I decided to continue on with the Ageless thing...So here's another quick chapter.

P.S. I don't really write accents well.

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I can’t remember the sun. It’s been far too long. I’ve been told that the new halogen bulbs have gotten pretty close to replicating the sun’s glow; huzzah for modern science, I guess.

It being said that I don’t recall the sun, it can also be said that all I know is the dark. Not true dark; the stars and moon cast enough of a glow upon the earth that true dark only comes when dense cloud cover blots out their light. But even then, I am not uncomfortable in darkness.

“Well, well, well…‘o’ve we got ‘ere, duckies?” The thick lower-English burr was so out of place in the middle of an American slum that I place name with voice almost immediately.

I turn and smile at the voluptuous, ginger-haired Brit, more out of polite protocol than camaraderie. “You look well, Rowena.” I give the head of the Boston coven a shallow bow. I’m not up for a fight at the moment. I don’t have the time; dawn is often closer than one thinks.

“I’d ‘eard ya were flittin’ ‘round m’town again.” She gives me a smile that doesn’t quite reach her eyes and takes a step forward.

I match it with a step back. “Just for a few days more, Ro. Merely a quick stop in the search for the next hunt.” I keep my voice even and my movements slow. I learned not to fuck with established covens long ego and had the scars to remind me. One vampire is dispatched easily enough. Large groups have a tendency to be a bit messier. “I’ll do my best to keep from making waves.”

Before I can blink, she’s in front of me. The show of speed is meant to intimidate, I assume, but I remain unimpressed.

I’m faster.

“Now, boyo, ‘m not ‘ere t’give ya th’boot.” I’m not all that fond of the grin twisting up her lips. Nor am I overly fond of the hand running in an intimate fashion down my chest or the finger hooking in the belt loop of my jeans. “ ‘m ‘ere t’offer ya a deal.”

“Pass.” And get your damn hands off of me.

She pouts and I’m sure someone somewhere finds it attractive. “Now, now. ‘S not nice t’cut off a lady.”

I hold my tongue because, as I said, I’m not up for a fight right now.

“Join m’coven, Theron,” she says as she bounces up on her toes to run her cheek along my jaw line. “Y’cin be m’second an’ we’ll have th’most pow’rful coven on th’east coast.” She let out a sound that could only be interpreted as a purr. “An’ I’ll keep y’at m’side at all times.”

The feeling coiling in the pit of my stomach was the furthest from desire as one could get. I gave her a gentle shove that had her stepping back. “As I said, Rowena, I’ll pass.”

Her pout shifted into a scowl. “Damn ‘unters…Th’kill’s all y’think about, ain’t it?” Her normally green eyes slowly bleed into red and have me on my guard. The figures lurking in the shadows don’t help my edginess either.

My hand drifts to my side, slowly dipping into my pocket to tug out my butterfly-style folding knife. A nifty little gadget, that. Simple, light, and totally lethal in the right hands. A bit questionable when it comes to legality but it gets the job done.

Not that I want it to have a job now. I truly am not in the mood to kill the better part of a coven tonight. “Now Ro, we do this every time I come through Boston.” Which is why I normally avoid the damn city. “And you end up with your ranks severely depleted. I am not in the mood to kill and you’re not in the mood to lose men.” I can tell which of her minions were newly turned by the mix of frightened muttering and the murmurs of want of bloodshed; the older ones, the ones who remembered me, are much quieter. “I’ll be gone by the end of tomorrow night.”

“No. I demand y’stay!”

Politeness isn’t working so it was time for intimidation. To hell with playing nice.

It takes less than a second for me to slip my knife back into my pocket, cross the distance between her and I, and wrap my hands around Rowena’s throat, my thumbs at the hinges of her jaw. “You should remember your place, little girl. I am the one who saved you from the killer of Whitechapel’s whores. I am the reason you are what you are now instead of the corpse you should be.” The feral part of me takes pleasure in the fear in her eyes. “If you want to remain as you are now, you will remember who and what I am and what I can do. And you will pay me my due respect.” I release her and watch her stagger back a few steps, two of her closer minions appearing to steady her.

“Th-Theron…”

I turn and head back to the motel where I stowed my duffle bag. I’m not going to stay in Boston any longer than I have to. I’m not going to find the hunt I crave here.