~~Jack~~
He hated waiting.
People handled waiting differently, and with different degrees of stress. Some people shut down, to save mental energy. Some people shut down because they couldn't handle the stress in general. Some people became antsy, anxious, and volatile. Some people panicked, and started spiraling down ridiculous trains of thought that were nothing but self destructive.
Jack became a planner. When he had no choice but to wait for the event, the action, the conclusion, the whatever, to happen, he planned. He was a good planner, and he enjoyed it. Spreadsheets of his old diet, before he was embraced, calorie counting and such, were a joy to craft. Writing out flowcharts of his various career choices, and where they could lead him, were too. It helped relieve and manage stress when he had to think about something coming his way that he had to deal with, but wasn't here yet.
These hunters were coming, and no matter how much he looked, no matter how much Mulder and Scully looked, no matter how much the Right Hands looked, or anyone else looked, no more details availed themselves. So, he did the only thing he could do. He went to Bloodlust.
"Hello Eric," he said. "Long time no see."
The man looked him up and down, before shrugging, and leaning against the wall. On the first floor, it was noisier than upstairs, more people around. Jack didn't like it, and from the way Eric was looking at the people around him, he didn't like it either. Strange job choice then. Jack was almost tempted to ask him how he became a bouncer, but the look on his face suggested he shouldn't.
"Jack. Good to see your guts on your inside."
Heh, yeah. Jack looked down, pat his stomach, and slid into the booth beside Eric. Empty, now that the couple that'd been in there were leaving. The werewolf probably scared them off.
And he was a werewolf. Jack hadn't been in a position to analyze him, the first time he saw him, and apparently the man had never transformed until recently. Whatever it was his first transformation had done, it'd changed him. He looked different, smelled different, and moved different. There was something animalistic to his stance, aggression, defensiveness, territorial maybe. Or Jack was letting his knowledge taint his view.
"How's it going?" Jack said. Yeah, small talk, with a guy Jessy warned was not interested in small talk. This was going to go well.
"What do you want, vamp?"
Damn. Spot on. Jack could relate to the antisocial tendency, but not the aggression. The fuck had Jack done to earn the glares Eric was giving him now?
"Checking in, to see if you've seen anything unusual."
"Like those four hunters? No, nothing like that."
"Would you know?"
"I'd smell them."
Jack raised a brow up at the man beside him, and took a sniff of his own. Lots of smells, lots of sweat and alcohol and sex and drugs, but he had no way of separating it from the more subtle smells. Man must have been a blood hound werewolf.
"You sure?"
"If not, I'd see something. I'd notice if something was off about someone, and if they weren't something with fangs or claws, I'd know that that person was dangerous, and probably a hunter. I'd report it. So you can fuck off and—"
"Whoa dude, whoa. Not here performing any kind of check to see if you're doing your job, Eric. Just here because... need a place to wait for the shitstorm." Not entirely true, but good enough to progress the conversation.
Eric grunted, a noise closer to a growl than Jack supposed the man meant to make, because his eyes opened wide after, and he shook his head out. "Fine. Shitstorm?"
"The hunters are going to do something. We need to find them, beat them to the punch." Sighing, he shifted in the seat so he was facing out of the booth. It set his feet near Eric's, so Jack didn't have to yell; not like he wanted the nearby kine to hear. The pulsing music and background noise of sex and chatter was only effective cover to a point. "Probably something involving me."
"You? Because you're dating that tall, white-haired chick?"
Jack smirked up at the man. Tall, white-haired chick. He couldn't tell if Antoinette would be upset or amused at the description. Probably both.
"Maybe. And because I know Azamel. It's her the hunters are after."
"Right, granny in the rocking chair."
"Well, I'm sure after that daring rescue you made, they'll be coming for me, other vamps, and maybe you too."
Eric shivered, and ran his fingers along his shaved head. Jack knew the reflex well; buzzed head versus bald head though. Could be fun to try that haircut, and since he was Kindred, he'd only have to keep the change for a night. Eric raised a brow at him. "Why are you staring at me?"
"Oh, uh, no reason." Chuckling, Jack looked to the door of Bloodlust. There was Damien, and Jessy, coming in to join him as planned.
He watched Eric in the corner of his eyes, and waited to see if his hunch was correct. Once the man looked toward the door, and saw the two vampires, a small crack showed through the wolf's hard exterior. Chin raised, arms relaxed, Eric watched Jessy, and as she came in closer, the crack of a smile on his face grew. Eventually, the man realized he was smiling, and wiped it off with his hand, but Jack saw it all, through the pulsing lights of Bloodlust.
Jessy liked him. He liked Jessy. No issue there, as long as Avery didn't create a problem, and get Eric dragged into it. Worst case scenario. Well, he was paid to think of the worst case scenario now, especially as a Right Hand.
"We're heading up, team meeting," he said, standing. "Wanna come, keep people from getting too close?"
"The fuck you having a team meeting in a club for?"
"Let's us keep an eye on things," Damien said, stepping in close enough for the conversation. Man had good ears.
"Yeah." Once she was in close, Jessy walked up to Eric, tapped him on the shoulder, and winked at him with all the subtlety of a firecracker. "Plus, think of it like a work meeting, right? We'll grab a snack while we're here."
"Never worked in an office environment, or anything with team meetings." He shrugged, and smiled for a moment when Jessy winked at him.
"Come with us," she said. "Be a lookout."
He managed a snort laugh, a quiet noise Jack had heard many dogs make. Sort of like a canine's way of putting an exclamation point at the end of a sentence. Jack wasn't exactly well versed in the man's normal body language, but he assumed it used to be more human; it wasn't anymore. Every glance, every breath, every tap of his finger on his own bicep, and every motion he made, had the calculated, prowling depth of a wolf's movements. He might as well have been Clara or that Carter fellow.
And as the three Kindred went upstairs, he followed, up the stairs and to one of the booths in the back. Dark, secluded, where the music wasn't as noisy, and where the kine weren't. Back in the day, Jack would have found it a tad scary, maybe even spooky, to hang out in the shadowed corner of a night club. Now, he gravitated toward it naturally. Give him some mascara, an earring, a trench coat, and he'd wear them without irony.
Well, maybe a little irony.
The three Kindred sat down, and Eric stood by the booth. Took his job seriously, or knew to go with the flow to prevent issues. Jack made sure to sit down on the outside of the booth, beside the werewolf. Time for the part he wasn't looking forward to.
"Jessy tell you about me?" he said.
Eric raised a brow as he looked down at him. "Not sure what you mean."
"He means," Jessy said, leaning over Jack's shoulder and grinning at Eric once she was in the booth, "that Jack here is your new goto, sort of."
"Did you three come here to have a meeting, or talk to me?"
Jack sighed, and shrugged. "Both, in a way. I need to know what Avery told you, what the Begotten told you, and... well, what your plans are."
Every muscle on Eric's body tensed. Whatever Jack said, it was nails on chalkboard to this guy.
"My plans?"
"Your plans." Ok, at least he was talking. Jessy warned him the man was a 'bitter fucker', her words. She also said he seemed to appreciate honesty. A fine rope to walk, as the truth was usually a tough pill to swallow, and in a bitter jackass, was liable to get spit back out. "If you're going to join Avery's pack, that's fine, I talk to her regularly anyway. If you're not, and you're going to hang with the Begotten, you—"
"Why does everyone think I'm going to do anything with them?"
"You're friends with Fiona, aren't you?" he said. "And Jessy found you in the sewer with them."
