Seven Devils

When Madeleine could no longer stare at her iPad, bidding on numerous art pieces in an online auction, she let out a quiet sigh and sat back in his seat. She much preferred visiting actual galleries and making her purchases, it was easier to check the authenticity, and to glamour the seller into lowering the price. She didn’t have a fortune, by any means, but she had enough to live quite comfortably for a number of years. Granted being a vampire did reduce the amount of spending one had to do - she still had to rebuild her life every so often when she was driven out of a location by hunters.

She was putting her foot down with Daniel, however — mainly because it was humorous to see the surly hunter get frustrated. Smiling softly to herself at the thought, she finally glanced around at the other patrons. Couples enjoying a late night coffee, students attempting to keep their study group on track, maybe a writer or blogger, and… the man closest to her small table, drawing.

Maddie couldn’t help but snoop, in the most innocent way possible. She stood up, pretended to throw away her drink that she had pretended to take the occasional sip from - glancing down at the paper as she passed by. Twice.

“That is quite good,” she finally spoke up on the way back, offering him a little encouraging smile. Maddie’s accent was thick, and undeniably French. With her vintage-looking pencil dress she looked like some sort of business woman or realtor - but she was neither. Just a vampire.

And given she was unable to hear his heartbeat, she assumed he was one, as well.

---

Vincent had been taking time to get familiar with Seven Devils and more importantly all avenues whereby his Sire could sneak up on him when he least expected it, taking out insurance to make sure that in the event that it happened that he’d be safe and could get the hell out of dodge quickly. He’d thought Vegas was the place, the safety net he’d been looking for, but he’d been wrong in so many ways.

He’d eventually stepped away from the room he was renting to grab a coffee, take in the sights but more importantly unwind and relax by casually sketching his surroundings.

Of course for somebody like Vincent whose continued existence relied on hypervigilance he’d already noticed the petite brunette who had passed by him not once but twice though he’d said nothing just waited to see what would happen. Also maybe hoping and praying she wasn’t an agent of Alberto’s given the distinct lack of a heartbeat.

At her compliment which honestly sounded so much better with that accent Vincent lifted his head to offer her a slow relaxed smile. “Thanks, it’s a hobby more than anything else. Helps me relax.”

---

Not all vampires cared for kindness, or any sort of camaraderie — a lesson Maddie had learnt the hard way over the years. The smile she got in response was reassuring, at the very least, and so she didn’t make a rush to get back to her table.

“Do you have any more?” she nodded encouragingly toward the sketchpad.

Although, she understood that some artists kept their work very private and realized how forward a request it may have been. Especially from a stranger in a cafe. “I’m sorry,” Madeleine spoke softly, her hand lifting to rest over her chest for a moment in sincerity. “You don’t have to show me, I’m just a nosy art dealer, is all,” she said, offering a simple way out if he would rather not share.

---

Vincent was thankfully not one of those vampires as he might have been turned into a “monster” but that didn’t mean he had to act like one. He had the ability to affect that much in his life after all and as he was going to live a very long time (no bad encounters with Hunters aside) then it made sense to have one worth living.

“A few,” he admitted ruefully as he offered his sketch pad to the other vampire. It was a mixture of different subjects with a range of materials used from pencils to chalk, watercolour and charcoal. It was clearly a passion and one he was quite talented in, thankfully. No stick figures for him.

Belatedly he realised that introductions had not been given and he leaned forward to offer his hand. “I’m Vincent by the way.”

---

She hid her surprise well as he handed her the book, taking it as if he had just passed her a child. The range of materials and subjects was impressive as she slowly began to flip through, considering each page for a decent amount of time. She was careful not to smudge anything as she gandered. “Very good” she told him again, in French.

Maddie graciously accepted the interruption as she reached out with her equally cold hand to shake his. “Madeleine,” she smiled softly.

Letting go of his hand, she gingerly took a seat across from him at his table, placing the sketchbook in front of her as she continued to browse. “Do you ever dabble in oil paintings?” she couldn’t help but ask.

---

If she hadn’t joined him at his table Vincent would have invited her because well it was nice to speak to another vampire who wasn’t immediately hostile or wary. “I do actually,” he said with a smile. “Mostly at home because well it’s not the easiest thing to do on the go and I like big canvases.” Well that and sculpture, his passion was definitely with that, but he also enjoyed the drawing as well as everything about art really. Perhaps he might have been an artist or something to do with that creativity in another life?

“It’s nice to meet you, Madeline.”

And he meant that even if connections were dangerous, for him and for those he got attached to, but that was a concern for another day.

“How long have you been in the world of art dealing?”

---

She smiled brightly at his answer. “Well if you are ever wanting to sell any, do let me know,” Maddie insisted. Although, she couldn’t help but think for vampires that art was a little different, especially when produced by your own hand. Like an extension of the soul.

“And you,” she replied genuinely. Madeleine had to actually think back at when she really started to become focus on hunting down Nazi paintings to destroy, which led to her immersing herself into the art world. “Since the early 60’s,” Maddie told him. Pausing, she smiled bashfully in realization that they were vampires and that the decade could really belong to any century. “The 1960’s. I was turned a little bit before that.”

She finished the book and carefully passed it back to him across the table. “What about you, how long have you been drawing?”

---

“I’d never considered that,” Vincent admitted with a rueful smile. “Guess I always figured I wouldn’t be able to stack up against some of the most talented artists in the world.” He accepted the book as carefully as it was given back to him and leaned to the right to place it in his nearby bag, it would be rude to keep drawing while he had company.

How long had he been drawing? It felt like an eternity but then time was all relative when you were a vampire.

“Well, take it from me, you look amazing for it.” Genuine compliment coupled with a warm smile, Vincent wasn’t lying that much was obvious. “And as for me? Well…” He glanced around at their surroundings before proceeding to lean in to drop his voice to a whisper as if sharing a very important secret. “Since I was about six or seven, which was approximately 150 or so years ago.”

---

She gave him an enthusiastic nod. “Art is subjective,” Maddie told him in a sing-song sort of way.

Maddie’s dimples deepened in her cheeks at the compliment; she couldn’t help but take it with a bit of vampire humor. “Thank you. Certainly not bad for 102,” she said in a hushed but joking tone. Though she had to admit that for 150 he gave her hope that she wouldn’t sour to life too soon. Granted, she would try her best not to grow darker as time went on, but she imagined for vampires it became inevitable. How many times could you watch your friends wither and die? And how long could you truly keep yourself isolated without losing part of yourself?

“I try not to associate with a lot of our kind,” she admitted freely with a small shrug. “By choice. In my past experience not all have been as friendly,” Madeleine explained. That was putting it lightly, as most had hidden motives she didn’t care for or were so detached from humanity that she couldn’t help but draw comparisons to the monsters of her past.

---

Vincent glanced away momentarily as she mentioned how others of their kind were not exactly friendly and she wasn’t wrong. There was something about being turned into a vampire and living for centuries at a time that seemed to strip away everything that had been good and right about them. Worst when the person turned hadn’t been a very nice person to begin with.

“I know the feeling,” he assured her as he finally looked back at her. “I mean, I’ve been fortunate, I’ve found some really good ones but I’ve known more than my fair share of ones that make me want to avoid our kind as much as is physically possible.”

His Sire being one of those kind.

“But,” he said as he tipped his head and regarded Maddie closely, “You seem to be a good one.”

---

Her luck had been the same as his, it seemed. Very few she met were actually pleasant to deal with. It was reassuring to hear it from Vincent, though, that he had had similar luck. It made her feel less like an outsider. Not that she really enjoyed counting herself among their kind. Maddie’s expression softened at his regard. She glanced down at the table for a moment, as if a sudden replay of all the terrible unjustified things she’d done, ran through her mind. “Thank you. I try to be,” she told him insistently. “Although, it’s a lot easier to say than to actually convince anyone of that.”

Case in point; Daniel the hunter.

“I didn’t have the best maker,” she told him. And that was putting it extremely lightly. “I made a promise to myself I would never be like him.”

---

“Some people are-” Vincent stopped as he tried to find the right words. “Stuck in their ways, convinced that what they know is the only thing worth knowing, and I’ll be honest I stopped trying with those kinds of people a long time ago.”

His hand flexed restlessly around the cup of cooling coffee in his hand when she mentioned her maker and how she like him hadn’t had the best maker which was strangely reassuring in a lot of ways to know that he wasn’t the only one.

“I know the feeling,” he offered softly. “Mine’s a monster.”

---

Madeleine nodded in agreement. "For the better, I'm sure," she added. "Our lives are long but not to be wasted on trying to change others."

She tilted her head a little when he said his maker was a monster. Perhaps they had a lot more in common than just an interest in art.

"Maybe it's a good thing, that our makers were so terrible? If it produces others that aim to do better," Maddie began to say but let her words fall flat, pulling a slight face that revealed just how uncomfortable it was to say. "I'm sorry, I was trying to find the positive but.. I hate that my life was stolen from me, and I try to make them pay for it," she admitted in a moment of genuine transparency.

---

“You may have a point there.” He’d never thought of it that way but he knew he hated Alberto for what he had done and what he’d done to him burning several regrettable memories into his memory for the rest of his long life.

He watched Maddie closely and frowned when it became clear that she was revisiting an unpleasant feeling associated with the memory of having been turned against her will. Vincent could understand given how he was turned.

“I understand that,” he assured her quietly. “I just try to stay one step ahead of my Sire.” It basically meant he’d been running for a very long time.

---

Maddie offered him a ginger smile, knowing the troubles of outrunning a Maker. “I’m much more comfortable with being three,” she said jokingly, though she was quite serious in keeping a distance.

“And you don’t seem that bad, either,” she finally returned the compliment. Her judgement was a bit more reserved but surely a vampire who wasn’t fond of their sire either was genuinely trying to be good.

She leaned in somewhat, her voice in a hushed tone. “Do you mind if I ask why you’ve found yourself here?” It was a small, charming town in its own way - but it didn’t have much. Not for them, really.

---

Now that was the question, wasn’t it? Vincent had been reticent about sharing his real reason for why he’d left Vegas in his rear view mirror but then not everybody was a vampire and not everybody had the same experience of a Sire as he did.

“He found me,” he shared in a hushed tone of his own. “My Sire that is and he tends to send a message when he does. I couldn’t take the risk with the people I cared about.”

He figured that would say enough or it would to Maddie who had similar experience.

---

Her head canted lightly as she looked at the other vampire across from her with a somewhat worried sympathy. Maddie dreaded running into her Maker again, for the exact reasons that Vincent did. “I’m sorry you had to run,” she told him genuinely. It was something she found herself doing often. So much that she couldn’t remember the last time she’d been in a place as long as Seven Devils.

“Sometimes it’s easier not to have anyone you care about,” she stated sadly, pausing to glance down at the table. “But that’s not really a life, even an undead one.”

Maddie looked up at him once more. “If he finds you here, you’re welcome to my home until you can get out safe,” she informed him with a soft smile. It was the least she could do, given they shared a common terror. “It’s not as secure as a human’s,” she added in a whisper, given no invitation was needed to enter, “but it’s enough out of the way. And I am not helpless.”

---

Her offer of help took Vincent by surprise as they’d only just met and yet she was willing to give him someplace safe to stay if Alberto did turn up in Seven Devils. Hopefully he wouldn’t, but to know he had somewhere to go was a weight off his mind.

“Thank you,” he offered genuinely with a slow smile. “I appreciate the offer and whilst I hope I never have to take you up on your kind invitation I will definitely remember it.”

He picked up his cup and lifted it in a mock toast. “Here’s to both of us being free for as long as possible.”

---

It was a terrifying thought, to be caught completely off guard by your monster of a Maker, and be cornered. She had had a couple instances where she was sure that Josef had her, and that she would once again be under his thumb, but with the kindness of strangers she’d managed to get away.

The least she could do was try to pay that forward somehow.

Maddie had thrown her cup away but she gave him a solemn nod in agreement to the gesture before smiling.

She leaned forward a little again, her curiosity peaking but this time not about his age or art. “Do you ever.. Struggle?” she asked gently. With cravings, with crowds - with anything really. She clearly wasn’t the only one with a horrible turning; she couldn’t be the only one who occasionally faltered.

---

“Yes,” he admitted honestly. “I definitely have those moments.” Not as many as some, thankfully, but murdering your own mother due to an overwhelming and undeniable hunger that had been far outside of his control. “I think that’s unfortunately part of who we are now. All we can do is try and be better than our impulses, I guess.”

He finished off what was left in his cup and pushed it aside as he glanced over at the hustle and bustle which filled the small coffee shop.

“It’s hard to remember who you were before… well, this.”

He exhaled a breath he didn’t really need and turned his head back round to look at Maddie. “But as long as you have the right people around you it’s easier.”

---

It was a relief to hear him say it.

“As the years go by, yes,” she agreed with a small nod. Before being turned, even before the war, she was a bright young woman who would have had some form of scholarly career ahead of her - proud to watch her brother grow up and forge a path for himself. As she got older she couldn’t help but feel like she lost more and more of herself - which was probably a big part of why she so desperately needed closure in regard to her brother.

Madeleine brought her attention back to Vincent and smiled warmly. “Keeping them around is a lot harder sometimes,” she insisted out of experience as she reached for the napkin that he hadn’t used. “Oh! here—”

A quick “May I?” in regard to his pencil before she borrowed it briefly to write her number and her address on the napkin. Not daring to even consider taking up even the tiniest precious corner of the sketchbook he’d put away.

“If you ever need it,” she said as she finished writing, placing the pencil back on the napkin and sliding it across the table to him.

---

“No disagreement from me on that front.” Especially if you were dumb enough to get attached to those with a mortal lifespan. Honestly the pain was indescribable, it really was. He tipped his head and watched with some amusement as Maddie used the napkin and not his sketchbook to note down her number and address.

He was honestly surprised and taken aback, he’d never met a vampire quite like her, one that was so willing to put herself out on a limb for a relative stranger.

“Thank you.” He collected up the napkin, folded it carefully and tucked it away in a pocket. “I’ll text you sometime, make sure you know it’s me and not somebody else.” The whole ‘Sire’ thing went unsaid but he didn’t think he needed to elaborate for Maddie to get what he was saying.

---

Maddie really should have practiced what she preached. She was growing increasingly fond of the hunter who kept sauntering into her attempt at a quiet life in Seven Devils. Although she wasn’t sure if she just enjoyed the added risk of being so close to a hunter, or the fact that their banter left her grinning for days after their encounters. There was an obvious hesitation in their interactions, one she still wasn’t sure of - but the vampire knew, without a doubt, that Daniel definitely wasn’t the average hunter.

She was generally more reserved, and definitely untrusting of new people, but it was difficult to fake the terrors of a bad Sire. Maddie had done enough acting over the years for numerous purposes - but even she couldn’t pretend that her turning and her relationship with her sire was a good one. And even if things did turn sour, she wasn’t exactly opposed to relocation. Or… possibly enticing the help of a hunter.

“That would be appreciated,” she laughed softly. Not that she made it a habit of giving out her number to strangers, but it’d be nice not to have to guess if it were him or not.

“I should be heading out, though,” Maddie told him quietly with a small smile, “the night is young.”

---

“It’s been nice meeting you,” Vincent answered with a smile. “I hope you have a nice evening.” There were still many hours and so much could happen in that time especially if you were a vampire and that was the only time you had to do anything.

He picked up his sketchpad again and reached for his supplies, content to pass what time he had left with his coffee by finishing the piece he’d started.

Life was definitely full of surprises.