Thorn's Addiction

Amber absentmindedly ran her cloth over the hot, soapy glasses. She couldn’t take her eyes off the bar’s newest resident band. More specifically, their lead singer, Thorn. She watched as he stomped his foot rhythmically, pounding out the beat of the violent song he was singing. Thorn had to be well over 6 feet tall. He was lanky but his pallid skin hugged lean muscle. He was wearing torn jeans and a vest that was largely unbuttoned. Amber could see intricate tattoos weaving across his chest and down one of his arms. She’d never seen a vamp with stubble before either, stubble and long wavy hair, slick with sweat. Pandora’s Box had always had its share of resident bands, to draw in the local goths, punks and vampire wannabes, but this was the first time Amber genuinely enjoyed all of their music. She let the music wash over her, breathing in deeply the atmosphere of the bar. She felt the presence of humans and creatures, a mixture of vampires, dhampires, werewolves. A couple of demons had settled in at the back of the bar, clad in black leather and spiked jewellery. The humans who came here were similarly dressed, completely unaware of their cohabitation with supernatural forces. Amber smirked at a scruffy goth boy trying to dance with a stunning vampire girl. He’d probably give her his blood willingly, if it meant he got laid. Such were things in Pandora’s Box. Above the bar was a row of smaller rooms to accommodate the patrons needs, be them blood sucking, bondage, drug use, whatever. The owner of the bar had one rule, and one rule only. Consent. Everything, especially blood sucking, had to be absolutely, unequivocally, enthusiastically consensual. If any of the employees caught a whiff of unwanted behaviour they were permitted to use extreme force. This suited Amber just fine, after all she did have her own predilections to satisfy. A warm muscled arm shoved against Amber, bringing her back to planet earth. “Hey, wakey wakey, we’ve got customers” Amber looked up at her coworker, a large plaid covered man with a neat red beard. “Sorry Tobias” Amber quickly finished drying the glasses and returned to the growing line of customers at the front of the bar. — Thorn’s set finished and the DJ started up, dividing the patrons into those who wanted to go late and hard, and those who wanted to sleep. With most of them being on the dancefloor now, Amber took the chance to take a break. She ducked into the bathroom, splashing cold water on her face. As she was leaning over the sink, a woman came in whispering into her phone. She strode straight into a cubicle and slammed the door. Amber tuned her superior hearing in to the woman’s conversation. “Yeah it’s him, it’s the singer. I know. Yes I will. Yes I have what I need. Jesus christ Lars, I got this” She hung up angrily and left the cubicle. Amber felt her hair stand on end as she took in the woman’s appearance. She was strong, visibly so. She had the air of someone trying slightly too hard to fit into the goth aesthetic of the bar. Her blonde hair was drawn back into a tight ponytail, and she had a functional backpack slung over her shoulder. Amber choked on a gasp when she saw a small tattoo on the woman’s ankle as she left the bathroom. It was a cross and an axe encircled with lettering Amber recognised as angelic. s**t. Amber swiftly left the bathroom, walking directly to Tobias. “Tobias, we have a problem”. “Can it wait? Oh.” Tobias saw the deathly serious look in Amber’s eyes. “She’s after Thorn” Amber hissed, “s**t. I don’t even know where he’s gone now their set is over…” “He probably wants to feed, fuck.” Before Tobias could reply, Amber was rushing up the stairs to their corridor of sins. The doors were all closed, various moans and shrieks emitting from each room. Amber listened at each door carefully, once again using her superior hearing to locate Thorn and the mystery woman. Fourth door down she found what she wanted. She could hear Thorn reassuring the woman that it wouldn’t hurt. As soon as she heard the woman’s voice responding, Amber kicked the door in, dagger in hand. “What the f**k” roared Thorn, turning to her. He was barely clothed, the woman beside him stood rapidly and a wooden stake appeared in her hand. “Watch out!” yelled Amber as she moved forward to grapple the woman. “SCUM” the woman said, meeting Amber’s grapple with equal vigour. The two women were matched in strength, but Amber was more cunning. She pretended to wince in pain as her muscles gave out, letting the woman have use of her stake arm. When the woman reached out to stab Amber, she kicked the stake out of the woman’s arm with a wrenching crack. “You broke my f*****g arm you b***h” the woman screamed as she fell to the floor. Thorn awoke from his shock and grabbed the wooden stake, using his lighter to set it on fire. As he did so, Amber pressed her foot onto the woman’s arm. “Who are you working for?” she asked, twisting her foot. “Like I’d tell you” the woman spat, writhing in pain. Thorn bent down to the woman’s level, “how did you know what I am?” “It’s easy to spot filth like you lot. You’re not going to let me go are you?” The woman sounded determined rather than defeated. She grabbed Amber’s leg and pushed. Amber tripped and fell back into Thorn. The woman jumped to her feet and produced another wooden stake from thin air. “We’ll kill all of you freaks” she shouted. Amber recovered her balance and darted away from Thorn. A wooden stake would kill him, but it could only injure her. With Amber on one side and Thorn on the other, the woman was unable to keep focus on both. She decided Amber was the bigger threat, with that shiny dagger. She lunged towards Amber again.