Nikolaos walked out upon the rooftop, her arm in Vincent's. She moved away. She hadn't been sure this was a good idea. She still didn't trust him. Too many years of being hunted. She shrugged. She didn't trust him.. that didn't mean she wasn't attracted. Wait a minute. Back up. Attracted? Not a good sign for her... Emotions just got in the way. Usually... flirting was just flirting.. no strings attached. But he.. he intrigued her, despite his age. Much older than she.

Nikki smiled, the moonlight reflecting off of her perfect fangs peeking out from her lips. "So... Vincent. Will my question be answered?" she asked him. She should've backed up father. he might be quicker than her. If so... she'd be dead if his temper turned. Eh- she'd take the chance. She was pretty fast herself and vampires feeding off vampires wasn't that great.... Murder was always an option. Damn. She pushed the.. hmmm.. suspiscious not paranoid thoughts away as she watched him.... honestly tring to read his eyes. She was failing obviously.

Smiling Vincent stood, resolute for a second, then punced, dropping his coat to the floor.
Moving with supernatural speed he sprang forward and grasped her arms, and led her out into the middle of the fooftop.
Then he put his left hand in hers and his right around her waist.
And began to waltz.

Nikolaos felt her breathe catch in her throat. She hadn't moved at all. Didn't notice him.. He was good. Stupid older vampires always were showing her up. Honestly, she hated it. She relaxed when she realized he wasn't going to kill her. He was going to dance. Luckily, years had taught Nikki almost every freaking dance (even the square dancing which she despised) she had learned. She waltzed with him, feeling a small tingle along her hands where she touched bare skin.

Awkward? Just a little bit for her. She looked up and met his gaze. "This is much better than I expected..." she said with a soft smile. She tried reading his eyes again, to no avail... Maybe she was loosing her touch. Curiousity simply wanted to know what he was thinking. Most likely his barriers wouldn't be broken.. too old for that.

Vincent wasn't thinking anything, the dance had taken over. It was all in the feet now.
It was out of his hands now.
But meeting her gaze was strange, calming almost.
"How so?" He said at length, the dance continuing to flow through his form.

Nikki smiled. "Class... you have class. Most men don't she smiled. "A perfect gentlemen despite the surprise. You scared me...."

Nikolaos watched his eyes and follwoed his lead... waltzing.. how fun. her feet moved with a rythm that was in the air yet unheard. A long lost memory of a violin whispered in her ear. She pushed it away.

Within Vincent's mind a symphony played. He had long loved music, since his days on the continent, all of eight hundred years ago. The delecate hum of volins, the crash and thunder of drums, horns, basses and flutes.
All resounded around his memory and mind, bringing back other dancs, other women, other nights spent in wonerous music.
He was so lost upon the waves of sound that he hardly heard Nikolaos' words.
"Our kind has that effect on people. Lamentable though it may be." he whisperd, his eyes closed.
And still his feet danced.

Nikolaos watched him intently, sure that it was memories. Once as old as he should have some. She stared at him, watching his face as he danced. Nikki's own mind was lost on the shores of Ireland but she could focus... multitasking was a gift. She sighed softly, barely audible. She tapped his shoulder gently. "What are you remembering?" she asked him with interest in her soft voice.

"A thousand hopes, dreams, places, people. A hundred memories, daydreams, nightmares, battles and dances." Sighed Vicnent, "Of Norway, of home, of people living, dead and undead. The book of my life, a history in pictures."

"Norways' not so far from me... Ireland" Nikolaos resisted the urge to touch his face, to fall into those memories that either graced him or haunted him. She felt his sigh on her neck and she would admit to no one that it had sent a shudder down her spine. Scared of ancients no.. but memories.. yeah, those sometimes scared the hell out of her.
"Lost in a nightmare or dream at the present?" she asked him. "Or are you just lost?" her humor was gone, a serious look in her eyes stood alone int he mass of emerald color.

Vincent's eyes snapped open. And he fixed the green pools of Nikolaos' eyes with his own, sky blue ones.
"I was remembering a lover." Vincent paused, wondering how to finnish the sentance, "Nathaniel."

Nikki's eyes softened and she allowed him a smile. "I understand." she waited for the wind to brush her hair away from her shoulder before speaking again. "Did you loose him?" she asked, remembering loves gone and past and fires slowly extinguished by time and her own death not always theirs....

His feet changed pace.
Now they moved the slow, mournful pace.
"In a way. We met in Genoa, in about 1849. He was a vampire when I met him. We spent alot of time together, subverting the covens. As you know, the revolution wasn't limited to mortal Europe. It seemed so, right. We fought them very often, in Milan, in Paris, Frankfurt, everywhere. But he... He was far more violent. He was bloody, he surrendered to the rage, what I feel when I feed. He hurt many people. I found him in a flat." Vincent paused, "He killed them all. He killed them like a mortal, not for food, but for fun. Thats how I lost him."

Nikolaos let his words wash over her and she realized, with a slight shock, that he had just opened up to her. Interesting... but why? She let her voice drop slightly to show she felt sympathy if not empathy. "Where is he now?" she paused. "If it's not too bold to ask" she fell into step with him, gracefully following yet still as only the dead can be. Dead. A horrid word but true.

"He lives." Vincent sighed again, his feet in tune with his pain, "He might be dead, but I doubt it. I last saw him in 1945. He had taken the name of "Martin Bormann". He had become a NAZI after world war one (One conflict I stayed well away from), but when I saw him in Nuremberg, and I saw what the years of... Well, what he had done to himself, I cracked. I joined up, would you believe. I myself made officer, a joke really. Just because I might get a chance to end his pain, like I should have done years before. We did meet, eventually, in Berlin, in 1945. He was trying to escape the crumbling Reich, like a rat. I might have killed him, but I don't know. He fell backwards out of a window. I never found a body. But, not a year ago I recieved these," and out of a trouser pocket he pulled a NAZI insignia, and an Iron Cross, "They came with a note: "For old times sake. I have not forgotten, Vincent. Love, Nathaniel." O, he's not dead, I don't think his hate would allow him to die, again. I don't know why I'm telling you this... I have no doubt you have better things to think about than the sad history of a disgraced Viking."

Nikolaos smiled and felt her feet falter for a second. The Nazis.. yes, that was horrible. God, he was an officer. She shook her head trying not to imagine.. too many stories from others. She had been so thankful she hadn't seen that. Her hands tenderly took the insignia and the cross and stared at them. Her fingers traced over it before she handed it back to him. "And you will go to him?" she asked with curiousity in her eyes...

His last comment struck her. "I listen to a seemingly disgraced Viking" she paused. "For the same reason you waltz with a petty Irish girl" she let a small and intent smile grace her lips and her voice was tender. "You said he hates.... who? Humans?"

Vincent smiled, in spite of himself.
Taking back the relics of his past he said "I would not willingly seek him out. The mortals have been trying to do that for years. He will come to me, I have no doubt. As for his hate, I think once he hated mortals, then he hated Vampires, them me, now? He hates everything. Our clash in the rubble of Berlin proved that."

"Then you will let him come to you? Just like that.. you'll endanger many humans if he comes here... if he kills for pleasure and not for the blood then... he'll massacre and the covens will have to step in.... Maybe, Lately the covens haven't been doing much at all... sticking to their own business.. trying to ignore the problems.." Nikki felt her cheeks grow warm with a small sense of emotion and her eyes hardened. She sighed and looked at Vincent. She stopped moving and held her hands at ehr sides. "What am I to say now?" she asked. She was now slightly uncomfortable. he had told her more than she wanted to know. True, she was grateful... but she wondered why he had told her... why?

Vincent smiled, but without any mirth.
"Suspicion is a powerful ally in this world. You needn't say anything. You could simply forget you met a strange Norwegain in a bar and danced with him on a rooftop."
He turned and walked away, scooping up his jacket as he went.
"But, if you ever meet Nathaniel, run."

"Wait..." she said, appearing beside him as if she'd never moved. Nikolaos grabbed his arm gently. "I don't want to forget" she said simply before she added. "And I don't know who Nathaniel is... how am I supposed to avoid him?" her voice was even but had an underlayer of something else... fear.. Did Vincent fear Nathaniel? she wondered....

Vincent thought for a moment.
"Many people call our kind monsters, and if this is true, then Nathaniel is a monster among monsters. Other vampires were scared of him. Still are I assume. I don't fear him, yet he terrifies me. He is what I cold have been, and could be, do you see? What I was when I fed, Nathaniel is like that, always."

Nikki forced herself from tightening her grip. She said softly. "A description of his physical features would have been nice but I suppose that wouldn't help..." she paused and moved in front of Vincent.

"Can I see you again?" she asked. As friends.. maybe. She wanted to help him-- somehow. Foolish morals always getting int he way but hey, she was catholic when she had been alive. Sometimes she still believed in salvation, but not today. She simply wanted to help. Nikki took her hand from his arm timidly and hesitated. She took a step forawrd, nothing in her eyes... They were empty now and she could feel it. Her fingers tenatively brushed along his jawline and she pulled away.

She wanted to.. comfort him? Starnge but.. hell, who was this Nathaniel that was so strong and so violent?
She really didn't want to meet up with him, ever.

"Who can say. We may, and we may not. I would like to see you again, and I will do my best to facilitate such a meeting."
He remained still, staring into her emerald eyes. Was she attracted to him? Or did she pity him?
"For now, we must part, the sun will rise before too long, and my home is some distance from here."
He made to move past her, toward the edge of the building.

Nikolaos nodded. "Please.. please see me again. I believe you know where St. Mary's Church is.. I also enjoy the parks" with that she let her hand brush along his, a trace of something in ehr eyes and it was gone. Even she wasn't sure of her feelings. Attraction? Yes, to power? Maybe. To something else? Maybe. Fear? Frankly, yes. Mistrust? Yes. But there was a part of her, a part of her that wanted to dare... to take the jump. The thoughts frightened ehr slightly and her sheilds were up. No more emotions leaking through her eyes tonight.

Her emerald eyes met his, empty and her smile was polite. Only her words held emotion to them. "I will not forget Vincent. Return is inescapable..." her voice trailed off into the grayness of the waning night and coming dawn.

"Death is inescapable, and we are 'living' proof that it is not. Do not be so quick to say things are inescapable."
He moved past her and made for the edge of the rooftop, and, mounting the waist height barrier designed to prevent people doing what he was about to do, lept forth and disappeared into the coming dawn.

"Inescapable" echoed in her mind. What she meant was what goes around comes around. Things always come back. She knew she'd truly "die" though she was already dead. She knew that.

Nikolaos walked along the roof for moments before she started running, qite quickly, down the nearest fire escape and intot he streets. She was a blur and when she had finally arrived back near St.Mary's, she was tired. Unfortunately, something clenched in her stomach... gut? nerve? Instinct? It didn't matter. It wasn't a good feeling.