switch back on. Cassie hadn’t pushed him that far but … so close. If there was anyone in here ready to flip their switch now it was Kit with his glowing eyes.

Did any of the finger pointing really matter when the CCTV was gonna show everything? Glancing back at the spot of blood on the bar, Linc put his bottle down on it, smearing it under the rim so that it vanished into the wood grain. It’d prove it and maybe show that little flicker of hunger that screamed ‘I want it’. Weak. One rejection, one accusation and all the balls he had grown since he’d gotten out from under Wesley’s thumb had vanished in an instant.

Peeling his hands away from the bottle as Lawrence decided to wade back in with theories of why the body was stored, Linc slid down off the stool. ”I’m not asking what sort. I know it’s not me, so … I’m gonna back to work while he rages…” He lifted his chin towards Kit who still didn’t seem to have entirely run out of his steam on his rant. Witches, resurrections. Cassie. Ah fuck. It felt like the blood he had drunk from Magnus’ carefully doled out bags first thing that morning was now curdling in his stomach. He almost let out a sound of relief when Hector said reapers. They were creepy as fuck, but if one did come back to get what they’d left it wouldn’t mean seeing that same look of betrayal swim up into Cassie’s eyes.

Tagged: LAWRENCE MURPHY , KIT CLARKE , HECTOR DACRE & HANNYA * Word Count: 546