The world is a Vampire

Ah the smell of Knockturn alley, there was nowhere else that smelt quite as... unique. The mixture of embalming liquids, mingled with alcohol, cigarette smoke, and decay. Zara had her hood down today, and her hair was pulled up into the straight pony tail that she liked to keep it up in. Her black traveling cloak flapped around her black jean clad legs. Her shirt was more of a black leather corset, that was strapless, and showed off her cleavage a bit more then necessary, it was her favorite thing to wear.

Zara lifted her cigarette to her lips and inhaled deeply, the soothing nicotine running through her system. She was completely free to do as she wanted today. Then again, when was she not completely free to do as she wanted. Unless she was tracking, but when she was in town, she normally wasn't. It was a dark dreary day, clouds so gray it seemed to press in on you, almost to the point of raining, but only enough to make the air sticky. Zara flicked her head to the side and glanced up and down the street.

Ugly old women sold things on trays, some of them looked like human fingers, but Zara didn't take a closer look as she delved into the depths of Knockturn alley. The petty people on either side of her were of no thought to her as she smoked and walked. Most people parted for her because of the way her skin shone just by being outside. Pale and quick looking, Zara had the look of a sneak thief, ready to simply reach out and take your wallet when you were least suspecting it. And today, she was looking for spare change and some fun, to say the least.

Step. Step. Step. Step. “F*ck the world” Step. Step. Step. Step. “Damn them all” Step. Run hand through hair. Breath.

Vito Dee Symons wasn’t in the best of moods. In fact, he was in a very sour mood, and if people were smart- though Vito knew very well that no one other than himself was intelligent- they would take his aggravated, muttered words as a warning to stay the hell away for him for the day. However, people never seemed to learn; a scrawny looking man with a mischievous glint in his eyes walked past Vito, knocking into his shoulder intentionally, and continued on, as if shoving Vito aside was the type of action you could get away with. Sure, such behavior was to be expected from the people in Knockturn Alley, but that was no excuse.

The poltergeist turned around sharply, and stepped up behind the man who had run into him, digging his fingers into the back of the guy’s collar, “Wrong man to mess with, wrong day to mess with me,” Vito informed him simply before pulling down on the man’s collar, tugging him to the pavement. The man struggled against Vito, but it didn’t take long for Vito to get the freak on the ground and underneath his shoe, “I would say that it was nice knowing you, but I don’t know you, and I would never wish to,” Vito added before stepping down on the man’s chest with as much force as he could.

The sickening noise of bones being broken echoed in the alley, and the man twitched a few times on the ground before giving up, lying there on the gruond, spread out like a starfish. Vito growled, kicking the man in the side for good measure, even though he was positive that he had already broken several of the creep's ribs. “Ugh, OK, that hurts,” Vito groaned, stumbling away from the man he had nearly killed to lean against the side of a near building when he felt something burning painfully in his chest.

Vito slid down the wall slowly, curling his fingernails into the front of his suit as he breathed in and out deeply, in an attempt to rid himself of the rage that had begun to make him feel as if he were suffocating, and his ribs had been set on fire, “Damn them all…” he whispered for the second time in five minutes, and rested his head against the wall behind him.

Zara witnessed a man almost die with an interested gaze. It happened nearly everyday, but what happened to the attacker afterwards was what interested her. He fell to the side, and leaned against a wall. Zara had been leaning against a building not far from there smoking silently when she heard him mutter something. Pushing away from the wall she walked down the alley until she reached the man he had nearly killed. He was writhing on the ground and she smirked, kicking him in the same spot the other man had and walked over to the handsome man and slid to the ground next to the man.

Without saying a word she pulled out another cigarette, lit it and held it out for him. She continued to stare straight ahead, not looking at the man's reaction, just silently smoking. She wasn't sure what she would say to him, but she had seen him look like he was in pain. Almost made it seem like he had felt the pain of the man on the ground. She may enjoy seeing pain, killing things, and stealing what wasn't hers, but seeing pain on someone who was like her? No way, especially a handsome man like him.

"Zara Ellis." She said in a soft voice, before looking around at him, her eyes curious, but oddly dull. "Happened to notice you nearly kill that man." She jerked her head to the guy who was attempting to get up from the ground to apparate away to St. Mungos no doubt. That's what she had done when she was attacked by a lady monster thing. Her eyes strayed to the man and then she leaned back against the wall and staring straight ahead again, her face showing no emotion.

That burning feeling inside his chest, he was not new to it, but it seemed to pain him in a strange way every single time he felt it. It was not a physical pain, nor an emotional one- and yet it was a physical pain, and an emotional pain, at the same time; it was a feeling deep within him that he had never quite been able to explain correctly, save a few times when he had had a heart-to-heart with Jack. She seemed to understand what he meant when he described that unbearably strong hatred towards anything and everything… but that didn’t comfort him at all. As far as he was concerned, Jack was just as much of a mess as he was, even though they could both put on a pretty good ‘nothing wrong with me at all’ act.

Vito pressed his back flat up against the brick wall that was supporting most of his weight as he stood there, clutching at the front of his shirt, breathing in deeply as if his lungs were turning to dust; he was attempting to calm himself.

There were footsteps; Vito had heard them, heard the women- judging by the sound of the heels clicking against the street softly- nearing, but he hadn’t expected her to stop in front of him… nor had he expected to see a pale, dainty hand in front of his face, offering him a cigarette. Vito moved his dark colored eyes upward slowly until he reached the women’s face, straightening slowly, and almost defensively. She looked young, very young, but there was a look in her eyes that was rather dark and mischievous; I look that Vito had seen in his own eyes many times before. He took the cancer stick in-between two of his fingers and held it loosely in front of his full lips.

The man poltergeist tilted his neck backwards slightly to rest his head against the building he was leaning against, “Then it seems I have accomplished my life-long goal to provide you with a source of entertainment,” Vito replied sarcastically, his tone very lazy, yet smooth, his eyes also expressed his sudden exhaustion due to the many times he had exploded that day.

He examined the women more thoroughly, judging her clothing and her body, along with her hair and her facial features; all-in-all she was a rather beautiful women, and Vito was rather relieved to find himself speaking to someone who was attractive, rather than the flawed people he found himself surrounded by on a daily basis. However, she would have only ever have appeared ‘flawless’ in Vito’s eyes if she had had red hair, instead of that dark brown of hers.

The name that the women had claimed as her own, sounded familiar, Vito couldn’t help but notice, and though he could not quite place where he had heard it before, he did not plan on asking her any such questions; he felt the need to figure that out for himself, as if he trusted everything that came out of her mouth to be a complete lie.

“Vito Dee Symons. It’s a pleasure to meet you, doll face”

Zara raised an eyebrow when he said his name. She took a deep inhale on her cigarette and leaned back against the wall. A small crack told her the man she had seen him stomp on had disapparated, and she didn't really care. This man was intriguing at best, and seemed to be in a bit of pain. She didn't say anything for a moment, still inhaling deeply, letting out the smoke slowly, so that it floated around her face before a small breath of wind pushed it away and towards Vito. She turned her gaze to see him looking at her. 'Doll face?' She smirked and looked away from him again.

"I've heard of you before.. Think I've been to your bar a few times." She said just as lazily as he had. She had picked up a guy or two there also, bought a room a few times, and got herself drunk, but never to drunk, she always could walk straight. But she enjoyed his bar, full of people who liked it rough, and weren't afraid to hurt things. Or see things hurt anyway. She glanced him over and then smirked. She had seen him around with some ugly red headed chick, who never seemed to know how to dress. Especially for a club of his standards, but Zara didn't say anything about it. It was obviously his play thing and she respected that.

"What did he do to you?" she asked lazily, putting her cigarette out against the wall and grabbing out another, lighting it with her wand silently, she took in another deep inhale. There was a lot you could learn from a man by standing in silence next to him. Before she had only seen him in passing, always a bit uptight, always perfect in appearance, and usually ruthless, she had more then once seen a body taken out of upstairs soon after Vito had left the area, and more then once seen him get angry, but she never cared, even though a lot of the other people in his bar did. Just another way of life for the people of Knockturn Alley.

But standing next to him, close quarters, she could see a whole new side to him. First, he was obviously in some type of pain, that was clear by the way he was standing, and the way he seemed to be forcing his words. Next, he smoked, seeing as he had taken the cigarette without a flinch towards it. He obviously smoked and drank a lot, which she didn't mind in the slightest. Get him drunk, have sex, move on. It was a win win situation for everyone involved. Of course she wouldn't take anything he said to be true, but that was fine with her anyway, if she could nick a few expensive things of his, she'd be well off, and be the winner in the end anyway.

Sex and money, it's what every woman wanted.

“He pissed me off- and I advise you learn from his mistakes,” Vito answered her, allowing his voice to become somewhat threatening as he spoke those words of warning. The last thing he needed was to have to carry a dead female out of the alley- sure, she probably wasn’t very heavy, but that wasn’t what he would hate about such a situation; he didn’t want to get her blood all over one of his favorite suits… it took quite the effort for him to get bloodstains out of his clothing, and he didn’t trust his employees enough to allow them to handle his favorites.

Vito dug his wand out of one of the pockets of his slacks and brought the tip of it to the end of his cigarette, which he held loosely in-between his lips. There was a small spark of orange color, and his cigarette was lit. Vito inhaled the soothing nicotine and allowed it to begin working its magic on his troubled mind, “Well, it really is an unavoidable question; what is one of London’s beautiful people doing wandering dark alleys alone?” he asked her with a sly smirk. He opened his mouth slightly to allow a large cloud of gray smoke to drift away from his lips slowly and dance about his face, and looked away from the women for a moment to examine his surroundings; it was rather dark, as he had mentioned earlier, but it was still relatively early in the day, and the darkness had nothing at all to do with what time of day it was, clearly; Knockturn Alley always seemed like that, almost as if someone had cursed the place to remain that way for all of eternity.

The fire that was burning inside of him - that intense feeling of uncontrollable rage - had begun to die down slowly, but he could still feel the flame, even as it grew smaller, and it continued to lick his heart and the bones of his ribcage. Vito straightened the front of his suit and smoothed out his tie when he realized that he had wrinkled the fabric. He dropped his arms at his sides, holding the cigarette that this… Ellis- Zara Ellis, had given him, in his fingers. He allowed the tip of the cancer stick to burn his palm momentarily, leaving a small spot of black ashes there; anything was better than that feeling in his chest.

Vito ran a hand through his dark brown hair, running his fingernails along his scalp in order to get his hair to obey him and stay out of his face; Vito believed that if loose strands of his hair fell into his eyes that it distracted others from his perfect facial features- or, perfect in his eyes. This was probably the reason why combing his hair back with his fingers had become a habit of his, but it seemed that he did it most often after loosing his cool, as if collecting himself, getting back into character.

He slipped on his calm-yet-seductive mask and turned his head in the direction of the female at his side once more, watching as cigarette smoke kissed her skin; she knew she was attractive, he could tell by the way she dressed, and by that look in her eyes, that confidence that Vito didn’t see very often. He brought his cigarette to his lips once more, this could be entertaining.

Zara let the threat slide as she stared straight ahead. "Hmm, I see.." She said slowly. "I would Hate to get on your bad side." She said with a smirk. She blinked slightly when he asked what she was doing in Knockturn Alley. "Is there a reason that you should know?" she asked turning her head slightly towards him. "If you must know.. I like it here, and it's my day off.." She said lightly, as though it didn't matter. She didn't work, and she gave herself days off, but he didn't need to know that.

She glanced at him when he put his hand down to his side, and her eyes followed the cigarette, watching as it burned his palm. She smirked slightly. He obviously was in pain. "So what's with the painful expression?" She asked calmly, and pushed herself off the wall. And acting as though she hadn't asked it stretched and looked back at him. "So, besides beating up men down Knockturn Alley, what else do you do for fun around here? When you aren't in your club of course." She said lazily, inhaling the smoke and glancing down the street.

Her strapless shirt showed off her very well endowed cleavage, and made her neck look long, but not to long. "Hmm, unless you wanna go to your club? I wouldn't mind a drink and a dance." She said glancing down the street towards his club, knowing exactly where it was. She had enough money today, and she knew that she could afford the entrance fee, and a few drinks, at least until he was willing to buy her some. She wasn't about to let him go though, he was much to handsome, and seemed to be needing some... company.

And Zara was great for 'company.'

Vito bit down on the inside of his cheeks out of irritation towards her question; she was getting a bit too nosy for his taste, “Headache,” Vito lied, though he made sure that it was obvious that he was lying, so his words almost sounded sarcastic as he rolled his dark brown eyes.

He flattened his palm against the bricks that made up the side of the building and pushed off of it, taking a step forward, crossing his feet so that he could turn around rather impressively to face Zara once more, “What do I do for fun? Anything I want, beautiful- haven’t you heard? I’m king of the world,” Vito replied, his smirk having just returned to his face, though even this sly expression seemed somewhat bitter.

She was flirting with him. Vito took a step towards her, his eyes scanning her face, as if he were taking a mental picture of that face of hers in order to savor the beauty- but she was too easy. If Vito had wanted a woman to throw herself at him, he could have simply returned to his club and made it clear that he was in the mood for a little… entertainment. Vito would have much rather find it challenging to win himself an evening with a pretty female then, and found himself pondering whether or not he actually wanted to bring the porcelain doll in front of him, back to his club. “To spend time around royalty, you must be royalty yourself. All I see in you is lust and curiosity- and though those are both very… interesting, I don’t know if I’m in the mood for another call girl,” Vito replied icily, though his expression was one of amusement.

He was slightly curious himself to see how she would react to his criticism, and hoped that he would be able to get some sort of reaction out of her. Vito was playing games, now.

Zara's eyes brows flew into her hair line. "Oh, is that what I look like I am to you? Not at all." She said staring at him with a scrutinizing gaze. He was calling her a slut, and it made her insides writhe with a kind of anger. First he lied to her, then called her a slut. Zara didn't have to take this, but for some reason she found it oddly refreshing, like it was a game she hadn't played for a long time, and had always enjoyed.

He obviously wanted to have a bit of a challenge, she could see it in his gaze, because the lust was there, she knew it was, and had he been in the mood, she knew for certain there would have been little she could do but go back to his club with him, for a night of.... games. But he wasn't in the mood, and she quite enjoyed the challenge. "Well, you obviously have no ideas on how to flatter a woman then. "She said flicking her head slightly as a small strand of hair fell out of the high ponytail. And without another look back at him, she turned around and walked away.

He wanted a challenge, he got one, she didn't like being basically told that she was a slut, and he would have to charm her to get anything out of this at all. He obviously THOUGHT highly of himself, but she didn't trust him one bit, lies and smoke were all great. But she was looking for some fun, and money too, which he obviously had, but she was walking away. In order to make sure she still knew he was there, she lifted up her cigarette, and unless he was watching, gestured ever so slightly for him to follow her into the depths of Knockturn alley, flicking off the ash on the end and drawing in another deep breath of smoke, blowing a smoke ring out before continuing down her walk, her heels making an eerie clicking noise on the stones beneath her feet, her whole body swaying as she walked like a model, one step in front of the other.

He had seen a hint of anger in her eyes, and had to bite down on the sides of his tongue in order to keep his mysterious smirk from turning into a full-blown grin of amusement; he enjoyed testing people and finding out how they reacted to each emotion, because it made him feel as if he had more power over than them than they would ever know- but then again, there was always the possibility of Vito being faced with an equal opponent, he had learned that the hard way when he had met Jack Dyllan.

Now the real task was figuring out who this Zara Eliss really was- but that could wait; he would have some fun first.

She had accepted his challenge, or had seriously been pissed off by his comment and no longer wanted his company- oh sure, that was a possibility; no one could resist Vito Dee Symons. Or, at least, that was what he so clearly thought. Zara had rolled the dice, and had moved ahead in the game by three spaces, but it was Vito’s turn now.

Vito watched the women’s walk, momentarily mesmerized by the confidence in each of her steps; it was almost as if she were heading down a runway with the way she stepped, one foot in front of the other, swaying her hips. Vito parted his lips and simply stood there for a moment, watching her, before actually deciding to act. He wasn’t about to fallow after her like she wanted- he assumed she did in fact want him to fallow her because of the way she had stopped there In the alley, as if giving him a chance to catch up with her. No, he was known for shaking things up and bringing his style into the game.

He flickered like a hologram as he took a slow step forward, becoming more transparent each time his feet carried him another step forward.

He had made his way around the building in a matter of minutes, and had remained silent the entire time in order to listen to Zara’s footsteps so that he could tell just how far away from him she actually was; she was out of view with the side of the building now in-between them, and he had to make sure he made it to the end of the alley –or the start of the stairs that served as an exit from Knockturn Alley- before her so that he could take back control of the situation. His footsteps quieted slowly until they were not to be heard any longer; he had stopped at the end of the alley.

Vito leaned against the brick wall, staring down the dark streets that he was sure he would see Zara walking down only a few minutes later; she would be headed straight towards him and she wouldn’t have a clue. The poltergeist brought his cigarette to his full lips and took another drag from it, adjusting the front of his suit absentmindedly.