Sunday: Feb/24/08
Who: Charlie and Rae When: Sunday, late night Where: female dorms What: bumping into each other (not in THAT way)
Charlie had worn his workout clothes for tonight's shift. He hadn't been running much this week, and he had every intention of getting some exercise while doing rounds tonight. Of course, he would still do all that was required of him, but there was no reason why he couldn't run a few laps around the school's exterior as well.
Once inside again, as he was making his way through the girls dorms, checking the emergency exits (which were supposed to ONLY be used in case of emergencies), he spotted a pile of clothing near one of the doors. Having a niece who was a shapeshifter, he was all too well aware of their need to strip before transforming. He also knew that they really shouldn't be running around outside, unsupervised, after hours, in their animal form, especially if they were still learning. He picked up the clothes and headed outside once again.
Charlie snooped around for a few minutes, looking for any large animal, and it didn't take him long to spot the furry rule breaker. It looked like some sort of deer, only with weird zebra-like stripes on its hindquarters. Was it a gazelle? "Hey!" he called out, holding the clothing up in the air. "You're not supposed to be out right now."
---
The okapi -- which had been returning home -- came to a start in front of the vampire, its forelegs rearing a bit, and flicked its ears.
What. The. Fuck.
Charlie had her clothes! SHE NEEDED THOSE. Otherwise she couldn't change back because she would be naked. She took a few tiny steps closer to Charlie, then pushed her ears back. She needed her clothes back. Now. She couldn't talk, or else she'd be politely asking. So she ducked her head, then lifted it again before coming forward to take the clothes from his hand with her horse-like muzzle.
---
Charlie didn't know what the hell an okapi was, but he knew it wasn't native to this area. The shapeshifter was foolish to transform into something non-native and risk being spotted by a local. Not like anyone would be able to catch it, because the creature looked fast. It also looked annoyed.
When the ears went back, he knew annoyance had turned to being pissed. He smiled smugly, even threatened for a moment to keep the clothes. "I'll give them back, but only if you change back and stay put... no running away." He let the shapeshifter reclaim the clothing, then Charlie turned around, giving the woman some privacy. He had a good idea who it was.. a young, female student with a particular fashion sense, which he based on clothing.
---
Her voice was what told him she was back in human form (and dressed).
"I didn't go very far. I just went for a walk," she huffed, through her nose. It was barely past curfew! She just wanted fresh air! She couldn't run so fast in this form. Certainly not faster than a vampire. It wasn't worth trying.
---
When Charlie was quite certain Rae was dressed, he turned around again. She sounded irritated with him. As for Charlie, he was just amused. She really was a great deal like Cassie, though maybe with a bit more attitude.
He motioned with his head toward a path that lapped the school. "Then let's go for a walk. I'll go with you." He preferred running, but he could tolerate a stroll.
---
She inwardly groaned. Why take a walk with him? What was his angle? What did he want? Cassie had said that he was easy going, so why was he trying to hard?
"I wasn't planning on... going anywhere, really." She reached up to push her hair away from her face. "Just.. outside..." she gestured helplessly, into the dark horizon, before turning shiny eyes up to him. One eyebrow arched. "I can just go back to my room. It's really okay. I'm not trying to be a pain in the ass. It's not a full moon, I figured I was safe." She did the "pointing gun, click" move at Charlie, one eye winking dramatically, her tongue clicking off the back of her teeth. "Especially with special security agent Chamalamadingdong on board, y'know."
---
Charlie wasn't trying too hard. He didn't need to try at all. He wasn't doing this to gain Rae's trust, but rather her friendship. He liked her, and he thought she was the perfect roommate for Cassie. If Rae was gonna be running around with Charlie's sidekick, he figured he may as well adopt them both.
"Did you know that my niece is a shapeshifter too? She and I go for walks a lot, well, runs. She loves to run. She can only shift into a cougar so far... a young cougar. I take her running with me and my dog. She likes to stretch her animal legs, and it's the only way she can keep up with me when I'm running." He was making idle chat, which probably irritated Rae, but he didn't much care.
He laughed at her using that crazy nickname she'd given him. "I can't be everywhere at all times. I'm not God, though you're welcome to call me that if you'd prefer... many women have," he gave her a cheesy wink. "I'm not trying to bust you, but I do need to remind you of the rules. It might not always be me who catches you breaking them... even though I seem to have really good timing with that lately. Not all the professors are so lenient. And there are some students on campus who aren't so nice to sweet girls out on their own at night. I don't want you getting hurt."
---
A quick image of a crying girl with a bloody nose flashed through Rae's mind. Sweet? Who said she was sweet? Charlie thought she was sweet? Oh, that was cute.
"Yeah, well, alright." A six year old shifter? Nuts. No wonder she could only do one form. Hmm. Rae had started around eleven -- or was it ten? -- and built her numbers from there. "Sorry."
---
Charlie wasn't sure Rae took him as seriously as she should. He stopped walking. "We have a student named Dante who has killed several people on campus. He harnesses electricity, and he doesn't seem to have a problem with using it against others. You should stay away from him, because I doubt he'll hesitate to hurt you if you give him attitude. Granted, he'll probably bring you back from the dead... he always has before... but for all I know, you could have a heart condition that makes it difficult to restart." Charlie was still convinced that was why Fenrir died, and as hard as it was for Charlie to carry the lycan's lifeless body back to the school after he collapsed dead, it would be ten times harder to bring back someone like Rae, who Charlie actually liked. "There are also vampires on campus with impulse control problems. One of them attacked a good friend of mine and nearly drained her to the point of death. He's not on campus anymore, but there are others who might snap... even me. Bloodlust is hard to control." He was quiet for a second, thinking and worrying, and it was clear on his face. "And then there are the real monsters who aren't allowed on campus, but could show up regardless. Some sires, like my own, are very possessive... and they don't appreciate being ditched. So.. do yourself a favor.. if you bust out for a late night stroll, take a friend and a cell phone with you. Wouldn't hurt to carry a bit of silver and holy water as well."
---
She stopped a few seconds later, having not realized he'd dramatically paused. She spun on a sneakered heel and stared at him as he delivered his very serious speech. "Kay," she said, which was a relatively facile answer in response to his spook story. Cell phone? Friend? Not if she was in animal form! Where were the pockets to carry the cell? Hmm. She wondered if Charlie would find the story of Jack and the vampire chick funny, but then figured outing Jack for breaking the rules was probably not a wise move. Hunh.
"So...you're a vampire, with a shapeshifter niece? You're two monsters away from your New Millennium version of The Munsters, my friend."
---
Charlie hoped to scare Rae a little at least, but it didn't seem to be working. Kids were so damn cocky. Then again, so was Charlie. He hated when people tried to tell him what to do, which was why he was in really good shape after boot camp, because it took a lot to break him in to the point where he'd listen to his superior officers. Seemed Rae would need to have intelligence and obedience beaten into her as well, but Charlie wouldn't be the one to do it. She'd learn the hard way eventually, he just hoped she didn't get hurt in the process. "Fine.. lecture over. I offered my advice.. I can't make you take it."
He chuckled at her wiseass comment. "My dad would be awesome as Grandpa Munster. I loved that old dude. He dressed up as Dracula for Halloween this year. Maggie thought it was hilarious." He smiled thinking about it. "But yeah.. Maggie is a shapeshifter. We didn't know it ran in her family. Her mom never had the ability to shift.. it apparently skips generations, and no one ever told Alicia about it. It was a total surprise when Maggie suddenly learned to shift... she was chasing my dog when she suddenly sprouted four legs, a tail and whiskers. The school says she'll learn other forms in time.. I think she learned a cougar first because she loves the things so damn much."
---
"Mm, yeah, that's how I started. Favorites first, others later." She reached up to pull her hair over her shoulder, playing with it idly. "So what do the vampires do for meals around here? They package Type O in a Capri Sun-like pouch or something?"
---
"So what was your first?" He figured something like that said a lot about a person. He thought he remembered her brother saying something about how she liked 'vegetarian' animals.
Charlie cracked his neck and looked up at the waning moon. It was cold but not a bad night otherwise. At her question, he glanced at her. "The school provides us with animal blood. It tastes like shit, but it's food... keeps us... well, undead." They weren't 'alive' in the traditional sense, but they weren't exactly dead either. He didn't like the term undead, because it made him feel like a zombie, but it was the most accurate he supposed. "I'm still learning how to feed responsibly from an actual person," he confessed.
---
"I had a vampire friend who told me drinking animal blood was like eating rice cakes and celery sticks with a side of 'blah,' once," she said, before gnawing on a fingernail to get the rest of the nailpolish off. Once her manicure chipped, Rae needed the polish off immediately. She was a nibbler. "That true?" More questions came to her, but she licked her lips to keep from asking them.
---
"Rice cakes?" He made a face. "It's not that bad. If you ask me, it's like the difference between a crappy fast food burger from like McDonalds or something.. and eating a fat, juicy burger that's been grilled over coals in a back yard barbecue. One is way better than the other, but you can live off the shit from McDonalds if you really have to. So, I live off the cheap stuff. It's better than nothing, and it keeps me satisfied for the most part."
---
"I fucking love McDonalds," was her only reply to that. "Well, the fries and apple pies and stuff." Rae was one of those blessed girls who could eat whatever they wanted and stay thin. She lived off French fries and sweets. "Anyway, uhm, I think my first was pony. I liked horses. You know, a Shetland pony, with the emo bangs and the cute fuzzy feet."
---
Charlie had been a bean pole as a kid. It wasn't until he was sixteen or so that he was able to build some muscle on top of his bony frame, but he had always been trim, and now he always would be. It was kind of nice knowing that he'd keep this body in this exact condition for the rest of his days (or nights rather), then again, he wasn't at risk of gaining weight because food tasted so bland now. He wondered what grass tasted like. "As a horse.. did you graze? Hell, as a gazelle thing," he motioned to her, indicating the creature she'd been minutes before, "Do you like eating leaves and grass and shit? Seems like maybe you would. I know the lycans like to hunt while transformed."
--- Oh, is this what they were doing? Buddying up with supernatural-activity questions? Alright. She could roll with that. "Okapi," she corrected, with a big of a smirk. "Yeah, I do. My tastebuds are different and it tastes great, in that form. People food tastes better, though. I think just because it tastes new, sometimes. If that makes sense."
She arched an eyebrow. "Isn't your wife a vampire? Can't you practice feeding off her, and 'learn responsibly'" -- airquotes, there --"that way?" ---
"I wouldn't think there'd be a huge variety of flavors with the green stuff. Most lettuce tastes about the same. Next time you transform, I'll feed ya a carrot or apple," he said with a smirk. That would amuse the shit out of him. He could make fun of her animal form, but he still didn't like it when Maggie drank water from a bowl on the ground while shifted into a cougar. It was just too weird.
He nodded. "Yeah, she's a vampire, and I do feed on her. I fed on my ex as well. But that's not the same as feeding on a human. A vampire has different limits. I wouldn't mind trying a demon on for size.. if it was the right variety. You can gain a bit of their ability for a short time when you feed off them... also when you kiss or have sex with them."
---
She looked up from her thumbnail at him. "Really? Does that go for anyone, or just vampires?" Interesting...
---
He gave her a calculating look. "Rae.." he started, staring at her. "Don't go making out with demons just to see what happens... and make sure someone is watching out for you if you do... like a trip buddy." He'd done that the first few times he tried any new drug. You couldn't predict how the body would react, so it was good to have someone sober nearby.
---
Rae was aware of what a trip buddy was, and the only thing that may have let Charlie in on that was the way she smirked up at him. "I never heard that though. I thought they had to bite or scratch you. It is a fluids thing?" Here, her nose crinkled, because... that was really gross.
---
"Yeah, it's a fluid thing... fuck or suck one of them, and you'll get their powers.. to a degree." The potency depended on the level of exposure, or so he had been told. His sex drive was out of control after fucking Adora, but maybe if he'd only kissed her, he would have been a little turned on. He hadn't tested it much, and he didn't know what happened with other demons. He hated to think what might happen if he fucked a fire demon. Would he burn down the building?
---
Had he really just said that? Her ears darkened a few shades. "That's interesting. I had no idea." She made a mental note for the ONE useful thing she'd learned here thus far. It had only taken a week! Not bad. "Very cool. I guess. The trading fluids thing is actually kind of gross, but, good to know." She went back to nibbling her nail polish, her feet noisily plodding along side him. Where were they going? It was just good to be out, in the fresh air, even if her nose and fingers were freezing.
---
Charlie didn't censor himself around the students. He also didn't hide who or what he was. He had done drugs, and he was a slut. He wasn't ashamed of these things, and lying about it wouldn't help anyone. He was honest with himself and with others... though he was careful about just how much of the truth he gave Maggie at her young age. Rae wasn't a kid though. "Just be careful, okay? Know something about the power and how to control it before you try and adopt it." He didn't want her hurting anyone, including herself.
He rounded a building, and suddenly, the sound of horses echoed in the air. "You been to the stables yet?" She said she liked horses, and the school had quite a few. "Maggie's begging me to let her take riding lessons. I'm making her wait until summer." He walked into the stable, and immediately, little puffs of steam formed before them as muzzles popped out from their stalls to inspect the visitors.
---
"I thought I had smelled them before.." she said, now looking in the direction of the scent even her more-than-human nose could detect. "I haven't, no..." she followed him with a hop and a skip, a grin pulling across her features. Then, without further invitation, she brushed past him to go up to the closest horse and pet his muzzle. "Oh, hiiii," she cooed, in a gentle velvet tone much different than her usual wry, monotone delivery. Her palm rubbed the soft muzzle up and down gently. "Aren't you goooorgeous."
---
Rae was instantly transformed into a little girl. Years washed away, as did all the attitude she had accumulated along the way. Now, she was just a happy child with a horsey! He chuckled and came up behind her, his hand coming out flat and palm forward for the horse to smell him. Vampires smelled different, and some animals didn't like it, but most the horses here were used to it by now. When the horse didn't rear in fear, he stroked his palm up the bridge of the muzzle. "There are a few in here that belong to students, but the rest belong to the school. To ride them, you just have to sign up."
---
"Holy shit, I know what I'm doing tomorrow after class." She moved on to the next horse, then the next. "What students OWN them? Jeez."
---
"I think you have to agree to help care for them, but something tells me you won't mind." He was sure she'd be willing to groom, feed, and clean up after the horses. She really seemed to love them. "What do you mean?" He didn't quite understand her question. Was she curious about just how wealthy some students were, or did she have an issue with animals being owned?
---
"I mean, if these kids are rich enough to own horses, why are they here? Can't they just get their own tutors at home to help them with their issues?" she asked, turning her head to look at Charlie without letting go of the horse. "Unless they just like this magical prison setting."
---
Charlie got what she was saying, but he didn't think tutors were the solution. "Some of them are here against their will... but that aside, I think this setting is good for all supernatural students. Think about non-supernatural kids who are home schooled.. it can be hard for their parents to make sure they socialize with their peers. So, yeah, the kids here can meet others with similar powers."
---
"It's like a breakfast club, except everyone is a John Bender. With powers." She kissed the horse on the cheek before walking away to investigate the rest of the stables. "Good point, though. Better to keep all the newbies together, so we can't fuck with normal people, just each other." She looked over at him, her eyes catching the light and glaring freakily before the slight inclination of her head cast a different shadow. "So you're new, at being a vampire?"
---
"Put all the freaks in one padded room together." Sounded like a recipe for disaster, but it seemed to be working alright so far. TJS was better than the last school. That place was a joke.
His mood darkened slightly at her question. He didn't really enjoy talking about being turned. "It's been fifteen months now." He looked away, seeing the horses' breathing, the steam wafting through the night air. "Feels longer."
--- "Sorry," she said, mollified. Her voice was soft. She had just been curious. She didn't realize there was a good chance he hadn't asked to be sired. Silence stretched. Now what? She'd made a fool of herself. That's what she got for talking! Better to keep quiet. Which she was going to do. ---
Rae seemed deflated, and her apology was sincere. That made Charlie feel bad. He shrugged and leaned back against the wood panels of the stable. "It's alright. You think I'd be over it by now. I need to just fucking move on, but I'm still pissed."
---
"Oh no, I mean, like.. that's totally understandable. Sorry to pour lemon juice on it, though, y'know?" she laughed, but it wasn't an amused sound. "I'd probably be pissed too." Okay, now she could tell the Jack story.
"My brother sorta humiliated some new chick vampire who got here last Friday." She smiled a little. "Did you hear about the streaking incident?"
---
He shook his head, "Don't worry about it. You shouldn't feel bad asking questions. You're here to learn, and even though I'm not a professor, I need to be able to answer your questions." He was going to have to get over it in time.
Thankfully though, Rae moved on to something else, and he was amused to hear that it was her brother who had done the streaking. "I heard about it, but I didn't know it was Jack. Did he get some tail?" Charlie asked with a huge grin on his face.
---
"Oh, GROSS!" she cried, nose crinkling. "I don't CARE... but no. He just ... " she smiled, trying not to giggle. "Alright, so like, he's out for a run and he's about to strip when this skinny little vampire chick jumps down and attempts to scare him, right? Anyway, they're talking, blah blah, and he asks her how fast she can run. She says 'faster than you, I bet,' and he goes: 'Okay, let's race,' right? So then he starts to strip, and without asking WHY, she starts to strip too!" She was laughing now, because the story was just as funny being told as it was being heard, to her. "Like the batshit crazy thing she is, or whatever, so like, he says she gets to use her powers, and she's naked and standing there and he says he gets to use his, and boom! A cheetah, off like a fuckin' shot, and she's running after him, NAKED."
She jumped up once, laughing, arms scissoring the air. "How fucking hilarious is that?! She had no idea why he was stripping! Just whoop - did it, crazy chick. He got to see her naked AND he beat her in a race. She owes him a favor he gets to determine later. The best part is -- he had no idea he had a chance at winning!" She giggled and covered her mouth.
---
Charlie listened to the story, extremely amused. He was also interested in the fact that a chick got naked just because Jack did. Charlie would have to try that sometime. "Of course he was gonna win.. he was a fucking cheetah. Vampires are fast, but not that fast, at least not for a short distance. Maybe if they had run a marathon or something.." he trailed off, trying to picture it, and it made him laugh. "So what kind of favor is he gonna cash in? Blow job?"
---
Her nose crinkled. "AGAIN. GROSS. MY BROTHER. But no. He's not like that. He pretends to be but he wouldn't take a blow job from a chick he didn't know from a hole in the wall. Much less a chick who looks at him as food." She hopped up on the lip of an empty trough, swinging her legs. "Can we never use the terms blow job and Jack in the same sentence again? Thanks."
---
He laughed good and hard. It was fun making her squirm. "You might want to warn him about vamps sucking him off. Takes time for them to learn to give head without scratching a dude's dick." He remembered he and Ava's experience while suffering from memory loss. Not something he wanted to repeat. "I'll do my best to pretend your brother is an asexual eunuch."
---
IMAGES! She let out a tiny shriek at the combination of "vamps," "sucking him off," and "dick," and raised her hands to her ears, eyes shut, leaning backwards a bit. A bit too far. She lost her balance, and promptly fell right into the feeding trough, what with it being hollow and empty. There was a thud as she clocked her head against the inside. "FUCK, owch, you mutherfucker!"
Ooooh Rae had a mouth.
---
Charlie popped off the wall quickly, rushing over to help her out of the trough. He wrapped his hand around her wrist and hauled her forward again. "You kiss your mother with that mouth?" he asked, impressed with the spewed profanities.
---
"You're gross!" she repeated, pretending to be more upset than she actually was. Though falling in a feed trough was a little embarrassing. She brushed her rear off when he let go, now covered in dirty. "Some authority figure you are, talking about bodily fluids and gross vampire BJs...."
She rubbed her palms on the front of her pants and glared up at him, jaw set, brow hard. One hand lifted to feel for the bump at the back of her skull that was quickly forming. "I'm going to call you UpChuck, because that's what you're going to make me do."
---
"I'm a security guard. I'm not meant to be a role model." Nox didn't like Charlie's crass side, but he tolerated it. Charlie wasn't sure if Hope felt the same, but he hoped she would. So long as Charlie kept the kids safe and all that, he figured it was no big deal that he filled their heads with sinful stories. Yeah, he had fucked a student, but he married her, and that seemed to have made it all okay!
He motioned for her to face away from the glow of the moon coming through one end of the stable. "Let me see," he instructed, putting his hand gently to the back of her head. "Ya already got a knot. Huh.. I could have swore you had a harder head than that. Your brother seems like the sort who would have dropped you a lot."
---
"Oh he did," she said, with a laugh. She rubbed hard, but the pain remained. "So, on that note, thank you for showing me the horses, but, I should probably.. go to bed. Bed, nightmares about Jack, and tomorrow is a new day." She laughed, then pulled her sweater sleeves down over her fingers. It was cold! "I'm going to head back." He didn't need to come. She knew he had stuff to do.
---
Charlie nodded. She had classes tomorrow, and it was very late. She was making a bad habit of breaking curfew, and he really needed to stop supporting that habit. He motioned a different way than they had come, "This way. I know a short cut through the tunnels. I'll get ya back faster. Besides, it's part of my normal patrol."
---
Tunnels? Oh, that sounded fun. "Lead the way, UpChuck."
---
Charlie took the lead as instructed, showing Rae how to access the tunnels. "They're mostly used by the vampires and other light-sensitive people. But on days when the weather is absolute shit, everyone else packs in. I'm hoping one day some super genius supernatural figures out a way for us vamps to go out in the sun again." He missed it a great deal.
He helped her navigate the maze of tunnels, which he had memorized. He knew every inch of this campus now, including a few paths that were only known to him and the director (for safety reasons).
---
"Okay, so I take it back, this is a bit cooler than the horses," she said, after a few minutes of quiet following. He smelled good, she decided, and immediately hated that she'd noticed. "Who else is light sensitive, aside from vampires?"
---
He raised an eyebrow. Did she really think the tunnels were cooler than the horses? Huh. Weird. Maybe it was just the mystery factor. He supposed there was something creepy cool about lurking through musty, dimly lit caverns. "I think there are some demons who prefer less light, along with less heat. And then there are weird goth girls who seem to enjoy chillin' in the shadows with shady characters." He turned to look at her and gave her a wink.
---
"Oh, ew, I am so not goth. Clearly your too old to interpret today's youth." A pause. "How old are you, anyway?"
---
He chuckled, having gotten the exact reaction he wanted. "Goth, grunge, emo.. all the same shit.. different decades." They were all essentially equal and preferred by so-called 'misunderstood' teens. He went through a devoted Nirvana phase. "I'm thirty-one. Translation, old." He wasn't as old as a lot of other vampires here, but to a teenager, he was ancient.
---
"That's not that old. That's a good age. Hot age." She wasn't a teenager, so she could think so. Besides, guys her age were so immature... "So what's the rules for vampire students? No munching unless it's consensual?" She was worried about her brother.
---
He gave a little bow of his head. "Thanks." Always nice to be thought of as 'hot', even if it was a given with Charlie. Was there anyone alive who didn't think he was one sexy mo-fo? Maybe blind people! "Well, I think the rules are changing, seeing as how I married a student I was fucking, and that was most definitely against the rules before. I heard they're going to start teaching vampire students about responsible feeding, but no matter what changes are made, the donor must always consent. You tell your brother to find me if that bitch bites him without his permission... and he's got my permission to beat the living shit out of her if she tries it."
---
"He'd never hit a girl," she replied, walking along side him. "But I'll let him know. He'd be pissed though. He wouldn't go down without a fight. Maybe he'd think of her as ... " Shut up shut up shut up. "I don't know. Tricky. It's alright, I'll fucking hit her."
---
Charlie stopped walking for a second. "Rae.. you need to warn him to watch his ass around the hot 'n' crazy vamp chicks. And if she stripped down so fast with him, she's definitely crazy. You're both human, which means you can be turned, and I don't want that happening to your brother unless it's what he wants."
---
"He doesn't want to be a vampire. He thinks they're creepy. Especially the chicks. Says they're cold, and that's no fun.... gross." She had continued walking, so he would need to catch up. "Don't squish the Big Brother act on him though, he'll just turn around to bite you like a grumpy dog. He likes fighting his own battles."
---
"Ouch. You could add a throwaway 'no offense' line there, you know?" She was right though, and Charlie was pissed at himself for not realizing something was wrong with Val when he decided to take her home. Sadly, he was too drunk, high and horny to notice the hot chick in his company was room temperature and unnaturally pale. Reluctantly, he jogged to catch up with Rae. A fork was just ahead in the tunnels, and she didn't know which way to go. He figured it was a bad idea to let her get lost. Charlie lead her to the right. "Stairs just ahead. We'll pop out near the common room between the two wings of the dorms." Instructions aside, he returned to their conversation. "I'm stubborn like that too, but being a vampire is forever, and you're his sister. Make sure he's careful. Those bitey bitches are masters at manipulation."
---
Rae decided she wouldn't tell Charlie what the bet's stipulation had been had Jack actually lost, then, because it might provoke more of this chastising. "Good point. He said her name was Ingrid. What do you know about her?"
---
Charlie would have been furious to know Jack made such a dangerous bet. He didn't know shit about the vampire chick, and he was willing to let her bite him? Fucking fool! "Ingrid? Sounds familiar. I received her file, but I haven't finished reading it yet. I'll check it out as soon as I get back to my office." And he would, too. Charlie took special interest in new vampires. He wanted to know which ones were dangerous, and which ones had been victimized like him.
He opened a door at the top of the stairs for Rae, which plopped them out into a hall very close to the student common room.
---
"Alright," she said, assuming he was leaving her off here. "Thanks, Charlie. Sorry.. again. But thanks." She rolled her eyes, her hands disappearing into her sweater sleeves. "Talk to you soon?" Her dimples showed in a cheeky 'I'm so cute, don't yell at me' grin. "See you around."
---
He gave a nod in response to both her apology and gratitude. "Anytime." He didn't like to think of himself as some sort of bad cop looking to bust people. He felt his primary responsibility was protecting them, and you didn't always have to punish someone to keep them from doing shit they shouldn't. "I'm sure I'll bust you again real soon. Next time, I expect food. Get chocolate." He gave her a wink and headed off to resume his rounds.