This fic is back in play, I have no clue why I let it sit for so long but no fear. I am back and I'm not letting it molder away at just two chapters. I'm replacing the first two chapters and adding a third before I get to working on chapter five.
Ever since he was a little boy, Josh had always wished for simple things. Every clover had been for his mother to have many things to cook and to cook with, every copper penny for his father to have a good job. Looking back he should've taken one or two for him, one thing he remembers wishing for more than anything was a good pair of shoes to keep his feet warm.
Once his dad took off it was just him and his mom, she made sure he was always looking his best, his ratty second hand clothes fresh and smelling of detergent and his face scrubbed and smiling for school. He loved his mother and he missed her too dearly when she passed, he was too young for such a thing to happen to him and a ward of the state Scud only had one place he could go.
For a moment he got lucky and landed with a pretty decent foster family, they laughed and had a few good moments. He knew it broke their hearts when he hugged them in thanks for the pair of sneakers they snagged for him that Christmas, things got bad and he was taken to an orphanage again. He stayed there until he was fourteen and he ran away, taking his cold feet to the streets and doing what he needed to survive. The blue faded sneakers still keeping up with him, only the white laces became pink ones with silvery plastic thread mixing in with the hot pink nylon strands.
To this day he couldn't understand how he got here, this person sitting next to him in the old beet up car, a person he thought dead. She took a rubber band from her wrist and tied her shaggy brown hair, bright brown eyes fixed on the windshield while he just stared at her between the plumes of cigarette smoke.
She glanced at him a smile dancing in her eyes even as her body stayed tense from adrenaline, she scratched at the back of her neck nervously. They were supposed to wait; a Scud double was probably getting diced into cubes by Blade and Whistler, they'd stay hidden until sunrise and they'd travel by day incase any of Damaskinos' people survived the night. Scud looked at the burnt and cured stub his hand had become, the not so dud bomb has blown off his hand and launched him back into a wall where he collapse and nearly bled to death.
The dhampir could hunt them down any hour of the day but Scud was dead according to his very eyes. The woman next to him took a doughnut from the box on his lap, his favorite brand, she handed him a cup of coffee and they sat there like a couple of lazy pigs. Even with her cool appearance as she lounged in the driver seat, Scud was most defiantly not an idiot and he knew the younger familiar was nervous and possibly terrified. If the lighting of her fourth cigarette meant anything, he smiled and sipped the cup in his remaining hand.
Scud had little over a decade under his belt as a familiar, the girl probably had a year or two less but she had been at the Maze almost as much as he had. Their likeliness made them a sweet deal for private room, Reinheart had presented them as siblings countless times. Scud tried to make sure to take the brunt of it, he didn't want anyone to touch the girl and they had made a pact.
If anyone wanted a three-way then he'd be the one to take the more risky role in things. For a few years it worked and there master was none the wiser, until he caught on and separated them. He'd see her around the nest and visit her when he could in her room, shoot the shit and share a joint. Once he had seen Chupa go after her in the nest, Scud made the biggest mistake he could've ever make that day by punching the fucker in the nose and kicking him in the gut.
They tied her up and made her watch as Chupa fucked him, the girl had managed to break free and almost emasculated the vampire. Two weeks later her bruises where still healing and she had been taken back to the Maze almost twice as much as him, Scud was sent to spy on Blade after that. Now she was taking his place, taking care of him and keeping him safe.
The sun was up and Scud opened his bleary eyes, mouth shut in a thin line of a sleep stained scowl at the light. He grimaced as his bones creaked and moaned from shutting down in an awkward place. They weren't in the same place they had been last night, she drove while he slept and now she was outside, leaning on the hood of the car.
He studied her; brown hair in a messy pony tail couldn't be past her shoulders, a pair of loose fitting kakis that had possibly been his at some point and a dark grey t-shirt with the edges of a tank top peaking from the ridden up t-shirt. His friend probably wasn't wearing a bra then, he knew her habits and she usually grabbed a tight fitting tank top when she wanted to forgo bras. Her arms where placed on the hood, hands and elbows facing back and her head was tilted up slightly. She was looking at the darkening clouds, a stunning grey, through a pair of dark aviators. They were missing from the dashboard so he guessed she had them on.
Another car pulled over and she sauntered over, her hips hypnotizing whoever was in the polished 67 Chevy Impala into believing something about her that was completely erroneous. Scud was tense again, who the hell was in that car? Was it Blade or a vampire? Someone from who ever they had been sold to as protection?
Who ever it was handed her a manila envelope with a pale but very human colored hand and popped the trunk, she dug out a couple duffel bags and placed one on each side of her slim body. Scud watched from the car as she said something to the driver giving a toothy smile and mock salute as a goodbye. She watched them until they disappeared and lugged the two bags into the back seat before bending over to pear inside the open driver's seat window. Eleanor folded her arms on the open window and smiled at Scud, "Morning sleeping beauty." The sun was hidden behind heavily tinted glass so he didn't worry too much about the UV rays frying his fledging ass on the spot.
He remembered when he met her, that same smile under a harsh light of the newbie's quarters. She had been twelve and her mother had sold her to pay off her bookie and dealers by the time she was sixteen she was taken to the Maze and they had danced together acting like couple of over-sexed teens to catch the eyes of possible customers. Her fiery smile under a dark red lipstick and those brown eyes covered by deep blue contacts to help the scam, their client had booked a private room that night and wanted both of them to fuck her.
She had played her part of wonton whore pretty well, arching her back and baring her throat in submission but when she'd open her eyes he'd see how scared she was. The tremble in her hands was covered by the overload of stimulus as she gripped his shoulders while the man behind her pressed forward. It was one of the few times Scud worked to make it good for someone beyond doing his job, he wanted to take her mind off of the brute plowing into her.
She'd scream and moan, her thighs trembled and it please the vampire enough to place a kiss on her shoulder, a code for a promise of being gentle. When they came inside her Scud saw it a small mark under her chin, a tiny curve mark. She had thrown her head back, mouth open in a silent scream and her k9s seemed to elongate when the crescent mark drew his eyes.
He had heard the higher ups talking about a rumor of a type of vampire hunter taking out a big chunk of the street teams and how the Blood Pack could identify them and their offspring. He had kept it to himself and she never asked, the girl had been giving him odd glance but he chalked it up as a lingering feeling of the job from that night. He had really given her the ride of her life, so to speak, but after a week or so everything returned to normal.
Every morning she would greet him in the same manner a smile and a cigarette roughened "Morning sweet heart" or when she felt like being sarcastic and he had had a rough night "sleeping beauty". Sometimes she'd hand him a krispy kreme and a mug of coffee if something had gone south for either of them, her visits where fewer and fewer over the years because she was kept busy and he was all but chained to his master. By the time he was shipped off to Blade, Scud had only seen her once that month.
The barren landscape around them didn't really make sense to him. They had been in New York last time he was awake and now he saw sand and weak sprouts of grass peeking out from terrain. It was windy and somewhat humid; they seemed to be in the desert. Apparently he had slept as his friend drove cross country. "Well, fuck me." He said more to himself than to the girl, she still laughed and climbed back into the care. When the engine roared to life the radio started up and they drove accompanied by the sounds of some very welcome old rock music.
So there it is, if you see any mistakes please point them out and I'll fix them.
Till next time.
FE