<div style="background-color:#353535; border:1px solid black; margin:10px 10px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 5px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-style: italic">"Your continued assistance is appreciated."</span><br/><br/>The dry, deep voice of William Severn echoed in her head as she stared out of the window at the darkening night sky. Sometimes, she wondered if the adage 'keep your enemies closer' had been made up by someone like Cleopatra. A powerful, no-nonsense woman who knew the game and the players better than herself. Ava would have liked to meet her. Perhaps Cleopatra could have helped her understand why in the world she had thought it a good idea to get so closely intertwined with someone who made a living killing her kind. For research, Severn claimed, but Ava would have been a fool if she had failed to notice the personal pleasure he gained from it as well. But Ava did not want to be part of a coven. She never had been, and if it cost a little money to keep the numbers of them down, so be it. Discretion was the means and the end.<br/><br/>Ava's long, spindly fingers tightened around her phone. One of Catarina Acerbi's people had 'accidentally' run into her a day or so past, and provided her with the means to contact the head of the Daywalker clan. Ava hadn't planned to, but she would sooner have a little chit-chat with the Italian than Severn. She dialed.<br/><br/>"Hello, Miss Acerbi," she said warmly into the phone, smiling at her own vague reflection in the window. "How wonderful to hear you're here in Washington. It is a lovely city, isn't it? But it doesn't compare to Florence, or any city in Europe, really," Ava continued with a delicate little laugh. "Business or pleasure?"<br/><br/>The reflection in the glass pane looked less and less happy as Catarina Acerbi's voice fed her a stream of orders disguised as polite requests. Ava hated being bossed around, however courteous the bossing was.<br/><br/>"But of course," she replied, her voice betraying nothing. "I can't claim to have the network you do, but I suppose having been on location for a while does give me some advantage. Good night."<br/><br/>So not only had the Daywalkers suddenly decided that Washington, DC was a good place to stay for a while, but apparently the Nightkin had also taken an interest in the city. Ava hung up and sighed lightly. It had been so peaceful. Couldn't they have waged a war somewhere else? Where she wouldn't be so obligated to help Severn with finding some very high profile vampires? She shrugged on a coat (long, black, purely for appearances) and left her apartment again. Jenkins, having been busy watering a bouquet of roses, silently followed behind her as Ava went back to the night. She doubted Vincente Valtieri would be out on a casual stroll, but you never knew.<br/><br/><div style="text-align: center;"><a class="postlink" href="http://i.imgur.com/HIaYY7L.png">[ img ]</a></div><br/><span style="font-style: italic">If I were a vampire clan leader and had come all the way to Washington for some unknown purpose, where would I be?</span><br/><br/>Ava's heels tapped against the pavement. The catlike footsteps of Jenkins were, as always, half pace behind her. The conundrum she had posed herself seemed impossible to answer. Where would she begin? She hadn't left Daywalker territory yet, but the streets were narrower; somehow darker even with street lights. A young woman was walking alone up ahead. <span style="font-style: italic">How fortunate for her that I have already fed.</span> As Ava and Jenkins moved closer to the lone wanderer, an odd smell snuck up Ava's nostrils. She sniffed lightly. <span style="font-style: italic">A Nightkin.</span> Perhaps the girl wasn't so fortunate after all.<br/><br/>Ava pretended not to have noticed anything and kept walking, staying at a safe distance from her. If there was a Nightkin, and Valtieri undoubtedly knew people who knew where every Nightkin in the world was, then maybe the girl could lead them to a larger coven - and subsequently, Valtieri. It was just a matter of how to do it. The girl didn't seem to be in a hurry - she seemed more lost than anything.<br/><br/><ul>Three sets of golden eyes regarded Ava and Jenkins from a side road. The eyes belonged to a small group of young (young-looking, at least) people talking quietly to themselves.<br/><br/>"It's practically risk free," said one of them, stubbing out a cigarette under his shoe. The blonde woman next to him irritably waved the smoke in the air away.<br/><br/>"And what's the guarantee she'll even care? One Nightkin is of no value to someone like her..."<br/><br/>Their friend jerked his head up the road where a woman with long, black hair and a tall, stone faced man had stopped. The pair looked all too interested in their conversation, he thought. His suspicion didn't grow smaller as the pair deviated from their previous route and approached the three Daywalkers instead. The black-haired woman smiled at them.<br/><br/>"Acerbi?" She asked in a vaguely British accent. The three Daywalkers shook their heads.<br/><br/>"Hopefully soon, now that she's in town," the man who had been smoking replied. His female companion jabbed him with her elbow. He looked at her, puzzled. "What? Maybe she can help us," he said, referring to Ava. The blonde scowled in response.<br/><br/>"And maybe she can't, <span style="font-style: italic">and</span> you're a blabbermouth."</ul><br/>Ava folded her hands neatly in front of her and shot the three strangers a winning smile.<br/><br/>"I assure you, a trespassing Nightkin caught on Daywalker turf would be sure to impress Catarina," she said, throwing her first name around in a casual manner she would never have dared to in front of the woman herself. "And it just so happens one was passing by on a silver platter just now, in case you were too busy arguing to notice the ghastly odour earlier. Or perhaps you simply mistook it for the smell of a passing vagrant," she continued with a light shrug. The strangers looked both mildly offended and at the same time interested in what she was saying. Ava continued.<br/><br/>"She's alone. Doesn't look like she quite knows where she is. Maybe she's lost her way." Her smile grew a hair wider. "You could help her find it."<br/><br/>The group looked at each other uncertainly, but finally, the ash-pallored man with dreadlocks nodded. They silently moved past Ava and determinedly in the direction of the straggler Nightkin. Ava's smile was practically a grin as she watched the three strangers turn a corner and disappear out of her sight.<br/><br/>"Come, Jenkins. There must be a fire escape somewhere where we can get to the roof and watch."</div></div>