Ten Tales of AU Ka and Jordan

01. Tears
Jordan had always been told that men don't cry.  It wasn't even that boys didn't cry, there was never a point when he was allowed to be a boy.  From the moment he met his father, though the title was used loosely and could be easily exchanged for "sperm donor", he was admonished for not acting like a man.  So no matter what the others said to him, no matter how many times they insulted his mother, the only person who had ever shown him any love, and no matter how often they smacked him around just for the fun of it, Jordan wouldn't let himself cry.

But sometimes when he was in his room late at night while his family was busy tending to their own wants and had gone back to ignoring his existence once again, he would cry himself to sleep and dream of a future where his life was his own.



02. Over
Tomorrow would be the day when his allegiance ended.  The last of his family would be dead and he would no longer be in their debt.  At the same time Kà would no longer need his help, and she would have to make the final decision on whether to kill him or let him go.  Jordan liked to look at that particular situation optimistically, and thought ahead on the assumption that she was going to let him live.  If she did he would finally be a free man.  There would be no family to control him, and no psychotic, sadistic vampire hunter to threaten his life for stepping out of line.

So why was it that as he and Kà sat in her hotel room planning the next day's assault, he realized that he was in no hurry for it to be over?



03. Blurred
Kà wasn't sure at what point the line between informant and friend had started to blur, but it had and it annoyed her to no end.  She had friends.  Her friends were vampire hunters and had skills comparable to her own.  They could run and hunt and kill with her without leaving her feeling as if she needed to take care of them or watch their back.  She didn't have to worry about her friends when they weren't together because they were more than capable of taking care of themselves in just about any situation. Jordan was the exact opposite of all that, he was practically a rabbit that had been left in the lion's den, capable of running to safety but not much else if the lions decided to attack.  Having a friend like that would be nothing but a liability, and Kà had never been interested in anything that would hold her back.

But as annoyed as she was when she'd first noticed her feelings of friendship, it was nothing compared to the way she felt when the line between friend and lover blurred just as badly.



04. Fools
Kà couldn't wait to see the looks on the other hunters' faces when she came back victorious.  Oh she didn't care about all of them.  The ones who simply doubted her because they were bitter about her even existing would never admit that they had been wrong no matter what she did.  She could deliver them the head of the oldest vampire in existence and they would chalk it up to luck.  She had no real emotional investment in those stubborn egoists one way or the other.  The ones that she cared about were the vampires who genuinely thought she just wasn't good enough, the ignorant fools who insisted that she was only in her position because her father had given it to her as a favor.  She wanted to humiliate them with her victory and crush their theories with the promotion she knew she deserved.  She may have been one of X's daughters, and it was true that she was the only one he cared to acknowledge, but she had kicked, scratched and literally fought her way to where she was, and had no plans of stopping until she got to the top.



05. Immortal
"I wonder what the last thing vampires think before they die is."

Jordan was laying across his bed staring at the ceiling as Kà sat on the floor with a map of the city.  She'd been plotting and planning for well over an hour and Jordan had lost interest fairly early on, so he had retreated to somewhere comfortable and remained relatively silent.  He could only stay silent for so long though, and Kà had been waiting for him to say something.

"Whatever it is, it's probably something stupid."

"Such as?"

"I don't know.  'I can't believe I was beaten by a girl.', 'I still have time to kick her ass.', something along those lines.  Trust a vampire to waste their last thoughts on their ego."

Jordan rolled over and looked down at the map, which was now covered in lines and circles that he couldn't even hope to follow.  "Well it's not like they expected to have last thoughts.  Most people think that being immortal means that they aren't going to die."

"Ha!"  Kà carefully made another line on the map.  "Immortality doesn't mean you aren't going to die.  It just means you're a lot harder to kill."



06. Dolls
Jordan found the sight of Kà doing her job to be equal parts fascinating and horrifying.  Given his heritage, he had a feeling that he shouldn't be watching her dispatch the vampires that she had been sent to kill with such interest, but he just couldn't help himself.  He'd tried to turn away more than once, he'd even tried to leave entirely but there was something about the way Ka handled the killing that compelled him to stay.  In those moments she was a conundrum, a mix of beauty and madness that should not be able to inhabit the same creature.

He realized after having seen multiple members of his family die at her hands that she treated them much in the same way a rotten boy might treat his sister's dolls.  The way she taunted her victims, the way she smiled, and most of all the way she laughed were all rather sadistic and unsettling.  But just like the most rotten of boys, it wasn't over until the doll had been pulled limb from limb.  Though in this case there was no little girl to cry for the vampires who lay in bloody heaps at her feet. If there was, she might just kill her too.



07. Pretty
"What'd you say?"  Kà arched an eyebrow as she turned to look at Jordan.

"I uh..."  Jordan fidgeted, something he was remarkably good at since he did it so frequently.  "I said you looked really pretty... in that dress."

Kà had been complaining ever since she'd purchased the dress, mentioning multiple times that she hated wearing dresses, especially clingy dresses with stupidly thin straps and little sparkly bits that had no function whatsoever.  It was best to not even get her started on the useless strappy sandals that always went with such dresses.  They were hell on toast to run in and their only redeeming quality was their potential to be used as projectile weapons.  In her experience the heels always did pretty impressive damage when things went bad.  

So needless to say, Kà was less than pleased to be dressed up.

"Thanks.  I guess."

Jordan wasn't sure what kind of reaction he was expecting, but he was pretty sure that wasn't it.  "You guess?"

"Well people don't usually call me pretty, so it's kinda... weird."

"They don't?"  Now it was Jordan's turn to raise an eyebrow.  "No way."

"I get called hot, sexy, gorgeous, fuckable and things along those lines, but not generally pretty.  So no, they don't."

"Oh.  Well... I still think you're pretty."  

Kà couldn't help but smile.  "Thanks."



08. Never
Kà had been lurking outside the warehouse for an hour, waiting on a message from Jordan that would tell her he was on his way.  The first two members of his family had been taken care of easily after being lured out with the promise of a high paying deal with a new client.  It seemed only natural to use the ploy at least one more time.  The only downside was that she was stuck on someone else's schedule, and there was nothing she could do until the two vampires decided to get their asses to the assigned meeting location.  You would think that they'd be in a little more of a hurry when such a large amount of money was on the line, at least as far as they knew.

Several minutes went by and Kà was just getting ready to call Jordan out of frustration when she felt here cell phone buzz in her pocket.  She was rather surprised to see that instead of a phone call, she had received a video message from Jordan.

"This better be good," she said to herself as she downloaded the message and waited for it to begin playing.

After a few seconds an unfortunately familiar image was on her screen.

"Never gonna give you up!  Never gonna let you down!  Never gonna-"

She flipped her cell phone shut and wasn't sure whether she should be laughing or plotting Jordan's death.



09. Singing
"Excuse me?"

"Look, it was the only way I could get you in.  This club is pretty exclusive, they don't even want to let me in but they do so I can deliver messages to the bosses.  And they only let me in through the back so the people here can't see me.  Since so many high powered criminals, corrupt politicians and people like that come here, security is really tight.  I don't even think you could sneak in without getting caught and I certainly can't get you in."  Jordan gave Kà a sincerely apologetic look and shrugged his shoulders.  "It's the best I could do."

Kà sighed.  "Alright fine.  I guess if they need a lounge singer then I'll..."  Oh God, was she really going to agree to this just to get a chance to find one of the bosses unprepared?  "Be a lounge singer."



10. Taking Over
It was done.  The entire family was dead aside from Jordan and he was waiting to find out if he was going to be next.  Though he managed to piss Kà off on a pretty regular basis, she hadn't killed him yet, which was his first hurdle, but it was the second that he was worried about.  It wasn't solely up to Kà whether he lived or died.  In the end it was up to the Council.

He sat in a plush chair in a room that he supposed was some sort of waiting room but looked more like something out of a modern decorating magazine.  The whole room was done in black and white with black leather furniture, and looked as if it had never even been used before.  Maybe the Council didn't have a lot of people waiting for them to make a decision about their life.  He'd been pretty surprised to find out that he would be going with Kà to their closest facility rather than her just killing him on the spot or telling him he got to live.  This took him to a whole new level of anxiousness.

After what seemed like forever Kà walked into the room.  Even with the dark furniture her all black attire and bright red hair stood out against the white walls and carpet.  She didn't really look like she belonged, there but Jordan was glad she was.  At least he'd get a decision.

"They see no reason why I should kill you unless I want to."  Jordan let out a long relieved breath at her words.  "And actually word is traveling through the local vampire community that you and a hired assassin took out your entire family, so you're a pretty well known guy right now."

"Really?"

Kà nodded.  "The Council has suggested that you take over the family business, or rather have the appearance that you're taking over the family business, and that we use it as a means to get information."

"We?"  Jordan had to make sure he heard that right.

"Yes, we.  It looks like we're stuck together for at least a little while longer."