I woke up the evening after my run in with the drainers happy to be alive. Last night had almost been the end of the line for me. I almost perished behind a dumpster looking at a man with a mullet. Things could only get better from there. I hopped into the shower with a smile on my face, and the sound of Joan Jetts cover of "Love is all Around", blasting from my ipod. I love music, life is just one giant play list and each day should have its own theme song.
Clean and ready to face the night, I put on jeans, my "save your drama for your mama" t-shirt and a little lip-gloss. Then I pulled my hair into a high pony undocked my ipod, popped in the earbuds and headed downstairs for breakfast. I was singing along to "Toxic" when I noticed a large flower arrangement on the coffee table. Orange roses, they were reflected in the hallway mirror as I passed it. Curious, I turned my ipod off and headed into the living room to check it out. My hand was on the little white envelop attached to the arrangement . I was just pulling it off the little plastic stick, when I heard , " Hi Maeve". I was so startled I dropped the envelope. Eric was sitting on a leather arm chair holding a blackberry , it looked like he had been in the process of checking emails. Before I could ask him what he was doing there and how he got in he added,
"The back door was unlocked, I am here about the drainers"
"Did you bring me flowers?" I asked knowing it was highly improbable.
"No, they were at the front door. I just brought them in" he answered.
" Oh, thank you. Have you had breakfast yet?" He shook his head, so I said "be right back" and went into the kitchen to get us two mugs of True blood and some blood pops (bp's for short). I was developing a mild addiction to them. They are kind of like junk food for vampires. You know what I mean, empty calories .Freezing blood destroys the red blood cells so bp's have no nutritional value. (You need a special freezer. I had made sure my model U85-13 blood freezer was installed before moving in). They served their purpose though, which was to give me something solid to eat. I don't mind the lack of variety. When I was human ,I always at the same foods. I am just not a fan of my current diet being entirely liquid. I arranged the bp's into a little pattern on a plate while I waited for the microwave. When the microwave beeped I put everything on a tray, and headed back to the living room to play hostess.
"What's this?" Eric was holding up a bp and eyeing it curiously.
"Blood-pop, bp for short" I said, popping one in my mouth. He followed suit.
" Interesting…. So tell me about the drainers" Eric said, he had the bp tucked in his cheek like a jaw breaker.
I told him what happened. Then I provided their description , names, address, and the license plate number of their car.
" This has been happening too frequently. Coming out of the coffin has made some us soft." He sat there a moment and then picked up his blackberry and started typing. A second later, I heard my cell phone ding. I picked it up and read " Skills assessment tonight Fangtasia 10 p.m. -E"
" I am sitting right here" I said biting back a laugh.
" You are on the list, see you at 10 " He said and was out the door.
Weird. I reached over and grabbed the envelope off the table. The suspense was killing me. The card inside read,
" Hope you are feeling better today. Movie Friday? Call me- Iskander" His phone number was written at the bottom of the card. With all the goings on last night we had failed to exchange numbers. I smiled and set the card on the table, leaned into the flowers and took their scent in for a minute. Then I picked up the phone and dialed,
" O'Shaughnessy here "
" Hi, thanks for the flowers. Friday sounds great"
" pick you up at 7? We could grab diner before the show?" I was about to say, "I don't eat" but why get caught up in the details. I agreed to the time and we talked a little more, then I went upstairs to take care of a few things. Before I knew it, it was time to head over to fangtasia. I didn't know what a skills assessment entailed so I dressed in a track suit and put on some tennis shoes to be on the safe sid.
When I got there I used the employee entrance. There were already some vampires there, they were all wearing gym clothes. A few vamps were grumbling and I got a couple of nasty looks. I didn't let that bother me though, after all I had just been the straw that broke the camels back. If there hadn't been trouble before, my run in with the drainers wouldn't have prompted a skills assessment. We were standing there, about eight of us all together, just sort of milling around when Eric and Sato walked in. They were both wearing track suits and carrying clip boards. It looked like Sato was there to help with record keeping. Pam came in for a couple of last minute directions. She was staying behind with Felicia to run the bar. Felicia is the bar tender, and I don't think anyone doubted Pam's skills were up to snuff.
A few ideas were tossed around about where we should do this. Finally, it was decided we would do the mind control portion at fangtasia, because there were willing humans (aka-the staff) available. The speed test would take place at the high school track. The rest of it would be done on a deserted tract of land in the woods. The whole world knows we are pretty fast, but our strength and other skills aren't public knowledge. Running full speed through the woods could be tricky, or so they said.
I didn't feel comfortable at all with the mind control portion of the skills test. I have zero interest in controlling minds (unless a traffic violation is involved) and I guess it showed. Eric jotted something down on his clipboard and you didn't need to be telepathic to know the consensus on my performance. It was pathetic. As I drove over to the track, I hoped I wouldn't embarrass myself there to. I've never been very athletic, and I didn't want to be "that vamp" . Turns out my anxiety was unnecessary. I literally ran circles around a couple of the others. I was as fast as Sato, and he was the one we were all trying to catch. Maybe it was just because we were TKO's. When we finished there, we all got back in our cars and headed over to the deserted tract of land in the woods. We couldn't just drive up to it, so we ended up parking and then hiking the rest of the way.
Things went ok here, except for the combat portion. I got my ass handed to me on a platter when we did the one-on-one portion of the test. It was so bad I didn't even have to do the two-on-one portion. It wasn't that I was weaker, it was that I didn't know what the hell I was doing. The tracking section went well. Then we established that I couldn't fly, which isn't unusual. I didn't do so hot on the "sensing someone approaching or being in the general vicinity" potion. I did exceptionally well at catching objects being thrown at me ( the AU's telegraphed where they were going to throw it). There were a few other skills tested but the fall into the " top secret category" so I can't talk about them. All things considered, I thought I made a decent showing. The whole time Eric and Sato were jotting things down on their clip board.
When the testing was finished, they moved off to the side to consult. Then Eric called five names, " you have done very well, but need to work on your fighting skills. Don't make any plans for the next four Tuesdays. You'll be meeting Pam in the basement at Fangtasia for coaching". I was surprised not to be included in that group. I definitely needed help in that area. The five vamps nodded and headed back to their cars. Then Eric called two more names, " You guys did excellent, you need no remedial training" they nodded and went in the same direction as the other five vamps. The only ones left were me, Sato, and Eric. " Maeve, you either excelled or failed miserably" ok that was blunt but accurate, " you need mentoring. Normally I would do it, but I am heading to New Orleans in a few days, and this can't wait. Sato is in town for a few weeks so he is going to do your training, you start tomorrow." This did not please me at all, and I am willing to bet it showed because Sato said, " I'll let you discuss this, see you tomorrow Mae-chan" then he turned to go.
When he was gone, I asked Eric
"Why does it have to be him? Isn't there someone else? I thought you understood" How was I supposed to pretend he didn't exist if I was taking vampire survival skill lessons from him?
"I do understand Maeve. That's the only reason I am going to explain myself to you now. You have a lot of things going for you and a lot of untapped potential . You are strong, honest, smart, hardworking, honorable, and creative. You could go far within our ranks, if you don't get killed first because you don't know how to fight, and if you work on some things that will hold you back"
"what things?" I asked, not too defensively because the fact he thought I could go far within the vampire ranks had flattered me.
"For one thing, facing situations head on, even if they are uncomfortable. It's been months. For another, adapting well to change and seeing the bigger picture " Well at least you always knew where you stood with Eric. Failure to adapt to change and to see the bigger picture had been the kiss of death for anyone trying to get ahead in corporate America, so they couldn't be good things to have brought to your attention by your vampire boss. I had some damage control to do.
"How can you say that? I have adapted well to change. I am here in Shreveport, I swore loyalty, I am getting ready to open a business and hand you 49.5% of the profits. How is that not adapting well? I think I am doing a great job of facing this situation head on and making the best of it." If I had stopped there it would have been perfect but I added " Especially when you consider, I wouldn't have chosen this and that I never wanted it. It was forced on me and yet here I am participating in skills assessments like its all water under the bridge" I kept my voice clam and rational.
" Did any of us choose this Maeve?" Eric asked calmly. Ok, I was beginning to get the bigger picture.
"You have had it better than most of us did when we were turned " something about the way he said this made me feel bad about whining so much. Time to bring out my strongest argument.
"He betrayed me" I clung to this fact like a barnacle on the bottom of a centuries old shipwreck.
"Yes he did. He also betrayed me, when he brought the situation to my doorstep. Did you know Sato and I have been friends for over 200 years. " he didn't say it but the implication that they had "dealt with it" hung in the air like humidity before a thunderstorm. I didn't know where their relationship stood now, but it appeared they had reached a workable peace.
" Deal with it, you need to learn these skills and as the only other TKO he is the person to teach you. Personal feelings don't figure into this equation" he said, and his tone matched the words.
"I see what you are saying" I could see the sense in what he was saying but it still sounded like bullshit to me. However, I had sworn fealty to Eric and he had been clear.
We both stood there a moment. I was feeling a little demoralized , like I wasn't cutting the "you are an adult" or the vampire mustard . He must have sensed this because his expression softened a little and he reached out to move the bangs out of my eyes, "You can do it Maeve ". I nodded and we headed back to our cars in silence.
When I got to my car, I tossed my purse on the drivers side and sat still a moment taking in the scene on the other side of my windshield. It was a clear night and you could see the stars everywhere. The sky looked like a piece of black velvet sprinkled with glitter. The moon was full and its beams gave the forest a wash of muted purple light. It was the kind of scene that would almost lead to you to expect Pan to appear with his flute, or Disney fairy's to land on your wiper blades. I didn't want to go home. I wanted to be out there, in the woods so I grabbed my ipod and popped my earbuds in. I had time. I picked my techno play list and broke into a run.
The music, the moon, the wash of color, they did something to me. It was like a spell had been cast. I quickened my pace to match the sensation of speed coming from the music. The woods became a blur of shapes and colors that I was cutting through like a pair of scissors. I don't know how much ground I covered or how much time passed. Everything seemed to come together and I began to feel euphoria. I pushed myself to the limit, and started kicking small boulders as I ran by them so that I could watch them shatter into a million pebbles up ahead of me. A tree was in my path so I scaled it and then leapt from tree top to tree top for while because it was fun. It felt like flying. Whatever zone I was in, it was beyond rational thought. I was literally swinging around on a tree branch like a gymnast on the parallel bars when something come out of nowhere and connected with my right side, knocking me back to earth.
My ear buds got yanked out during the fall and my ipod shattered into a thousand pieces against the ground.
Being brought back so abruptly from the place I was, and seeing my shattered Ipod, brought out something savage in me that I didn't know existed.
"Now you really shouldn't have done that" I said, my eyes narrowing into slits. I was starring up at a very large black wolf. We were wrestling around on the ground, my fangs were extended but I couldn't go for the jugular because its teeth were sunk into my forearm. It kept sticking my arm in front of my face whenever I wanted to bite. My free arm was punching it on the top of its head . For some reason I thought that's how I could get him to release me, but I think that only works with Gators. Its rear legs were tangled up with mine and all we were managing to do was roll around. I was lucky he wasn't clawing me with his front legs. During this scuffle I sensed that someone, many someone's in fact, were around us in a circle. They weren't human.
The wolf and I were at a stalemate that was going to last until one of us tired out, but it was interrupted by something knocking the wolf off of me. That fact had just registered when I was yanked to my feet. I was standing back to back with someone in the middle of a large circle of wolves that looked half cocked and ready to go. I looked in the direction the wolf that attacked me had gone, but instead of seeing the wolf I saw a very large naked man. .
He stepped into the circle and walked towards us. It was Alcide, We met at Chow's memorial service. " Jesus Maeve, were you trying to impale my fangs into your arm? What are you doing here?" The wolves in the circle relaxed. The person at my back relaxed to.
" Alcide" It was Sato. Now vampires and Weres are natural enemy's but this pack had fought alongside my maker, Chow, so there was history there. Alcide was rubbing his head but there was no arm looked pretty messed up and was bleeding. Drawing blood is big deal. " You drew blood" Sato said. The wolves didn't look so relaxed anymore.
"He was defending himself, I was going for the jugular" I said, trying to smooth things over.
" Is that what you were doing?" I was getting a little tired of having the fact that I'm not the vampire bad ass I'd like to think I am rubbed in my face.
" Why were you attacking him?" Sato asked me and he sounded stern.
" I was just listening to my ipod in that tree when he knocked me out of it for no reason" I said.
The whole story eventually came out. The pack was out for their monthly run, since it was a full moon. Our location had been nowhere near their deserted track of land ,so evidently I covered quite a bit of distance. They saw a flash pass them by and sent Alcide ahead to investigate. He had given up on catching me when he noticed movement in the branches above and spotted a vamp swinging from a tree branch. Alcide didn't know it was me, he thought it was some random vamp who had flipped her lid. Vampires know better than to trespass onto were land especially on a full moon, and well the other reason he thought I was crazy is obvious so there is no need to mention it again. Thinking he was dealing with a "situation" he had attacked ,but once we were on the ground he recognized me. That's when I wigged out about my ipod and he instinctively lunged for my arm. He was trying to subdue me so he could release me and let me go on my way but I had tangled my legs up with his and stated pounding him on the head. He couldn't release his grip.
Now I realize this is so absurd that any Vampire in their right mind would have thought the Were was trying to pull the wool over their eyes, but Sato knew Alcide and he knew me.
" We are sorry about trespassing and disturbing your run" Alcide looked over at one of the Weres in the circle as if he were getting direction. That wolf moved around a little and then alcide said, "Ok, the pack master accepts the apology. I apologize for the damage to your arm. Its settled. We will escort you off our land"
Sato looked at my arm, shook his head and stuck his wrist in my face. " Drink, when you start moving the need to feed will magnify and we don't want any more incidents" I wasn't in a position to argue so I bit down and took some of his blood. Alcide turned back into his wolf form. The circle broke and Sato and I were in the middle of a large V formation. Then we were off ,running with the Were pack under the full moon.