This chapter includes: A time jump (Bella is now 3), Violence, Strong Language

Ch. 2 Where the Wild Things Are

"Tell me Isabella," I ordered, trying to keep the stress off my face. "What do you do if you wake up and I'm not here? Tell me."

I knew she knew. She knew I knew she knew.

She rolled her eyes. "If you not here when I wake, I not do anysing." She let out an irritated huff and crossed her arms. "I stay in'na room. No noise. No strangers. I wait for you."

"Good girl," I told her and tucked her into bed.

"Storwy now?" She whined.

I laughed.

She couldn't pronounce "story" but she had no problem learning that "now" word.

I studied her face for the millionth time today. I knew everything about the little girl looking up at me. Every hair on her head, every bruise, every infinitesimal bit of growth, every blush… My God, the blush.

Renee's blush. Everyday she looked more and more like her mother. Except for those big eyes. Renee's eyes had been green and almond shaped. Isabella's warm, wide-eyed gaze was inherited from someone else.

But I also knew that Isabella's blush tonight had nothing to do with an emotional tie. I could feel the heat radiating off of her; she was too hot. I frowned in concern. What appeared to be a head cold was worsening. I'd stop by a pharmacy tonight.

"Please?" She begged.

I smiled.

"What would you like to hear?"

"Wild Things!"

"Alright, Little Darlin'." I told her.

Her body wriggled as she slid her body away from me.

Those brown eyes looked up at me; Hold me, they said. Those eyes that never flinched away from my crimson eyed stare. I lay down next to her, my gaze meeting hers. Anything for you, I tried to tell her.

And it was true. I'd do anything for this little girl. Anything.

I draped an arm around her and waited for her to close her eyes before beginning. "The night Max wore his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind and another, his mother called him "Wild Thing" and Max said, "I'll eat you up!" So he was sent to bed without eating anything…" I paused, listening to her breathe through her stuffed nose.

She opened one eye. What? It asked me.

"I'm just thinking is all… This Max kid… He's someone I'd like to know."

I chuckled humorlessly while she giggled into my chest.

"That very night in Max's room, a forest grew and grew and grew, until his ceiling hung with vines and walls became the world all around and an ocean tumbled by with a private boat for Max and he sailed off through night and day and in and out of weeks and almost over a year to where the Wild Things are…"

The newborn lay on the ground wailing.

It was pathetic.

They always made that sound, when they realized there was no escape. A high pitched sound, to loud to be a whine, but to pathetic to be anything but a plea. When they started wailing this way, all they could hope for was mercy and it was a vain hope at that because in our world there could never be mercy.

I stepped on his bare chest, one foot and then the other. I stood on him and looked down, daring him to move me.

He wailed louder but his body froze in subservience; too little, too late.

I let out a roar, as if I didn't already have everybody's attention, and spat my surplus venom on the unlucky newborn's face.

"Listen!" I yelled. "If you pieces of shit can't work it out, I'll spell it for you!"

There was silence as ten vibrant red eyes flicked between me and my prey.

"You fuckers, belong to me! If I give you an order, you follow it! No questions! No objections! If I want your advice I'll ask for it! I'll never ask for it because your opinion means dick!"

In a move so fast they almost didn't see it, I reached down and grabbed the newborn's head and ripped it from his body.

"Get it through you're thick mother fucking skulls!"

I snarled and threw the head as hard as I could. It collided with a female newborn, knocking her off of her feet.

"You are all expendable! Replaceable!" I leapt toward them and crouched slightly, enjoying their fear as they bumped into one another as they tried to maintain distance between me and them.

"The only reason you're alive is because you sorry son of a bitches are useful! If you can't govern yourselves, you can burn!" I turned and hurled the body at the fire of growing corpses.

"Anyone else think they can do my job better? Challenge me now!"

I stalked towards them and this time they froze. They knew better than to run from me. I looked them in the face, one by one. Vampires are incredibly instinctual creatures. Instinct told them how to show submission to a dominant force. One by one their eyes met mine and fell to the ground. One by one their necks bowed, turning their faces downward. Submissively trusting that I wouldn't behead them when they weren't looking. But each one of them feared that I would. They trembled as I passed by, looking for someone too stupid to submit.

I froze as a dangerously seductive voice called out in Spanish, except this time I understood the words being spoken. "That's enough."

I turned my back on the newborns and stood my ground as she approached. She was giving me the same stare I had given them. This time it was my eyes that dropped to the ground, my head that bowed to her presence.

"Major Whitlock," she purred. "Did I hear right? They belong to you?"

It was pointless to lie. Out of respect, I answered in her tongue.

"Yes," I growled.

She growled back. "And whom do you belong to?"

"You, Maria."

I kept my head down, but lifted it just enough so my searching eyes could find her face. The face that looked so angelic to me as a human, was anything but divine now. Battle scars marred what was once flawless features. Her crimson eyes were hungry, but they were always hungry. Hungry for blood, sex, death, control; you name it, she wanted it.

"I'll always belong to you."

She nodded and smiled.

I relaxed.

"What'd he do?" She asked switching to English.

I didn't say anything. Instead I pointed to the giant pile of wood that used to be the town church, only identifiable by the steeple's cross which had landed a few feet away from the main pile of debris.

Her eyes narrowed. "That'll be noticed!" She hissed. "No wonder you killed him." Then her eyes flicked to my face. "I expect a replacement by morning."

"Yes."

"December's newborns are waning. I want them dealt with as soon as possible."

"Consider it done."

She turned away.

"Maria?" I took a step after her.

She didn't turn back to look at me but I knew I had her attention.

"What about Peter?"

She whirled around. She couldn't be more shocked if I had told her to go fuck herself.

"Peter?" Her lips curled in disgust at the name, as if saying it left a bad taste in her mouth.

Of course she wouldn't know their names. I did. I knew the name of every newborn that had ever lived and died under my command.

"One of December's newborns. He's got a talent that might be useful."

She was silent a moment.

"I'll trust your judgment on the matter." Then her eyes narrowed at me. "He's your responsibility. If he slows us down-"

"I'll kill him myself."

As soon as Isabella was asleep I was out the door.

She needed medicine. I needed blood.

After I left Maria I traveled alone for decades. The problem with traveling alone was that only my thoughts kept me company. I had lived to long as a monster. I had so much more time left. The idea of endlessly hunting, in an endless night, alone, after all the bad I'd done, and all the bad I was going to do because my very nature demanded it so…

I'd gotten stupid.

I tried to go as long as I could without hunting.

The results were never good.

I didn't want to be a monster anymore.

But there was no way around it.

When I found Renee everything changed. I couldn't push myself to the brink of insanity by starvation and love her. I'd kill her by accident if I tried. I started hunting people who I deemed less than worthy of the life they'd been given to ease my conscience. Murders, rapists, drug addicts. People who did more harm than good. Drug addicts were the easiest to find. The smell of the toxins in their blood gave them away.

But hunting specific humans takes time.

I could never leave Isabella alone for too long.

She was too young to be on her own. She could very easily get into trouble.

And I couldn't afford to be picky. Not when her life depended upon my being fully sated.

I could walk away from Renee for a day or so when I was too thirsty to be safe.

There was no way to walk away from a child.

It had been too long since I last fed.

I would soon become a danger to Isabella.

I needed blood.

But the pharmacy was closer than my intended hunting grounds.

My nose wrinkled as the chemical scent of medicines stung my nose and resisted the urge to walk back out. I made my way over to the aisle of cold medicines. I waited ten minutes before admitting I was out of my league.

Up until now, Isabella had always been a healthy child. Surprisingly, so. But it meant my familiarity with current pharmaceuticals was nonexistent. I lived in a time where opium was used to treat everything from headaches to amputations and wounds were cleansed with hooch and cauterized with a hot iron.

I waved down the pharmacist.

As instantly as he arrived he was regretting it.

My thirst was growing and his was the only decent scent in the empty store at the moment. My eyes were black as pitch, venom flowed freely, and I couldn't keep my eyes from flickering to his throat. I could imagine what I looked like to him. Torn between my human façade and the animal I would soon become.

"Sh-she's how old?" He asked.

His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed nervously.

I swallowed back the venom so I could answer.

"Three."

"And she isn't allergic to any meds?"

"No."

"You should try Children's Tylenol Cold & Cough," he said, nodding.

I watched his hand tremble as he reached for the box. Careful not to make contact with his skin, I took the medicine from the pharmacist. He said something about ringing me up, but he made no move toward the counter. It went unsaid, but I knew he didn't want to turn his back on me.

As I left the store, I heard him sigh with relief. I stood in the parking lot, debating who needed what more: Get the medicine to Isabella or soothe my aching throat?

It was an easy decision.

Isabella was asleep and would survive her cold.

She would not survive a vampire attack.

Safety first.

I tucked the box into my coat pocket and set the predator in me free.

It was as easy as breathing. The muscles in my body tightened with its feral expectations all of its own accord. No one would hear me coming. Their ears would never detect my steps as I slunk through the shadows of the city. No one would see me hunting. I moved too fast, too silently, and city dwellers go out of their way to not notice strange occurrences in the night.

I kept moving.

I would not set an ambush tonight.

There was no time for that.

Isabella was alone. Sick. Waiting.

My body reacted to the noise across the street and my back was pressed against a wall.

A woman came out of the office building across the street. She headed straight for a taxi sitting idle on the curb. A man followed her out. He wore a dark business suit and watched her from the doorway.

To the casual observer it was just one co-worker making sure another got safely home. To me it was something else. I could smell the bodily fluids fresh on their warm bodies; the scent of raw sex. I could see the wedding band on his finger and hers.

Late night office rendezvous and adultery.

Whatever happened to morals?

The man turned to lock up as the cab drove off.

Again my body responded.

I crossed the street and stole silently down the walkway.

They make it so easy.

Alone at night and morally corrupt.

He turned his eyes met mine. At that moment there was nothing remotely human about me. I wasn't hiding behind the perfect face they thought I had, I was a monster and I looked the part.

He opened his mouth to scream but I closed his jaw with one hand while I tilted his head back with the other. My teeth were at his throat, his soft skin tearing like tissue paper, his warm blood…

I moaned as liquid flowed over my tongue, burning my mouth with its heat while simultaneously cooling my throat with its lush flavor.

I drained him quickly. Tonight was not a night to savor, and honestly, I'd had better. I ran my tongue over the bite wound and watched as my venom knit the skin back together.

I took his wallet and his ring. I snapped his neck.

A mugging gone wrong. That's what the humans would call it. Let the coroner find his own excuse for blood loss.

But I needed more.

One victim would only keep me sated for a few days. I didn't like leaving Isabella alone until I had too. There would have to be another death tonight.

Once my body had its most pressing needed taken care of, my instincts began pulling me back toward my Isabella, to feel the child's warm body safe in my embrace. My instincts craved her well being as much as my mind and heart did.

I took comfort from that, that the monster could love her as much as the man. The man could raise her, the monster could protect her.

So I hoped.

Where the Wild Things Are, belongs to the brilliant Maurice Sendak.

Song for this chapter is This is War by 30 Seconds to Mars. Sometimes I think that band has gone out of its way to create a soundtrack befitting a vampire.

I'm a blog-aholic. If you'd like things like teasers, update notices, and extras, follow my newest blog, dedicated to this fanfiction. The link to the site is on my profile.

Remember: If you read it, review it!