This corner has a vampire around it!

He's got somebody shoved up against the wall of an alley with his hand down their pants and his teeth in their throat. The individual in question does not look happy to be here.

...well they could! Does this guy not know how vampires work? Does he have to rape as well as eat?

That's thoughts in parallel to the already practised motions of her body, though. Like clockwork, one-two, the stake is being thrown at the vampire with supernatural precision and another one is being grabbed from her belt—the angle is wrong for killing but should be good for hurting—

—except that at just the last moment, the vampire spins, and the stake catches his victim in the shoulder. He takes the time to give his attacker a mildly perturbed look, still holding the now-screaming human up as a shield against further projectiles.

Oh come the fuck on!

It's fine, anyway, she's going at this like clockwork, body faster than mind, one-two her feet pump her onto a wall and she steps against it to try to get an angle as she gets closer to the vampire...

Hmm... nope.

He tosses his victim aside, and there's a crunch and another, louder scream, and then he's leaping into the air to meet her charge. He moves with a grace and power that mask his speed—at a glance he looks like he's floating lazily through the air, but he's faster than even a vampire has any right to be. And still accelerating. Can he fly?

What the actual fuck. He's a witch? How the hell did they miss a witch vampire???

She tries to twist out of the way and throw a stake at him again, while pressing three buttons simultaneously on some electronic device attached to her belt. "Requesting backup, vampire witch, priority three."

He laughs, batting the stake aside with a careless wave of his hand.

"Are you sure you want to invite your friends to this party? I don't think they'll have much fun."

His accent is unfamiliar, sort of broadly European but not congruent with any specific identifiable country. Her twist succeeds in sidestepping his trajectory, but he reaches out on the way past and playfully taps the end of her nose, just to demonstrate the degree to which he is toying with her. Then he catches the wall, turns, and hovers weightlessly for a moment, with the fingertips of one hand lightly touching the rough brick. His face reverts to its human shape.

...okay, she is thoroughly outclassed here. Better stall for time.

"You do know you can make biting fun rather than painful, right?" she asks, landing lightly on her two feet and not making any more hostile moves.

He drops to the ground as soon as she does, but there's something in the way he's standing that still implies that weightless grace. "Why, would you like to try it?"

"I mean, if you don't kill me afterwards, I'm not too opposed. Especially if you also mix the pain in, both together sounds like a lot of fun." She turns to look at the victim. Are they still alive?

"Suits me," he says, cheerfully.

The victim is lying on the ground moaning in pain with a broken arm and a stake through their shoulder, but doesn't seem dead or in immediate danger of dying.

And they're gonna need some amnestics to boot. What a headache.

"I'm sure it does. Tell me, how come I've never heard of you?"

"I'm not really famous. Keep to myself, mostly, except for the occasional hunt."

He gives her a considering look.

"Want to come back to my hotel room? I promise you'll live."

The vampire hunter opens her mouth, then closes it and hums thoughtfully. Why should I trust you? she was going to ask, but... there's something about him.

She glances at the victim again. "What about our friend over here?"

He shrugs. "Can't your backup deal with them?"

"Just wondering whether you had any plans to be trouble for my backup. Who should be arriving in about a minute and forty seconds if I don't miss my counting."

"Oh, I was thinking I'd just be gone by the time they show up." He holds out his hand, almost as though asking for a dance. "You coming?"

How could I say no?

Oh, I sure hope I am.

That sounds like an exceedingly stupid idea.

Instead of saying any of those things, she merely steps forward—not quite as gracefully as he does, but nearly so—and takes his hand.

He grins.

And—

The pair of them dissolve into the air and fly away.

It doesn't hurt, but it sort of feels like it should. There's a lot of sensation, none of it connected to a body—the ripple-flutter of whipping wind, lights streaking by below them as they gust through the streets, the indescribable sensation of air sliding past other air when you yourself are some of that air.

The journey ends, an uncertain amount of time later, when they dart in the window of an expensive hotel room and rematerialize standing next to the bed.

Serafin's clothes accompanied them on this journey; Jaqueline's did not.

Their hands are still linked, and he's still grinning.

"—hey! I needed to warn my backup I wasn't coming back tonight!" She doesn't seem otherwise bothered by the nudity.

Amused: "Should've said something beforehand, then."

"I'm sure you can make my comm reappear for a minute so I can tell them that." She folds her arms in a way that seems almost designed to highlight her breasts, and pouts just a little bit.

"I could, but I'd have to go back for it, and windriding's not instant, they're probably already there. Will the room phone do?"

"Sure, why not."

He shrugs and gestures at the phone on the bedside table.