Nocturne | ONC 2024

Two: The Statue

He did know. There was no way of not knowing.

Among the bustle and energy of the crime scene and the street beyond it, Nikolai Meier was a pool of utter, unnatural stillness, the only movement the whisp and twirl of smoke from a cigarette held loosely between two leather-gloved fingers. He stood mostly in shadow, blending with it, in dark clothes and darker hair that seemed to swallow the light from lamps set up for the forensics team to work by. Vampire homicide always had to be investigated by night so exposure to sunlight didn't degrade the evidence, and so it was the second night running Aaron found himself freezing his arse off in the street at an ungodly hour.

"You must be Nikolai," he said, approaching the statue at the edge of the proceedings with chin up and shoulders back. It did no favours to appear nervous in front of a vamp, even if one was on the verge of filling their pants.

And he was bricking it, approaching this unfamiliar face in a city he'd started to feel like he knew until he'd got this job. Vamps had always been the worst to deal with, the only ones who ever intentionally interfered with wider human matters; they fed from them, trafficked in them — despite the best efforts of the police to stop it — and had the highest rate of success in transforming humans of any supernatural race. One bite, a bit of blood transferred, and life as you'd known it was gone. It was hard to ever feel safe once you knew that things like that were out there.

He could put a brave face on it, though. Living utterly alone for centuries, or else in the vicious hierarchies of one of the gangs, could breed unpredictable forms of eccentricity, but it was fairly universal that vamps didn't like food with a brave face on it.

Nikolai looked up from his polished shoes, and Aaron was startled by a flash of brilliantly violet eyes. As was typical of his kind, Nikolai's face was marble-smooth, untouched by time. But violet was a significant deviation from the red and black eyes of the vampires Aaron had dealt with before, and he'd also never seen one so tired-looking; his fascinating eyes were sunk deep into purplish hollows and his cheeks were thin. His gloves fit loosely on the hand that raised the cigarette for another drag.

"Good evening." The light hit all the gleaming planes of the vampire's face as he stepped forward, the movement so smooth he almost glided. He was old, then. Potentially very old. "You must be Evans."

They looked at each other for a long moment. Nikolai's face was unreadable, no hint of his initial impression to be seen. Dark hair curled over his brow and gathered in an unruly stub of a ponytail at the nape of his neck. He was taller than Aaron was. It didn't make any difference, but Aaron was still miffed to note it. He didn't like being smaller than something that could both hold a civilised conversation and have him for dinner.

"Haven't seen you around here before." He tried to mimic the cool neutrality of Nikolai's tone and probably sounded try-hard instead. It was hard not to look and feel try-hard when faced with a man who potentially had centuries on him; Nikolai had the effortless stillness that was absent in young vamps who still remembered what it was like to be human.

"I haven't been in London long," Nikolai said, seeming somehow to both engage with the conversation and completely dismiss him at the same time. It would have been impressive if it hadn't also been startlingly rude. "I did tell your boss I could work without assistance."

"Just policy, I'm afraid," Aaron replied flatly.

Nikolai's eyes slid back to him from scanning the moving figures around them, the first hint of emotion glimmering to life in them. Unfortunately, that wry amusement appeared to be at Aaron's expense. "I see."

Aaron tipped his chin up at the renewed scrutiny. Despite his gauntness, the vamp was intimidatingly good-looking. Not all of them were, despite widely-held human belief, though all of them were oddly compelling, in their smoothness and otherness. Magnetism, Bill called it, though not in a flattering way. Nikolai had clearly already been a head-turner, though he didn't appear to have any of the success in vamp society that usually brought with it.