faelans_folly | [Closed - Levi and Bella]

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[Closed - Levi and Bella]

One of the things Levi didn't like about not having a partner was that sometimes it would really be nice to have some backup. His latest ex-partner, the were-yak, hadn't worked out so well, constantly having to stop and eat grass and all the time. Maybe it wasn't so bad, because he had really, really smelled bad.

Right now, he was wandering around some sort of creepy, empty warehouse in the middle of night with no backup, hunting down what likely was a really sick and twisted serial killer. He'd been tracking whoever it was for months now. Dead bodies torn apart almost surgically, literally pulled apart from what looked like human hands. That made it his type of case.

His gun drawn, Levi continued to circle toward the center of the warehouse in a spiral pattern, but really it was like looking for a needle in a really dark and echo-y warehouse. There was a good chance that he was going to end up with his body ripped apart, this wasn't exactly something that being able to read a mind could help with. It was times like this that he wished he'd practiced more with his ability, maybe he'd be able to scan the area or something.

But he couldn't stop because it was scary or dangerous, because if he didn't stop whoever or whatever it was, more people would die, and he couldn't let that happen.

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Bella followed Vlad into the warehouse with a sigh. She really, really hoped he didn't have a snack in there. She was pretty sure this particular leech was up to no good because he looked entirely too smug to pass for undead. That, and he hung out with too many humans. A vamp that could tolerate that kind of proximity without even a wince was a well-fed vamp. And since she hadn't run into him in the forest, or a carcass with human-like bite marks at the throat that she hadn't drained, she doubted he was being a good boy.

Yeah, there were all kinds of vamps here. Some that could sip and not drain, some that used bites as seduction, whose victims got off on the bites and didn't die from them. Then there were others like her, the ones that had bites that killed. As far as she knew, though, she was the only one with venom, and the only one that looked like a quartz rock when the sun was out.

None of that was here nor there, though, because she'd stepped into the warehouse and the smell hit her at once. Fuck. There was a human in here. Whether it was Vlad's dinner, his toy, or just some poor dolt in the wrong place at the wrong time. Bella looked over her head, happy to see scaffolding and walkways up there. Perfect vantage. She jumped and made it onto the walkway without a sound, pacing Vlad as he moved through the place.

Levi was tired of blundering around in the dark. There had been nothing to indicate that the killer had or used a gun, so he clicked on his flashlight. It would give his position away, but even hearing the whoever it was open a door to escape would be something.

Raising his arm up, he clicked on the flashlight. Turning in a slow circle, he checked for any murder like silhouettes. There were never any decent silhouettes around when your life might depend on them.

He had just about made a full turn when something slammed into him, hard, and sent him flying to the floor. Okay, so he had definitely found the killer, or something.

"Freeze, police!" he shouted, because seriously what the fuck else was he going to do?

The killer's answer was to laugh at him and pick him up and throw him through a half-finished wall. Fortunately, that give him enough time to turn and fire his weapon at whatever it was.

Fuck. That was her first thought when the light went on and Vlad immediately reacted and closed on the human. That was followed closely with fucking hell when he completely slammed the guy.

Time to get dirty, apparently.

Bella crept her way over the catwalk until she was right above them and she saw the guy fly into a wall. Ouch. That was going to leave a mark. Then she saw the gun come up.

"Don't shoot. You'll just piss him off," Bella called out a second before she jumped from her perch and landed in front of the guy and finally got a look at who it was. Levi. And he was bleeding. Christ, this totally was her week, wasn't it?

With a turn of her golden eyes on the cop she hissed at him once. "Shelve any macho shit you're harboring and stay behind me, got it?"

Then she turned to Vlad and lowered into a crouch. "Come on, you little prick. Time to meet whatever hell awaits us. You picked the wrong human tonight."

For a moment, Levi thought that maybe the killer had a partner. Then the girl stepped into the light and he saw her skin sparkle and he breathed a sigh of relief. It was Bella, and she was one of the good guys. Or at least, one of the better bad guys, he wasn't sure.

"Trust me, not harboring any macho shit here," Levi groaned as he tried to sit up a bit.

Vampires, as a general rule, were stronger and faster than humans. Most of them were, however, just as squishy. You could drive a stake through to the heart just as easily as you could with a human. Bullets didn't do a lot of damage, but they did penetrate them.

But not Bella. Bella had all the strength and speed but was hard as a rock. It made the outcome of this fight no contest at all.

"I, uh, I'll just rest here and be your backup."

"Do me a favor and try to plug where you're leaking? I'm okay," she said, and thought for now, "but there's no reason to go advertising a buffet to the neighbors, right?"

Trusting that to motivate him to at least stay conscious and have a purpose, Bella turned back to Vlad and took a step forward with a low growl. "Now then, Vlad, let's talk."

"Name's not Vl--"

"I don't give a fuck what your name is. And as soon as the sun comes up it won't matter because you'll be a fucking pile of dust."

Vlad crouched himself. "You'll never take me down, little girl. Do you know how many centuries I have?"

"Nope, and I couldn't care less."

Vlad sniffed. "I was told vampires were as welcome as any others here."

"They are," Bella smiled, still advancing on the pompous prick, "until they start snacking on the humans. Then they get a little bitchy." She turned towards Levi. "Why were you looking for Vlad here? Has he been a bad boy?"

"Seven bodies over three months," Levi said, pushing himself up to a sitting position as he pressed a hand up to his forehead and felt the shallow scratch there. It didn't seem like much blood, especially for a head wound, but he was all too aware of just how little blood it took.

"I didn't think it was a vampire because there was still blood in the body. Figured the blood missing was just because they were killed at a secondary site. Also, they were ripped apart. He just grabbed the chest cavity and... pulled it apart."

The vampire grinned, obviously with fond memories of the event.

"And you can't do anything about it," he said. "Because I have five more victims and I'm not telling you where they are unless you can promise me that I won't be killed."

The thought about wishing she could read minds died a quick, uneventful death. Those sorts of things lead to bad thoughts, thoughts she couldn't have while she was here, anyway.

Then she sighed and looked back at Levi before taking another step towards the vamp. "Going to be like that, is it? Barter your life for five humans you've got stashed in a hidey hole?" Bella sighed, fixing a look of resignation on her face. "All right. Tell us where the five are and I promise, I won't kill you."

"No!" Levi shouted, scrambling to a standing position. "Don't make that bet."

Levi stared the vampire down. Well, the vampire's nose down because there was no way that he was going to look him in the eyes. He reached out with his senses and pushed at the vampire. He wasn't subtle about it, but he didn't need to be because the vampire wasn't going to live through the interrogation.

Immediately it felt like his head was going to split open and he grunted in pain. He didn't stop though until he had ripped the information from the creature's mind.

"Got it!" he gasped. "They're in the basement of a house on the other side of town. I can call it in. They're going to be fine."

Bella stared at Levi for a full minute - almost an eternity considering how she processed time. "You can...you can read minds?" Her mind spun out for a few seconds, trying to reconcile what she now knew with what her mind fought to suppress.

She'd momentarily forgotten Vlad. Then he shifted, just a fraction, and before Levi could answer, or blink, she'd barreled into Vlad, grabbed him by the throat and pinned him to a pillar a foot above the ground. "Going somewhere? Besides hell, I mean."

"Yeah, it's kind of a secret though," he said, reaching into his jacket pocket for a bottle of pills. He wasn't concerned about the vampire now that Bella was here, he knew enough about her to know that it didn't stand a chance against her.

The bottle said it was Extra Strength Tylenol, but the pills inside were something else entirely. Levi palmed two of them and dry-swallowed them, hoping they kicked in before this headache made him pass out.

"I'll kill you!" the vampire hissed at Bella, but it was clear by the way it struggled it was powerless. "Kill you both!"

"And who'm I going to tell, exactly?" she called over her shoulder, "my dozens of friends?"

Bella frowned as she caught a strange scent, but then Vlad decided to choose that moment to go out in a blaze of glory. She turned back to him. "You know what? I'm not even in the mood to tear you into manageable portions. Say goodnight, Gracie."

Then, without seeming to move, Vlad had turned into Vlad 1 and Vlad 2, both of which were on fire.

Shoving a Zippo back into her pocket, she turned back to Levi. "At least it's quieter now."

"It's not like you send me your social calendar every month," Levi said.

He couldn't see Bella move, but suddenly the vampire was in two parts, which he thought was very fitting considering how the thing had killed its victims. The fire was a nice touch too. Bella was slightly violent, he was realizing.

Taking out his phone, Levi made a quick call into headquarters. They wanted to know everything that happened, but he told them he'd fill them in tomorrow. All they cared about was that the victims were alive and could be saved. The headlines tomorrow would be going crazy about this, although there wouldn't be any mention of his involvement.

"You doing okay?" he asked Bella. "What's the rhyme... Eyes of yellow, she's alright. Eyes of red, oh fuck, oh fuck, please don't eat me tonight?"

"I could hand you a blank sheet of paper and it would serve the same function," Bella shrugged. "Don't worry, I won't spill either of your little secrets."

She pulled the jacket off, the tank she wore revealing her arms and shoulders, then wrinkled her nose. "Except for the little prick's blood on my jacket, yeah, I'm fine." His non-rhyme nearly made her crack the stone of her face into a smile. "Yellow's fine, black's a bad idea. They're not red very often, so I wouldn't worry about that too much."

"Wait, I have more than one?" he asked, giving her a puzzled look. As far as he knew, the mind reading thing was his only secret. Maybe he had ones that even he didn't know. Exciting.

"I'll worry about it just a little. If it's all the same to you, I'm going to focus on how perfect your ass is to take my mind off of it?"

Not that he really needed that distraction, but it was practically habit for Levi now to come across as an idiot so that people dismissed him.

"Most people do," she answered vaguely, then narrowed her eyes at him.

"What is this, stare at Bella's ass week? Did someone pin a neon sign to my jeans while I wasn't looking?"

"With an ass like that, I'm pretty sure every week is 'stare at Bella's ass' week," he said, giving a shrug. If she thought that just now people were staring at her ass, she needed to get out more.

"I'm sure I'd be even more smitten by your smile, if you actually can smile, but right now the ass is what I have to work with. I mean, and the fact that you care about people and protect them. Total justice crush on my end right now."

"I dunno," Bella shrugged. Her solitary life didn't really lend itself to that kind of expression. "Been so long since I've smiled, my face could very well be set like this now."

"Humans are weak, and I don't like things that prey on that," she dismissed with a shrug, then turned slightly and looked over her shoulder, trying to see the body part in question. "It's just...its a butt. Not much different than anyone else's."

"We are rather squishy with vital organs that are easily accessed by stabbing," Levi said. If she thought he was going to take offense at humans being labeled weak, she was going to be disappointed. Levi had seen too much to think otherwise. He didn't imagine she really meant anything cruel by it.

"I don't suppose you'd like to join the police force? You're entirely more useful as backup than a were-yak and smell much better."

"I remember. Sort of," Bella said, but really, she didn't. Those memories were locked well away. "There's nothing wrong with it. Hell, it must be nice to not be a walking quartz crystal that's ice cold, doesn't sleep and drinks blood to survive." She snorted. "And not look barely eighteen when you are, in fact, 23 years old."

Her mini-rant finished, she turned back around at the slower pace when she tried to pass as human. "Do I want to know what a were-yak is?"

She wasn't even going to admit how much the idea of joining the police pulled at her.

"Oh, right, that big five year age gap you've got going on there, that's got to be annoying," he said, rolling his eyes. He was relatively certain that she wasn't going to kill him for insults like that, so he felt more relaxed. "I'm sure that's a pain in your perfect ass when trying to rent a car you don't need to drive or buy alcohol you probably don't drink."

Sure, in 5 more years that would be a legitimate pain in the ass, but he wasn't exactly going to have any sympathy for her.

"And it's just like a werewolf, only it's not a wolf, it's a yak. Come by headquarters sometime, I'll introduce you."

Bella scowled at him. "I'd tell you to bite me, but you'd probably just crack a tooth and from what I can see, you're already busted up enough as it is. But you're right, I don't drink alcohol. I can, but it's a pain in that ass you can't seem to stop talking about to have to throw it back up later."

The reminder of his injuries had her scanning them quickly, glad to note the blood there wasn't flowing any longer. That, at least, made it easier to keep talking.

"I can imagine a room full of cops would just love to have a vampire stroll in. We're the bad guys, remember?"

"What, this?" he asked, pointing to the cut on his face. "This is nothing. Yes, I will barely be able to walk tomorrow, but right now all the adrenaline is still making sure I feel no pain. And isn't there something I can do to repay you? You did save my life, and I'm pretty fond of it."

While he had been willing to die to protect Folly, he was really glad that didn't happen this time. He felt like he should do something for her at least.

"And you'd be the second least popular member of the force."

"Life is a good thing to be fond of," Bella nodded, "and never be taken for granted. But if you really want to repay me? Call me next time you follow anyone like Vlad there into someplace like this, especially if you don't have any back up. Then I won't have to worry so much that one of these days I'll stumble on the catastrophe that would be you're impressive self decomposing in an alley somewhere."

She quirked the side of her mouth. "Do I need to guess who holds the position of least popular overall?"

"I don't think you understand how often I do this sort of thing," Levi said. True, it generally didn't turn out to be a vampire, but it was often something freaky and scary and not quite human. It was his job to do that kind of thing.

"And let's be honest, they won't kill me. With a face like this and a job on the police force? I'll be a vampire drone cabana boy for sure. And careful there, you almost smiled."

"You don't think Vlad was going to leave you alive, do you? Throwing you through the wall like that was sort of like when human's tenderize meat. Get you hurt, get your adrenaline flowing; makes for more powerful blood, a bigger high."

Bella ignored the dig about almost smiling and stepped closer. "Seriously, Levi. Don't underestimate these things. They won't give a fuck about your pretty face or that you're a cop. They just care about the blood, or the flesh, or whatever else they feed on."

"I know he wasn't," Levi said, his tone and expression becoming serious.

"But I'm the guy that gets between things like this and the normal people. When the weird and scary commit crimes or have crimes committed against them, I'm the only one out there looking foe who done it. I don't have the luxury of backing off. So you can talk all you want from behind your diamond skin about me staying safe, but I've git a stack of cases on my desk that might end up just like this one and I'll be back at them tomorrow."

Bella frowned (a much more usual expression for her) as she took in what he was saying. "And they give you these cases, without any sort of backup or partner? I'm not sure why, but something about that sounds very, very wrong."

"I'm currently between partners," he explained. It was, actually, how he preferred to work. For one, it was easier to hide the telepathy and the addiction. For another... actually, it was mostly just that one reason.

"But I'm really, really not very popular at the department."

Something stirred in Bella when she heard that, a feeling she hadn't had in....well, she wasn't sure if she'd ever felt anything like it or if she had, it was well before her time here.

"You're not between partners anymore," Bella said after a longer than average time spent statue-still and staring up at him.

"There's... there's a whole academy you have to go through," Justin said. He was shocked that she was willing to help him, enough that he wasn't sure how to take it all in. It would be nice to have a reliable partner that he wouldn't have to lie to, but it wasn't just as easy as saying she was his partner.

"You seriously think the academy would accept a vampire or, at least, one that can't drink without killing her prey? I do, you know. I'm not one that sips, or does anything else like that. If I bite a human, I have to kill them. Otherwise, they spend three days in nearly unendurable pain and then they're just like me."

Bella sait it all matter-of-fact, no anger or upset; she was just stating the facts. Then she shrugged. "I figure if they're going to send you alone, there's no reason you should go without someone watching your not unattractive ass, even if it's unofficially."

"They accepted me," Levi pointed out. While it seemed like he might be a good candidate to join the Academy, his family had been against it, which had made it very difficult.

"And you don't have to tell them you kill when you bite. But point taken. Give me your number, next time I do something like this, I'll call you and your gorgeous ass to back me up. Or front me up. Or... whatever position you prefer."

Bella made a sound that could very well have been a small laugh. "Just lately that position is up against a wall in an alley."

Without expanding on that one, Bella looked down at her feet with an expression that almost looked...sheepish. When she looked back up, though, it was gone and she had a glove on her right hand. "Give me your phone and I'll give you my number."

"Okay, now you're purposely trying to give me ideas," Levi accused her, because it was a lot easier to think about that than it was about having a new sort-of-partner and how he was going to work all this. It would mean more lies, unless he could write her off as a consultant or something.

The look on Bella's face seemed almost human though, which was interesting. Reaching into his pocket, Levi handed her his phone.

"Maybe," she admitted as she took the phone and used her gloved finger to type in the numbers, "maybe I just wanted to see your response."

She was no more immune to his eyes on her body than she had been to Val's, but with her, sex was a tricky thing and one that didn't often leave her walking around humming stupid shit.

"You're a vampire, I'm sure you can hear my reaction," he said. Levi was well aware what his heart rate was likely doing, considering his blood flow. The adrenaline of almost dying combined with their talk was having an affect on him.

"Guess I should have said your reaction beyond the blood flow which, I've found, to be more related to urges than desires. Fuck, I've heard some men have that reaction in ice cream shops and grocery stores too often to even pay much attention anymore."

Her head raised as she stepped closer - maybe she was poking the bear, maybe she just didn't give a shit. "Is that what I'm hearing, Levi? Just an urge, an itch to scratch after watching a woman enjoy licking an ice cream cone?"

"Probably some post adrenaline rush, a little bit of bad-girl jonesing, some plain old biological reaction to an incredibly beautiful woman," Levi said. His pulse raced a bit as she stepped forward and he had to admit it was out of fear and not excitement. So far she'd been flirting back and didn't seem to mind, but she might be offended, she was hard to read. He could always try and read her mind, but this wasn't important enough to do that over and she had just saved his life. He owed her more than that.

"Add that to the fascination of a vampire who selflessly goes out and protects others from vampires. Probably selflessly without any thanks."

Bella shrugged again and stepped backwards. She heard the change in his heart rate, knew the sound of the fear she inspired in humans well enough to know when it trumped everything else. She decided to address that rather than the other things he'd said. "You're safe from me, Levi. I won't hurt you."

Another shrug, and this time, her face registered confusion as well as the sheepish expression from earlier. "Most of the time, the humans don't know I've saved them from anything. The others, I usually growl at them until they run to safety, so they're never around. It's not a big thing."

"I believe you mean that, but I think we both know I'd be crazy not to be cautious of you."

That didn't mean he would stop mentioning her ass or wonder just how sex like a vampire with Bella would work. It just meant he was very aware of the fact that at any moment, she could kill him with hardly any effort at all. It was a sobering thought.

"Whether you think so or not, that makes you a hero."

"It's more to do with my sire than me," Bella said, even though that rang somewhat untrue. She had very few memories left of her human life, but she did remember that her father was a policeman. She imagined any cop's daughter would have some sense of altruism.

"As I remember it, kindness towards humans was very important. It was part of their makeup, so it's a part of mine as well."

"You know, I was going to put you in my phone under 'Assmazing' but I think might change it to 'self-deprecating'," Levi said, shaking his head. It was almost refreshing to hear someone so selfless. Maybe he'd call her up sometime just to hear her talk about how saving people was no big deal.

"But seriously, what you do? Thank you. For saving me and all the people who never even knew you did anything."

Another almost-smile quirk to her lips and this time, the way she moved and looked away, it was clear she'd have been blushing if she'd been capable of it.

After a minute, she was able to raise her head with the stone-blank expression back in place. This guy, this cop, was dangerous and she needed to get away before she started to forget what she was.

"You're welcome," she said, her voice the low rasp she used to keep it from sounding like its usual wind chimes. "Just remember to call if you're going into something sketchy. You might not see me, but I will be there."

Wow, she was not only stone-cold (literally) beautiful but she was also adorable and bashful. Levi would go so far as to say that right then she actually looked cute. When she turned back, the cold vampire killer expression was back, but Levi couldn't unseen the bashful look from before.

"Well, now you've eliminated all incentive for me to call you out when I don't need it," he said with a sigh. "But thank you, I appreciate that. You should probably head out now though because it will be way harder to lie about your involvement if one of the cops actually sees you here with me."

Bella nodded, then turned her head to the side. "Yeah, they're close. A block away, two at most. Take care of yourself."

Before he could say anything else, she was gone.

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[Closed - Levi and Bella]

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