A/N: My favourite scene in Twilight is when the nomads are taunting Waylon and then feeding on him. In the beginning of the scene, after Waylon calls out 'Hello?' he yells out 'Gerald? Gerald!' so I assumed that Gerald was the friend going boating with him and I always wondered what would have happened if Gerald had turned up just after the nomads finished feeding. The story starts with the telling in Gerald's POV and will end with the telling in Victoria's POV.
I don't own Twilight, or any of the characters. They are the property of the goddess Stephanie Meyer. The dialogue between Waylon and the nomads is taken from the Twilight movie, which is the property of Summit Entertainment.
GERALD
"Answer your damn phone Waylon" I muttered as, for the second time that morning, my old friend failed to pick up his phone. I supposed he was listening to that ridiculous song of his. Well, I just hoped he wouldn't leave without me, that was all. I was going to be about fifteen minutes late because my wife had hidden my fishing rod, determined to make me go cold turkey on my 'fishing addiction'. Her plan had failed.
Waylon and I had been planning this boating trip for weeks, even since Waylon brought a new boat. We were planning to go downriver to a fantastic fishing spot and spend the afternoon fishing. We'd invited Charlie, but he had to work. That animal attack down in Mason had freaked a lot of people out and the cops were keeping all the details very hush-hush. But, being friends of with chief of police had its benefits. Charlie, Waylon, I and two of the older guys from the reservation Billy Black and Harry Clearwater, had been up at Charlie's place discussing the case.
Obviously, we didn't get anything particularly detailed, but Charlie was of the belief that it wasn't an animal that had killed the security guard. He said he'd seen animal attack victims before and anyone attacked by a bear, a wolf or a mountain lion had claw marks everywhere and were a complete mess. Charlie had said that the security guard had been bitten on the neck and both wrists and wore an expression somewhere between shock and unbearable agony. Apparently, the scene of the attack, and the guy, had also been clean. No animal prints or hair anywhere. The only thing that gave support to an animal attack theory was the bites.
Charlie hadn't said anything else, but it was pretty clear that he thought the guy had been murdered but, as Waylon had said, who'd ever heard of a guy being bitten to death by another person? Billy and Harry had been on Charlie's side, saying that no animal that could kill a person would be able to get into Grisham Mill without being seen or heard. Those two had acted weirdly all night, giving each other brief glances that had been filled with some secret they didn't seem inclined to share.
I shook my head to clear it and finished packing the car and then drove down to the boat sheds where I would be meeting Waylon. I left my car in the parking lot above the sheds and walked down towards them. I left the stuff in the car because, if Waylon had left without me, like he had done once, then I didn't want to have to lug my gear down to the sheds and then back up to my car.
As I approached the jetty where Waylon usually moored his boat I stopped and frowned, listening intently. There were voices coming from around that way. They were beautiful voices, seeming to sing rather than speak. One was most definitely a female voice and the voice that answered it was male. Of course, hearing voices at the boat sheds wasn't unusual, people came and went from here all the time, but I'd never heard these voices before.
"James" the female voice sang flirtatiously "You missed a spot" there was a low giggle and the male voice - presumably James - answered "That was mine, sweet Victoria"
"Mine now" Victoria laughed and James made a strange sound. It was animalistic, like a low purr of a wild cat mixed with the vicious snarl of a wolf.
Something about it made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end and something in me screamed Run! Run! while another voice whispered Such lovely sounds. Just a little bit closer...
In the end, the voice urging me closer won out over the voice telling me to run. I inched closer, and stared at the sight before me.
There were three people standing near Waylon's boat - two men and a woman - and I knew instantly that they were the owners of the beautiful and unfamiliar voices. The woman was easily the most striking of the group. The skin I could see, and I could see a lot of it considering she was topless with only a lacy, navy coloured bra for coverage, was milk white and flawless, her most memorable feature after her hair. Her hair was a brilliant, fiery orange and hung in loose, wild curls down to the centre of her back. She was crouched over the boat, seeming to be pulling something away from something else. She stood up and the blonde male standing behind her, his muscular chest and torso on display through his unzipped jacket and a white, fluffy thing over one arm, crooned seductively "Toria, love, I don't think it will fit you"
The woman turned around, holding what was obviously a green t-shirt - a familiar green t-shirt - in front of her chest "No?" she asked playfully "I think it will"
The second male, I could only see his back, seemed to sigh, as if bored with the proceedings and the stiff set of his shoulders under his very seventies jacket told me that he was quite determined not to look at the raunchy red head or her partner, at least until the woman finished dressing.
The woman lifted her arms and pulled the t-shirt on over her head. Her partner had been right, it most certainly didn't fit her and, from this angle I suddenly realised why it was familiar. The slogan on the t-shirt read 'Kiss Me. I'm Irish' and, in the centre, was a picture of a shamrock. Waylon had brought that t-shirt when he was in Ireland two years ago. I remember it because Charlie and I thought it was hilarious because no woman in her right mind would kiss Waylon, even if he was Irish (which he wasn't).
Why didn't this woman - Victoria - have Waylon's t-shirt? Why did her partner have Waylon's jacket? I just realised it now. That scruffy grey coat belonged to Waylon. He'd had it since god only knew when! I swallowed; there was something very funny going on here.
I watched the woman pulled the t-shirt tight around her upper body and knotted it at the side before she turned the knot inside the t-shirt and rolled the bottom of it up once, giving a tantalizing glimpse of her milky midriff. Her partner reached over and slit the sleeves of the t-shirt up to her shoulders and she laughed "Kiss me, James. I'm Irish"
"I'd kiss you anyway!" he declared and he made good on that promise, pulling her close against him, draping the white thing around her shoulders and kissing her deeply.
"Do the pair of you mind?!" the second male had obviously had enough. He sounded very, very annoyed "If this goes on any longer we'll be caught here when the sun comes up and I don't want to have to try and figure out an explanation that the humans will believe as to why we're..."
"Do you know where we are, Laurent?" the blonde male asked, breaking the kiss while his partner began to alter the neckline of Waylon's t-shirt to suit her tastes "We're in Forks. The sun never shows its face in Forks"
"Nevertheless" Laurent said "I want to leave before any humans arrive"
James sighed and he put his foot against the bow of Waylon's boat and, with the gentlest of pushes, the boat slid from the jetty and began to move downstream. The three people walked away, seeming satisfied about something. I waited until they'd rounded the corner before I leapt into the waist deep water and splashed out towards Waylon's boat. I was chest deep in the river by the time I grabbed the bow - the boat was floating backwards - and hauled myself on board.
Waylon's shirtless corpse looked back at me with dead eyes, an expression of shock, horror and unbearable pain plastered on his face. For a moment, my world spun and I felt bile rising in my throat. I had to swallow a few times before I saw them. The bite marks. There were three of them, one on his neck and one of each of his inner wrists. I was no doctor but I knew where the veins and arteries were on a human.
I coughed and fell to my hands and knees and was violently sick over the edge of the boat. As I straightened up I saw something like fire rising fast to the surface. I blinked and, at the last moment, the fire swerved my vomit, which was beginning to float away and it burst the surface.
A look of disgust was plastered over the red-headed woman's face as she dragged herself upwards onto the boat. I screamed and her icy hand caught my neck, cutting off my cry and, with a vicious smile spreading across her mouth, she twisted the hand holding my throat...
VICTORIA
Hunting was fun. It was the best part of my life, well, after James. I had my priorities in the right order. Right now, I was hunting, with James and Laurent. Hunting with James is great. We used to play with our food for hours, toying with it for fun before draining it. But, ever since Laurent joined the coven ten years ago, we haven't been able to do that anymore.
Certainly, James is still the leader, but he values Laurent's skills too much to use any kind of direct authority that might entice Laurent to leave. Laurent is very, very persuasive. If we wanted to, we could just get Laurent to persuade our prey that it was a good idea to die today and they'd agree without any argument. But that would be shockingly boring! Because of his skills, Laurent pretends to be our leader when we run into other covens and we've never come across a hostile situation since.
Unfortunately, pretending to be leader has gone to Laurent's head and James just keeps giving him more and more leash! It drives me mad! If I didn't know my place I'd probably question it, but it's not my position to question James' judgement. It's his coven and he does when he sees fit. In a situation where it was just the two of us, as it was before Laurent joined, I had a lot more say. As James' mate, I'm his equal and he treats me as such when we're together. As a member of James' coven, he's my leader and I defer to his authority.
The human we were hunting was sitting in a boat and singing along to a song in a voice that was very out of tune. Humans should never sing, I thought idly, they didn't have the voices for it.
The three of us split up. James and I ran together in front of the boat and Laurent darted off to the side. As James and I passed the boat it rocked slightly and there was a noise like a strong breeze and the man pulled off his headphones "Hello?" he called and I couldn't stifle the small giggle. Just to bait him, I darted in front of the boat again and James, who was behind me, leapt up onto the beams of the roof. Laurent darted beside the boat.
"Gerald? Gerald!" he called, sounding worried and I wanted to laugh. I wanted to throw back my head and howl with laughter at his stupidity. As it was, I held my laughter at bay and watched James in the beams above the man. Just for fun, James hissed loud enough for the human to hear and darted from one beam to the next. The muscles of my love's naked torso rippled and I shivered slightly with desire. He saw and winked at me, licking his lips. I had to have him after we'd fed.
The movement and the hiss from above him were too much for the human. He turned the motor of his boat on and it began to back out of the shed. Oh no. You can't leave just yet; we were hoping you'd be kind enough to stay for breakfast.
I came out from my hiding place and stood in front of the boat for a moment before I crouched down and grabbed the bow. I dragged the boat back towards the jetty with a loud crunch and groan from the motor.
"What the...?" the human turned around, obviously wondering what was wrong with his boat and saw me. His expression changed from confusion to amazement to something akin to friendliness and something which might have been supposed to be attractive.
"Hello" he said, trying to flirt and I nearly gagged, he was so disgusting. Fortunately for me, James decided that now was a good time to intervene. He dropped from the rafters, landing on the stern of the boat with a soft hiss.
"Nice jacket" he mocked, leering at the human. The man jumped, obviously deciding a beautiful woman like me was one thing, while a demi-god like my James was another. I saw panic flit across his features and he looked at James before stammering "Who, who are you?"
BORING! Like we hadn't been asked that question in our seven hundred years together!
I moved forward, standing on the boat and leaning on the windshield as James said "It's always the same inane questions" his expression turned mock worried as he cocked his head to the side "'Who are you?'"
"'What do you want?'" I joined in the fun, glad that Laurent hadn't showed up to ruin it yet. I smirked at the human, enjoying the way his eyes flicked desperately between James and I, as if looking for an escape route. This was even more fun than letting that security guard run away from us at the mill the other week.
"'Why are you doing this?'" James continued the torment and I opened my mouth to say 'What are you going to do with me?', which was a fairly common question after 'Who are you?', 'What do you want?' and 'Why are you doing this?' got no response. Unfortunately, Laurent chose that moment to show up. He slouched back on one of the side seats, examining his fingernails in an incredibly uninterested way and said "James" and glanced up at my demi-god.
James glanced down at him, looking annoyed, as if he might push his authority as coven leader for once and allow us some fun.
"Let's not play without food" Laurent scolded and James really did look seriously annoyed. I was annoyed too; I wanted to kick Laurent into the middle of next millennium! If he didn't like playing with his food, he could go and join some other coven!
As it was, I didn't kick Laurent into the middle of next millennium, but I did kick the human over so that he fell down. He landed on the seat opposite Laurent, his eyes darting around everywhere. Laurent watched the human with a bored expression, as if he had something better to do. James had his head cocked to the side, a slight grin on his face. He was enjoying this.
I was too. I was having so much fun. I would be having even more fun if Laurent would just get lost!
I advanced towards him and he looked around, slightly panicked but managed to say "Hey, hold on now" in a slightly calm way. I laughed and he turned to look at me and laughed nervously with me. I grabbed his wrist, turning it over so that the blue veins beneath his skin were visible. They pulsed madly, begging for my bite. When I bit them they would part for me, submitting to my desire to separate them, worshiping my venom as it made its way through the bloodstream. The blood was calling to me, it desired me. It desired my attention, the attentions of the goddess it worshiped.
I bent my head over the wrist, rolling my lips back from my gleaming teeth.
"Ow" the human complained as Laurent grabbed his other wrist to pin him down. My teeth touched the skin of his wrist, it was warm, it was pulsing. I sighed and bit down.
The human had time to say something that sounded like "Wha...?" before he gave a startled cry of pain and jerked reflexively as my venom entered his bloodstream. He tried to cry out again, but Laurent's teeth had pierced his jugular and all he could do was gurgle pathetically against the pain and discomfort of being drunk to death.
His blood was beautiful, warm and delicious. Under the usual sweet tang of the blood there was another flavour, something that reminded me of the wind whipping through my hair as I ran. What flavour would I call that? Well, whatever it was, it was heavenly.
When I finished I stood up and stretched slightly, licking my lips to remove the last few traces of blood on them. Laurent, who was already done, was standing on the dock waiting for James and me. He never learned. James and I liked playing a little after our kill as well as before it.
I looked down at the body of the man we'd just drained and James bent down and pulled the human's jacket off. The jacket was a little small for James, it hugged his broad shoulders and he left it unzipped, leaving his muscular chest and torso on display. I want to kiss those muscles.
I prowled closer to my demi-god, intending to press my lips to his collarbone and then run my mouth down his upper body. I loved the way he sighed when I did that. But, when I got close to him and he held out his arms for me, something else caught my attention.
I folded myself into James' embrace and put a finger to his lips.
"James" I said to him, coming a little closer to him and positioning my lips near his, as if I was going to kiss him "You missed a spot"
Quick as a flash, I moved my finger and my tongue shot out to lick the remaining blood from James lips. James mock glared at me before sliding his hands down my back to where I was ticklish. I giggled and squirmed out of his embrace, backing towards to boat.
"That was mine, sweet Victoria" he told me, a devilish smile on his face as he pretended to stalk me.
"Mine now" I laughed, backing away from him until I was on the boat. My eyes flicked down to the human and I gasped with delight and knelt beside the body. I shrugged off my fur throw and handed it to James to hold. He took it with a confused expression and then I pulled off my black sequined t-shirt. I heard Laurent mutter something about men who couldn't control their woman and resisted the urge to flip him off and James growled quietly at him.
I reached over the body of the dead human and pulled the green t-shirt he'd been wearing. The slogan had caught my attention. It read 'Kiss me. I'm Irish' and it seem appropriate that I should wear it. I, after all, was Irish and I was quite kissable. The human we'd just drained was neither Irish nor kissable, he should not have been wearing this t-shirt.
I pulled the t-shirt off his body and stood up, holding it against myself. It was far too big for me, but I could fix that.
"Toria, love, I don't think it will fit you" came James voice. He was crooning seductively at me either wanting me to get dressed or, on second thought, maybe not... but there was no time for that, even though I desperately wanted there to be.
I turned around to face, holding my new t-shirt in front of my chest "No?" I asked, my voice more playful and teasing than his seductive croon "I think it will"
I heard Laurent sigh and mutter something about how fitting it was that members of the words two most denigrate races were attracted were attracted to each other. I wanted to kill him! Why did James let him stay with us? He was boring and self-centred and had old fashioned ideas! Couldn't we just leave him somewhere? In pieces in the middle of a fire, perhaps?
I pulled the t-shirt over my head and James gave me a smirk that said, quite obviously, 'I told you so'. Moving at vampire speed, I pecked James swiftly on the cheek and then pulled away before he could make the kiss any deeper. He growled softly at me in a sexy kind of way.
I began adjusting the t-shirt. Making it fit me and altering the design of it. I pulled the t-shirt tight around my upper body and knotted it at the side. Because the knot didn't look nice sitting outside, I rolled it under the bottom of the t-shirt and then, because I felt like it, I rolled it up once more, giving a tantalizing glimpse of my midriff - James would like that. I was thinking that I'd need to do something about the sleeves, maybe tear them off, when James solved the problem. He reached over and, using his nail, slit the sleeves up to my shoulder and I laughed "Kiss me, James!" I ordered him "I'm Irish"
"I'd kiss you anyway!" he told me, pulling me against him, draping my throw around my shoulders and pressing his lips to mine. He tasted beautiful. There was his normal taste - something akin peppermint with a hint of liquorice - and then the taste of the blood that he'd just drank. Oh my god! I could just stay like this forever, I decided, as his tongue began to dance with mine.
"Do the pair of you mind?!" Laurent had obviously had enough, but I didn't care. Laurent could go to hell. I was sick of him!
"If this goes on any longer we'll be caught here when the sun comes up and I don't want to have to try and figure out an explanation that the humans will believe as to why we're..." he began and ,to my absolute horror, while I ignored Frenchy, James broke the kill and turned to face Laurent.
"Do you know where we are, Laurent?" James asked him, his voice dangerous and I began to alter the neckline of the t-shirt so it was scoop-necked "We're in Forks. The sun never shows its face in Forks"
"Nevertheless" Laurent said "I want to leave before any humans arrive"
The humans wouldn't arrive for hours and I wanted to keep kissing my James.
James, apparently, didn't share my feelings. He sighed and he put his foot against the bow of the boat and pushed it out into the water and started to walk away. I fell in beside him and gave him a slightly hurt expression and he winked at me and I felt lighter, he wasn't done with me yet.
There was a splash.
The three of us froze, turning around the stare back in the direction we'd just come from. A human was wading out into the chest deep water after the boat with the corpse in it. No! To have seen the boat and know that something was wrong than the humans would have had to have seen us as we fed, took the dead man's clothes...
I was in the water and swimming after the human who was doomed to die before I was even aware of passing my throw to James. That throw was special, too special for me to leap into a river wearing it. It was my favourite piece of clothing.
As I swam towards the boat I reflected on how unfair it was that I had just got myself a new t-shirt and now it was getting wet. Then I remembered that the t-shirt was light green and I was wearing a navy blue bra, wonderful. There were only certain situations where other vampires were allowed to see my underwear, when I was dripping wet and annoyed was not one of those times. I supposed I should be glad that Laurent wasn't a pervert; he wouldn't want to look at my bra anyway.
I was beginning to surface when I heard a horrible sound from above me and I swerved violently as human vomit splattered the water above me.
It was in my hair! I knew that some of the stuff was in my hair! That was disgusting!
I surfaced, my face still twisted with disgust, and pulled myself up on the boat. The human who wasn't dead - yet - turned around and screamed when he saw me. I grabbed his throat, compressing his vocal chords and cutting off his cry and smiled maliciously at him and snapped his neck.
Teach you to throw up in my hair, you disgusting human!
I threw the body in the river and watched in sink to the bottom. If it was ever found again then people would assume that he'd been attacked by the same 'animal' that had killed the other human, or that he'd drowned trying to save his friend.I hoped that little fishes ate him and that nobody ever found him!
I swam back to the docks and James lifted me out of the water, probably just because he wanted to, it wasn't like I needed any help.
"Put me down!" I ordered him and he glanced at me, perplexed "What did I do?"
"No, I don't mean you did something wrong, I mean you need to put me down! That filthy human threw up in my hair! Do you hear me, James?! There's vomit in my hair!"
James put me down on the dock but sighed as he did so "There's nothing in your hair, love. I promise"
I wasn't convinced. I crouched by the river and splashed the water through my already soaking hair, making sure there was no trace of vomit left in my flaming curls. When I was quite sure that my hair was vomit free, Laurent said "Are you quite finished there, your majesty?" in a dry, sarcastic tone of voice.
I snarled at him "Go and join another coven, Laurent! You're getting on my nerves!"
I stalked off and James followed, catching up and twining an arm around my shoulders and pressing me against his side, not caring that I was dripping wet. My arm automatically wrapped around his waist and he put his lips to my ear and whispered "I know you don't like him, love. You just need to put up with him for a while longer. He won't stay forever, he hates you too much"
"Well, back-handed compliment of the century, James" I told him acidly and he sighed "Yes, but I don't thick you care too much about Laurent's opinion of you"
I sighed, as always, James had won "Correct, it's your opinion that matters"
"Then allow me to assure you that I love you, Victoria, and, I must admit, I love you even more with your t-shirt like this..."
He trailed off suggestively and ran his fingers over the outline of my bra, which could be seen very clearly through my soaking t-shirt.
Right, I liked the idea of that.
I knocked James to the ground and I heard Laurent mutter "For the love of all that is holy!" before he ran off, leaving James and I to our love making. The last comprehensible thought that ran through my head before James started working his magic on my body, was that I hoped Laurent never, ever came back.
A/N: Well, did you like it? Please review and tell me if you did (or if you didn't, so I know what to improve on for my next story). If you liked this you might also like to check out my in-progress multi-chapter fic tiled Help and Support (hope you don't mind me advertising) which is an AU/AH fic. If you want to know more about what I'm currently writing or read more detailed summaries of my current stories you can find those on my profile page.