Chapter Text
It was a warm summer night and the party at the Harkness estate was in full swing. Vampires of high status from all over the world congregated at what was sure to be one of the biggest events of the season. Food was served on golden platters, crystalline chandeliers glimmered in every corner of the room. Entertainers filled the spaces between guests, and at the very centre, sat a golden cage where a dancer spun lazily in a dazzling display of skill, grace, and sex appeal. The message was clear: look, but do not touch.
Rio let her mind wander as her fingers drummed absentmindedly on the counter of the bar. She contemplated doing another sweep of the crowd, but didn’t really feel like entertaining the crowd of entitled vampires any more than she already had. She wasn’t set to return to the cage for another hour or so, which left her with only one real option: sneak out and hope to whatever higher powers lay above that nobody stopped her on her way out.
By some miracle, she made it to the back garden and shrunk into a corner with heavy shrubbery, staying hidden from whatever stragglers had found their way outside over the course of the night. Finally, she could breathe.
“Hi there,” a voice whispered directly into her ear.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” Rio yelped, whirling around to face the sound only to be met with the most beautiful and intimidating women shed ever laid eyes on. Her hair was piled high on her head with a couple of pieces loosely framing her face, looking messy and regal all at once, like she wasn’t even trying. Her dress had a sweetheart neckline and was dripping in black diamonds. The burgundy fabric underneath looked like expensive silk and the lace details looked like they had taken years to make.
“Nope, just me,” the mysterious woman smirked.
Rio stood there, frozen, mouth slightly open. Her heart didn’t beat anymore, but she could swear she felt it pounding in her ears nonetheless. Her eyes slid from the woman’s face down her neck and stopped at the cleavage, where a large blood-red brooch sat at the very center of her dress. She heard the woman clear her throat and she wrenched her eyes away immediately, heat rising to her face as she realized she was caught.
The woman squinted at her and tilted her head.
“Are you a mortal?”
“Um, I was for 29 years, if that counts,” Rio said, caught off guard.
“Hm. Not a vampire,” she mumbled as she stared deeply into Rio’s eyes, grabbing her face with two fingers.
She was way too close for Rio’s liking, inspecting her with almost clinical focus as her sharp nails dug into Rio’s cheeks. For some reason, it didn’t bother her. She refused to dwell on that. Rio noted the startling blue of the woman’s irises— bluer than any she had seen in her life, slightly rimmed with red. They almost glowed in the dark of the garden, and Rio swallowed hard, doing her best not to look away. She would not show weakness. They were so close that their breaths mingled, and the woman stayed there for a beat too long, almost transfixed.
Abruptly, she pulled back.
“Right, not a vampire,” she kept muttering to herself, “werewolf then?” she said as she grabbed Rio’s hand and inspected her nails.
Her cool fingers met Rio’s sweaty palm and she could swear that the touch burned, even after the stranger had let go. She hoped that this infuriatingly hot woman wouldn’t notice, but she refused to dwell on it.
“Alright! I give up.” This snapped Rio out of her reverie, and she looked up to see the woman staring at her expectantly. Rio blinked.
“Well?” she asked impatiently. “What are you?”
“I’m… a zombie??” she replied, her voice pitching higher at the end of her sentence. She felt embarrassed for some reason— standing in front of what was probably a centuries old vampire made her question everything about herself.
The woman made a noise, almost sounding like disbelief. “But you’re so…” she gestured vaguely to Rio’s body.
Rio felt her face grow hot once more. “I’m so what?” she managed to squeak out.
“Well for one, your flesh isn’t rotting. And two, you’re not trying to eat my brains. I’ve met a lot of zombies in my lifetime and those tend to be entry level requirements, so. What gives? Do you get off on lying to people or something?”
“Well, stranger whose name I don’t know, that’s a bit reductive, don’t you think? My flesh isn’t rotting and falling off because the embalmers did a really good job, I guess, and I was turned before my body could start decomposing. And what do you think I am? I can control myself, stranger. I’m not unable to control my urges, I’m not always hungry, and absolute worst-case scenario, I’ve got appetite suppressants. Also, it would be pretty unbecoming of me to attempt to eat the people I’m working for, wouldn’t it?” she could feel herself getting worked up, some bravado returning. The stranger may have been stupidly beautiful, but she didn’t like when people made incorrect assumptions.
“Do I have anger issues?” she continued, not noticing the stranger now watching her with an amused smile playing at her lips. “Maybe. Yes. A little, I don’t know. Did I have them before dying? Not as far as I remember.Do I go nonverbal sometimes? I mean, yeah! But don’t we all? I’m like, really strong, if that counts for anything?”
“Agatha.”
“What?”
“My name. It's Agatha.”
“Oh.”
“And now that I’ve told you mine, I think I should know yours,” she continued, “especially if you’re my employee for the night.”
“Your employee…” Rio started, dumbfounded.
Agatha huffed impatiently. “My employee, yes. I’m Agatha, daughter of Evanora, head of the Harkness clan. This is our house, and by extension, our party. So, you are my employee tonight.”
Rio blanched. She was supposed to be doing her job, and instead, she was outside and talking to the person who could get her fired from said job.
“Relax, you look like you’ve seen a ghost,” the woman— Agatha— smirked.
“I hate ghosts,” said Rio dumbly, unsure of how to proceed.
This got a laugh out of the vampire, and she stepped closer to Rio.
“Me too. They always seem to let in a draft. But don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone you’re slacking off,” she winked. “Now,” she said, leaning in even closer, crossing her arms, “why don’t you tell me your name, handsome? Its only fair: I’m not telling on you, after all.”
“R-Rio,” she squeaked. “Rio Vidal.”
Agatha let out a snort. “River of life. How clever.”
Rio huffed out a laugh and seemed to come back to herself slightly at the comment.
“So, what brings you to talk to a lowlife entertainer like me? Surely your guests are far better company?”
“Not that this should come as any surprise to you, but no, they are not. These are mother’s guests; I’m only here because I have to be. She doesn’t always approve of my… extracurricular activities, so she makes me come to these things as a sort of punishment. And you seemed interesting. Like you’d be good company. Not to mention you didn’t notice me when you chose to shrink into the shadows— right in front of me, might I add— and who would I be if I passed up an opportunity to scare a poor unsuspecting soul?”
“Can’t argue with that,” Rio exhaled. She looked down at her watch. “Oh, uh— shit, as fun as this conversation has been— seriously I mean that, you’ve made my night— I’m on in a few and I’ve really got to go before someone notices I’m missing. Um, if you could please not tell anyone I was missing, that would be great, Ag— uh, I mean, Ms. Harkness—”
Agatha’s brow lifted in amusement as Rio continued rambling, getting more flustered by the second.
“Rio,” she said, effectively cutting off whatever nonsense Rio had been spouting. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anybody.” She leaned into Rio’s space, her fangs brushing her neck and making Rio’s breath hitch as she continued, “and call me Agatha, Ms. Harkness is my mother. Break a leg, handsome. I’ll see you around.”
In an instant, she disappeared. Rio stood there, heart in her throat, heat pooling low in her stomach, unmoving. She shook her head quickly, coming back to herself, and rushed back into the estate.
“Come on, Rio, get yourself together,” she muttered to herself, not caring if she looked crazy anymore. “Get through this performance, and then you’ll never have to see the stupidly hot vampire again. She was just toying with you.” She began putting on her costume. “Never mind the fact that you want her to bite you for real, I mean, she could drain all the blood from your body, kill you a second time, and you’d be okay with it, but she doesn’t want to. This is just a game to her. She can have anyone she wants; the last thing she wants is you. You’re just hungry. You’re not yourself when you’re hungry.”
She kept muttering to herself until she took her colleague’s place in the golden cage, letting her mind quiet as the music started. She tried to stay focused as her body moved in time to the music, but she couldn’t help but look around, hoping to catch a glimpse of agata. Two songs in, no such luck.
Halfway though song three, she noticed a figure at the back of the crowd. The black diamonds caught the light and called for Rio’s attention like some kind of beacon. They made eye contact and Agatha shot Rio a smile, looking almost sinister— like she wanted to devour Rio whole. She almost lost focus (almost— Rio was a professional, thank you very much), but managed to finish the rest of her set, sparing Agatha a glance every now and again to make sure she was still there.
By the time the final notes of her last song faded out, Agatha was nowhere to be found. She had disappeared sometime halfway through, and Rio couldn’t make her out anywhere in the crowd. She slumped dejectedly to the makeshift dressing room and gathered her stuff; it was her last set of the night, and she didn’t feel like staying nay longer than she had to. Especially not after meeting a certain vampire with piercing blue eyes who didn’t seem anywhere near as interested in Rio as she was in Agatha. Besides, the sun would rise soon. She wanted to be home before then. Just as she grabbed her coat, she saw a paper flutter out and onto the floor. She almost didn’t pick it up, but curiosity won over. She turned it over in her hand. It was a note.
Nice moves, pretty boy. If you still want to show a vampire a good time, you know where to find me.
- A
Oh, Rio was fucked.