Rightio, so people liked the idea of Vampire!Jade from Lovebites & Razorlines, so I created this little offshoot to explore that idea. If you haven't read any of that fic and can't be bothered reading the first 8 chapters, here's a nifty little prologue here that gives you a rough idea of how Robbie and Jade got to this point of familiarity without having to devote too much time to it.
"Shapiro, why are you here?"
It was the night romance died, the night that Beck and Jade broke up. I don't know what kept dragging me back to that same stretch of road. But I found myself wasting the night with Jade, cold hamburgers and broken hearts in the middle of a metal wasteland. Then as we made to sever ties, fate in the form of a in the form of a dead battery intervened.
"I live here."
Pathetic as it is, the place I took Jade back to was a hotel room. She kept her cruel remarks confined to her mouth for the most part, fresh wounds of her own still on display. She's insisted that I accompany her to bed, but it was always an endeavor doomed to disaster. Before the sun slipped over the horizon, I found myself sleeping on the couch. Apparently Beck didn't snore, I'm pretty sure he'd have mentioned bruised ribs like mine if he did.
"Seriously, dude?"
Jade's question almost drowned in shock with those words. I can still picture her eyebrows hurtling to the top of her head when I said she could stay with me for as long as she needed to. The smile that followed could have lit up the entire world. I guess I should have know that the happiness wasn't supposed to last.
"Jade, come on. This is low, even for you."
Beck's voice held an accusatory tone when we arrived at his RV to pick up her clothes. I guess it was the implication that Jade wouldn't ever be caught dead with me unless she needed something that made me snap. I swept her into a fiery embrace and poured all of my passion into it. I don't even really remember what I was trying to prove, I guess Beck beat it out of me shortly after that.
"No, I just like soup. Now shut up and eat."
That's what Jade told me when I asked if she'd made soup for lunch because she didn't think I could eat solid foods. The funny thing about that is that I can't remember a mouthful of the soup passing her lips. The rest of that day is a little hazy, but I don't think that I'll ever forget the glint in her eyes as I thanked her.
"I do like my food bloody…"
Somehow the revelation didn't shock me. The only times I could remember Jade enjoying her meals were when she'd ordered a steak of some sort. I'm quite sure the busboy that delivered our meal was lucky to leave with him life. When he implied Jade and I were having a date, murderous rage flashed through her eyes. If he wasn't holding her steak, I think she would have torn him limb from limb.
"Something's wrong."
Our friends didn't really take it that well when we arrived at rehearsals as a united front. It's not that they were upset, it's just that they didn't understand the concept of Jade and I being friends. I suppose I wouldn't either as an outside observer, but when you get close to her; there are cracks in her outer façade. Beneath those cracks is something that's just a little bit wonderful.
"I wanted to know what your blood tasted like. I've never had Type O before."
In a day that say me almost get into another fight with Beck, get elbowed in the lip and forced into playing Jade's husband, those are the words that stand out. The look of utter pleasure on Jade's face as she tasted my blood was unlike anything I'd ever seen before. I felt like she was contemplating devouring my whole, I swear I even saw fangs between her lips.
[Later That Night:]
It's late, really late. My eyelids slide open and I stumble blindly out of my room in search of something to alleviate the pounding within my skull. After such a long day, I just want to sleep, but of course my skull is throbbing. I trudge into the living room where the edges of a familiar figure carve out sharpened lines against the moonlight. Her hands are raised and something crimson glints, catching the rays of light coming through the window behind her.
"J-jade?" I take a hesitant step forward as the words tremble through my lips. As my eyes begin to familiarize themselves with these midnight hours, my throat constricts. The crimson content of the packet within Jade's hands is rapidly becoming smaller and smaller as she throws her head back and sucks it between her lips. Jade's eyes are shut and she's lost in the sensations, and I wonder if she's even noticed that I'm here.
"What?" Jade asks flatly, finally having drained the bag of its content. The plastic bag hangs limply within Jade's hands as her eyes open and land directly upon me. Regarding me casually, Jade tilts her head slightly and several strands of her raven locks creep across her collarbone.
"W-what are you doing?" I ask, in a voice that's all cracks and uncertainty. Jade's cheek tenses, and a muscle beneath her porcelain skin flickers angrily. My foot flitters against the ground as I contemplate taking a step away from her. The fear that I'm one false move away from lashing out at me is all that holds it in place.
"Feeding." The word slithers through Jade's lips and cools the heated expression that had colored her features only a moment ago. Her shoulders jump slightly in a way that belays the tension that's still jumping through the night's air. My heart begins to kick against my chest, as if to warn me against asking her what's on my mind.
"On what?" I ask, the words jumping off my tongue before I have the chance to fully decide whether or not they're a good idea. A moment passes between us, filling my lungs with a thick billowing smoke that whispers unease. Jade drops the crumpled plastic to the table beside her and hooks her thumbs through the belt loops of her jeans. I wonder if she even heard my question as her gaze lingers on the floor for another prolonged moment.
"Blood." I barely hear the word over the pounding of my heart, but it's enough to shatter the silence between us. Screwing my eyes shut, I try to shake my mind awake. I'm dreaming, I've got to be dreaming. There's no way that this is real life, there's no way that the things that go bump in the night can be real. When my mind begins to reel, I pry my eyelids open, fully expecting to be lying in my warm bed. Those hopes drift just out of reach when Jade's piercing gaze peers back at me. There's something otherworldly about her emerald orbs, something that makes me doubt all that I've known to be fact and fiction in the past.
"B-blood?" The words trickle from my lips pathetically. It's almost more of a question to myself than an expression of doubt toward Jade's admission. Silence seeps in between us, and sticks to each second, trapping me within a stitch in time that I'd rather forget about. Jade's eyes skitter away from mine and land on the floor. Her thick eyelashes cast long shadows over her eyes, masking whatever is swirling within them.
"S-So if that's blood, then you're a…" The words are like lead in my throat, and their barbs catch on my tongue as I try and toss them into a sentence. Jade's eyes fly away from the ground and struggle meet my own skittering gaze. As I struggle to speak, I'm watching Jade's expression for amusement or a signal that she's taking offense. The only thing that just barely shines through the cracks of her indifferent gaze is a flicker of pain. It's written in the way the edges of her lips twitch downward and hurls my thoughts into disarray.
"Don't use that word, that's our word." As my words die out, Jade's retort fills the air. Her lips lift into a sardonic smirk to her lips and a ragged sound erupts from her throat shortly after. I suppose it's something like laughter, but the humor is missing from her voice as her chin dips down. The curls of her ebony hair tumble over her shoulders in ringlets and the silence between us seems to strangle my thoughts.
"I was kidding, I've been called worse." Jade forces her voice into something even, something familiar. She even raises her hand and peers at her nails, as if the tension within the air isn't affecting her in the slightest. I blindly grope within my mind for something resembling a coherent thought, but the only ones within reach are soaked in maddening screams.
"You're honestly surprised?" Jade asks, tilting her head slightly as her lips flicker into something resembling a smile. She rolls her shoulders again, totally at ease with the situation that we find ourselves in. My lips are alive with words, but they flitter away before I can arrange them into sentences.
"I'm…I just…Jade?" My voice ambles into the air, seemingly independent of thought. Jade's eyebrows dip noticeably as she tries in vain to make sense of my babbling. I shake my head, and all of the clutter seems to finally fall away, leaving me stranded at one final conclusion. My eyes fall upon the emptied bag that lays discarded on the table as realization dawns on me and my eyes narrow.
"Here we go…" The change in my demeanor seems to register with Jade as a sigh pushes through her lips, and she mutters irritably. A smirk finds its way onto my lips; she's just annoyed that my razor sharp mind has sliced through the smoke and mirrors of her latest prank. Stepping into the light, I push one foot before the other and come to a halt with only a few inches separating Jade and I.
"If you're a vampire, how come I've seen you in the sunlight? C'mon Jade, what's really in that bag? It's cranberry juice isn't it?" I state confidently. Biting the inside of my cheek, I try to ignore the lack of heat emanating from Jade. It's as though I'm standing in front of an open refrigerator. It's just cold tonight I tell myself, allowing my mind to skirt the fact that a bead of sweat just slipped down my forehead.
"I already told you. It's Blood you dork." Jade huffs, rolling her eyes and shaking her head. In spite of the irritation that she's so clearly trying to illustrate, Jade's lips twitch upward and laughter tumbles out of her lips as I mimic her words.
"Oh, so you won't mind if I do this…" All of my fear seems to have abandoned me with the realization that Jade's just a girl playing a prank, not a member of the undead. Leaning toward Jade, I swipe a finger slowly across her mouth in much the same way she had done to me earlier in the day.
Lost in the sensations, I allow my finger to linger on the velvet surface of Jade's lips. The vibration of a moan passing through them jars me back into reality and I wrench my hand away. With triumph pumping through my veins, I smirk towards the girl before me and lift my finger to my lips. Sucking the remnants of Jade's deception away, I expect something fruity to greet my taste buds. When copper fills my mouth, my eyes blow open and the victorious smirk on my lips falls spectacularly to the ground.
"That's…not cranberry juice." I note absently. All of the thoughts within my mind comes to a total halt as my mind tumbles into something like a catatonic state. I'm only dimly aware of Jade's fingers slipping around my shoulders. As a biting cold emanates through her fingertips, I wrestle with reality and the bizarre realization that's slowly sinking into my mind.
"The sun…I-I've seen you in the sun." It's the closest I can come to forming a full sentence, but it still falls woefully short. I wrap my arms around my chest as though they're the only thing holding me together as Jade regards me carefully. Her gaze seems to slip past my eyes and into my mind, intruding on the thoughts that are slowly beginning to stir within my skull.
"Lets just say Hollywood took things a bit too literally." Jade speaks slowly and her face slows to an eerie halt, like a veil has been lifted. She slinks around me and takes a seat next to me, falling like gravity is ignoring her presence. She's so devoid of movement, her chest lays limply with the absence of breaths being formed within it. The moon falls on her skin, rendering it a perfect ivory and removing her even further from the world that I thought we shared.
"What do you m-mean literally?" I ask, stepping out of my mind and back into this bizarre world that I suppose passes for reality. Jade sinks even further into her seat for a moment and I wonder if she's going to ignore my question.
My lips twitch with another question, but it tumbles silently off my lips as she rocks herself into an upright position and twists her body so that she's facing me in one fluid movement. Her emerald eyes seem to glow within the darkness and I wonder if they've always done that, or if I'm only truly seeing her for the first time. Jade's fingers dip into her hair and before I can ask what she's doing, she wrenches a strand of hair from her scalp and holds it aloft.
"Do you see this strand of hair, Robbie?" Jade's words seem to drain the room of light, leaving everything surrounding her cloaked in darkness. I drag a deep breath from the air and swallow heavily as she hold the strand between us. Her emerald eyes peer at the thin line between us wondrously, as though it has a story of its own to tell.
"This hair, it represents one single, solitary doubt from one single, solitary event. You've doubted yourself more than once, haven't you Robbie?" Her voice ambles into the room with a gentle lilting quality that seizes the blood within my veins and plunges it to subzero temperatures. When Jade's eyes flicker toward me again, I wrap my arms around torso even tighter, until my ribs are on the verge of collapse.
"You know I have." I mumble, wilting under her gaze. I can't bear to meet those emerald eyes any longer. They've lost that wondrous quality and all that's reflected within them are all of my insecurities and all of my doubts. I feel as though with each passing second, any lingering happiness within me is being drained away.
"It's not an insult Shapiro, it's what makes you human. All of those thoughts, all of those insecurities, they're the darkness that I live in. Not hours between sunrise and sunset." Jade's voice drifts between us, and wraps around me in a gentle embrace. The gentle melody of her words conjures images of a city cloaked within a permanent midnight, a city soaked in its own doubts. My heart clenches within my chest, halting with the overwhelming realization that Jade's not just weaving lies into fables. She's speaking nothing but the truth.
"And that's what you meant by Hollywood taking things too literally…" I mumble to myself, my bones rattling within my body and threatening to me apart at the seams. My eyes drift back to Jade, swirls of midnight hair cascade over Jade's shoulders and frame her face, just like when I though she was human. Just like when I thought she was alive. My mind is racing through memories, sifting through days gone by for clues that this revelation was to come. How could things change so much in one night?
"Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner." Jade's lips curl into a smile that reminds me that as much as things chance, they always seem to stay the same. With that one biting comment, my fears ebb away and I'm reminded of just how close we've become in the past few days. She's the same girl that I kissed today, she's just a little less alive I suppose.
"So, why LA?" I ask hesitantly, unsure of how much more she's going to tell me. Jade catches her bottom lip between her lips and with one glint of white, I'm left wondering if I'm even going to live past tonight. As much as I'd like to think we're friends or something more, I'm slowly realizing that I don't actually know a thing about Jade West.
"I was born here Shapiro. You grew up with me, remember?" With her reply, those emerald orbs that had drained all of the light away from the room suddenly bath me under a brilliant light. Jade's hands suddenly fly out between us and pry my hand away from my body. Her eyebrows drag together and insecurity clouds her eyes. The confident figure from the shadows dissipates before me and I'm left staring at a girl that just wants to be seen from who she is, and not what she is.
"I remember, Jade. I was just…I'm sorry. I have so many questions. " I gently wrench my fingers from her grip and sling an arm over her shoulder, all too aware of the fact that I could just be another meal to Jade. My heart jumps within my chest as the skin of her arm comes in contact with mine. She's so much warmer than I had expected, yet so much colder than if she was truly alive.
"I know, I know. It's just…I guess I'm sick of feeling like I don't belong." She mutters, all of the bravado a distant memory as Jade's quiet voice tumbles into the air. Through the veil of her ebony hair, twin emerald orbs meet my eyes and all of the sorrow within Jade seems to infect me. It soaks my bones with the pain of striking a solitary figure, no matter how many people are around you.
"I-I don't really belong anywhere, can I belong with you?" The words cling to my throat before I hurl them into the air. Jade's eyes widen as she realizes what I'm saying. Her lips part ever so slightly, and I feel her tense under my arm. I screw my eyes shut and begin to lift my arm away, realizing what an idiot I've just made of myself.
"Not so fast Shapiro, I have to decide something first." Jade states, sitting upright and holding my arm in place. Her eyebrows lift almost unperceivably, but I recognize it as Jade's look of concentration. A tense moment flies between us before Jade reacts. In an instant, she slings a leg over my legs and straddles my lap. Her raven hair tumbles over her face and tickles my chest as I lose myself in those emerald orbs for the thousandth time.
"W-what are you deciding?" I'm almost afraid to ask, but I feel like the air around us is going to strangle me if I don't ask her now. Jade's tongue flies over her lips briefly, wetting them and pulling my heart into my throat. I feel as though I'm about to suffer from some kind of coronary failure when Jade's lips begin to move again. The light drains from her eyes, leaving me peering into a pitch black abyss, a midnight from which there is no dawn.
"Whether I'm still hungry or not."
Well there it is, a first attempt at writing Vampire!Jade...What did y'all think?
