Yet Another Night at the Grill

Irene looked around to find herself at the Grill. Again. She hadn't been paying attention to where she was going, letting her feet bring her to wherever she wanted to be, which she had no idea where it was. And just like every other day she did that, Irene found herself at the Grill. It annoyed her profoundly that the city was so small that she had nowhere better to be than a Grill. Sure, they had drinks, but it wasn't the same.

"Why did I decide to stay here again?" She asked herself, rolling her eyes and giving an exasperated sigh as she sat down at the bar.

Jason entered the Grill, hoping to chow down. No one came with him, so he was alone and really wanting some company - but he wasn't gonna admit that to himself. As the doors shut behind him, he was engulfed by light and sound and the ambiance that was the Grill. The waitress took him to a booth and sat him down and took his order. He sat there tapping his fingers against the table, seeing if he knew anyone at to invite over. Sadly, he did not recognize anyone - except Matt, who was working.

"Damn the luck...."

He muttered in a mere whisper.

As Irene heard the door being opened, she turned around, curious to see who else was at the Grill. Maybe she'd get to have some fun, share a few drinks with someone. And at the end of the day, maybe she'd get some drinks for herself, the kind that humans wouldn't very much like to have.

A man had just walked in, one Irene didn't remember ever meeting. She'd fix that that night. It wasn't like she had anything better to do, anyway.

"Hello!" Irene greeted him, an uncharacteristically sweet smile on her lips.

Jason's drink arrived, not what he wanted, or asked for. He was notorious for drinking, and he asked for scotch - but he was underage so he got a Dr. Pepper. He loved the drink, but it wasn't what he wanted - so he shrugged and started drinking it. His food would be here soon, maybe - he hoped they were working diligently on his giant burger he ordered. As he was thinking about his food, a woman walked over to his table and greeted him. His nostrils flared, the scent was revolting - and he recognized it, it was the same stench that Stefan Salvatore carried. This girl was a vampire, and he knew it - but she probably didn't know that he knew.

"Hello. Don't even try to drink organic, and you can sit here, Miss."

That was something Irene hadn't been expecting. The boy knew what she was. Had she been in any other town, she'd think that what he said had some other meaning, but in Mystic Falls, where so many people had surprised her by knowing what she was, or knowing that vampires, werewolves and other beings like that existed, she just couldn't take it as a coincidence.

The question, she thought, was what the boy was. A wizard, a werewolf, or a hybrid? Depending on what he was, she would have to be careful. A werewolf and a wizard, she could handle, but a hybrid would be much harder.

"But drinking organic is so good!" She smirked, sitting in front of the boy.

He laughed at her, he couldn't deny the fact that organic wasn't good. A few times when he changed, he killed campers along side a black wolf - but he knew it wasn't a normal wolf, it had told him the name 'Jordan Aguillard.' A vampire that transformed into a wolf and hunted with him though, that wasn't bad - it was actually fun. A few times though, he would drink the campers blood - which kind of made him feel powerful. He motioned for her to sit down.

"I may be a wolf, but I know that organic is good too.... I have killed and drank during a full moon. But I meant, not in here - don't be stupid about it. I am sure you're not, but don't be stupid. Also, I have been greeted by a black wolf a few times, during the full moon - named Jordan Aguillard.... Is that name familiar to you?"

He tapped the table again, trying to keep his cool and not be fumed out by a smelly vampire.

Jordan Aguillard... The name sounded very familiar to her. She thought back to the last few nights, and then she knew who he was. She'd met him at the forest while she was out taking a walk, and she'd ended up bumping into him at a camping site.

"As long as everyone is compelled to forget the incident, I see no problem in feeding here." Irene waved her hand dismissively. It wasn't the most practical way to feed, but Irene didn't always choose the most practical way. It was fun to do things the hard way every once in a while. "And I'm not stupid, trust me. For one to be able to live over 400 years, one has to be smart."

"Jordan Aguillard... Yes. I know him. I met him a few days ago at the forest."

He smiled at her, he knew that she could get away with a lot of stuff if she compelled them. It was reassuring to know that she wasn't a moron - she was actually pretty intelligent. And four-hundred years old, that sounded quite terrifying. He laughed a bit - he was having fun here, even if the two were natural born enemies. Jason grinned, happy to know that she did in fact know the vampire that hunted along side him.

"He is a pretty decent vampire, I would even be willing to call him friend. You - sorry, I wouldn't, yet at at least. No offense. And four-hundred, happy late, late late birthday. And doing that to the Grill isn't wise, Klaus is on a rampage and refuses to let his cover be blown in town...."

He trailed off, getting used to her smell. By now he had already been ignoring it, it smelled like wolfs-bane and lilacs which was horrendous - but it was going away. Now all he noticed was the slight hint of lilac.

The werewolf knew Klaus, and was close to Jordan. He was much more inserted into the supernatural world than Irene would have expected. But then again, she shouldn't have thought that he wouldn't be so inserted. Living in Mystic Falls, he was bound to know at least a few things.

"A friend..." Irene trailed off, her thoughts drifting momentarily to the last time she had ever called someone a friend. It sure had been a long time before, perhaps when she was still human. "Strange thing for a werewolf to call a vampire."

Vampires and werewolves had a long history of enmity, and Irene could most definitely understand why, at least for the vampire part. While they weren't dangerous all the time, werewolves could kill a vampire with a mere bite when in their wolf form. She knew of no cure for that, though she believed there should be one, a very well hidden one.

"Thank you. In a few months I'll be 453." She said, a small smile coming to her lips. She might have had many birthdays, but she still enjoyed them like a little kid. Not that she'd let anyone know, not even herself.

"You know Klaus?"

He looked at her, and smiled. He nodded when she mentioned the word friend. He wouldn't mind having a few strong friends, even if they were enemies - that just meant for protection for him. He tapped the table again, just staring at her - were all female vampires this beautiful? She had nothing on Elena, but she still looked great. He smiled again at her birthday, she seemed to really enjoy them - and you can't blame her, birthdays are great. He cleared his throat and smiled at her.

"Yea, it is weird for our kind to be friends... but I enjoy it. And I will be giving you a gift, maybe... if you are nice. As for Klaus, I don't directly know him. But I feel his eyes on me all the time - I think he wants me to be another one of his hybrids... and that would be fine, because the pain of transforming is gone... But, I can't deal with a sire bond. It makes you.... a monster, not even an ounce of humanity."

He shot a smile at her and continued tapping the table. Yep, the vampire smell didn't bother him anymore.

"Define nice." Irene smirked. Nice was a very loose term. She considered that nice could be, for exemple, not drinking blood from a human in a week, but she knew that people had very different definitions of nice.

"Actually..." She began, turning her head to see a very hot guy walking into the Grill, and just in time. She was starting to get a bit hungry, and it seemed like her previous choice, the man with whom she was talking, was out of her menu. She knew better than to drink from someone who could kill her very slowly and torturously. "I think you'll have to owe me that one. I'll see you later!"

And with that, she got up from her seat and walked towards the guy, putting on her most innocently nice smile. Dinner was on the table.

He smiled at her, while she trotted to her prey. She was gorgeous and a predator, what the hell? Those two were the deadliest combo ever, but he didn't care. It was nice to see her in action. But he would take her up on meeting her later, he definitely wanted to see her again. This could be romance... or just a friendship - he was leaning towards friends, because relationships always ended up being relationshits.

After two days, Jason came back to the Grill. He could hear all the blood pumping and their pulses - he could smell it. He had to control himself to keep it from getting out of line, so he went back to the same booth. He ordered a ton of scotch and some food, and the same Dr. Pepper. The woman refused to bring him the drinks, so he compelled her - what a nifty trick, he thought. All he could do now was wait for Irene to show her face again.

"Where is my beautiful vampire friend....." He whispered to himself, gazing around the room - as his shots arrived.

Once again, Irene was making her way to the Grill, but this time she had a purpose for it that went beyond getting some drinks, both kinds. She wanted to see if she could find that man again. He still owed her an answer, and when she was curious, she was not very patient. But honestly, she knew she was just fooling herself. She wasn't curious only about his answer, she was curious about him as well.

She was finally there, at the Grill. She hadn't run there to give herself some time to think, but she was beginning to think that she had given herself too much time. Irene hated second guessing herself. She was there because she wanted some answers, nothing more. Absolutely nothing more.

However, she couldn't help but let a small smile come to her lips when she saw the man sitting at the same booth he had been sitting two days before, when they had met. Maybe the two of them could actually be friends, even though their species were enemies.

But... There was a different smell at the Grill. The smell of blood just beginning to oxidate. She quickly looked over her clothes, trying to find any blood stains in it, worried that she had let some of her earlier food fall on her clothes, but as she found nothing, she shook her head at herself. She was just being paranoid, there was nothing that would give away what she was. Someone had a nosebleed or something like that, nothing more.

With a smile still on her lips, Irene made her way to the man, barely noticing that the smell got stronger each step she gave. It wasn't until she was standing right in front of him that she realized where it was coming from. "Why do you smell like blood?" She asked, though she had a pretty good idea of the answer would be, and she didn't like it at all.

He shot her a glance and smiled at her. He was so happy to see her, a nice face to see - it helped him forget about Elena. With a motion of his hands, he pointed in front of him and pushed a shot of scotch to her seat. The blood stench was horrible on his clothes, but it drove him crazy.

"I drank a ton of blood... I sort of lost control. I couldn't help it, I like it way too much, now."

His veins in his neck tightened as he spoke of blood, the veins in his face rippling as he could hear the pulses, smell the blood in ever one's veins. He rubbed his face, to try to get the veins to go away - so no one would notice him.

Though that was not quite the answer Irene had been expecting, it did confirm her suspicion. The man had been turned into a hybrid. She recalled their conversation two days before, when he had said that he wouldn't be able to deal with the sire bond. Well, he didn't have a choice anymore.

"It'll get easier with time." Irene said, her mind going back to the time when she was adapting to being a vampire. The first few months weren't easy, but they were important. It was during them that a vampire could either become a ripper, a normal vampire or one of those who only drank animal blood. "Did you kill?"

Jason nodded as she told him it would get easier, but he felt that it wouldn't. NiKlaus could make him do whatever he wanted, and that terrified him. Even if he was a monster, Klaus was much, much worse - and if hybrids could live forever, he was eternally damned to serve him. He downed some of the scotch, and then stared at the vampire. Something was completely different now, she had some new sort of 'light' about her, nothing a werewolf could have seen. And when she asked if he killed.... he let it all out, he didn't hold back anything.

"If you watched the news yesterday, there were a bunch of bikers that were camping in the woods. Maybe twenty of them, all mauled by an animal. More specifically a wolf - that was me. Drained them completely, but they found traces of fur - so they had to accept the fact that it was a wolf. I wish I had just been turned into a vampire though, if I accidentally bite a vampire... they die. And all the other hybrids are complete morons, so what the hell does that leave for me?"

He gestured the waitress over, and compelled her to bring over a few, full bottles of rum - because he was getting ready to party.

Irene remembered how hard it used to be for her to resist the urge of killing. That had been one of the things that had led her to flip the switch. She couldn't control herself and she ended up killing almost against her will, and she felt terrible for it. It was too much for her to deal with. She knew exactly what the boy was going through, the part about the urges, at least. The sire bond was something she could only imagine, and be happy that she probably would never have to deal with it.

"I don't usually watch the news, but I did hear something about a wolf who drained a group of bikers dry." Irene nodded, wondering what she was supposed to say. She didn't know the man, not properly, at least. She didn't know his name, she didn't know anything about his past, she didn't even know if he lived in Mystic Falls, but she still felt that she was supposed to do something to cheer him up a little. Why, Irene had no idea, but she knew that she did. "Don't worry, this kind of thing happens on the first days. I did much worse. Much, much worse."

A small spark of fear sprouted in Irene's mind as he mentioned that if he bit a vampire, they'd die. She had known that already, of course, but being reminded of that by him made her a bit suspicious. He knew what she was, he knew that she was a vampire and that he could kill her merely by sinking his teeth into her skin. Nothing would be able to save her. Even if there was a cure, she'd never be able to figure out what it was and get it in time. Maybe, if she had some help, she would be, but she couldn't think of anyone who would be willing to help her. Could he be planning to kill her? She mentally shook her head, laughing slightly at herself. She was always so suspicious of everyone.

"Then make sure you don't bite one. It mustn't be that hard. I hope it isn't." Irene said, sitting down in front of him.

"I suppose you should just keep away from the other hybrids, then."