Stake Out
It was about eight or nine in the evening and Joseph's eyes were beginning to droop. He'd been watching the building for hours now and so far there hadn't been any movement.
He yawned and reached out for the now cold coffee in a pale white styrofoam cup and grimaced as he swallowed. He could definitely think of better ways to be spending his evening than watching a building and drinking cold coffee. He'd seen maybe one or two vampires but so far nothing else. Maybe they'd moved their base of operation to somewhere else? God, he hoped not.
Joseph's eyes were drawn away from the building to the small box sitting on his dashboard. It was something he intended on giving Rhiannon for her birthday, even if he was several days late. It wasn't massive or in any way expensive but it was personal to him and it would go a long way to keeping her safe, the same way it had him for that year he'd spent away from Vegas.
The light from a nearby streetlight flickered on and off intermittently and dragged Joseph's attention away, eyes sliding up to catch the way it illuminated shadow and revealed the rest of the alley in which his car was parked. Creepy.
His hand crept for the gun he had resting on his thigh, hairs across the back of his neck beginning to stand on edge. Call it gut instinct but Joseph was pretty sure he wasn't alone. Call him jumpy but he was staking out the place where he'd rescued Ben from; he wasn't taking chances.
Not only was Joseph carrying a gun, he'd use it. So sneaking up on him wasn't on Rhiannon's list of things to try.
She figured he wouldn't mind her coming by, especially considering she was supposed to break into that building with him in a few days. It would pay off to know a little about what they were dealing with in advance. She had gone into places blind before, always thinking of it as a challenge, a kind of training for the unexpected. These days she had less of a death wish. Coming from behind him, she walked up quietly to keep from drawing too much attention to Joseph's car. When she got within the glow of the streetlight, she cleared her throat. Did he have his windows down? She put herself in line with his sideview mirror and held the thermos and brown bag up.
"Hey, it's just me." Catching his profile in the mirror, she smiled.
Joseph's eyebrow twitched and he chuckled softly. He leaned across and opened the passenger door, letting her into the car.
"You scared me." He shared with a wry smile, engaging the safety of the gun a second later before putting it to one side. "But it's good to see you." And now his smile softened into something warmer.
Rhiannon came around and got in the passenger side. "I scared you?" She closed the door and settled the thermos next to his parking brake and the bag on the dashboard. "A girl loves to hear that. The second part." She slowly leaned across and gave him a kiss hello, managing to restrict it to about five seconds, quite aware of their location and what he was doing there. But God, she really liked Joseph in cars. There was something about him and his gun and a leather seat that just...
Hmm.
"It's good to see you, too. I come bearing gifts." The smell of hot coffee wafted on the air.
Joseph kissed back and chuckled softly. "I'm a little jumpy." He lifted an eyebrow at the smell of hot coffee and grinned. "Have I told you how much I love you lately?" He stole the coffee and leaned in to give her a proper thank you kiss before pulling away.
"Welcome to my not very exciting stakeout," he muttered with a slanted smirk. "Fuck all is happening as far as I can tell, but maybe later on in the evening."
Rhiannon heard the last two sentences through a brain-haze. She was still stuck on the casual 'I love you' he'd thrown into the conversation. Uh no, you haven't, she thought. It was possible her face was paralyzed. She picked the bag back up, for no particular reason except that it made rustling sounds. "If you're jumpy, maybe I should've brought decaf," she said, pretending business as usual.
Leaning back in her seat, she brought her leg up and laid her ankle against the dashboard. "Not exciting is good, right? Otherwise it stops being a stakeout and starts being time to shit your pants." She aimed a grin at him and then watched the building up ahead.
"Lovely imagery, Rhiannon," Joseph muttered around a thick New York accent. "Really. You have a way with words." He shot her a teasing smile before turning his eyes back to the building. "I've counted about two vampires at most and all they've been doing is walking the perimeter."
He scratched at his neck and over the scar before sipping at his coffee again. "And just for the record it's either the real thing or nothing at all with me and coffee."
His eyes slid to the box sitting on the dashboard and he cleared his throat, nodding towards it. "That's your uh... belated birthday present."
"Oh, so you remembered I'm getting old." Rhiannon looked at the box but didn't reach for it immediately. Instead she kept her eyes on it and said, "You know it's weird, I don't know how to feel about aging. On the one hand, it's like... hey, I've defied the odds, twenty-five candles. On the other, it's... just weird because I don't think I ever really believed I'd make it this far. What if my knees start cracking when I kick things?"
Shaking her head at herself, she picked up the box and did the same to it. The contents rattled around. "Mmm... tic-tacs," she guessed, glancing over at Joseph. "No?"
Joseph glanced at Rhiannon and chuckled. "You aren't that old, Rhi." He lifted an arm and stretched it across the seats, letting the tips of his fingers massage the back of her neck. "You're still beautiful and I'm pretty sure you can still kick some serious ass so I don't think you've got a lot to worry about."
He smirked and offered a mock serious expression. "Yes, because I really think your breath smells." He laughed a second later and shook his head. "Not tic-tacs."
Joseph looked back at the building, more than a little nervous about the present.
"Good," Rhiannon fired at his profile. It took her a little time opening the present, because she'd always felt under the microscope in moments like those, and her fingers became clumsy. She lifted the lid away and pushed back the cotton. It was a rosary. Moreover, it was his.
At a literal loss for words, she stared at it. Something unnamed climbed up the back of Rhiannon's throat. Religion, specifically Catholicism, had played a role in both their lives. But in the beginning, when they first started out, both seemed to have relegated it to the past. Just a piece of their histories that they didn't talk about. Rhiannon's crosses were used for fighting. Joseph's seemed connected to his mother. And that was where it stopped.
Now it was different for her. Did he know that? Was it different for him, too?
She lifted the crucifix and strung the beads across her open palm. The silence in the car had weight. "Thank you," she said, letting her thumb trace over it. "Are you sure?" Rhiannon didn't look at him.
Joseph stole a look at her, just needing and wanting to see how she'd react to the present. It wasn't expensive and it wasn't something he bought in a store, but it was his and it meant something. Ever since his mother's death and his return to New York his faith had taken on a whole new dimension and he'd connected with it in ways he never had before.
He offered a soft smile and nodded his head. "I'm sure." It had kept him safe and restored everything that had seemed lacking in his life and he felt that out of everybody Rhiannon was the right person to give that to, the one person who would understand and appreciate just how much it meant.
"I didn't have one." Rhiannon wasn't sure if she'd remember how, but judging by the way the rosary beads had begun to pass through her hands, she knew it wouldn't take long. Ducking her head, she kissed it and delicately put it back in the box. She set it on the dashboard. "How do you always know?" Comfortable enough to look at him again, she leaned across the gear shift and caught his chin between her fingers. "It's perfect," she said. "You're perfect. I love it."
Rhiannon kissed his brow and went back to her side of the car. "Got something else," she said, returning to the bag. "It's ridiculous so prepare yourself." She glanced up at the building, saw that absolutely nothing had happened yet, and unrolled the top of the bag. Inside, two cupcakes were wrapped in wax paper. She pulled them out one at a time and used the dashboard for a table. Then she stuck a candle in each one. "You weren't here on your last birthday, and I seriously doubt you stopped to make a wish."
She held up the lighter, waiting for his okay before starting any fires on the stakeout. "You want to make one with me now?"
Joseph's eyes closed at her kiss and his lips settled into a content smile before he opened them, tipping his head to one side as a curious expression overcame his face. "How ridiculous is ridiculous?" He waited for the rustling of the bag to stop and gave a soft laugh as she revealed the cupcakes.
"I'd like that," he assured her with a nod of his head. God, he couldn't even remember his last birthday. He tried but there was just nothing there, maybe he'd forgotten about it altogether? He glanced at the building and once he was sure that nothing was happening he allowed his focus to shift from it to Rhiannon.
She took that as a go and lit the wick of each candle. "Okay, birthday boy. Here's your cupcake." Rhiannon passed it to him and licked a smudge of icing off her knuckle. "Make it count." With hers in hand, she watched the wax bead and drip down the candle stem. What to wish for... what to wish for... Lately there were more options, and not all of them were about slaying. Most, but not all. She curled up and turned on her seat to face her... boyfriend? Lover? Definite significant other.
The candles filled the car with warmth. Minding where they were, Rhiannon closed her eyes and blew out the candle.
Joseph took his cupcake and regarded it for a moment, letting the orange colour of the flame bathe his face. He glanced at Rhiannon briefly then he took a breath, finding a wish and holding onto it, before he exhaled and let the candle go out.
"Here's hoping they come true." He smiled and plucked the candle out of the middle of his cupcake.
"Seriously. I could really use a new car." She peeled the paper off her cupcake and tried not to laugh. That was the thing about her. She didn't smile often, but when she felt one coming on, it was almost impossible to hold a poker face. And she always found herself cracking jokes around Joseph.
Rhiannon bit the top of her cupcake and couldn't help but notice how weird it was, to be sitting in a car with a loaded gun -- probably more than one -- outside a nest of bloodsucking demons, having dessert.
Joseph snorted and swept his thumb through the icing, to get a taste of the flavour, before he took a bite out of the cupcake. "This stakeout is turning out better than I thought it would," he noted after having swallowed the cupcake. "Was sure my night would be spent drinking cold coffee and trying not to fall asleep."
"Ohhhh, no, falling asleep would be bad," Rhiannon said, still hanging onto part of her cupcake. The icing was sweet. "Pretty sure I'm not the only one who'd like to bite your neck right now." She took another mouthful of the cupcake instead, thinking to herself that it wasn't an adequate substitute. The paper shell was folded in on itself and dropped into the brown bag. She wiped her hands together. Outside the car, the neighborhood was quiet and the streetlight continued to flicker.
Joseph continued to eat what remained of his cupcake before licking away a piece of icing clinging to the knuckle of his thumb. "Thankfully I have hot coffee now and sugar in my system." He offered her a smile and picked up his coffee, taking a sip of it. "I'm not sure what I hate more. Crazy hectic noise or silence."
Sliding into the bucket seat, Rhiannon gave what was probably a rhetorical question some consideration. "I think it depends on what's on my mind. Sometimes it'd be great if it was too loud to think. I think too much." The brunette wanted a cigarette but figured between the coffee, the food, and their human scents, they'd put enough evidence of their presence in the air. She watched as a man came around the far corner, eager to see if he went into the right building. But he got into a car instead. Probably a good thing, considering the vampires that Joseph had seen coming out to watch the perimeter. Very few would turn down a convenient snack.
"Except when it counts," she added on. "It's strange how I can turn something over in my head a million times, and when it comes down to it, I still go with my gut. What was the point, you know? Just to make my head explode?" Like the deal with Atia. Her thoughts cautioned her to be wise, but Rhiannon knew it was a waste of time. She'd do shit anyway. "You're my only off-button," she said. "Peace even when we're not being quiet."
Joseph tipped his head to glance at Rhiannon out of the corner of his eye then turned back to the building, figuring he needed to give that his attention for the moment. He sipped at his coffee then reached down to scratch at his knee, right through the tear of denim.
"I'm guilty of that myself. Overthinking everything." He shook his head and scratched at his neck. "But like you I always go with my gut. Never steered me wrong." He leaned across and pressed his lips to her temple. "I'm glad." He drew back and caught her eyes. "Wouldn't want that to be one sided." His lips tugged into a smile then his eyes went back to the building as he saw movement.
"Hey," he muttered. Up ahead the vampires seemed to be ushering two semi-conscious men into the building. "Looks like they've got themselves some new victims."
The brunette's spine straightened and she went into a more upright position in the car. Speaking of on- and off-buttons, her fight reflexes were kicking into gear. She wondered over the chances of getting to those men before the door shut on the building. How many vampires would come out of the woodwork when they heard a brawl? It would definitely alert them that their hideaway wasn't any secret anymore. They'd probably be on the move after that, and Joseph would've lost his chance to save the lives inside.
She told herself to cool it, and reminded herself that they were farming blood in there. The vamps probably wouldn't kill them outright, not yet.
"Are those the same vamps you saw earlier?" Rhiannon asked, keeping her voice low. "Trying to get a head-count. I don't suppose that guy you rescued saw how many are in there?"
"They're new," Joseph muttered as he watched them disappearing into the building. "I tried talking to Ben but he was pretty out of it, says he can't remember much."
He rummaged out his phone and sent a text off. "Maybe his mother can get a definite number for us." Joseph looked over at Rhiannon. "From what I remember they tend to keep the victims all on one floor. Machines are set up there."
Rhiannon braced her palms against the dashboard. "God, what's the deal with vamps and technology? They're getting sophisticated. It probably looks like a dialysis clinic up there." She tried to picture what it would be like. The smell of blood, the sounds of machines and people in pain. Probably like a regular hospital then, except with bad bedside manners. All it took was one vamp siring a doctor, and all the sudden, it was open season for blood robbery.
She itched to get out of the car, but didn't. They hadn't brought the right weapons.
"If we see a vamp come back to base camp by himself, we ought to grab him, drive off, and beat the answers out of him. They'll probably just figure he got picked off by a slayer on patrol." She wasn't sure if she was serious or not. It depended on how much Joseph wanted to keep this thing under wraps. Any time you took one out, it roused suspicion.
"It's living in Vegas," Joseph commented. "Can't live in a town like this and not get aspirations."
He glanced back at the building and then gave Rhiannon's idea some thought. "You know that doesn't sound like a bad idea." He reached up and pushed his fingers through his hair. "I shot one when I rescued Ben and nobody came after me. Guess they figure their operation is too important to waste time on the likes of me." His lips tugged into a smirk.
"Which means they're either uninformed or stupid." She shifted around on the leather seat to look out the back windowshield. "The good news is, we've got a plan. The bad news is, expendable men means they've got plenty of company in there." Rhiannon got a good look at the empty street and turned back around. "So now we wait." A couple of seconds passed by while Rhiannon's forehead wrinkled. "Hey... did you get anything weird delivered to your house lately?"
"Weird?" Joseph asked. "What kind of weird?" He glanced at her and then looked away, watching the building for any more signs of movement.
"Like... government-issued with a seal?" Rhiannon reached for his coffee cup and took a sip. It was bitter. "Because I did. And the only thing missing was the Uncle Sam recruiting poster. You know, the one where he's pointing?" She would've demonstrated it, but she was busy putting the cup down. "I was hoping it was a joke." At least then, she could dump it in the trash, right alongside her pre-approved credit card offers.
Joseph frowned for a moment, and then it was like a light went off. "Yeah, I got that." He rotated his thumb ring and glanced at Rhiannon. "I think I put it in the trashcan. Figured it was a prank or bullshit." He shrugged his shoulders and picked up his coffee, taking a sip of it to taste both coffee and Rhiannon.
"I guess not." She watched his profile for a reaction. "I guess that rules out really elaborate surprise party. Are you going?" Needing something to fiddle with, she picked up her present box again and opened it. This time, she wound the beads around her wrist. The cross swung underneath and cast a moving shadow on her pant leg.
Joseph's finger strayed to his eyebrow and ran the length of it. "I might." He looked over at her. "I'm not real big on listening to authority, but you know that." He smirked and turned away, sipping at his coffee again. "Won't hurt to be in the know. What about you?"
"I might." Rhiannon looked out the front of the car. The streetlight flickered, bathing the alley in orange and shadow. "I'll keep my ears open at the bar. Maybe I'll-- wait, did you hear something?" Sitting forward again, the Slayer tipped her head, a natural gesture without much practical use. "Feet."
Joseph did much the same. "I hear that." His hand went to the gun again and he waited to see if the sound passed them by or turned towards them.
From the crescendo, it sounded like the steps were coming closer. Soon enough there was a shadow to go along with them, and then a man's form taking shape under the streetlamp. "Do you wanna do this?" Rhiannon whispered. " 'Cause that guy's a walking corpse. Look. He's still got his game face on... Guess he got hungry on the way back." Rhiannon reached into her coat and touched the stake, just to make sure it was there.
She felt along the door for the handle, but didn't pull it yet. It would make the interior light come on. "Get out and ask him for directions," she suggested, sliding low in her seat. "I'll slip around behind him." If it went according to plan, they could haul him into the car without a lot of fuss and get out of there before anybody noticed.
Joseph nodded his head, slipping the gun into the waistband of his jeans before he got out of the car. He instantly fell into this easy all too perfect act of a completely lost and very vulnerable guy. Nothing like the Joseph Rhiannon knew. Joseph slipped in and out of guises easily, it was only the people closest to him that got to see the real him.
"Hey, so sorry about this but I am totally lost." He even affected a thicker accent, to clearly show he was from out of town and therefore he had plausible reason for being as out of his depth as he was. Joseph even moved so that his neck was on display, trying to tempt the vampire that much closer to him.
It worked; the vampire approached Joseph with all the intents of ripping his throat out.
When his door opened, Rhiannon pulled the handle on hers. She went low and squeezed out of the narrow space. Her shoes were quiet on the asphalt. Staying down, she crept around the back end of the car, all the way to the trunk. Overhead, she could see the vampire advancing on Joseph. His fangs were on full display. Rhiannon broke into a hunkered-down run and came around the driver's side. She brought her fists overhead in a hammer and pounded them on the back of the vamp.
He crumpled, mostly likely a factor of being startled. Before he could regain his senses, the Slayer took him to the ground and grabbed his hair. She slammed his temple into the pavement.
"Okay..," she said, looking up at Joseph. "I think he's good and dazed." A wet-sounding groan rose up from the pavement. Strings of saliva hung off the vampire's teeth. Rhiannon tipped her head at the vehicle. "Back seat or trunk?"
Joseph watched Rhiannon work with an appreciative eye. He always loved watching her in action.
"I think backseat," he commented as he took a look at the vampire and then at his car. "Least that way if we need to we can keep him under control." Or as much control as you could exhibit over a supernatural creature like a vampire.
She nodded and got up. "Good thinking." It wouldn't pay to have him coming to his senses and jumping out of the trunk like a jack-in-the-box. Rhiannon opened the door and hauled the vampire off the ground by his pants and the back of his jacket. She slung him onto the leather seat, folded his legs, and climbed back there with him. "Ready when you are." She shut the door and tried to make herself comfortable sitting on the mostly-prone body. "Don't forget my front door's open," she pointed out.
From there, she let him take over. She had a feeling Joseph needed interrogation locations more often.
Joseph slid in behind the wheel and nodded his head, starting the engine and pulling away from the alley. He knew this quiet little abandoned apartment block that he'd used on more than one occasion. It would be perfect for what they needed to do.
Hopefully the vampire told them what they wanted and needed to know. But if not, well, Joseph had creative ways to make people and monsters talk.
Hanging onto the handle above the door, Rhiannon watched the alley while they drove off, and was gratified when no other vampires came running out the door. The captive in the backseat stirred once. She leaned over and smashed her elbow onto the gash on his temple, eliciting a snarl of pain. Any harder, and he wouldn't be awake when Joseph was ready to start asking questions. She figured her biggest role in this was restraint and disposal, two things she was very good at. "Is it far?"
Joseph glanced in his rearview mirror and shook his head. "Ten to fifteen minutes at most." Turns out his choice of interrogation location happened to be in the same neighhbourhood. Go figure. He eased the car into a right turn and glanced in his mirror, to check the area they'd just driven away from.
The Slayer nodded and kept a palm on the vampire's head, pressing it into the seat. "Just don't get pulled over," she teased. "I don't know how I'd explain this."
Joseph chuckled at that. "Pretty sure you could come up with something." He checked his mirrors before changing lanes, taking the car off the main street and through a couple smaller ones.
"Ahh... violent kink?" Rhiannon asked dubiously. She doubted, 'He was mugged and we're taking him to the hospital,' would fly. One of the vampire's hands twitched and began to feel around the back seat. Switching positions, she climbed on his body and put her knee into the base of his spine. "He's coming to." Rhiannon bent the demon's arms up behind him and held on. "I don't know whether to be relieved or disappointed you don't have any rope in the trunk."
She looked at the window at the streets they passed. Every bump in the road or turn meant she had to dig her foot into the floorboard, just to hold herself in place.
"I'd say go with relieved," Joseph answered with a laugh. He tried to make the ride as smooth as possible and it wasn't long until he was drawing up in front of an abandoned building. "This is it."
He stepped out of the car and opened up the back for Rhiannon before wandering around to his trunk. He might not have rope but he had a lot of other things. Joseph lifted away the flat base and dipped into his mass of illegal things.
"You think a taser would help with keeping him subdued?" The less said about where he'd gotten that particular weapon the better.
Rhiannon backed out of the car and hauled the vampire with her. Once he got his feet on the ground, he began to struggle, if a bit drunkenly, and the growls he made echoed down the block. She kicked the back of a knee and wrestled him into a crouch. Rhiannon felt her stomach churn. "Remind me to tell you why I don't do taser," she said, taking her anger out on the demon's arm. Something popped. "Don't worry about it, I can handle him. Where are we doing this?" One mention of the subduing weapon had completely killed her wish for restraints. She'd do it the hard way.
"Yeah, I will." Joseph had seen a flash of something across Rhiannon's face, but it had been gone in an instant. He tossed the taser back into his trunk and closed it, making sure to lock the door before gesturing. "Follow me. It's two doors down and one flight up."
Joseph led the way confidently. Clearly he'd been here many times in the past, he didn't even need a light to guide him.
The place itself was a mess, debris scattered everywhere, wallpaper hanging off walls that had clearly seen better days and broken windows as far as the eye could see. It was the perfect location.
It would've been easier to manage the vampire if she could've knocked him out for a while, but the interrogation was going to happen now, so Rhiannon muscled the vampire's resisting body up the stairs and into the shoddy apartment. "Nice place." She looked around and dragged the vampire into what looked like the living room. Once there, she knocked him to his knees and remained behind him. His wrists were locked in one of her hands. Any twisting would break the bones or pop his shoulders out of the sockets.
Rhiannon fished the stake out of her jacket and stuck the point against his chest. "You move, you're dust. You with me?" She looked at Joseph. "Your turn."
Joseph was busy in one corner, sliding his jacket off and folding his sleeves up with meticulous attention to detail. He was a different man now, slow and calculated in the way that he moved.
He turned and offered Rhiannon a smile. "Thanks." He caught a nearby chair and dragged it over, spinning it on a leg until he was able to settle it in front of the vampire.
"Hi," he began. "My name's Joseph and this is a very simple deal. You tell me what I want to know or you experience pain you never thought imaginable. Maybe I don't seem like so much of a threat but you see the beautiful brunette behind you? Well, she can take you apart piece by piece." He leaned in that much closer. "You really don't want to piss her off."
The vampire snarled and made a gesture before catching himself on Rhiannon's grip. "You can kill me, I ain't telling you shit."
Joseph snorted before he reached into his pocket and held up a vial of holy water. "I have this priest friend and he gave me this to keep with me. You know in case I should ever have need of it." He tipped his head and the vial along with it until the water crept that much closer to the lid. "I hear this stings like a bitch when it gets on vampire skin."
He contemplated the vial then looked up at Rhiannon. "What do you think would happen if a vampire ended up swallowing it?"
Repocketing the stake, the brunette reached around and caught the vampire by the jaw. He rolled his head back and forth, but if she squeezed his face, she was able to pry his mouth apart. It wasn't wide but it was enough. "I dunno," she answered. "Really bad indigestion? We could try." In reality, it would eat the demon from the inside out. Even a little bit of holy water would burn his tongue so badly, he'd hardly be able to talk. But he didn't know that. He'd probably never seen it done.
The vampire's eyes darted from Rhiannon to Joseph then back again, panic quite clear in the depths.
"You can't!" It managed to spit out from around Rhiannon's vicelike grip.
Joseph gave a small laugh. "Oh, we can." He twisted the lid off the holy water and lifted his eyebrows. "Unless you answer my questions."
The vampire looked at Joseph, looking to see if he was serious and when he was met with nothing less than complete seriousness he began to realise what a messed up situation he was in. "Whaddaya know?"
Joseph recapped the lid. "First of all, how many of you are there in that building?"
"Five or six, depending."
"On what?"
"How many people we got upstairs."
Joseph nodded. "We saw you bring in two so how many vampires would there be in that building right now?"
The vampire hesitated so Joseph allowed the smallest drop of holy water to land on the vampire's face. The empty space around them was filled with the sounds of sizzling flesh and painful cries. "Answer me," Joseph all but growled.
"Five! Okay?!"
Joseph tucked the vial away in his pocket. "What floor are they keeping the two men on?"
The vampire was silent but then spoke, "Keeping them on the second floor, alright?"
Rhiannon shook her head. "Jesus, you're a lightweight," she derided. "You know you're getting staked and sent to hell. What's a little torture first?" She guessed she shouldn't be surprised. Any nocturnal creature that wouldn't hunt for its meals -- instead, kept it tied down on a system of tubes -- was probably lacking in the tolerance for violence category. She cranked a brow up at Joseph and maintained her grip. "Anything else you want to know?" She tossed him the stake.
Joseph caught the stake and moved the chair, crouching down to look the vampire in the eye. "Entrances and exits, which are covered?"
The vampire pulled its lips apart at Rhiannon before turning back to Joseph. "I'm done talking. You might as well stake me now."
Joseph rolled his eyes. "Now you get brave." He flipped the stake in his hand then took a breath before he drove it into the vampire's chest. It was a weird thing, to watch something disintegrate around your hands. He was so used to blood and just... death, not dust where a body should have been.
It was almost surreal.
Rhiannon felt the wrists and jaw crumble in her grip. She stepped back and brushed her hands together. "Well, I'd say that was helpful. Five vampires... easy enough, unless this asshole was lying." She rubbed her hands on her jeans and stuck her thumbs in her hip pockets. Looking at Joseph, she wondered if it'd been a long time since he staked one. Thinking back, she couldn't recall how many, if any, he had taken out. Joseph usually dealt with the ugly side of humanity, not the underworld. "You okay?"
Joseph brushed his hand off on his jeans and gave a vague nod of his head. "Yeah, just not used to dust is all." His lips twitched into a wry smile before his fingers hooked in a beltloop of her jeans and he tugged her forward. "Thank you for tonight and I know it's late but happy birthday." He leaned down and kissed her slowly, just taking his time and ignoring the fact they were in an abandoned building with a pile of dust at their feet.
A noise came from the back of her throat. She reached up and cupped her hand behind his neck. From calculated to sensual in ten seconds flat, that's how he was. Rhiannon kissed him in earnest, feeling herself rise on her toes to make sure their mouths fit just like she wanted. When they parted she said, "Better late than never," and went in for another. In the back of her mind -- that part that wasn't thinking about the lips on hers -- she flipped back to earlier and what he said so casually. Maybe some night in the future, she'd get up the nerve to ask him if he was in love with her again. Maybe she'd get up the nerve to answer it for herself.
"Ready to go?" she asked.
Joseph's hand flexed in her hair as it had somehow gravitated to there, like it seemed to.
"Definitely," he murmured in response against her mouth. "Let's get the hell out of here."
His hand dropped to her waist and curled around her hip. "C'mon, beautiful."