A/N: Okay, this is my second fic. I hope you people like it. I was watching Special Victims Unit and suddenly this little plotbunny is hunting me and I simply can't get the idea out of my head. But feedback is always awesome, Im still a beginner so somepointers on what I do wrong would be absolutely lovely! :)

Disclaimer: I don't own nothin' - Just Valerie. I just play dress up with the others .' :)

Valerie jumped out of the truck, dragging a purple bag, filled to the brink, with her as she landed on the harsh ground - She gazed up at the truck with a frown marring her pretty face and sneered in contempt of the perverted male who had been so generous to give her lift,before slamming the door had been been standing at the side of the road, asking for a lift and the greasy guy had pulled over and driven her to Dallas since he passing through there anyways, what he had not mentioned was that he'd want some payment..of physical nature when they got there but as soon as his dirty fat fingers started grabbing at her clothing,Val had made quick work and grabbed a beer bottle that lay by her feet and slung it at his face - the adrenaline rush giving her more strength than usual and leaving him unconscious for quite awhile and hopefully with more respect for other girls who needed a lift. She ran a hand through her hair, and wrinkled her nose in distaste of the greasy feel of it - she hadn't bathed in three days. 'What I would not give for a bath and good bed!' Val thought tiredly as she scanned over the place.

The now unconcious truck-driver had actually done as she asked and held in at a motel and she was looking at it now. It looked quite rundown and she was sure that it wasn't honorable people who occupied these rooms. It was cheap and it was suspicious but not worse than she was used to. Plus she was tired and this would have to do ,for now at least - and thus Valerie flicked her own cheek to keep the tiredness at bay and went into the the reception room. She looked around the room and took note of the reddish brown old carpet ,that was stained with something she certainly did not wish to know what was, and of the walls with its sloppy grayish tapestries and the boring paintings decorating those same boring walls but Val saw no one present and thus she simply dropped her bag to ground with a loud thump and rolled her shoulders, finally free of the heavy weight upon her shoulders. For ten whole minutes she stood there, ringing the bell on the counter for attention before anyone came out to answer and when somebody finally came it was a not-so-well dressed curvy woman with badly dyed blond hair,plain mousy features and a drooling baby on the hip."Sorry for the wait, hun' but usually its ma' husband taking care of the front desk but 'es out right now!" The woman said, a wide but tired smile lighting up her rather plain features, actually making her somewhat pretty.

Valerie tilted her head to the left in wonder, the woman didn't seem like the kind of woman to run this kind of place nor associate with the kind of shady people who without doubt came here but she decided to shrug it off and ignore it since you couldn't judge a book on its cover afterall and though she was tired and irate - a smile found its way onto her lips as reply to the friendly welcome." Oh, its okay! Taking care of a toddler is hard enough in itself but having to take care of the reception too - that can't be easy - so don't sweat it." Valerie answered as she hid a yawn with the back of her hand, everything in her vision seemed to darken for a moment but Val grabbed a hold of the front desk's counter, having the need to support herself as she was feeling kind of woozy from the tiredness - sleeping in a truck wasn't the good kind of rest and adding that she hadn't had much to eat over the last few days,it really didn't come as a surprise that the teenager could feel her unhealthy behavior catching up to her by now,Val was brought out of her distant musings about her health by the woman's jittery voice " Oh, you poor thing! You're practically falling asleep standing! Room 10 is free for you - What name should I place it under an' how long are you stayin'?" The woman asked and Valerie rubbed the bridge of her nose tiredly before she reached into her bag and grabbed a handful of bunched-up bills and threw it on the counter." Place it under Astraea Themis and for now, I'll stay however long this, can pay for." Unable to be polite anymore and unwilling to stay awake any longer than absolute necessary - she grabbed her bag, threw it over her shoulder yet again and dragged her way to the hall in search for her room, the beaming woman following her to make sure she would even make it to her room,and not fall asleep in the hall or something.

When Valerie finally reached the room,the woman excused herself and after locking the door - she dropped the bag and didn't bother to strip herself of anything but her shoes nor even look around the room before she fell face-first onto the bed and the moment her head hit the surprisingly soft pillow she was out like a light,so exhausted that no dreams followed her.

Apparently,the money she'd thrown on the counter had been enough for a bit over a month but it only took the teenager a few days before she had a job. The nice lady from the reception - Cindy - was simply way too busy to take care of her child and the reception since her husband had yet to return from wherever he'd gone off to. And when Cindy found out that Valerie was good with children and used to babysitting toddlers - she hired her on the spot. They quickly worked out an agreement - Valerie would take care of little Max from 9AM in the morning until 3PM in the afternoon and clean around the house if needed - In return she could live free of charge in room number 10 and she would get 15 bucks per hour she took care of Max, if she had to work over time she'd get 30 bucks instead.

And thus it worked out just fine for Valerie, she signed up for evening classes so she could get her graduation papers if she passed her finals - she certainly would not be babysitting children,no matter how cute, all her life. She didn't really have any idea of exactly what she wanted to do - but she knew that she wished to do college. Valerie had already as a 12 year old decided not to end like the rest of the 'white trash' town she resided in. No one in that blasted town beside the teachers in the shitty and vandalized school had a degree and Valerie wasn't even sure about them! But she wished for something else - refusing to end like the lot of them and wishing to prove that she was not trash! It even went well, she was a bit behind everyone else since she started in the middle of it all but she was quickly catching up with the others and if lucky - she would have her papers way before anyone else her age. She had always been intelligent and the nice teacher from her old school had given her work way above her age niveau and thus it hadn't been a problem to sign up as an 18 year old with the teacher - deciding that she'd be around that age in schooling by now. Surprisingly it had fit well and Valerie was enjoying the fact that she was able to learn something without children screaming their heads off and throwing stuff around.

She had been right not to judge Cindy on how she looked - the woman was cute as a button and sweet as sugar but certainly not without had gotten her resources! The plain-looking but warm-hearted woman had gotten her a fake ID a few days after a conversation about how Valerie missed partying. She was only 16 years old, not that Cindy knew that but where she was from, age didn't really matter. Teenagers had older kids buy them alcohol and the door-men was quick to let you in as long as you didn't cause any trouble.

Of course, that had been in her screwed up town where most children were doomed to end up as criminals and most adults were either junkies,drainers and other kinds of shady people. Unfortunately the rat-nest of a town also had an orphanage - those children were by far the worst. The adults taking care of them had no chance to control them all and the orphan children didn't know right from wrong - cause no one taught them. They had no curfew cause the adults couldn't keep an eye on them all and they had no proper idols to look up too. Only criminals and junkies,wannabe 'gangsters' and fangbangers. That was all there was to her town. Though - Val was deadset on rising above it. She'd been one of those orphanage children that had rules but no one to enforce them but she didn't have a need to destroy,vandalize, be a slut nor drink herself wasted all the time, like everyone else did. No, she partied and yes, she drank but no more than she could still act responsible - being an older sister did that to you - even if no one taught you.

She had no classes tonight, It was Friday and since Max was with his mother,visiting some family, from what she'd heard a rich aunt or something - Valerie was left with nothing to do. Sitting on her newly made bed, staring around the ratty room until it hit her - She had yet to try out her fake ID! Feeling all giddy and over excited as she jumped up and ruffled through her bag until she found what she was looking for - something to wear. A black high-waisted skirt and a slim top with a tiger-striped print on it. She frowned, wondering if she should go for high-heels for once but shrugged it off and scurried off to bathe.

When she returned from the bathroom, all sqeaky and sparkly clean and scented like lemon and strawberry - a strange combo but she found that she liked it. Valerie quickly pulled on a freshly cleaned pair of white hipsters and a simple white bra with a small bow decorating the middle of it. Val slid on the tigerstriped top and the highwaisted skirt, humming along to the tunes in radio, 'Under The Sun' by The Dreams

She'd been lucky and had actually found a pair of proper black pumps to almost no money at a sale and though she was kind of low on cash she hadn't been able to stop herself from buying them. It was a beautiful pair with peep toe that went and hid the rest of her foot up to her ankle, black but decorated with nearly invisible purple glittery swirls making her feet look small and dainty. She pursed her lips and gazed over at the well-used converse Allstars at the door and stepped into the pumps - finding that she had no other option than to wear the pumps. She huffed and grabbed her purse with her sparse amount of make-up and hurried over to the mirror as a new song went on - she couldn't quite name it but the beat was somewhat familiar. Since Val wasn't all that great with make-up she simply placed a simple black mascara and darkened her gray/blue eyes with a matching eyeliner. The black color was a bit too harsh on her cause of her fair complexion but Valerie fixed that with some silvery eyeshadow, making her eyes last she placed a very thin layer of ruby red lipstick and then she dried it of again - thus her lips got some color without it becoming neither gothic nor slutty. She ruffled at her black hair, deciding to leave it down but giving it some more volume than her usual boring straight hair.

Val threw a gaze at herself in the mirror and her plump rosy lips formed a pleased smile. She was actually looking great. The highwaist skirt reached down mid-thigh and the tiger-top was slimfitted to her chest and showed off just a little bit but nowhere near the point where it became slutty like som many other girls did - Valerie found that she had no need to be flaunt herself like that - she felt dirty even thinking about it and she was quite comfortable with her own style. More for comfort than for show and afterall just cause you are wearing less clothing than the other girls doesn't make you prettier. She was what people would call pretty with a heartshaped face and long black straight hair, big doe-like eyes surrounded by long curved lashes, a small button nose and small mouth with plump lips that gave her an innocent image of childish angelic beauty, though a bit gothic with the black was however until you caught her gaze - it was rather cold for a teenage girl,her eyes spoke of knowledge beyond her years and they had a fierceness that told tales of violence and of ruthlessness that truly didn't belong in a young girl.

Deciding that this was the best she was gonna look,Valerie pulled on her black cape-like jacket that reached down lower than her skirt and as she was just on her way out the door she grabbed a little cheap clutch she'd gotten as a birthday gift a few years back and stuffed the fake ID,fifty bucks and her cellphone into it and then she was off.

Walking down the streets of the big city that she had yet to become truly familiar with as she wondered which club to go to? She frowned and took a turn to the left as she remembered glimpsing a club a few days prior and decided she could go there. When she caught sight of it, she couldn't help but snort at the name 'Dante's Dead End' - With such a name it had to be vampire club. Probably. After the Great Revealation vampire clubs had blossomed all over and it was a hit, everyone coming in for a taste of the dark side.'They don't even have to tempt them with cookies!' Valerie thought to herself and shook her head at her sillyness. Unsure if she was comfortable with going to a vampire club - alone no less - Valerie still lined up in the row, watching the skimpy-clad fangbangers around her with a mix of curiousity and disgust. Couldn't they atleast pretend to have some selfworth? She wondered as the door man waved her forth. Her heart sped up just a little bit as she gave him her fake ID and she bit the inside of her cheek nervously as the guy squinted his eyes watching her - seemingly unsure of whether to let her in or not but he shrugged and waved her inside, the bored look returning to his face.

Valerie almost broke into a beaming smile, surprised that ID had worked but schooled her features as she realized it would probably give her away, she toddled in - pulling off her jacket as she went. She placed her jacket and clutch with the one taking care of coats and bags after having grabbed her money and her cellphone and stuffed it into her bra, since she had no widening in wonder when Valerie continued into the club - she'd never been in vamp club before and even though it was rather gothic- she found she liked it. Red and black walls and the furniture a matching color, a big dancefloor and a DJ stand infront of it. But she also realized that she stuck out like a sore thumb with her un-gothicness. Where everyone else was only dressed in black and showing off way more skin than she would ever be comfortable with showing in public, all of them looked ..well..brooding. Emo kids dancing - or well not dancing - just rubbing up eachother wantonly..Dry humping each other in a gross manner. "What's next ? Dead cab for cutie,MCR and Slipknot as music to dance to?" She mumbled to herself as she threaded her way through the sea of under-dressed people.

Valerie glided up to the bar, finding that she'd have to down a bit of liquid courage before stepping onto the dancefloor, "Hi, can I have a..rum and coke double up,please?"she asked, smiling politely at the bartender who tilted his head to the left. He looked like he'd been a pirate once with dark long hair framing his face, a strong jaw and green eyes that twinkled mischievously as he asked :"Ain't that a bit too strong for a pretty lil' thing like you,missy?". Valerie chuckled,shaking her head as she answered:"What? Do I look like the kind of gal' who drinks Bacardi Breezers? Naw, Gimme somethin' that works, Breezers are for pussies!".The bartender rumbled in laughter at her answer and slapped the glass on the counter. "On the house for an amusing lil' thing like you, what are you named, missy?". Valerie smiled coyly at the pirate-like vampire, thanking him with a blush staining her pale cheeks." I'm Astraea, who's asking?". The Vampire raised his eyebrows and looked geniuly surprised as he ignored a customer waving for attention in the other end of the bar. "Darius." The guy quinted his eyes at her and smiled knowingly " An unusual name for a young thing like you, aint it? You don't look Greek - You sure that's ya name?".Valerie was just about to panic when she realized he'd looked through it but shrugged and the coy smile appeared again. "We all got our secrets,don't we?". She waved toodles at him and quickly downed the drink she'd been given before she turned of her heels making her way to the dancefloor and disappeared between the masses.

A remix of Sweet Dreams was playing and Valerie quickly found herself swaying to the pretty epic she emerged into the music, she could

feel everything else disappearing. Her slight homesickness, the loneliness without Aya, the worry of getting found. Time.

All of it just faded.

And all that was left to Valerie was the bodies swaying beside hers.

The scent of alcohol and sweat.

The beat. The lyrics.

Hands in the air.

Eyes hooded in joy.

Plump,ruby lips curved into a pleased smile.

Hips swaying sensually.

Heart beat pumping in her ears.

Valerie had no idea how much time passed, she didn't acknowledge the first song gliding into the next and it was only when someone's hand touched where it shouldn't that she was momentarily pulled out of her bliss and had to slap their grabby hands away before she let everything disappear again. When she began thinking again it was only cause she was getting lightheaded. The heat and lack of liquid was causing her to feel slightly dehydrated. She smiled and shook her head at her own stupidity cause really, dancing until you dehydrate? Who would be stupid enough to do that?

She left the dancefloor but stopped in her tracks as the feeling of someone watching her made chills run down her spine. Valerie frowned and gazed around warily - naturally unnerved by the unpleasant feeling. But she couldn't see anyone obviously watching her, and it took her a bit but she shook the feeling off and threaded her way through the crowd to the bar and greeted Darius,the bartender as she slid onto one of the seats blowing air like she'd just been through a serious workout session - Val decided to just order some water, quite sure that more alcohol wouldn't help the problem.

She tugged her cellphone up from her bra and stared at the screen in horror. She'd been dancing for 3 hours straight! No wonder she was tired! A message from Cindy about them coming home tomorrow cause they forgot the time was blinking annoyingly and Val huffed and stuffed her phone into her bra again, and leant over - resting her forehead against the cool bar-counter.

"Are you feeling alright, have you had too much to drink?" A voice asked. 'What a pleasant voice'Val thought distantly and even though she felt exhausted, the girl reluctantly lifted her head to see who had been worried about her. Her eyes widened as she stared into the handsome face of a guy looking about her age. Problem was he was pale as a corpse and she could see glimpses of a tattoo on him - thus ruling out the probability of him being her age. and he was so handsome! Val was certain that he was the most attractive male she'd ever met and she certainly hadn't been living under a stone! She had mat alot of hot guys in her short life but he shamed them all!

A bit taller than her, even as she sat down with dark wild semi-short hair that looked soft, it cribled in her to be allowed to run her fingers through that soft-looking hair, wide-shoulders and obviously tones muscles beneath his stylish clothing and gentle blue/grey eyes that made her spine melt, distantly Val realized that she was staring and forced herself to return from her internal ramblings and nodded in answer. "Ive only had one drink - far from drunk. You'd need to go find the Tequila for me to get sick from that little! But thanks for asking." Val answered, disregarding the fact that he was a vampire - treating him just like anyother stranger. "What are you doing here so late?" He asked, looking bored.

Valerie shrugged and moved her gaze to the dancefloor. " Im forgetting." Her eyes followed the sensual movements of the people dancing and smiled a bit. "What are you tring to forget?" The guy asked, and when Val's gaze returned his handsome face, it was marred by a frown. She gazed upward and sighed. " Many things. Life's hardships, I guess?". He didn't dignify that with an answer and they sat there in silence for awhile, the music the only thing she heard.

"We all have things we wish to avoid. People we´ll never see again to forget for awhile. Worries to ignore. That's why we have so many alcoholics and junkies. Because humans are stupid - desperate for little bit of peace, They can't suppress nor forget and it all starts to bottle up and in the end they slowly kill themselves for a little while of bliss. Dancing, disappearing into the music is my escape - it makes it possible for me to go back to my usual everyday and keep on fighting. If I couldn't drink and dance - I would've given up a long time ago." Valerie explained, a contemplating look in her eyes and a melancolic one on her face.

"What's your name, little one?" He asked, a gentle smile on his lips and Valerie almost felt bad for lying to him, but she couldn't let anyone know her real name. She would only endanger herself. Would be found and dragged back. Punished.

"I'm called Astraea." she answered, looking down. "I can't tell you my real name,though" Valerie looked up again, at him, a curious look on his face and she ran a hand through her hair. "I'm Godric."

"Pleased to meet you, Godric." Valerie said, a smile on her face, for once in a long time feeling sincere.

He was bored. A common thing for him. He'd been around for a long time by now, nothing really seemed to surprise him anymore. Everything turned bland over the years. He had finished his Sheriff duties and Isabelle had talked him into going down to Dante's bar since his progeny had been troublesome and had killed a few humans - left the mess for Godric's people to clean up and of course that wasn't acceptable. Dante had to teach his childe to clean up after himself cause Godric really didn't have the time to deal with baby vampires run amok and if Dante couldn't dicipline his childe then Godric would have to punish him for his failure as a Maker.

It had been over fairly quickly, Dante had promised to take care of the youngling and Isabelle had found herself a meal between the crowd. Godric had sat down in one of the VIP booths and watched the people. So shortlived beside him, so fragile and foolish. Like infants. Bumbling around in their ignorance and yet even though they had so little time - so many accomplished to make serious imprint on the world before death claimed them.

He hadn't seen anyone remotely interesting before she arrived. A petite little thing, with dark hair and angelic features. She looked so innocent - his total opposite! She looked so out of place. No indecent clothing and seemingly no interest in vampires. The moment he laid eyes on her, his fangs threatened to run down,but he refused to. He wasn't a newly turned baby vampire and he hadn't even had a whiff of her scent but he was still aching for her it had been too long since he fed?

When she started talking to the bartender, he almost growled - jealous of the vampire who'd gotten to her first. Who'd made her smile. He couldn't make out their conversation from his booth but her facial features spoke of slight nervousness and excitement. Their talk was brief, she finished her drink like someone who was more than used to drinking and left for the dancefloor.

The tension of her shoulders and the frown all disappeared as she swayed skillfully to the music. She looked at no one, heard no words. It was as if everything disappeared to her and she just danced. Her face was peaceful, her vibe happy and the smile of her beautiful face was so...pleased? She looked like someone who'd just had a ton of worries lifted off of her shoulders. The beat decided her pace and when the DJ put on a song she knew - her lips forming the words silently. She was so beautiful, he ached for her. His fangs throbbed in his gums and he was painfully hard for her.

But he had mastered control of himself many centuries ago,so refused himself - his instincts to claim her. He hadn't felt this kind of need for confusion making him angry at himself. 3 hours, Godric sat there - unmoving as he watched her. Her peace only broken a few times when someone grabbed her - but she obviosuly wasn't interested. Wasped the hand away as if it was nothing but a fly, a tiny nuisance that was way below her notice. He smiled, finding the description fitting.

She didn't look human as she danced, humans are busy little creatures with way too many worries. She looked like she'd never had a worry in her life when she danced. Like nothing could bother her.

When she finally returned from that place of peace she'd taken off to, he couldn't help but shake his head at her. She was pale and her movements a bit sluggish - obviously she had exhausted herself. What a silly little thing. She had not spoken a single word to him but he was more interested than he'd been for the last 70 years he'd been Sheriff of his Area.

He had asked Isabelle to find out about her, the only information she'd gotten was that her ID said 21 but she didn't look it and Isabelle said that there wasn't anyone with that name on the whole continent.

Astraea Themis. Enrolled into Evening classes. Living at a cheap motel not too far away. And that was all there was about her. A mystery to figure out. A jigsaw to find the pieces to. He left his booth and made his way to where she sat at the bar. Placed him self beside her, her scent had made him slip a bit of control and he could do nothing to stop himself from dropping fang. But he hid it well, let his lips hide the proof of his...interest in her. Lemons,cherries, and the salt of her sweat. It was divine.

Waited and watched as she checked the time on her phone, Amused himself with watching her so adorably confused. He inititated conversation with her. Enjoyed the sound her voice, basked in her smile. She was soothing him by simply being near him.

She spoke of how he felt without knowing it. He was weary but he had no drugs, like humans did, to find refugee in. Centuries ago when he felt as he did now - He would slaughter and feed, rape and entice fear to drwon out how he felt. Cause he had been taught that vampires were not controlled by something as pathetic as feelings. Vampires took what they wanted but they didn't not let emotions rule. That was weakness! But after 2000 years - Godric had learned that it was not as such. Everything was not as black and white as his cruel Maker had made it out to be.

She let it slip that Astraea wasn't her name, but she seemed sad to be unable to give him her true name. Godric was amused, interested and aching for more of her.

Godric liked how this was, he could spend the whole night listening to her voice and that's what he did, had a pleasant converastion with her. That was, however, until the police raided the place.

What do ya think? :o Leave a review and tell me! :)