New Year's @ the Strip!

[birthright_npc]

The festivities on the Las Vegas strip were your basic police nightmare. A mile-long stretch of the boulevard was blocked off to traffic so that revelers could stagger drunkenly down the middle of the street. Food trucks and street vendors sold pizza, cheese steaks, popcorn, cotton candy, and plastic cups full of beer. Some sold pre-mixed margaritas and daiquiris. At each major intersection, a stage showcased performers and music pumped from speakers mounted on the light posts.

It didn't seem to matter that it was December in the desert. There was plenty of body heat to go around.

At midnight, several large screens would broadcast a countdown before fireworks lit the sky.

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Out on the balcony

[cian_oneill]

Cian hadn't been happy with the idea of Rhiannon walking through the street fair, but knew she would want to at least be there, if only to just 'be there'. So he'd booked them a room on one of the lower floors of a hotel that overlooked the area of the Strip closed off for the festivities. As he brought her a drink, out on the balcony, he grinned and quirked an eyebrow.

"Does this constitute a 'dirty weekend'?" he asked, sitting down next to her and propping a foot up on the balcony.

Re: Out on the balcony

[rhiannon_lee]

“It constitutes a different one than I planned on having.” Rhiannon cradled the glass between her palms. It was chilly. She shivered in loose-fitting cotton pants and a sweatshirt. It wasn’t her ideal New Year’s outfit, but the waistband on her jeans felt like murder. Numerous protests didn’t stop the medical team from doing emergency surgery, and Rhiannon was in no position to assert her body’s miraculous ability to heal. Katherine’s knife had punctured the left kidney and left a new pink scar inches from the first; same knife, same vampire, different night.

A recovery room nurse had eyed the old scar and remarked uncertainly, “Well that’s rotten luck,” as if at a loss of what else to say. Rhiannon kept silent and stared at the ceiling, growing angrier as the anesthesia faded. On the other hand, getting a room on short notice was the result of remarkably good luck and a guest cancellation, so she didn’t plan to treat Cian to an evening of sharp, cold ire.

“Thanks.” She lifted the drink.

Re: Out on the balcony

[cian_oneill]

"Might be summin' t' do wi' the fact it's a Tuesday too," he replied, leaning over and touching his glass to hers. "Y' never did tell me what y'd had planned," he continued, then pressed a kiss to her cheek before sitting back in his chair.

If the medical staff had had their way she wouldn't have been allowed out, the damage to her kidney and side, causing concern to them. But then they didn't know her healing abilities and it was only the fact that the wound wasn't showing any signs of infection or weeping, that they agreed to let her leave, begrudgingly. 'Try and keep away from knife-weilding psychos,' the nursed had told them as she had taken back the signed discharge papers. Cian gave her a rueful smile behind Rhiannon's back as she had started out of the room. 'Yeah, I'm workin' on it,' he joked, carrying the bag of things he'd brought her the morning after the attack, and surgery.

"I'm guessin' it wasn't convalescing," he told her before taking a sip of his drink.

Re: Out on the balcony

[rhiannon_lee]

“Nope.” She shook and then tipped her head, as if in consideration. “And I’m not saying there definitely was an outfit… but I’m not denying it either.” Rhiannon’s tongue clicked in her cheek. “Rain check.”

The thing about a kidney injury? There was no comfortable way to sit in a hardback chair. The feather pillows Cian had brought from the bed helped, though, and she resettled herself in the cloud of white.

“I owe you.”

Re: Out on the balcony

[cian_oneill]

Cian's eyebrows lifted, his head leaning to one side as he looked at her and grinned. He was now intrigued, but wasn't about to start questioning her, happy to wait until she was better, and ready to make good on that rain check.

His eyebrows lowered again at the sound of the words, accompanied by her expression. I owe you.

"Oh?" he replied nonchalantly, "I mean other th'n the rain check?" he added. He looked at her, snuggled into the pillows and reached over to brush an errant strand of hair back off her forehead.

Re: Out on the balcony

[rhiannon_lee]

“For making me take an ambulance when I wanted to get in a cab. For your gorgeous ruined suit. For bringing me here when I would’ve felt pathetic on my couch. Lots of things.”

Rhiannon wanted to be on the street below, not out having fun but patrolling. People were always bitten on New Year’s; the prospect of all those intoxicated people was too much for a vampire to resist, and the city was less one slayer because her guts couldn’t take a punch tonight. But Cian was here and he got her as close to the action as he safely could.

She reached over and plucked his knee. “Don’t listen to me, I’m being weird.”

Re: Out on the balcony

[cian_oneill]

He reached over and took her hand, holding it in his. "Dry cleaner said they'd be able t' get th' blood out, seems it's not such a strange job for them," he told her with some amusement, "and believe me, that's no' the weirdest thing I've heard this week," he added with a small grin.

He hadn't told Rhiannon what he'd learnt about the tall redhead she'd pointed out at the ball, after the attack. He'd been asking around again, trying to find a lead on the whereabouts of the one called Katherine, or if anyone had heard anything about the hit. He knew that if this guy was going as low as to go to a vampire to hurt Rhiannon he had gone way beyond any edge, and Cian was quite comfortable with the idea of protecting Rhiannon whatever it took. She may want to take the guy out, but Cian would be there as back up in case things didn't go the way the Slayer wanted.

Re: Out on the balcony

[rhiannon_lee]

“I thought you were gonna say it’s not the weirdest thing you’ve gotten on your suit.” Rhiannon pressed her thumb into the fleshy part of his palm and rubbed in circles. She quirked an eyebrow and looked out over the railing. “Last year, I spent New Years in Time Square. That was hectic. I’ve never seen so many vampires. I saw one grab a girl and dip her, like that picture of the nurse and the sailor kissing. By the time I got close, he’d dragged her onto the sidewalk and left her curled around a fire hydrant, like she was just a drunk taking a nap. Right there in plain sight.”

Re: Out on the balcony

[cian_oneill]

The muscles in Cian's jaw tightened and he looked over the balcony, the crowd below in the street starting to get thicker as the casinos, restaurants and bars started to empty, the time drawing closer to midnight.

"Aye, 'nd I know y' want t' be down there," he told her, giving her hand a squeeze. "T'night y' just got t' oversee," he told her, "I c'n go and do any housekeepin' y' see needin' doin'."

Re: Out on the balcony

[rhiannon_lee]

Rhiannon wrinkled her nose, but she knew he was right. She’d favor her side, which was the same thing as drawing a big ‘X’ on her body for a vampire to punch repeatedly. So she sat on the balcony and let herself look and listen, taking sips of her drink and occasionally pointing out absurdities to her boyfriend. After about ten minutes, she suddenly sat forward.

“There.” She pointed at a woman on the street. “That’s Deanna. The redhead from the other night.” She looked at Cian. She wanted to know why Deanna had nodded at her like that and taken off after Katherine. Had she found out anything? More importantly, was it knowledge she’d part with? They weren’t exactly allies, but it was worth a shot.

Re: Out on the balcony

[cian_oneill]

Cian looked down and saw the tall redhead, recognising her from the night at the Ball. He looked at Rhiannon as he stood up. Leaning over he rested a hand on each arm of the chair, head lowered and looking her straight in the eyes.

"Promise me you will stay here?"

Re: Out on the balcony

[rhiannon_lee]

"Oh, sure, sure... If you promise not to get in a fight."

Rhiannon raised her eyebrows at him.

She swatted his pant leg.

"Go."

Re: Out on the balcony

[cian_oneill]

"Promise," he said, tempted to cross his fingers on each hand out of sight beneath the arms of the chair, but resisting. He grinned and planted a kiss on her forehead.

"Behave," he told her as he straightened and was gone.