Walking on Air {Val!}

[shinigami]

Darren's smile became lopsided; his lips parted, as if he was going to draw in a breath; his eyes -- they glimmered, they gleamed, hunter's eyes; amused. "Is he?" Then he exhales, suddenly; a warm chuckle on the exhale.

His voice, however: cold. "Well, I'm not wed to the idea of witch boy -- I'd be just as happy with a weak little ice-colored rose. That what you're offering me, girl?"

[lily tomlinson]

There's a slight twitch in Marit's eye developing. Partially from anger, mostly from fear. But she's a stubborn one. She's not letting him near any of her dear ones. She isn't even going to contemplate the fact that she's putting Val into that category for the night.

"Fine," she hissed, crossing her arms over her chest. "If that's what it takes to make you go away."

She turns slightly to Val, her eyes narrowing. "Go inside. Keep an eye on the children. If you even so much as try to get in the middle of this, I'll hurt you myself."

She turns back to Darren, all icy defiance, and shuddering fear. "Hurry up and get this over with. The sooner I can get my own hunt done."

Darren was only serving to prove her hatred of men tonight. For a while there, she'd almost given in to Val, but this reminder... well... after this whole thing was over, she was sure she wouldn't be letting her guard down again any time soon. Men. Such bastards they were.

[shinigami]

His gaze flares; flashes. His pupils are dizzydrunk dark and, for someone whose gentle nature and inability to kill had so recently been a topic of conversation, Val Crow pulls off the 'murderous' look pretty well. His gaze is stony, is steadily weightful; his jaw is tight. The vampires can probably hear the sound of it.

There was astonishment, first. At Darren's 'deal'. And a certain are-you-kidding-me trustlessness to the way he eyed the Mueller. Then Marit stepped in. Then. Then! Marit says "fine" just as Val takes a breath to say, why no, that's NOT what she's offering you, and -- and she says fine. Fine. NOT fine. Val is not fine with this at all.

But Val, despite his prejudice, his blindness, isn't actually a stupid young man; he's smart, he's patient (usually) and (usually) calm. He looks at Darren. He looks at Marit, when she rounds on him and commands him back into the children's dormitory. He looks at Darren again, consideringly.

"You're disgusting," he says, finally.

And he actually goes back down the hall, into the kid's room. Maybe he'll even be good and stay there.

[shinigami]

Darren watches Valentine go, impassive, his arms folded over his chest and he is spider-patient. Needn't rush. He did not appreciate defiance. He showed this once Valentine was back with the children by doing this: Marit told him to hurry up; he stayed predator-watchful still. Then snake-strike quick, his hand was in her hair, he was yanking her head down, twisting her so she was bent awkward by his knee, and he said in her ear: "I'll take as much time as I want. I'm sorry," and he's not; his tone is devil-velvet. "Were you here to hunt, too?"

There's no breath to tickle her throat. Just the very edge of Darren's canines, against skin, but not yet cutting. There's the touch of his lips, the brush of them -- feather-soft, barely there; then a bit of faux breath, what he uses to speak.

"Did you really think I'd drink your polluted blood? I?" The incredulous disdain is a new art form. He's whispering, now. "You're long past your expiration date, rosebud. And I'm after warmer stuff." Then --

Whatever he does, Marit doesn't remember it. Because it all goes black, black, black for her. When she comes to, which will be, oh, not very long at all afterward, she'll be untouched and unhurt, not even a bruise, not a place where there was a wound, nothing. She'll be on the floor of the hall. Darren will be nowhere in sight. Val will be nowhere in sight. The kids will be safe, all in their beds, just like they should be. Absolutely no sign of what happened, that anything had happened, at all.

Funny how a place can just erase a person.