Having a ball in the late 1800's

Valdez glanced sideways at Amy’s faked insult, then turned his eyes back at the barf-off in front, pulling a face in disgust as a women nearby ‘lost her lunch’, sort of speak ((it’s way too early for me be expected to write any of this gross stuff out explicitly, I fear )).

‘Well,’ he said to himself in thought, there goes my appetite. Even the few people that weren’t spewing out- or covered in what previously was stomach content, didn’t seem as appealing midnight snacks anymore. This realization caused a disappointed frown to appear on his face; he hadn’t drank noble blood in some time, and he’d rather been looking forward to that. In any case, along with his thirst something that also had been severely reduced where his chances of finding a good candidate to be the City’s new noble. He supposed it didn’t matter much though, as there had been no real promise of finding someone good around here anyway. And.. he couldn’t deny it was a clever revenge. Even though it was terrible gross.

In any case, most of his grim expression was hidden behind a handkerchief that he quickly got out to cover his mouth and nose; if you thought the smell of recently-consumed-then-thrown-up-again food and beverages smelled bad to the average person, imagine having heightened senses. He looked at Amy for a moment when she gave him an interested look, uncertain for a moment if she genuinly wanted an awnser to the question of how she could've possibly had anything to do with all of this - at first he thought she was being dramaticly retorical.

Poison came to mind... Some kind of strange substance that caused nausia a while after eating it. But that wouldn't explain how everyone got ill at exactly the same time... He hadn't actually thought about that before now, and as such he suddenly realized how strange this situation actually was... His puzzled frown turning into a curious grin, he replied: "I give up. How?"

As the stench, the unfortunate side effect of her revenge, started spreading Amy moved away from the crowd a little. She didn't wanted to walk away completely yet, not until Valdez would have told her his theory. She studied his face carefully, for as far as she could see it with the handkerchief covering part of it. When he said he gave up and asked her how she smiled. Pleased that he didn't have a theory that could reveal her identity as a witch.
"Not telling," she answered with a small shrug. She drank the last of the champagne in her glass and then started walking out of the room away from the stench. She wasn't planning on leaving the party completely yet, but mainly because it wasn't time for the carriage she had reservated to arrive yet. So instead she just walked into the hallway, it was colder there, but atleast stench free.

Valdez gave Amy a disappointed look - that in his case could easily be mistaken for irritation, as his disappointment was usually combined with that.
He didn't follow her as he phased off though, partially because someone just added a nice big river of vomit where she'd just walked. Amy might notice him staying behind, watching her walk away.

To her - as probably she wasn't aware of the superhuman strenght, speed and flexibility Valdez could amount to - it may have seemed a little startling that suddenly he was standing opposite her in the hallway, in the opposite direction of where she'd just come from and where she'd left him. He didn't say antyhing at first, but just stood there grinning at her.
"Don't you know it's rude to leave in the middle of conversation?" he asked tauntingly.

Amy had looked down at her wristwatch when she had reached the hallway, wondering how much time she still had to kill before her carriage would be here. When she looked up she was startled to find Valdez standing opposite to her. She looked behind her, to the closed door that lead to the ballroom, wondering how the hell he had managed to get pass her so easily. Then she looked back at Valdez catergorising it as something he was capable of because he wasn't human.
"What are you?" she asked her expression serious, ignoring his question about being rude.

Finding the irony to amusing to resist, Valdez replied: "not telling," as Amy had done before.
Then his expression turned a little more serious, as he took a step closer to her; "I'll tell you my secret if you tell me yours."

In the mean time, he tried his gift, persuading her to agree to this. Tell me how you've managed your revenge, he said, and I'll tell you about me...

Amy didn't manage to answer for a few moments. Valdez's gift in combination with the alcohol it was difficult to keep a clear enough head. She put a hand to her head, with the faint hope that it might help, which of course it didn't. All she knew for certain was that there was something wrong which didn't exactly put her in a secret sharing mood.
"You're not human..." she said before she could realise that saying that could bring in more trouble.

Valdez chuckled darkly; "you'd be surprised how often I've heard that," he replied, "even when I still was..."

He stopped using his gift though, as he could tell it wasn't doing as he intended. He did still want to know how Amy managed to get everyone ill at exactly the same time, and didn't intent on leaving without an awnser. Even so, he considered catching bees with honey rather than blood - an odd figure of speech to him in his current form.
Anyway, he smiled and went on more kindly; "I'm sorry if I startled you... I just had the feeling you were already suspicious of me anyway?"

Amy didn't trust the sudden shift of Valdez's in behaviour, from dark to light in moments. The fact that the strange thoughts stopped shortly before that, didn't help with that either. So instead of being reassured by him being kind to her she just got more suspicious and took a step backwards.
"What are you?" she asked again her eyes narrowing a little, trying to guess herself, though not yet succeeding.

Annoyed about her unvarried replies, Valdez let out a sigh. "I'm polite," he noted in a sneered tone, "you might want to take notes."

He put his arms over each other, and impatiently asked; "can we please get passed you asking me the same question over and over again?"

"Barely" was the first thing that came out of Amy's mouth when Valdez said that he was polite. She was starting to get ticked herself and wished she had booked her carriage for an earlier time.
"And I wouldn't need to repeat my question if you would answer it," she retorted with a slight smirk, "because that would be the polite thing to do."

A little twitch formed around Valdez' eye as Amy replied he was barely to be called polite. His frustrations only grew when Amy insisted he'd awnser before she did, 'because it would be polite'.

In an impulsive action, he used his gift to send her some horrifying images to see in her head*. He hadn't even fully meant to sent those images out to her, it was just something that popped up into his head naturally. The thought of it did calm him down though.

With an unpleasent smile he replied: "very well... Age before beauty, I suppose. I'm many things, actually - inclyding homocidal - but I think you're referring to me being a vampire. Is that what you wanted to hear then?" That last he asked her both curious, as a little impatient; he was still curious to know how she managed her little scam.


* Nothing to severe. Just decapitated heads, mutilated bodies, happy thoughts like that

At the sudden assault of horrifying images flashed through Amy's mind she gasped and stumbled backwards. Catching her balance only by help of the wall behind her. She swallowed nervously, her knees shaking underneath her wide skirt, when the assault stopped and Valdez finally gave her her answer.
Admittedly she had been suspecting he was a vampire from the moment she had noticed his eyes where red. Having it confirmed made her wish she had never asked or insisted on knowing the answer. She didn't knew much about vampires, but she did knew that dark hair meant old and with that very strong. Too strong for her to handle without proper preparation and even if she did had the change to prepare it would still be a long shot. The only thing she could think of of doing now was stalling until her carriage would arrive and hope that he wasn't interested in her enough to follow. She also knew that with stalling came her answering him how she pulled off her revenge, but that didn't mean she would have to be completely honest.
"Witchcraft," she answered, hoping to confuse him for a few moments by not really giving him an explanation.

As one might expect, Valdez was far from satisfied about Amy's extremely brief awnser. Still, he was pleased by her reaction to his gift, and so he managed some more patience.

"Witchcraft?" he repeated cynically. "What are you talking about?"

On the one hand, he didn't really believe in witches or witchcraft at all... On the other hand, he was a vampire himself - did he really have the right to be so cynical?! Also, Amy reacted fairly unsurprised when he stated he was a vampire, suggesting she already knew about the existence of vampires before he'd brought it up. Actually, that would put her reaction about his explanation concerning his red eyes into place!

Grinning darkly, he briefly but demandingly insisted; "explain." In doing so, he still had his arms over each other though, implying he didn't intend to attack her physically - yet.

Amy was pleased with the time she had managed to gain by her single word anwer. She pushed herself from the wall a little, prefering some space to move in case it was needed.
"That's how I managed my revenge," she answered, "witchcraft."
She glanced at her watch for a brief moment, any moment now could her carriage arrive and this conversation would be over.

Already irritated by Amy's less than useful awnser, and even more by her checking of the time - suggesting to him she didn't intend on telling him anything, but that she was just stalling - Valdez gave her a dark look.

With vampiric speed he closed nearly all space between them, to the point where there was barely more than an inch of space between them. "Just that I'm immortal, doesn't in any way mean I'm patient," he hissed through gritted teeth.

"Now then," he continued in a much calmer, though sharper tone, "please be so kind as to explain in a little more detail..." He grinned threathingly, uncovering his fangs, "before my curiousity about the taste of witches' blood overwhelmes me."

Now Amy found herself with her back against the wall again. With Valdez only an inch away from her she was very scared, her heart racing and adrenaline coursing through her veins. When he showed her his fangs a shiver passed through her. She already wasn't really used to having a man standing so close to her, but a man that was threatening her as well as being a vampire...
"It was a spell..." she answered in a small voice, the best she could manage at the moment, "with a time trigger... The sickness is tempirarely..."

When Amy started awnsering Valdez backed away a little, feeling less need to intimidate her now that she did as he wanted. "Inspired," he replied to her explanation, both his expression as the tone of his voice ambigious, making it hard to tell how he felt about Amy's awnser.

"And how would a young woman such as you know a spell like that?" he wanted to know next. As he did so he tilted his head a little, still grinning in the same threatening manner, his eyes staring into hers intently.

Amy was glad when Valdez let a little more space between the two of them. She opened her mouth a little, trying to think of a good lie that would not reveal it she that was the witch. But then a servant came in the hallway.
"Mrs Lock?" he asked her a little uncertain and when Amy nodded at him in acknowledgement he continued, "Your carriage has arrived."
"Thank you," Amy answered uncapable of hiding her relief, she turned to Valdez then, "It's time for me to leave, good night Lord Valdez."
She gave him a small nod, not feeling like courtesying for a dark haired vampire, and then started walking away.

Valdez' eyes shot to the door, to the servant that dared to interrupt him. When it became clear that the servant didn't know what was going on though, and Amy happily used this to get her way out of the situation, he decided it couldn't be helped. He could try something or another to keep Amy here, he realized, but that would surely be more trouble than it was worth.

Still, before she could pass him in her well-timed attempt to walk off, he managed to take her hand and place a 'polite' kiss on the back of it. In doing so, he punctured her glove (in case she's wearing those) and a little bit of her skin. The mark his fang had left on Amy's skin was small, no bigger than the tip of a sowing neelde, but it was just enough for him to get a taste of her blood. He looked up at her as he let go of her hand and straightened his back. "It's been a true pleasure," he replied in a soft, slithering voice.

Then he turned around, to the servant, smiling greedily at him. "It's a good thing you're here my good man," he said in a drawling tone that predicted nothing of good, "I am simply parched - a drink would do me so much good." As he said this he already headed for the servant, not expecting Amy to hang around for the next part.

When Valdez suddenly snatched her hand and punctured her glove and skin she winced a little. Then she pulled her hand and started walking away from him a bit faster pace. At first she just kept on walking when Valdez started talking to the servant, planning on just ordering the servant to come with her. But then Valdez made it very clear that he was going to bite the servant and with that kill him, so she decided to step in.
First things first. She didn't want the servant to have any memory of this so the pulled a small veil out a pocket in her dress and tossed the contence at his skin, making him lose conciousness. Then at the same time tossed a small ball of energy at Valdez. She knew it wouldn't touch him, but maybe it would make him think again to drink from the servant.
"Don't even think about it leech," she told him, no longer looking scared in the least.

Valdez stood by a little startled when Amy threw some strange content of a veil towards the servant. He hadn't even expected her to stick around, let alone that he expected her to interfere.

When the servant passed out, he stepped aside, allowing the man to tumble downwards without touching him. Frowning, he was about to ask Amy what she'd done, but then she threw a small energy ball in his direction. His innitial reaction was to face it, head-on, but then he realized avoiding it was probably smarter; he had no idea what it was after all, or what it would do upon making contact.

So he manouvred aside, past he energy ball, where he stood straight-up, grinning mockinly at Amy's sudden-found bravery.
"Run away little girl," he replied, his tone vicious and entertainted at the same time, "while you still can."

As much as Amy was afraid of what Valdez as a dark haired vampire could do to her she didn't move. Well she didn't move from her spot, she did how ever pull out a different new vial this one had a cross drawn on it. She took of the lid and tossed the entire vial towards Valdez. As soon as the contence of the vial would make contact with his skin it would KO him.
In the mean time Amy quickly reached for the KO'ed servant, wanting to pull him out of the way and towards safety.

Valdez jumped backwards as Amy threw the vile at him. Fortunatly for him, most of his skin was covered, except for his face. As such, even if he hadn't jumped quite far enough yet, some far-reaching drops would only land on his clothes and not make skin-contact.

Then he noticed Amy going for the servant, trying to save him no doubt. His first instinct was to leap for her and the servant, but he was slightly afraid of whatever else she might have in her pockets. If she had any more of whatever she threw at the servant, and it would work on him too, he'd be in serious trouble; depending on how long he'd be out cold, he might still be here in the morning...!

So instead he tried sending her more horrible gifts in her mind. These images contained her still being with her ex-husband, the abusive drunk, with all the consequenses that held. He didn't know any details about this, of course, but he found that if you'd just strike a sensitive topic people's own minds would add all the missing information on it's own.

As this mental influence was influencnig Amy, Valdez' angry voice sounded echoing in her head throughout it: "this is my last offer girl! Leave the servant!"

As the mental assault started Amy let out a gasp, sob combination. Falling to her knees and letting go of the shirt of the servant. Valdez had been right, the lack of details in the assault didn't matter, her mind was perfectly capable of filling in the blanks with her fears. When the warning resonated through her head she pulled her hand back, which was shaking as a leave in the wind. She was too scared by the pictures in her mind to really move though.

As Amy (by lack of a better way of saying it) gave into Valdez' mental torture, he stood by at a distance, tilting his head. As he watched her reaction, the fear in her eyes, his expression softened. It wasn't compassion or sympathy that warmed his countenance though, rather it was the expected and welcomed reaction she showed; he felt like things were going his way again.

Though he couldn't deny her vulnerable state did affect him; whether it was the last remaining bit of his human side or just etiquette that'd been rammed down his throat as a child, he felt absolutely no intenion of harming her, a lady, anymore.
Still keeping his distance, he insisted - though in a soft and almost gentle voice; "leave now, lady Lock. My evil isn't meant for you."