Relax just for one day (Niklas and Esmerelda)

Niklas was sat in the remains of a nightclub. Well it wasn't really the 'remains' of a nightclub, it was a nightclub, it was just all of it's fixtures had been moved in seemingly random patterns. The alcohol had all been stolen a long time ago so he was using his own, which had had managed to steal from nearby buildings. As he poured himself a shot of vodka he reflected on the state of the country he was in right now. Spain had been worse hit even than Rome or other places of religious worship. No one was really sure why and Niklas didn't much care, he was here because it had a higher concentration of demons who were managing to make their way over from South America. Of course they were few in numbers at the moment but they hadn't stopped hundreds of werewolves and vampires joining their cause.

Niklas was here to make it safer for the humans to be, well, human. So that's why he was sat in a night club in the middle of the day. The sun was too damaging to him to go out without covering himself head to toe and that restricted him too much in a fight. So here he was, it was one o'clock in the afternoon but he was drinking vodka shots mixed with a little blood as if it were midnight.

Esmerelda sat bolt upright and groaned lightly, pressing a glass of ice to her head, only to realise that the ice had now melted and it was warm water, groaning again she crawled out of bed and scrambled to pick up her gun, placing it in her short pyjama shorts, she ruffled her hair and she hoped that she was going to be able to have an easy day today, after all she had to run from werewolves and vampires most of last night.

Sighing she decided that she needed a drink, the heat having made her throat dry in the time she had slept and she slunk down to the bar, she was glad that she had managed to find a nice place to hole up, there were safe rooms in the back which made it seem as if this club was dodgy when it was created but they were handy for sleeping in now and they gave her peace of mind while she slept she would be safe.

Yawning, she spotted the bar and wandered straight behind it, picking up a J2O and uncapping it, taking a large swig before her eyes settled on the room in front of her, as if truly waking up for the first time she yelped lightly at the sight of a person right in front of her and she reached for her gun to draw it.

"W-what the hell are you doing here?!" she demanded.

Niklas had known that there was a human in the building somewhere due to her scent but hadn't really made any effort to find her. She was likely to think he was in league with the demons if he came anywhere near her after all. Not many vampires had stood up against the demons, especially since demons were the ones who created them, had given them their powers. Not an incentive to be loyal to them in his mind but others obviously thought differently.

When she simply wandered out dressed in her sleep wear he raised an eyebrow. Of course being a straight male, as soon as he saw that she was hot his eyes roamed over her body, hungrily drinking in the sight of her nimble body. When she finally noticed him he raised a glass,

"Afternoon." he greeted her with a small smile, "Or good morning to you. I'm having an afternoon drink of vodka. And you?"

Esmerelda raised an eyebrow and tapped the man on the forehead with the barrel of the gun that she was holding, she frowned at him and she could not believe that he was perving on her, honestly, she knew that people had a hard time finding people to have sex with these days but to be so flippant about it made her a little bit angry to be honest.

"Oi, Eyes are here." she said, moving the gun away from his head and pointing to her eyes with it.

Deciding that he would have attacked her already if he was going to, Esmerelda sat down behind the bar and watched the man with cool and cautious eyes, he was so calm about everything surely he would be more pissed that a chick had just pointed a gun at his face?

Not taking this as a bad thing, Esmerelda merely sipped at her J2O and wrinkled her nose;

"Not a good idea, you only drink to get to sleep if you know any better, it impedes your judgements for the rest of the day if you don't and you need all the skills you can get." she furrowed her eyebrows in thought "The names Esmerelda."

When she tapped him on the head with the gun he had to surpress the desire to smirk at her, it would most likely get him shot. And even as a vampire there were something that you didn't want to happen to you. He smiled a little bit, having figured out that she had obviously seen him having a bit of a perv on her,

"Ah sorry." he chuckled a little bit, "It's been awhile since I've seen a woman of beauty. I seem to have forgotten my manners."

Seeing that the woman was happy to leave him be for awhile it seemed, Niklas refilled his glass with vodka and waited for her to settle herself in. She obviously wanted to be the one in control of the situation and he respected that. And she was smart too, most survivors he'd met drank more than he did and he couldn't really get drunk,

"You make a good point and if I was actually capable of getting drunk from anything less than three bottles then I would agree with you. However your average vampire tends to burn of alcohol almost as soon as it enters the system so I think I'll be alright. Thank you for your concern though." he grinned, "Ah a beautiful name to be sure Miss Esmerelda! My name is Niklas Larten Von Crepen. Of course you can skip the 'Von Crepen' part if you wish."

Esmerelda rolled her eyes a little bit, she could see that this guy was going to be one of those flowery ones that she would not have time for in the slightest, although she would have done when the apocalypse wasn't going on, times had changed and now things were different things needed to move with the fast pace of life, and that meant their lovers did too.

"A while as in what a few days?" she asked with a little snort "Things move fast, I'm sure you've seen your fair share of women on your travels, you're not from here I can tell."

When he began to talk about not being able to get drunk she thought that it was one of those male bravado type things that would actually convert to, being able to get rather hammered after about four shots of straight vodka. She was about to take another sip of her J2O when she heard something she did not expect to hear.

Almost as suddenly as she had pulled it the first time, the gun was back out and she narrowed her eyes at the vampire now in front of her, and rolled her eyes lightly, it was such a long winded name;

"Your first would have done, I don't make attatchments for longer than I have to, so we'll be parting by the end of tonight I should think, and don't think I'm going to let you out of my sight, not even for a moment, and if it even looks like you're going for me...I wont hesistate to kill you." she said in a cool voice.

Niklas could tell that the woman didn't seem to think much of him and normally for a vampire that would be perfect. It would be all the time in the world he needed to charge the distance between them with a flit of vampiric speed. But he wasn't like that, when Niklas fed he liked the participant to be willing, as he didn't kill them,

"No as in a few years actually." he remarked with a smirk, "If it's not too bold of me to say... you're freaking hot. Once in a lifetime kind of woman."

He chuckled a little bit when she rolled her eyes at his truth telling about the alcohol. Some people just didn't believe the truth when they heard it just because it didn't match with what they knew. When she jumped up and levelled her gun at him again he grinned, he did love it when a woman had a lot of spirit,

"Ah now there's a killer instinct!" he chuckled a little bit, "Yes I suppose it is a bit long but I've gotten used to saying it. And please, you can relax. Although I'm a tad peckish I only feed from the willing and only a little bit at a time. And if you're worried I'm on the other team..."

Reaching into his suit pocket, he pulled out a small chain, like a necklace, and put it on the table. All the way along the chain were vampire fangs, some of them still a little bloodstained from where they'd been removed,

"Demons are no friends of mine. I rather like human beings thank you very much."

Esmerelda raised her eyebrow, she would have perhaps been less receptive if this man was human, she was more likely to think him perverted and dismiss what he had said out of hand, however hearing it from someone so old made her think that there might be some truth to what he was saying.

"And you being a vampire have had several lifetimes and must have therefore met several of me." she smirked right back "Although no, it is not too forward, but don't be expecting anything much from me, I just said I don't do commitment, and that means anything that might give me a commitment afterwards."

His reaction to her gun holding was not one she had ever seen before and it made her even more pissed off because she was supposed to be scary, it was so very undermining that all her hard work would be overlooked by one vampire with an attitude, although it probably didn't help she was wearing her pj's.

"I don't care what team your on, my blood stays inside my body like it's meant to, if you're looking for a meal you should try elsewhere, there will be no eating here tonight for you." she said with a light smirk playing on her lips as she did so.

Placing her gun back in her shorts, Esmerelda finished her drink and threw it in the bin making a loud clink; "Nice to meet you Niklas, see you around." she said as she waved and turned to walk back upstairs.

Niklas was telling the truth when he spoke of Esmerelda's beauty, she truly was a rare woman who seemed to have mastered looking beautiful no matter what condition she was in. Or perhaps it was a talent she was born with, he didn't know so he couldn't say. He chuckled a little bit,

"I have lived about five ordinary lifetimes. You also misunderstood me. I didn't mean a human lifetime, I meant a lifetime like mine." he grinned a little bit in return, "Well then if it isn't I'll talk like that more often. I don't do commitment either so you don't have anything to worry about from me in the long run. In the short run we can help each other out now can't we?"

He had to admit that as a vampire guns weren't as scary as they were to humans but they weren't something to scoff at. But he couldn't help it if he was a little bit less intimidated than he should be considering the woman threatening him was wearing nothing but her sleepwear. It didn't exactly instill fear, although it did seem to make one part of him want to raise out of line,

"Well I tend to only snack so you'd barely notice it... all you'd feel was the nearly orgasmic feeling when I sink my fangs into you before pulling them out." He replied with a smirk, "Why don't you try it?"

He moved across the bar at his top speed, catching the bottle before it went into the bin. Smirking, he dropped it into the recycling bin beside the main bin. Niklas was now very close to Esmerelda and he took a single step closer,

"Are you sure you don't want to try something new?"

Esmerelda was not the most subtle of women, and when she wanted something, or in this case did not want something she let people know, people who seemed to persist gave her more annoyance than she could deem possible, and so the persisitence of this man or rather Vampire when he kept asking her if she wanted to let him sup from her, or kept going on and on about how beautiful she was, Esmerelda tuned out of the conversation.

"Look, I'm not interested in having sex with you, even if vampires could have sex I'm not a necrophiliac so let's not go there, why don't you go find some other human girl who's confused and then take blood from her or something." she said with a sarcastic tone.

Moving to the first step of the stairs up to the room she had been sleeping in Esmerelda rolled her eyes at what Niklas said to her, it was so annoying that she could not express it in words, making the experience sound good was not going to make her agree to experience it any more than she had done already, sighing lightly she turned and glowered at the vampire;

"Some of us have more pressing matters to deal with than orgasmic feelings, sorry to dissapoint, I'm clearing out for today, I've got stuff to find, demons to kill."

Making her way up the stairs she shouted back down; "Yup, quite sure I don't want to try something new."

Niklas frowned ever so slightly. Seemed that he was not going to be getting any blood from the fiesty, beautiful, spaniard today. He was a little put out not just because of the fact that he didn't get to be close to someone as beautiful as her but also because the little blood packs he'd raided from the local blood bank were running low,

"Just in case you're curious we can and I don't think it counts as necrophilia considering I'm more cursed than dead." He told her calmly, before continuing in a detached voice, "You're the only human I've seen in this town who hasn't been pulled in half and eaten by either demons or some manner of creature."

He held up his hand to silence her, stiffening as he did so. Sniffing the air a little bit, Niklas' eyes narrowed as he slowly pulled a long knife from his left hand pocket and held a throwing star in his right hand,

"Esmerelda. I want you to hide behind the bar and when I tell you, pop your head up and shoot the thing that isn't me." he told her firmly, "There's a demon coming. I'll distract it and you kill it."

It wasn't another five minutes before the door to the nightclub was kicked open and the demon appeared. The thing had a vaguely human shape but for a few major differences. For example it had four insect-like wings protruding from it's back and the left half of it's face seemed to be that of a giant wasp. It half-buzzed and half-croaked at Niklas. He shrugged a little bit,

"No not seen any human around here." he smiled without any emotion, "You must have the wrong address friendo."

The demon made a few angry noises and took a few steps closer to him, trying to threaten him. Niklas chuckled a little bit before lashing out, stabbing the knife into the wasp-like side of the face and ducking down,

"Waste this fucker!"

Esmerelda was now more likely to calm down and talk to the man that he had moved on from the topic of her and trying to get blood from her, it was a little bit gross to be honest and she did not want to open herself up to weakness in front of a creature that she hardly knew that might harm her afterwards, and as a human she thought that would make her one less of a rapidly endangered species.

Jogging back down the steps at the mention of a demon, Esmerelda frowned ans she pulled out her gun, wondering just what they were going to do to work together, her protection was upstairs and she did not think she had time to go and get it, so she hoped there would not be more than one coming after this one that the vampire had sensed a few seconds ago.

Getting behind the bar like she was told, upon command she jumped up and swiftly shot the demon in the head having applied a silencer to the gun she was using so that demons would not be drawn to the sound;

"You got a little excited then." she smirked as sh kicked the demons body, it's wasps head collapsed in on itself and it looked as if it was twitching one of its wings still although she knew that it was as dead as a doornail "Maybe I should keep you around after all."

When he saw the demon go down with a spray of demonic blood gushing from what used to be it's face, Niklas breathed a sigh of relief as he stood up and brushed himself down. Reached down he pulled his knife from the creature's ruined face and wiped the blood off on the demon's hair. He glanced back at Esmerelda with a grin,

"Yeah I guess I did. But to be fair I really didn't have a strategy if you'd decided to ignore me so I feel justified." he chuckled a little bit as he examined the demon, "Careful now, people might think that means you like me even a little bit. Now..."

He kicked the dead demon in the chest. When it failed to respond he picked it up with one hand and carried it over to the door. Thankfully the door provided shade. Using the body of the demon, he covered up the hole,

"There were go... now it should ward off creatures and demons. They hate the smell which is strange... smells like vinegar to me." he shrugged before noticing that the fingers on his right hand were burnt red raw, "Ah. I don't suppose you have any ice I could borrow?"

Esmerelda laughed a little, she was not used to laughing so to her it sounded almost like a strange sound, she wasnt sure that she liked it however and she let it die swiftly, biting her lip she tapped the hot barell of the gun against her thigh, it was burning her and making her skin red but she did not care at all, she only wanted to make sure that she was reminded of her failure not to spot the demon first.

"What people Niklas? There's only you and me here." she smirked "Besides, isn't that a good thing if you want me to like you, you want me to allow you to have your munchies after all don't you?"

Rolling her eyes a little as he asked for ice, Esmerelda looked around in the cold room of the club, it was like a pantry so it was still somewhat cold, taking a big tray of ice out of the freezer she placed it on the bar, and ran her hands over her arms, the cold that was now seeping through her from being in the room was making goosebumps rise on her arms, but also she felt something else shifting that shouldn't be, and Esmerelda was glad she was wearing her bra.

"Now would you mind if I went to go and get changed?" she asked, her hand on her hip "You can come and rest in the safe room if you want Niklas, it's a lot....safer than lingering down here, colder too. It's almost midday now."

She was right of course, the Spanish heat was beginning to seep through the walls and into the building making it somewhat stifling.

Niklas had to admit that he had not been expecting such an uplifting laugh from Esmerelda. If he was honest he had expected her to have a sort of dry chuckle, not a laugh that was actually rather infectious. He chuckled as well, unable to help himself. Of course he stopped shortly after she did. He smelt lightly burning skin but decided not to comment on it,

"Well I guess it was just a force of habit if I'm honest." he replied with a chuckle before he merely smirked, "I would think so but then again you could decide that you still don't feel like being a walking happy meal."

He chuckled a little bit at the joke before shaking his head. It was probably in poor taste but to be honest he didn't really have much taste when it came to jokes. As he wandered over he saw the goosebumps all along her skin and a sneaky glance down at her chest. He had to cough a little bit and think of something else to distract him. Taking the ice, he placed his burnt skin against it. There was a hissing sound as the ice began to melt rapidly, seemingly healing the skin as it did so. He flecked her fingers,

"Thanks for the ice." he thanked her before frowning a little bit at the room. He turned back to Esmerelda with a grin, "I think I might take you up on that offer."

Grabbing his bag he handed Esmerelda an unopened bottle of coke,

"Too late for housewarming?"

Esmerelda nodded her head when Niklas said that he was going to take her up on the offer of going through to the safe room that she had been using, with a sigh she rummaged through her duffle bag to try and find something that she needed to change into, she did not want to bring out something that she had not yet had the chance to wash, so she pulled out her new tank top she had taken from a supermarket and pulled it out.

"No peeking." she smirked at Niklas "Your walking happy meal commands it."

It was rare for her to be so joking, she was normally so guarded and protective but she did yearn for someone to talk to, she thought that it was going to be hard to say goodbye to the only living person she'd seen in so so long. Biting her lip, Esmerelda tugged the night top over her head letting it drop into the bag, and she pulled her tank top over her head, with a sigh she tugged on her shorts and pulled off her underwear without revealing anything too much, placing the new underwear and denim shorts on, Esmerelda turned and said;

"You can look now."

Blinking when he held out the cola, Esmerelda's eyes lit up and she took it in her hands looking over the bottle and hugging it to her chest with a happy little smile on her lips, she loved coca-cola so so much, how on earth did Niklas know to give her such an appreciated gift?!

"Oh thank you, I love this drink, I was beginning to think that I would never be able to find another one..." pecking him on the cheek Esmerelda places the bottle in her bag "I'll save it, just in case."

When he wandered towards the safe room Niklas had to wonder how safe it really was but then cut that line of thought. It was very depressing and very paranoid, not exactly ideal for the situation of the world right now. He yawned a little bit, dispelling the myth that vampires didn't get tired. He chuckled a little bit,

"Awwww girl that's harsh..." he teased her before placing his hands over his eyes comically, "Cross my heart and hope to die, I shall not peek!"

He knew when he was allowed to look again because he'd actually been peeking through his fingers very sneakily. She had one hell of a body and he'd have been stupid not to take a little sneaky peek. When she told him that he could look he acted as if he'd seen nothing, having years of experience getting the innocent face right. Her reaction to the coca-cola was very unexpected if he was completely honest. He'd not imagined her as a drinker of fizzy drinks but he she was hugging the bottle to her bosom. He chuckled a little bit,

"Ah it's alright, it was just something I picked up." he grinned wider when she kissed him on the cheek, "If it'll get me another one of those... I have a can of it too. And know the location of an un-raided truck load."

Esmerelda sent a look back at Niklas when he said that he wasn't peeking, he looked as if he truly wasn't as well, so she respected him even more for not seeming to be a hormone driven man, of course he was no man, he was a vampire, and was driven by something else entirely, however she tried not to think about that and smoothed herself out as she lay down on the make shift bed she had fashioned.

"Good boy." she smirked "I have to admit you have passed that test, after all, it shows that you aren't simply driven by hormones and that you do in actuality have some sort of brain, which is a very good indicater for a man."

Hearing that he knew where there was a whole truck load of coca-cola. Esmerelda was so so happy that she placed her two hands on either side of his head and kissed Niklas hard on the lips, she was so excited to see the truck and just how many cans or bottles there were there for her to take, it was just a shame that she could not take all of them with her.

"I would very much like you to show me where you found these bad boys." she smirked happily "And I'll take that can thank you very much."

With that she held out her hand for the can expectadly.

Niklas raised an eyebrow when he saw her laid down on the bed. She either had a good opinion of his self-control based on the idea that he didn't peek (a false idea) or she was confident that she could kill him if he decided that since she was on the bed she was in the best place to be ravaged. He chuckled a little bit,

"Why thank you. You'd think that after 300 years hormones would be under control but some other vampires my age would give evidence against that." he bowed his head with a smirk, "Well I aim to please and I've found that smart men tend to stay alive longer than the stupid ones."

Niklas could see that she was happy about this new information and it made him grin. Of course when she suddenly pinned his head in place and kissed him hard on the lips his eyes opened wide in surprise before he happily gave into the kiss and kissed her back a little bit before she pulled away. It was the best kiss he'd ever had and her lips were by far the sweetest,

"Of course! I can show you it in a few hours if you'd like. Just wait for the sun to dim a bit and then I can wrap up and we can go get them. Sound good?" he asked with his own smirk before handing the can over to her, "I take it your something of a fan of coca-cola? Just coca-cola or some of the others too?"

Esmerelda saw the expression on Niklas face when she lay down on the bed, it looked as if he was questioning why she was going to be so open with him now that she had seemingly been so hostile towards him before, but the thing was that she knew that everything he said was true because he had just killed a demon with her, and her change in mood was nothing to do with the coca-cola at all.

"I've never really been around a vampire for so long, I don't really know that much about you, what kind of stuff are you able to do, can you turn into mist and all that, like Gary Oldman in that Dracula film?" she asked with a smirk on her lips.

Now that the idea of going and getting the coca-cola was a real one she wonderd how she was going to be able to contain her excitement, it was so exciting after all to be able to have something that she enjoyed so much, she did not think that she would be able to have any ever again, and now this mysterious vampire has come in with a whole truck load of her favourite drink.

"it sounds amazing to me." she smirked, curling up on the sofa and patting the space next to her "I guess we have that time to get to know each other, for the short time that we will be together after all. Just coca-cola, something about it....it just reminds me of the time where the world was as it should, and it reminds me about my childhood." she sighed lightly, pinching her nose.

He saw that she was more at ease and decided that it she was going to be so at ease then so was he. Scratching the back of his head a little sheepishly, he sat down in a nearby leather chair. He chuckled a little bit when she asked him the question. It wasn't that the question was strange, it was the reference to the Gary Oldman film. He shook his head a little bit,

"Not many people have been, I'm one of very few vampires who doesn't see humanity as a whole as one big buffet." he remarked before chuckling, "No mist changing I'm afraid. We're basically just super-charged humans. Stronger, faster, heal faster, tougher skin and bones... that kind of thing."

Niklas could tell that the coca-cola really meant a lot to Esmerelda if the way that she was almost vibrating on the sofa with her excitement was any indication. Or perhaps it was the promise of high sugar content, he wasn't really sure. He was just happy that he could make someone smile when the world was turning to hell. The fact that the person happened to be a very hot woman was a very juicy bonus,

"Well I'm glad it does. And I'm glad you've decided we can know a little about each other." he replied with a smirk before sinking down on the sofa next to her. He saw her pinching the bridge of her nose and decided not to push, "Well coca-cola is a survivor of a brand... I'd be surprised if it didn't outlast this whole apocalypse thing. Come a long way from being made from cocaine. Personally I've always liked galaxy chocolate... the problem is that as a vampire I can't consume solid foods. I can only taste it."