"So, you want to leave?"

The blonde quirked a penciled eyebrow and smiled flirtatiously. "I'd thought you'd never ask."

Ash flashed a grin and draped an arm lazily around her slim body. She really didn't have much to show for - except for what seemed to be a nice push up bra, and a mustang of the latest model sitting in the dying weeds of the huge backyard. The party they were at was spilling out with underage drunken, and wasted teens despite how large the house was in the secluded rural area.

The blonde- Jerissa?- hung on to his arm and drawled, "So where's your ride?"

"Oh, I want to look at yours - you know you can tell a lot about a person by what kind of car they drive," Ash easily evaded. He stared into her blue eyes and felt his smile slip. It was the wrong color blue...

"Something wrong Ashy?"

He tugged the smile back into place, though he was slightly annoyed with the nickname.

"Nothing Jerissa, let's-"

"Jessica."

"Right. So where's your car?" It was obvious Ash didn't have his usual cool right now.

She gently dropped his arm and strutted to the recently polished red mustang and slid an arm down it suggestively. "Here it is," she practically purred. Surprisingly there was no one this far into the backyard.

Tossing her mane of blonde hair she slipped her fingers into her pocket and pulled out her keys.

Ash stepped forward so they were only a few feet away with more than a bit of a forced smile.

"Want to ride my…" She then set her empty hand on Ash's shoulder slowly making her way downward. "Mustang?" Ash chuckled, but not seductively. He had to laugh at her ridiculous way of obviously trying so hard.

Nonchalantly he stuck out his hand to grasp the keys, while locking his jade green eyes with hers. "There's nothing I'd rather do," he murmured honestly, though not the way she was implying.

It was then the blonde took this as an invitation to plunge her tongue down his throat. She had already managed to bind him in her grip with a fistful of ash blonde hair, and was working on thrusting her hand up his shirt. With all the will power Ash could muster he tugged her off without damaging her frail human body. He pulled away from her slightly instead of jerking his head away violently like he wanted to.

He set a hand on her shoulder pushing Jessica away, then saw the gesture to be too rejecting. He still needed the car… With that small reminder Ash slid down his hand from her shoulder to her arm.

With that he placed unnatural lopsided grin on his face.

"Hey, we can have more fun outside of the backyard." He had attempted to make it sound flirtatious, but instead it border lined commanding. Ash looked through the oblivious girl wistfully and his eyes glazed over. It was if he slipped into an old pair of clothes where everything felt familiar, yet every move felt strange and uncomfortable.

The girl giggled and dipped her head looking at Ash underneath her eyelashes. "Let's go then," she smiled. Then Ash wondered idly if he needed to feed. Just at the thought he felt a slight ache and his tongue grazed over his canines.

Leading the girl towards the car he repeated her less enthusiastically, "Yeah, let's go." He placed his hand on her back directing her towards the passenger door.

The time it took to open the driver's door and sit in the seat, Ash turned to find the blonde girl already leaning towards him with her chest pressed forward. She pursed her lips and said huskily, "I have pillows in the back."

Eternally Ash winced and tried to block out her alcohol smelling breath. On the outside he teasingly went only a few inches away from her and murmured honestly, "I don't think we need those."

The girl leaned forwards to press her strawberry colored lips to his.

That was it. Ash simply could not do this anymore. He pulled away until he was almost hitting his head on the tinted window. The thick headed blonde looked at him with big rounded blue eyes with mascara dragging down her lashes. She gave yet another fake high pitched giggle while saying, "So my place?"

"No," he said coldly with a bitter smile, which was the most sincere smile he had all night. "I think you should just go and sleep."

"Sleep?" she repeated him while wrinkling her forehead.

Sleep, he said mentally staring hard into her dazed eyes.

Ash wasn't the strongest telepath, so he couldn't just get her to sleep with a flick of his wrist like he wanted to. In the end it didn't matter because the poor human girl didn't have a very strong willed mind either. Her eyes fluttered closed and her body slumped back into her seat. Her blonde locks fell strewn over her face.

Ash rolled his now grey eyes that glinted darkly in the night. Well, now there isn't any feeding. Or a car to drive.

It wasn't even really the thought of her being unconscious that set Ash off - it was more of the fact that he didn't want to think about putting his lips anywhere near her body again. He didn't even need the car. That was the thing, Ash saw something he liked and got it one way or another. But not tonight. He slammed the car door into place, and the loud finalizing clang seemed to assure that. Though now he wasn't sure why he should even feed on innocent humans.

Innocent humans? Where had that come from? Ash let out a laugh. No, they're vermin… And he knew that girl was far from innocent.

Ash started to consider whether he should return to party or find something else to occupy him.

Carelessly he moved away from the girl's car, suddenly finding himself walking farther and farther away from the party.

Beyond the huge house that thudded loudly with a rhythmic bass, in the seemingly never ending backyard was a wide area of sparse trees and loosely packed dirt. The space between the trees and house was littered with various trash and a few humans half conscious.

Ash just needed to get away. Wherever his mind was, it wasn't there at the loud party. He found his feet taking him farther and farther out until he stopped against an unfamiliar tree and leaned back. His neck seemed to naturally tilt back until it was at just the right angle…

There. Right there, it seemed everything in the sky seemed to span out and clarify. Squinting his suddenly brown eyes, Ash tried to memorize what he saw.

A few lonely looking stars shone brightly to his vampire eyes, and only a few made somewhat of a familiar formation. And there was the biggest and brightest star of the summer, Vega.

He simply blinked once and wondered how his mind spit out such a random fact…Maybe Rowan had told him before.

But a slight ache in his chest confirmed that no, Rowan hadn't told him. Just looking at the stars made him feel full of a strange sense of longing he had never felt before. He ran a hand through his ash blonde hair and sighed.

Suddenly he felt very tired and just wanted to leave. He wanted nothing more than to go home and sleep, and be dead to the world. This was not his best night. He didn't score… anything.

And why should I? he thought to himself laughing bitterly. He didn't want any of this. What he did want… he wasn't quite sure. He just had the strangest sense that something was just missing. Something so important he felt stupid for not knowing what it was.

He shrugged it off and leaned down to sit in the soft grass. To hell with going home, he would just sleep here. A part of him told him he was being irrational, but a bigger part of him just didn't care. He leaned against the base of a tree and linked his fingers behind his head.

What better way to spend the night then underneath the stars? We'll be looking at the same sky, Ash thought letting out a breath air.

But he didn't let the air out of mouth completely because his breath hitched at the same time he felt a sharp pain in his head. It felt like someone had hit his skull with a gavel. Or a club made out of yew…

At the thought, the pain seemed to only intensify. Ash leaned forward rubbing his head as if it would help the eternal agony.

God, what was wrong with him tonight? He didn't have that much to drink, and wasn't he promised pounding headaches tomorrow?

Ash was so caught up in his own thoughts he didn't notice the girl a few feet away in the woods with him.

A/N: Reviews are awesome and helpful! :) Thanks for reading