Pick a Pic Challenge
Title: Kill Of The Night
Banner #: 217
Pairing: Victoria/James
Genre: Romance
Rating/Disclaimer: Rated T. All publically recognizable characters and settings belong to Stephenie Meyer. No copyright infringement intended.
Summary: While Alice, Jasper and Bella are at the hotel waiting for James to call, Victoria goes hunting in search of a meal. What she finds is not what she expects...
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A/N: Victoria is a much…underappreciated character. So, here's a little story about her. Enjoy!
Late at night, high above the roof tops of Seattle, a vampire with flame red hair jumped from one building to another. Victoria's clothes flapped in the gentle breeze and everything was quiet, apart from the occasional honk of a horn or roar of an engine to remind her that there was life below her.
If anyone were to cross her skyline path, they would be startled by her coal black eyes. She was thirsty. She hadn't fed for days; weeks, even.
Her lithe body gracefully floated from roof to roof with the elegance and powerfulness of a panther.
Then she smelt it. Blood.
The scent of it filled her long-petrified lungs. It smelled otherworldly, rich and spicy. Venom flooded her mouth and coated her pearl-white, razor-sharp teeth.
She jumped down and landed noiselessly on the pavement below her, not caring if a human saw her. If she was caught, she would simply drain the human dry and continue on her way.
She smelt it again. The scent invaded her nostrils and she had to fight to control herself.
Victoria was not looking for an average meal, no. If she was, a human's life would have been taken long before she left Forks. She was hunting for the best. Illegal immigrants. There was something about their blood that all vampires loved. It could possibly be the exotic flavors, or perhaps, their bravado and excitement. She wasn't positive; she just knew that she wanted it.
She knew she would get it.
She turned onto a less-deserted street and a few men's eyes followed the sway of her hips. She could feel their eyes on her.
Two drunken men stumbled out of a nearby bar and almost collapsed right there on the street. Victoria's throat burned with the intensity of her thirst.
She walked on past them, her body stiff and her jaw tense, not daring to breathe.
"Hey, pretty lady," one of the drunks said, his words slurred with alcohol.
Victoria did not turn; instead she kept walking, afraid that she would kill them in front of so many people. Sure, they would not prove difficult for her to kill, but her carelessness would be all over the news and the Volturi might pick her up.
"Hey, you, the Fire Crotch!" he said again.
Victoria hissed and spun round, glaring at the men.
"No one calls me that and lives to tell the tale!" she whispered angrily.
The man's eyes widened and he stepped back.
"Sorry, lady," he apologized.
"I think ginger is a little touchy about-"the other man started.
His companion quickly clamped his hand over his mouth and smiled at Victoria.
She hissed once more before quickly running off at human pace.
She made a split-second decision to stick to the outskirts of the city rather than trek through it.
Her cell phone vibrated in her pocket and she pulled it out and put it to her ear in one swift move.
"Hello?" she asked; her voice high and musical.
"Victoria," a masculine voice at the end of the line purred. His voice was like velvet or silk and she recognized it immediately.
"James!" she exclaimed, happy that her mate had finally called her.
"Did you get the girl's home address, my love?" he asked her.
"Of course, James. When are you coming back?"
"Do not worry, Vicki, I will return before you know it and then we shall have the rest of eternity to be together," he soothed her, his voice like soft calypso.
It was a few seconds before she spoke again.
"I worry about you, James," she confessed. "I wish you would stop these wild goose chases of yours."
"Eternity would be ever so long without a little fun. Now, what is the address?"
She repeated the address without pause due to her photographic memory.
"I will not fail you, Victoria," James vowed, the words ringing clear and victorious.
"I know you won't," she whispered and then ended the call.
She put her phone back into her pocket and continued on her way.
She ran until she came to a small bungalow. Snores rang out as confirmation that the two unsuspecting humans that resided there were asleep. She spotted a car in the driveway and knew it would be a shorter journey to the border with some form of transportation. Without any thought, she got in and revved the engine, hitting forty before she was even out of the driveway.
Like a black, floating wraith, the sleek two-door roadster screamed down the highway.
Behind a mountain of charcoal clouds, the moon hid, giving only enough light to outline the trees that sped past her. It was cold and wet outside, and the pavement was coated in a fine, slick sheen of oil. In the violent glow of headlights, swirling green and pink rainbows writhed across the blacktop.
At such a late hour, few vehicles traveled this stretch of interstate. Those that did gave wide berth to the fast-approaching car. Caged in their compact four-doors and sport utility vehicles, cautious humans were left disquieted and wondering at who would dare to drive so irresponsibly in such poor conditions.
Victoria's flame red curls danced in the air and stood out in stark contrast to the white interior of the car.
The surrounding countryside was a blur as she sped down the road.
After a few minutes, she decided that she was close enough to the border that she could ditch the car and get her meal.
She parked the car in a ditch and climbed out. The rain had little effect on her as it pelted down from the angry, gray clouds.
She knew the human mind quite well, so she knew that if they had any common sense they would have taken shelter from the storm under a tree. She spotted several around her, but none were large enough to accommodate a human body.
She hastily trekked across various fields, searching, but to no avail. She sighed and ran her hands through her hair in frustration, a human habit that she had somehow carried across the hell of vampire transformation.
She clenched her fists so hard that her already pale skin turned bone-white.
Then she spotted it.
It was a very small shack, barley able to fit two humans in it at a time. It was in the distance, so she could not smell if there were humans in it but she continued towards it anyway.
When she was about twenty feet away, she could hear the wet pulsing of two human hearts.
Her lips drew back into a smile. Mine, she thought.
As she neared the shack, her senses were very violently assaulted. Her nostrils flared and the flaming pit at the back of her throat burned like a raging fire, climbing from the pit of her stomach to the tip of her tongue. In that instant, all her traits of humanity were lost; she was a vampire, a fearsome predator, and these humans were the most delicious prey she had ever encountered.
A feral roar erupted from her throat as she sprang like a cat to the door of the shack. She flung open the door and found two humans sleeping on green camping beds, not awoken by her prolonged cries.
They were both women; their skin the pale brown of a mixed race and their hair as black as night.
One woman rolled over in her sleep and murmured something in Portuguese. Her language differed slightly to the Portuguese spoken in Portugal, so Victoria concluded that they must be from Brazil.
Victoria walked around the bags strewn over the floor and found an American passport. On closer inspection, she realized it was counterfeit.
She licked her lips in anticipation.
She knew that she had to act fast, so she quickly grabbed one woman by her neck. Before she could scream, Victoria tightened her grip, breaking the bones in her hand.
The other woman slowly opened her eyes and screamed when she saw Victoria and her dead comrade.
In a flash, Victoria's hand reached out and crushed the woman's skull.
She leaned down to the woman's neck and sank her teeth into the flesh. Blood rushed to the puncture and Victoria gulped it down greedily. The sweet blood flowed into her mouth like a grotesque river flowing down the rocks. It was thick and salty, with an exotic tang that tasted divine.
Victoria finished the woman and went over to the other one. Again, her teeth cut into the skin as if it was merely butter and the blood was lusciously fruity.
She drained the woman dry and vowed that she was her final kill of the night. She needed to get to James.
She stood up and found that she had made quite a mess. Her clothes were stained and the shack was in disarray.
She sighed before rifling through a bag and finding a black leather jacket to conceal her blood-stained top.
She ran back to where she'd parked the car and drove over to the shack. Next, she put everything into it and set it alight with a cigarette lighter she'd found in another bag.
The blaze warmed her face and she stayed completely still until the fire had turned into warm ash, just like her throat.
To anyone but her, the pile of junk looked like a car accident, nothing more.
Satisfied with her handiwork, Victoria turned around, intent on running back to Seattle to catch a late plane to Arizona.
Instead of the dull countryside she had expected, she came face-to-face with Alice and Esme Cullen.
Victoria hissed and sprang back a few feet. She contemplated running, but thought against it. It would be better to stay and fight. She could always run later.
The two opposing vampires sank into a crouch, preparing to spring. Alice's eyes narrowed and she exposed her teeth. Esme followed suit.
Victoria was quite frightened. They were not as domestic as she had first thought. Without a moment's hesitation, she sprinted away.
She didn't stop until she reached Seattle. Cautiously, she turned around, making sure that no one was following her.
Once she was convinced that she was safe, she sprinted in the direction of the airport, and, the direction of James.