Another month long gap, another chapter. My college work sorta flooded in and really I shouldn't be writing this. I have three big projects due in by Thursday and I haven't finished any of them.

Oh well, chapter time.

Thanks to everyone that read the latest chapter and thanks to Moonlight-rider44 for reviewing. You're not sad! (And if you are, that makes me sad, too, 'cause I'm notorious for doing the same thing)

Anyhow, on with le chapter.

Dangerous Tonight
Vampire Kisses

Jagger Maxwell / /OC

Chapter XI

Trouble at Hatsy's

I felt like Christmas had come early a working week after the Carnival. Lots of packages had been showing up at my door in the last five days after a bit of a shopping spree on Sunday morning when I had nothing to do and a bit of money burning a hole in my pocket. I had trawled eBay and a few other sites and ended up with a few items finding their way into my basket.

After a week of collecting up the packages but not opening them, I finally had all packages present and accounted for. It was time to open them all.

Most of the packages were filled with clothes of different types; artfully torn jeans, ripped design t-shirts, band tees from the music that I had been on and off listening to all this week, a couple of skirts, a hoodie or two, even a couple of nice dresses I had seen going really cheap on eBay while I was trawling. Other parcels had a few bits of costume jewellery and a new pair of boots in them.

All in all, it had cost quite a bit more than I would admit to anyone and I was pretty much broke again for now, but I couldn't regret the decision. The Gothic fashion and music thing really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I expected a lot of death-metal screeching and scary-looking clothing. But what I found really surprised me. A lot of the music was pretty rocky and enjoyable, and I found a lot of clothing that was considered Gothic that actually looked really comfortable and quite nice.

I found myself going for clothes because I liked them rather than because they looked Gothic in the end. I would happy wear almost everything I had bought out in the open for everyone to see and I was pleased with that fact. Not a whole lot of money wasted to impress a guy. Technically this was all to impress a guy, but the money wasn't wasted because I liked what I bought. That was the logic I was sticking to anyway.

The first thing I dressed in was a cute black and white stripe skirt and a black t-shirt with ribs and a spine printed on it in pink. After snapping a quick picture in front of my full-length mirror, I sent a text to Jagger.

NEW CLOTHES. LIKE?

Jagger had been almost silent over the past few days. After his impromptu leave at the Carnival, I hadn't heard a lot from him. I sorta chalked it down to something important happening with his sister that he needed to sort out and let the sleeping dog lay. He'd get back to me in his own time, I supposed. And it wasn't like he was completely MIA. We texted every day.

VRY NICE

A quick reply for the first time in a few days. That was a good sign. I had gotten used to waiting a couple hours for a reply in the last week.

My phone buzzed in my hand again.

GOING 2 SOCCER 2NITE. COMING?

Jim's soccer practise! I'd almost forgotten that was today. I'd been so caught up with my new prezzies that I'd forgotten about anything else that was supposed to be going on today. Oops.

YEAH. ILL B THERE. YOU AND LUNA GOING?

It was a good way to show off some of my new clothing, wasn't it?

WE'LL C U THR

When I got to the soccer pitch, I was met with a way too familiar hug and a chirp of 'hey Lyle' from Luna which I returned awkwardly with a pat on her skinny back and an awkward upwards tilt of my lips.

The girl, upon letting me go, immediately began chatting my ear off about how great Trevor had been at the Carnival and how excited she was to see him play soccer.

My eyes searched out Jagger for support and the teen merely gave me a little smirk, watching me suffer at the hand of his sister. Dick. I stuck my tongue out at him petulantly as the three of us began towards the soccer field. I swear I felt his teeth capturing my tongue between them before I saw him move. Said tongue-capture turned into a long, deep 'its good to see you again after so long' kiss.

"Hi," I muttered breathlessy when he finally released me from his kiss.

"Hi babe." His mis-matched eyes trailed downwards purposefully. With me pressed against him so tightly, he wouldn't be able to see more than an ample view of my cleavage and maybe a bit of the pink rib design on the top I had showed him earlier. "Nice duds."

I pushed him away playfully. "Come on, we've got a game to watch. You can ogle me later." My hand reached out for his. His gave mine a little squeeze as the two of us began towards Luna, who had gotten almost to the field before realising that she was walking along and talking to herself. She didn't look to impressed, stood with her hands on her hips. "So what's been up in the last week?" I asked, glancing up at Jagger to distract myself from his annoyed looking sister.

"I've been busy."

Evasive answer. Invisible line crossed. Wall put up. Sigh. "Right..." Asking Jagger what he was doing when he wasn't with me seemed to be a subject that I was better off avoiding even if I was deathly curious about what had kept him from seeing me for an entire week.

"So Fluffly's been missing you. Think you can come over soon?" Using his pet spider as a bribe to get him to come over? Petty, I know. But I wasn't above pettiness if it got me results.

"You've named him Fluffy, have you?" He sounded like he was trying to hold back laughter.

I gave a half shrug and a sheepish little grin. "Yeah, why not? He's still creepy as Hell but he is pretty fluffy. And I need to call him something, don't I?" I had to have a name for it. I couldn't talk to it without a name. I wouldn't go anywhere near it's cage because I was a ginormous wimp, but I could talk to it from the safety of the other side of the room just fine. He'd become more company than Cat recently.

"Come on, you two," Luna huffed as we stepped into hearing range.

Jagger muttered something to her in that unfamiliar European language that made her pout. I looked on in silent curiosity.

After another soccer practise that I spent sat in Jagger's lap playing on my phone, the three of us made our way to Hatsy's to get our usual tables for the team. I explained the little tradition to Luna as we claimed a couple of tables with our bags and jackets. She thought it was nice that the soccer team was sso close that they got together to celebrate every time they practised like that.

It wasn't long before the soccer team wandered in and took up the tables we had claimed as our own. As usual, Trevor and Jim took up the seats in the booth I was perched in. As soon as Trevor sat down, Luna slid in next to him and pressed up maybe a little too close to him. At least she wasn't sitting next to me, was my less than pleasant thought. Whoa, where had that hostility come from? Yeah, Luna was a little annoying and unpleasant, but she wasn't someone that deserved my venom.

Jagger pulled me against him with an arm around my shoulders, breaking me from my thoughts. I glanced up at him with an arched brow and he just smirked down at me.

Before long our little group had kinda dissipated. Luna had wandered out to the bathroom, Jim had gone off to chat with some of his friends in the soccer team and Trevor had gone to play pinball. That just left Jagger and I curled up together on the vinyl seat as I nibbled on my fries. Jagger's fingers ran through my hair, idly playing with some pink strands.

"Luna likes the pink," he muttered after a long but comfortable silence. "She wants to know if you can put streaks in her hair. She wanted to ask, but I thought she may be a little too... energetic." Ah, so he had noticed my aversion to her over-familiar and lively ways. Oops?

"Yeah, I can do it for her any time. I have stocks of the dye at home for my own hair." I always had at least two boxes of the dye in my bathroom.

"Can you do tonight? She's really excited about it."

After a moments thought about what I needed to get done tomorrow to see if I could afford to go to bed late and lie in, I gave a nod. "Yeah, sure. Shouldn't be a problem. She can come over right after we're done here if she wants. Shouldn't take too long to do." I had dying hair down to an artform now. It was like second nature to steak my hair with the ability of a professional. I had been doing it for myself and a few friends since I was fifteen.

The two of us lapsed back into silence as I began nibbling on my fries again.

Jagger's voice rumbled against side as he spoke a few minutes later. "I have a request."

A request? My interest was piqued immediately. Jagger hadn't really asked me for anything besides looking after Fluffy while I had known him. He usually just demanded. While he did demand, his demands weren't really anything trrible so I usually found myself doing them anyway. "Shoot."

"You know the mill across the train tracks?" I gave a nod. "I've been liasing with Trevor's father about buying out the place."

Buying out the place? Jagger must have been minted to have enough money to buy out the broken down old Sinclair mill. "What do you want it for?" was the question that bubbled past my lips. What would Jagger want the old Sinclair mill for?

"I like this place. This town is stellar. I want to stay here and set up shop. Get a club going and enjoy the place. The mill looks like a stellar building for a club."

That I couldn't disagree with. Over the years, I had gone to a lot of parties at the old Sinclair mill. Halloween bashes and general drunken parties were hosted in secret there quite often. I'd definitely gone to a few of them. "So what do you want me to do?"

"Just pass over some money. He's insisting we meet during the day for the sake of proper conduct but I can't and you're the only one I trust that I know can do it for me. I want you to be the middle-man. Think you can do that?" His hooded eyes bored into mine and I felt that strange distant calmness that I associated with his eyes now flow through me again.

Just pass some money from one person to another? Yeah, I could do that just fine. "When do you want me to do it?" My barrage of questions continued without faltering. I wanted to be helpful and this seemed like something that would be really helpful to the man. How could I say no?

"We had a meeting date on Th-" His face darkened before he finished speaking and he glared at something over my shoulder. "Come on." He nudged me and the two of us slid out of the booth. His hand grasped mine and pulled me along towards the old arcade games set off in a corner of the room. Stood by the machines like they were having a standoff were Trevor and Raven Madison.

Luna appeared at my other side a moment later, looking just as stern as her brother currently looked with the strength of her scowl.

I just sort of tagged along awkwardly without choice. Jagger was still holding firmly to my hand as he stopped behind the Gothic teenager. I silently gripped the material of my shirt around my stomach in a somewhat awkward gesture, eyes trained on the girl's back. This was all too tense.

Then the girl turned around, her black-rimmed eyes wide. They hardly registered my presence, obviously too concerned with Jagger and Luna's joint impressive commanding presence.

Luna was the first to speak. "What are you doing here?"

And then there was another person pressed into the little corner we had occupied; Alexander slid between Luna and Raven, glaring down at the white-haired girl as if she had just threatened Raven's life.

I gave Jagger's hand a little tug, glancing up at him with an uncomfortable arched brow. This situation was too full of teenage hormones for me. It was like a stand-off, where the first person to show weakness was going to get their throat ripped out. Had anything like this happened in my teenage years? Not that I could remember. I'd never been in such an intense, anger-filled situation with other teenagers.

Trevor, thankfully, was the one that seemed to sense my awkwardness. He reached out for Luna's hand and pulled her back as he took a step back away from Raven and Alexander. "Goodbye Monster Girl." The familiar childish nickname, at least, made me relax a little. I almost let out my usual comment about that nickname being terrible and that he needed to find something less like a name a four year old would give to someone. "C'mon Jagger, Lyle."

Trevor and Luna began walking back towards the table. Jagger, however, lingered for a moment, giving Alexandder, who was looking at me with a mixture of surprise and worry (what the hell was that about?) a scathing glare.

This was more than enough awkward for one night for me. I tugged Jagger's hand and spoke as his mis-matched eyes flickered down to me. "C'mon, Jag. My fries are probably getting cold."

After a beat, his hand let go of mine and his arm slid around my shoulders. He steered me around silently, heading back towards the table.

"What was that about?" I whispered up at him. I thought Alexander and Raven were Jagger's friends?

"Meddling children that don't know when to butt out," was his clipped, heavily-accented answer. His voice had dipped into a low growl and the accent of what I assumed was the language he spoke to his sister often had coloured his words.

Another chapter down. I hope you enjoyed. As always, tell me what you thought of it. Liked it? Hated it? Thought a monkey could write it better?

See you next time. Bee