Konrad Vrdoljiak

Edyta

Sat 01:40AM EST
A sprawl of black and white photos and their proof sheets were spread out across the glass-topped coffee table. She regarded them in idle silence as smoke seeped from between her lips slowly, creating a curtain of haze to obscure her vision. A bottle of beer sat on the warm floor boards in front of the italian leather couch, the glass beaded with condensation. Another night alone in the lofty apartment. Another night spent in relative silence save for the cresendo of orchestral music wafting in the background, almost inaudible at the level it had been turned to.


Konrad Vrdoljiak

Sat 01:44AM EST
The elevator is silent as a tomb. You can tell a lot about an apartment complex from its elevators. This elevator speaks of class, of cash, of discretion.

The doorbell's pleasant two-tone chime announces the arrival of a guest. He had called a while ago, but hung up without speaking. Rather stalker-ish of him, but he didn't care. Only wanted to check she was home, was all. And she was.

"Busy?" - when the door opens. And, a beat later, "Alone?"


Edyta

Sat 01:47AM EST
"No," was her first reply as she tapped the ash from the end of the smoldering cigarette before taking another long draw of noxious fumes deep into her lungs, then spoke around the escaping miasma to reply to the second question, "Yes."

Her hair fell in a pale gold spill down the length of her back, silken smooth and at least dry tonight. The pale blue of her eyes were even more startling in color, the outlining of kohl stark against the olive of her skin and complimenting the blood red gloss sheening over her lips (viper's bite).


Konrad Vrdoljiak

Sat 02:00AM EST
His gaze is an appraisal; it always is. He studies her with eyes that are more hazel than tawny in the hallway's muted light, though the illusion fades as he steps, uninvited, into the living room. No vampire, he, entering by invitation alone.

His reasons for coming tonight are not clear even to himself. He had not come to press her for an answer. He was in no hurry. It was doubtful, also, that he had come for the presence of her company. He glances down at the photos scattered over the glass-topped coffee table while he strips his coat off his shoulders - fine wool tonight, dark, offset by the off-white scarf he tosses atop the coat. Underneath, black.

The svelte Ahroun crouches. Looks at the photos more closely. "Yours?"


Edyta

Sat 02:03AM EST
"Yes."

She stubs the depleted cigarette out in the glass ashtray once more perched on the edge of the expensive sofa's armrest and taps another out of the pack beside it (nails vividly red) and slides the cigarette length between her lips slowly. The rasp of a flint as she strikes the lighter, placing the small flame against the tip of the cancer inducing vice. The end flares red, smoke trailing wistfully from the end. The photos, the quality and contrast exceptional, were of a photoshoot for someone's modeling portfolio by the look of them.


Konrad Vrdoljiak

Sat 02:10AM EST
Another moment's scrutiny before he nods, slowly. "Not bad." It would be a too-obvious compliment were it given by another; from him, it seems something a little more genuine. Either that, or he was an exceptionally good liar. A hand reaches out - strong, well-formed, long-fingered and deft and calloused: a swordsman's, if she still knew the look in this day and age - and sifts through the photos quickly but carefully, touching only at the edges where he would leave no mark. Pictures, images that steal the soul, hiss across glass and then he stands. "Whatever else you are, you are a photographer after all."


Edyta

Sat 02:15AM EST
"Yes, I am."

She lifts the condensation stained amber bottle of beer from its spot on the polished floor with her free hand, long agile fingers wrapping around the base of it as she swings her legs up along the length of the couch and her lithe body seems to melt into the dark leather as she reclines, taking a sip from the bottle followed by another draw on the cigarette. Ocean deep eyes slowly fall over his figure, trailing lazily down from his cheekbones to his throat where they rest for a pausing moment and then idly wandering downwards. Scrutiny and silent contemplation all the way down and then achingly slow back up. As he had appraised her, she did exactly the same in return.


Konrad Vrdoljiak

Sat 02:19AM EST
"And what else are you?" He would give her her privacy, he said, if she agreed to the proposal; since she had not, he evidently considered himself free to pry. Since she didn't seem about to invite him, he sits by himself, leaning forward to paw photos out of the way before setting his feet up at the edge of the low glass table. "Edyta... Machackova. That's not a name I'm familiar with, you know."


Edyta

Sat 02:22AM EST
"I'm not surprised."

She apparently just decided to ignore his first question, responding solely to his last comment with a slight ghost of a smirk tugging the corner of her blood red lips (aural pleasure). She lowers her head slowly back against the soft enveloping expanse of the sofa cushioning, hair starkly pale against the black creacking material as it fanned out across the armrest.


Konrad Vrdoljiak

Sat 02:26AM EST
"I am," he replies, quiet and certain. She lowers her head and he leans his back against the sleek modern sofa. She or her boyfriend, one or the other, had good taste. Konrad's eyes are narrowed, though not with anger, and the hue is mutedly luminous. He studies her as a wolf would his prey-to-be, as a man would his lover-to-be, as a Shadow Lord would an almost-insignificant kin. "Your blood is stronger than a no-name family from some backwaters Russian town."


Edyta

Sat 02:30AM EST
"I know."

She stretches out one long leg and then the other, gazing along the supple lengths of them to her toes which she idly stretched downwards and then relaxed one after the other. She crossed her extended legs at the ankles as she slid one arm under the back of her head as an impromptu cushion so that it tilted her head to a better advantage of watching her 'guest'.


Konrad Vrdoljiak

Sat 02:33AM EST
"Nn." Not so much a grunt as a throat-borne sound; a chuff. The lithe powerful body slips down an inch or seven, relaxing. "So how long do you expect the ruse to last?"


Edyta

Sat 02:34AM EST
"What ruse?"

She tilted her head minutely to one side, watching him without ever once staring into his monster-bound eyes.


Konrad Vrdoljiak

Sat 02:42AM EST
"Your name." His hands are easeful on his thighs; one lifts now to gesture, eloquently and meaninglessly. "Your photographs. All that doesn't fit in with the purity of your blood, and what I smell in the air."


Edyta

Sat 02:46AM EST
"Humans are no more perceptive than they choose to be." ...which is more than can be said of you...

She finishes what little was left in the amber bottle and lazily drops her hand over the edge of the couch, touching it to the wooden floor and releasing it.

"Check the immigration records: I am a whole, complete and recognized person as Edyta."

She slides her legs over the edge of the couch, pushing herself into a standing position and rises with the grace of a supple feline stalking. She bends down, picking up the bottle in one hand, and then pads towards the kitchen.


Konrad Vrdoljiak

Sat 02:55AM EST
A closed stare, and for a moment it seems he might get up, make some phone calls, and have just that done.

Then it passes. He shrugs, a symphony of subdued power and grace. "No need. I have every confidence in your thoroughness." His eyes fall from her as she heads for the kitchen, and he studies the features of the model in the pictures: stunning, yet bland.


Edyta

Sun 12:47AM EST
He is left to the contemplation of the various prints and the proof sheets scrattered among that contained miniatures of the entire rolls of films used during the shoot. A small magnifying eyepiece was placed like a small ornamental half-cone in the center of the glass-sheet coffee table. A few more minutes pass in relative silence, the strains of classical music undulating across the open living spcae, before she emerges from the kitche once more with items wrapped in both hands: in her right, an opened bottle of red and a spare wine glass and in the left, a half-full glass aleady poured. She steps around him, bending to place the bottle and extra glass on the coffee table. She turns her head slightly towards him, hair slithering over one shoulder to fall in a gold wave that quivered where it hung.

"What? Don't you like to play pretend?"


Konrad Vrdoljiak

Sun 12:52AM EST
He bends as she does. The glass is caught deftly, without rush, two inches from the tabletop. He takes it over from her and lifts the bottle in his other, straightening to pour without bothering to watch the level of wine.

It stops a finger-joint's breadth from the rim, and he sets the winebottle down. "Depends." A curl at the corner of his sinner's mouth. "What shall we pretend?"


Edyta

Sun 12:57AM EST
An answering twitch along the corner of her red painted lips and she straightens up, one arm wrapped around her slender waist and the other hand bringing the wine glass to her lips. She sips slowly and then turns her back on him to pick up the cigarette pack, she shakes the packet till one slide out and plucks it out, placing it to her mouth and lighting it before turning back. A plume of toxic haze escaped slowly from her lips as she replies around the miasma.

"You could pretend to be a man."


Konrad Vrdoljiak

Sun 01:08AM EST
"Rather than a Garou?" He doesn't circle to see her face. He remains where he is, relaxed, shoulders back beneath the soft black material of his pullover shirt. Halfhidden by the left sleeve, a stylish titanium watch gleams dully. "Is that what you would prefer? Toothless, clawless, blind, mewling..." no bitterness; no bile. Quiet, gentle, devastating amusement.


Edyta

Sun 01:14AM EST
"Being a Garou is one simple thing," she replies with a slender roll of her shoulders as she sits back down, stretching out long legs along the black leather of her encompassing couch as she reclines.

"Being a Garou and a man simultaneously, is what is an accomplishment."


Konrad Vrdoljiak

Sun 01:21AM EST
A beat. A sip of wine: dark red. Then he leans forward to set his glass down between his feet, propped on the glass table as they are. Leans back. Raises an eyebrow: dark, a darker hue than his hair. "Are you attempting to insult me?"


Edyta

Sun 01:25AM EST
"You asked."

She reaches to one side behind her, catching the ashtray between several fingers and lifts it up. She places it back down on the polished wood floor beside the couch at an easier angle for her to loosen the ashes when needed. She takes another sip, ocean deep eyes gazing over the rim of the glass.

"I answered."


Konrad Vrdoljiak

Sun 01:28AM EST
"Don't evade questions." He laughs, a low sound, and salutes her with his wineglass. "It's unladylike."


Edyta

Sun 01:32AM EST
"So too is for an unattached female entertaining a young man at this hour without a chaperone while having sexual relations outside of marriage, while also the guest has made what could be considered, in polite society, an indecent proposal."

A wry quirk of her lips as she concentrates on the delicacy of wine and nictotine.

"I have never claimed to be 'ladylike'."


Konrad Vrdoljiak

Sun 01:34AM EST
"No, you haven't," he agrees, and settles to watch her with his animalistic eyes. Glinting. "At the least, you aren't a liar."


Edyta

Sun 01:38AM EST
"I know."

Although some might take the secrets that she withheld and the facade of her so-called life and occupation as one giant web of lies. She curls an arm under the back of her head, cushioning it in a manner that allows her the right tilt of face to observes his relaxed state on the other seat setting.


Konrad Vrdoljiak

Sun 01:42AM EST
"Hm," he says, or perhaps "Mm": the low sound of acknowledgment, agreement, or perhaps animal satisfaction. He reaches forward and sips again, the frail glass devoured in one large hand, and remains in that posture - flexed forward, curved, tensionless despite the stretch.

"And that proposal." Jump topics as electricity jumps live wires: effortlessly. "Do you consider it indecent?"


Edyta

Sun 01:50AM EST
"If I had the moral compunctions of modern society, which include the notion of empathetic connections with my peers: probably."

Her eyes wander up towards the ceiling, her voiced words nuetrally vague in tone. Finally they detach from whatever she had found so compulsively interesting up there and return to him, although, as seemed normal with her, they rested just below his eyes on his cheekbones.

"Merely I find some of the terms unacceptable in regards to maintaining the proposed facade."


Konrad Vrdoljiak

Sun 01:52AM EST
"Oh?" There's an electric awareness prickling his body, interest made physical. She can sense it. "Which terms."


Edyta

Sun 01:58AM EST
"A garou, even a Shadow Lord, that doesn't protect his mated pure blood kin during duress is bound to raise a sense of suspicion as to the validity of the pairing not to mention the validity of the said Garou's ability to actually act in a time of such impending misfourtune."

Anothervague shrug of her shoulders before finishing the last of the red wine in her glass. She sits up enough to retrieve the bottle, pouring another half glass before relaxing back into the comfort of the couch.


Konrad Vrdoljiak

Sun 02:01AM EST
He clicks his tongue softly. "You want my protection, do you?" - and a laugh, just as soft, and bladed, as he unfurls a corded arm and extends his glass for her to refill - "I can't protect you when I know nothing about you."


Edyta

Sun 02:06AM EST
"I am Lord Kin, my blood is pure, and I work on retainer for the tribe."

She stares almost blankly at the extended glass for a few heartbeats before she refills his glass also.

"That should suffice."


Konrad Vrdoljiak

Sun 02:10AM EST
"Insufficient," he counters. "What do you do? What sort of danger might I be called upon to protect you from? Are you even worth the trouble?" He draws his refilled glass back to himself. With that everpresent edge of humor, "I'm looking for a low-maintenance mate, you see."


Edyta

Sun 02:16AM EST
"I do not rely on Garou talents for my particular line of profession, or professions as it may be, so danger extending from that sector would be, at best, negligable," she replied with another vague flip of one lean shoulder taking another sip of the wine before continuing,"The most that may be required, entirely Garou society based, would more likely stem from my openly admitted inherent lack of empathic charms which, coupled with our tribe blood, could be considered quite a dampener when interacting with other Garou."


Konrad Vrdoljiak

Sun 02:30AM EST
A blank moment - and then Konrad throws his head back and laughs.

"I understand," he says at last, nodding, chuckling. He lifts the glass again for a long quaff, and then continues, "It's acceptable - within reason. I'll protect you from your lack of charm. I won't protect you from your own stupidity. But let's be fair. You've adjusted the terms; now I have another adjustment to make."


Edyta

Sun 02:34AM EST
She waves idly with one hand a "feel free" kind of gesture as she leans back into the comforting, molded confines of the deep, dark leather sofa. A vaguely raises eyebrow also follows as she waits for the further 'adjustment' to the offered 'contract'.


Konrad Vrdoljiak

Sun 02:37AM EST
He inhales through his nose - holds it. Doesn't speak just yet. Drinks, draining the glass in a few long gulps, sharp contrast to the polite sipping hitherto.

Last chance to change his mind.

He sets the glass down, and levels his eyes to hers - or as close as hers come to his. "Every month - on the full - you tell me something about yourself. It need not be large, nor important. But it must be true, and it must be something I don't yet know." Leaning back, the Ahroun spreads his hands. "That's all."


Edyta

Sun 02:45AM EST
She inclines her head in what could be considered a silent agreement to the amendment of the terms and conditions. She drains the rest of her glass before setting it down on the coffee table with a faint chink of glass stem against glass sheet of the table top.

"As it stands, I like to know what I am buying, as it were, before I sign the dotted line."


Konrad Vrdoljiak

Sun 02:49AM EST
Glasses (cards) on the table. He raises an eyebrow, lacing his arms behind his head. "Meaning?"


Edyta

Sun 02:54AM EST
She kills the last smoldering end of the cigarette into the ashtray by her feet, her filter twisting under the pressure till the embers fail to produce any more twining lines of smoke.

"Abberations and impotencies," stated simple as she reaches for the pack of cigarettes to continue the habit of chain-smoking while conversing,"If a fruit is damaged, you can toss it away. Such cannot be said the same of partners."


Konrad Vrdoljiak

Sun 03:04AM EST
The (mask) of indulgence, of egocrushing gentleness - it falls away. Konrad is motionless for a moment. Then he jackknifes to his feet, snapping his jacket off the back of the sofa. "You insult me," he informs her, just as simply, "and you're obviously wasting my time."


Edyta

Sun 03:18AM EST
"No. I simply answered the question," she slides another cigarette between blood red lips, quirking them into something of a twistedly sardonic smile as she watches the rise of temper. Score for her lack of charisma, which she had mentioned earlier, was appalling: the main reason why she avoided human contact on a basis, other than having no moral qualms for removing said life as necessary without any lingering sense of conscience.

"What I was inferring, actually, was that it is best to know whether either of us possess certain characteristics in the biblical sense of consumating the deal that the other may find disturbing to the extent that contact would be nullified and thus jepordizing the eventual facade."

She fills her wine glass slowly and then speaks again,"Or in plainer words, if you will, I will not pretend to be mated to someone I wouldn't consider touching with a ten foot barge pole. Such dislikes are too discernable by bodylanguage to those who may be watching."


Konrad Vrdoljiak

Tue 06:50PM EST
He watches her with something akin to amused fascination as she unleashes her cool torrents of words. For someone he had considered mute for a moment, she could certainly wax eloquent (or at least glib) when she wanted to.

I will not pretend to be mated--

He cuts in here, smoothly, his voice running a low undertone to hers as if his temper had never cracked at all, "There will be no pretense. You will, for all intents and purposes, be my mate."

--such dislikes are too discernable...

When she finishes, there is a small pause. Then Konrad lowers his gaze for a moment, laughs under his breath; looks up. Strange; such laughter rarely touches his eyes. "Edyta. If you want to be wined and dined, just say so. If you want me to fuck your brains out, just say so as well. Either way, I doubt this," a gesture at her shared flat, "is the place to do it. I'll pick you up at 8pm tomorrow night, then?"


Edyta

Tue 06:57PM EST
"8pm."

She returns to a reclining position on the sofa, cigarette smoldering slowly away between her lips. She half closes her eyes and doesn't appear to be going to say anything more on the matter. Tonight.