The Haven, Opening Night

[Razielle Shadana]

There was always something for the citizens of Coruscant to be in an uproar about. Tonight was no different. A while back one of the older 'scrapers in one of the seedier sections had been purchased by a wealthy benefactress. It had been undergoing constant contruction since then, leaving the locals wondering exactly what was going on inside.

People began arriving in the night, dissaperaing into the darkened building - and not coming out again. Mostly young people. Just when the ongoings were about to arouse suspisions of foul play, the building itself lit up in the wee hours of the night. The missing young people emerged laughing and carefree and looking far better than the Coruscant underworld had left them in years. They were now well dressed and seemingly well fed.

With an aura of mystery, they descended upon the planet that never slept delivering brightly colored anouncements. The building was now to be a night club - open dawn to dusk and christened, The Haven. It was owned and operated by a woman known only as Erzebet and a male co-owner whose name was not reveled in the press clippings. The following night was to be the establishments grand opening. The lower levels of the club were to be open to the public for a minimal fee. Drinking, dancing and harmless revelry of the same ilk as other night clubs would be offered. The upper levels were off limits except to VIP's and private club members.

It was with a bang and a small armada of eager party goers lining the streets that the Haven opened promptly at dusk the following night. The constant strobe effect of artificial light poured out the doors, but not a trace of anything else could be seen from any of the onyx covered windows. The throb of the music echoed like a human heartbeat through the surrounding blocks.

It was with no small amount of pride that the clubs co-owner, the mysterious Erzebet, stood on the balcony above the dancefloor and watched her hard work pay off. The club would not only compound her already considerable wealth, but it would bring in more than just monetary payoff. It would bring her information and it would serve as a grand coverup for the monstrous truth about what really went on upstairs and who she really was. A vampyre in disguise and a Sith Priestess amoung other things.

Razielle smiled, her violet eyes scanned the crowd as if it were an appetizer.

[Vega Van-Derveld]

To say that the Van-Dervelds were an unpopular family would have been an understatement. Well-known for being arrogant braggarts, their company was hardly the most sought after in the known galaxy. In light of this, it was more than a surprise that they should be invited, cordially no less, to one of Coruscant’s newest entertainment attractions. The current lady of the family made have been a social butterfly who reveled in such limelight, but her husband had lost some of his charm over time. Jaded over time, a state of cynicism and constant vexation had set into Vega’s temperament, making him unpleasant companionship at the best of times.

In spite of this all, however, he had decided to accept the invitation to The Haven. The last time he had visited the hub world had been on the evening of his ‘death’, when the assassin Jacob Nives had slain him in front of a huge crowd of onlookers. Since then rumors had begun to circulate that he was not dead, but most of this was hearsay and there was little proof that he had survived the encounter. The number of people aware of the truth was (however) increasing, and this was no more evident than in the invite he had received from the mysterious Erzebet.

As he entered the club, he felt the pulse of the music through his bones. The scents of a hundred, perhaps more, people entranced surrounded him, and he took a moment to adjust to the heavy atmosphere. It was then that a more acute, delicate aroma caught him. It was one that he innately disliked, but at the same time it inspired curiosity. A vampire. His eyes moved over the crowd, as it flashed beneath surging strobe lights, trying to pick out the creature.

[Razielle Shadana]

So he had come after all! Razielle had sent out the invite, fully expecting it to go unnoticed. The fact that Mr. Van-Derveld at graced her little party with his presence almost gave her a warm fuzzy feeling.. If she had been prone to them, that is.

Stepping away from her consorts on the upper level, she moved to the lift to go have a bit of fun with her old friend. She hadn't believed a word about his apparant "death". Vega was not so easy to kill. It had been too long indeed, since she had spent any time with him. It always served as a great source of amusement for her, and probably for him, that they were natural enemies yet somehow they got on rather well together.

It wouldn't take him long to track her scent in the crowd so she had to make use of her gifts and move too fast to be seen. She moved within his sights a couple times, allowing only a glimpse of waist length black hair and blood red leather before dissapearing again with a laugh and a whispered, Vega...

She wasn't trying to annoy him really, just rile him a bit. At last she stopped, directly behind him. She was close enough that if she leaned forward a bit she'd be touching him. She stayed silent though, having a feeling that like her, he may not want his name tossed about publicly.

Hello Van-Derveld, been a while, hasn't it?

[Vega Van-Derveld]

As Vega turned to regard the figure behind him, a smile drew at one corner of his lips. Now here was someone he hadn’t seen in a long time. Looking in that silent moment at Razielle, he found the pieces of the puzzle surrounding the Haven falling neatly into place in his mind. The elusive club owner had to be none other than the ex-Sith Empire devotee who now stood before him – that would explain precisely why he had been specifically invited, although it did not explain exactly why.

“Indeed it has. I can’t say this is where I expected to find you,” he remarked in reply, motioning vaguely with one hand around him, at the heaving mass of bodies. Already he had all but blocked the music out of his mind, and everything unimportant at the edge of his vision seemed to blur and become indistinct as he focused on Razielle.

“Then again, time changes everything, hm?”

[Razielle Shadana]

They couldn't just stand there talking about these things. It was drawing enough attention already that the owner had left her perch for this man. To take the focus off her friend, Razielle had to make it seem like she was just intrigued by a pretty face.

"Things don't change that much.." A slow hypnotic beat started playing next. Razielle moved forward and slipped an arm around Vega's neck, moving softly to the music, but moving them towards the lift she had come from. She nodded, indicating her path. They needed to go upstairs and be rid of such formalities.

She desperately hated to admit it, but being this close to Vega was a tad disconcerting. She had always thought of him as a true friend and strong ally to have, but the grand frustrations that her dearst Salem had brought down upon her recently were making her have the most indecent thoughts..

[Vega Van-Derveld]

It seemed that in spite of years of separation since the collapse of the Sith Empire, the ease and familiarity between the pair had not weakened. Then again, Razielle always had been a friendly girl, in Vega’s opinion, so it was no surprise that within mere minutes of their reunion she had an arm snaked around his body. He followed her lead as they moved into a sleek turbo lift, out of the watchful gaze of the dancers. As the doors hissed closed, Vega smirked.

“Ever the entertainers, aren’t we?”

[Razielle Shadana]

"Indeed.. Sorry about that, we won't be under so much scrutiny upstairs. "

Razielle grinned and leaned back against the lift wall. They were speeding upward past the public levels and into the private areas including Raz's, or rather Erzebet's apartments.

"Not so much has changed, I am under new tuteledge now and run with a new pack so to speak, but I still am what I am. I just had to put on a more endearing public face, you understand. I am now the Angel of the underworld who brought a bit of light, music and...money to this part of the planet. "

They arrived and the doors opened into a large spacious room, the floor was covered with silk and littered with pillows, candles abounded and there was conviniently enough a private bar.

"Take a load off Vega, we have catching up to do..."

[Vega Van-Derveld]

While outwardly it might have appeared that Vega’s mind was occupied with taking in all of the finery that Razielle’s adobe was decked with, this was not in fact the case. She had mentioned running with a pack, but not which pack. The Lupine knew that there weren’t many groups of darksiders, so the possibilities of exactly who Razielle was allied to were slim.

“Nice place you’ve got here,” he said, without any feeling to his words. There was sultry warmth to the room, the kind you could only get through shelling out a hefty sum of money. “Your pack must have a shipload of credits at their disposal, to be able to fund something like this,” he continued, motioning to the elegant throws, luxurious spread of pillows and other regal trappings.

[Razielle Shadana]

Razielle wasn't daft, she could feel the unspoken question. For someone who was supposed to be dead, he had taken quite a chance on coming here and speaking to her. Fortunately for them both, she wasn't the type to betray a close friend.

She moved to the bar and grabbed a bucket of ice chips and a few random bottles. Rolling them across the floor to a hefty group of pillows, she carted the ice and a couple glasses over. Laying on her stomach and uncorking a wine bottle Razielle gave Vega a befanged grin.

"I don't know about their wealth. I wasn't about to ask for a handout for this little undertaking. This was all me. It'll pay for itself in no time with the kind of publicity I bought."

Crossing her feet at the ankles and idly kicking them back and forth, she grew serious for a minute. "Just for your knowledge Vega, my new alliances don't come before my long running ones. I never saw you.."

[Vega Van-Derveld]

Not quite as at home as his friend, Vega sat more rigidly on one of the pillows. With a pleasant - and equally razor sharp – smile, he accepted his wine glass and silently scolded himself for entertaining the thought that it might be poisoned. Paranoia got him at the best of times. “What have you been doing all of these years then?” he asked, taking a testing sip. “I’m sure you of all people have some interesting stories to tell…”

[Razielle Shadana]

Vega was one of the few people that had known her, albeit briefly while she was still mortal. It wasn't long after being accepted as an apprentice of Master Saurron that she had been killed by him, and reborn to her new unlife. Having witnessed such a transformation as that, nothing else new and exciting would amuse Van-Derveld, to Raz's way of thinking.

"Well, I almost met my end...again. I attempted to withdraw from the world and from feeding. I almost suceeded, too. A temporary insanity came over me and I was saved by my one and only fledgling. "

She refrained from names on that count. Vega would likely understand. She was also not about to mention her daughter, Somara. Not that she thought Vega would harm the girl, just as yet no one knew of her and that was perfectly fine with Razielle and Salem.

"Actually I have settled into a rather pleasant routine lately... And yourself, dead man walking?"

[Vega Van-Derveld]

“Oh, I keep myself busy,” Vega smiled, keeping his reply as concise and vague as Razielle had done herself. Perhaps later on the pair would open up to one another, but for the time being they weren’t on close enough terms, given how long ago their last meeting had been. “I’m learning from two of the best teachers the galaxy have to offer, actually.”

[Razielle Shadana]

Razielle nodded, in understanding. To be under the tuteledge of someone that you admired was very gratifying. She counted herself fortunate that Master Mortis had taken her as a student. She had no idea who Vega was gleaning knowledge from these days and wasn't about to ask. Not yet. There would be plenty of time for revelations later.

She moved to pour another glass, then realized how prim and proper she must appear. She had never taken such pains before in the company of her old friend. Why start now?

Shrugging a shoulder at her silent, one sided conversation, she slid her glass away. Uncorking the bottle with her teeth she looked back on merrier and less rigorous days when she had been so carefree that she could sit around drinking and cavorting with Vega. Time had changed her, but maybe for just this night she could regress a tad..?

Taking a long chug from the bottle, Razielle grinned.

"Well, is it any good? I payed enough for it.."