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Kate can hardly hear herself think.
It's a Thursday, which apparently makes it ladies night at the shitty club she's been cooped up in for the last hour. The place is filled wall to wall with people, most of them students or kids with fake IDs. The flashing lights are giving her a headache and the stink is awful but the noise is the worst part of all. The laughing, the drunken slurring, the constant shrieking coming from the bachelorette party taking up the entire VIP section. When another peal of giggling comes from what sounds like two inches away, a growl leaves Kate's throat and she has to dig her claws into her legs in order to regain some semblance of control.
Only after she's sure that her fangs have been tucked away and her eyes have gone back to normal does she reach for her drink. The alcohol has no effect on her but she still likes the taste and frankly, it's about the only thing that has made the waiting bearable.
Her target is sitting in a corner booth, a few feet away. She can't see him but she can smell his cologne and the gunpowder on his hands. She can hear every word he whispers into the ear of the young woman sitting beside him and the more he talks, the more Kate wants to slide through the crowd and rip his throat open, onlookers be damned.
She manages to tamp the urge down. He'll have to get up eventually and when he heads down the dark hallway that leads to the bathrooms, she'll make her move.
Half an hour and five shots of vodka later, the man finally moves. Kate waits until he's walked past her to slide off her stool. She slides through the crowd effortlessly, focusing on the man's heartbeat and footsteps, doing her best to block out all the other sounds. Someone tromps on her foot in heavy boots and she scratches the underside of their arm, just hard enough to bleed a bit.
By the time they notice, she's already across the room.
The hallway leading to the bathrooms is barely lit. It's cloaked in shadows, some of which are already occupied by couples and Kate keeps to them as she follows. She lets her claws drop again, fingers aching at the thought of being drenched in hunter's blood. The man stops just outside of the bathroom and pulls a tiny baggie of pills from the inside of his jacket. Kate can't help but smirk.
She's never killed anyone who was high before. She wonders what their blood will taste like.
She raises her foot, ready to step out of the shadows. but before she can move any further, fingers strong as iron grab her shoulder and twist her around. There's a woman standing behind her, wearing a white dress, long dark hair skimming over her shoulders.
"What are you doing?" she hisses, mouth curled into a snarl.
"I was going to fuck that guy in the bathroom," Kate replies, glancing back over her shoulder. "Got a problem with that?" The woman rolls her eyes, fingers digging even harder into Kate's shoulder.
"I know what you are." The woman's snarl turns into a smirk and Kate can feel the woman's eyes roaming up her body. "You should learn to hide your eyes better, jaguar." Kate resolutely does not show the surge of surprise that hits her.
"Who the hell are you?" she asks instead, smacking the woman's hand away.
"My name's Jennifer. Or it is now, at least." Kate raises an eyebrow but before she can ask, one of the overhead lights flickers. In the seconds before it goes back to normal, Kate glimpses ice blue eyes, pale skin rended by long gashes, a mouth with no lips. When the light stabilizes, so does Jennifer's false face. Kate's heard stories of darachs before, druids that had traveled down the wrong path. She's heard stories of their abilities, of the murderous rage that inevitably settles over them, but she's never seen one face to face.
It's a little underwhelming, she has to admit.
"Impressive," she says. "How much energy does it take to keep that charade up?"
"You'd be surprised. Killing him would keep me satisfied for a few weeks." Behind them, Kate hears water running, the sound of a zipper being yanked up, footsteps.
"He's mine," she hisses, flashing her eyes at Jennifer. Jennifer doesn't flinch. She steps closer, crowding into Kate's space, hands dropping to Kate's shoulders again.
"You're not as good as you think. He's seen you," she says, eyes flicking over Kate's shoulder. "He suspects. If you don't want him to kill you, kiss me." Kate lunges forward, pressing Jennifer up against the wall. She fits her hands to Jennifer's hips, trying to resist pricking her with her claws. Jennifer grins and in the second before she closes the gap between them, Kate sees that lipless mouth again.
It's not enough to deter her. Not in the slightest.
Jennifer thrusts her hands into Kate's hair, nails scratching along her scalp. Her teeth are sharp where they press against Kate's bottom lip. There's a strange taste in her mouth, an undercurrent of something thick and magical that leaves Kate's tongue tingling.
By the time she hears the man walking behind them, Jennifer's leg is hooked around Kate's knee and Kate is pretty sure that they aren't pretending anymore.
"Now that's a show," the man mutters, chuckling lewdly. Kate can't stop her claws from popping out. They dig into Jennifer's hips and she groans against Kate's mouth.
"I need to kill him," Jennifer says, making it sound as essential as food or water. Kate stops to think for a moment, trying to ignore the fact that Jennifer's fingers are still entangled in her hair.
"You can have the final blow," she says after a moment. "If you let me have some fun with him first." Jennifer grins again, hips pressing forward against Kate's thigh.
"Just this once," she says. "And only if we can have some fun afterward." Kate smirks and leans in for another kiss, hitching Jennifer's leg up higher.
Bloodshed followed by sex. Now that sounds like an ideal way to spend the night.