Author's notes: A liiiiiittle violent in this chapter. Heads up.
"So, you didn't answer my question," Paul slurred again. "...You from around here?" And if the surfers had been paying more attention, given the Lost Boys more credit, they might have managed to pick up the piercing note in his question. The veiled threat. Lance, who sat beside him, chugging back the remains of his beer can...only grinned and shook his head.
"Just got into town for that midnight surfing contest they got coming up. Rumor has it, Shane Powers retired...but he's gonna ride the waves one last time just to let everybody know where he's kicking back his heels."
Star and the boys exchanged a confused look, and it wasn't an act. 'Shane Powers'? 'Midnight Surfing'? At first, they'd thought the surfboards the surfers had brought to the beach were just props. Something to make them look harmless. Dwayne peered into Lance's mind, trying to glean more information. He barely concealed his surprise. So they could tolerate running water, no problem. That was one up they had on the Lost Boys, but it didn't really make up for the fact that they couldn't pick out their own kind when they smelled it. Or something very distantly related to their own kind.
"Where are you staying?" Star asked, smiling flirtatiously and leaning back against Paul so she could shift around and get a better look at Jerry on the other side of the fire. Even though she couldn't pick up the others' thoughts yet, it was fairly impressive she was smart enough to ask a question like that. Not that they'd really get the straight-forward answer, out loud.
Jerry laughed, crossing around the bonfire so he could edge just a bit closer to the couple, ready to snatch Star up into his arms when the time came to begin feeding. "Here. There. Got some pretty killer digs not far from here," he replied. And in the surfer's mind, Dwayne caught a quick flash of a large building. It was...familiar...but he couldn't quite place it. He shook his head. Must have been somewhere he went when he was human. Sometimes those memories came back, but for the most part, they tended to drift away over time. The little ones, at any rate. The things that weren't important. But clearly, this was. He'd have to mention it to David later. Hopefully their pack leader would have a few ideas.
Bennie leaned forward to flick at Dwayne's hair, "you should get a cut. Kinda makes you look like a pussie," he informed the dark-haired vampire, causing Dwayne to straighten to his full height and bite back a snarl. Did they really need to ask any more questions? His patience was running thin, very quickly. The smell didn't help, either.
"Oh man, he's gonna geeeeeeet iiiiiiit," Marko mentally sing-songed, grinning over at Dwayne, and then noticing Eddie sidling even closer to him from the corner of his eye. The curly-haired vampire's lips twitched when he got the distinct impression in the fishy fuck's mind of what his scalp would look like on a lampshade.
"You know, that's not a bad idea," Paul smirked, giving Star's hips a good squeeze before she slapped his hands away. She was on the verge of just climbing up and kicking sand in his face again, girlfriend act or not.
"Shut up, Paulie," Marko snapped. Yeah, maybe he didn't condition obsessively like Dwayne did, but he was still fond enough of his own hair to get insanely defensive about even the idea of parting with it.
"You got a death wish?" Dwayne finally sighed, uncrossing his arms. They weren't going to get anything else out of these douche-bags tonight besides bad tempers. And frankly, they didn't need that kind of buzzkill tonight. Not when they hadn't even gotten a chance to celebrate like this in two years.
Bennie grinned, stepping back, "do you? I might help make it come true tonight." Then, very slowly, he proceeded to lower his head...and when he raised it, Dwayne almost jumped in surprise. The bastard was even uglier than before. Not only were his eyes as black as a shark's, but dark spider veins were running all over his face, and his nose had shrunk back until it was barely two indentations...instead of two sharp sets of fangs, all of his teeth very much resembled a shark as well. He was one gnarly son of a bitch.
Each of the other surfers in turn shifted, matching feature for feature the horrible details of the first, and grinned madly back and forth at the Lost Boys, just about ready to pounce, when...Paul's mad cackles rang through the air.
"Your momma fuck a monkey or something, dude?" He sneered at Lance, when the very confused, and also very angry vampire lashed out to tray and get a grip on Paul's hairs. In perfect time, Star rolled out of his lap, and Paul dived for the other vampire, all the while still laughing as if they were playing some sort of mad game. And really, they were.
Panicking, Jerry stepped back as he noticed each of the Lost Boys, including Star, morph. He didn't know what to make of the situation. They'd only been turned for like...three weeks! Shane said they were the only pack in Santa Carla, and he didn't say anything about a buncha bikers and a hippy with yellow eyes!
"What's wrong, baby? Don't wanna party anymore?" Star cooed, drawing close to him and holding her hands out towards Jerry to pull him into an embrace. He danced just beyond her reach, spinning about and taking off down the coastline.
Star looked back at Dwayne, and he nodded. She took to the sky and flew after him. And that...was when the others began to scream.
"THEY CAN FLY?!" Bennie gaped, momentarily distracted from Dwayne, who'd stepped closer to him. In an instant, his eyes went wide, and his jaw went slack when he looked down...to realize Dwayne was holding his heard in one clawed fist, blackened and dripping with thick, dark blood. Wordlessly, he collapsed to his knees, body twitching like a fish out of water. Dwayne tossed the heart into the bonfire and grimaced. The smell of the goop on his hands was even worse than the guy had smelled before he was torn open.
"Don't bite them," Dwayne advised, glancing over to Paul, who was just barely too late to heed the other vampire's advice, because he was rearing back from the shredded neck of his kill, gagging and spitting out mouthfuls of the stuff.
"Shiiiiit, I think I'm gonna be sick..." He moaned, clutching his stomach and leaning over to wretch. Along with this unfortunate snack, came his meal from earlier. "Damn it!" he mentally exclaimed over the waste.
Marko, in the meantime, had managed to restrain his own 'dancing partner', and was happily digging a knife into the surfer's scalp while he hummed a tune. The fishy bastard was strong, but Marko was far stronger. "Got me a live one!" He crowed, as the sound of bone scraping on metal joined in with his hums. Once he was done, of course, he simply snapped Eddie's neck and tossed the scalp into the fire. "On second thought, I don't think I like the color," he shook his head. "Clashes with my jacket."
"Where's Star?" Paul looked about. By now, she should have already finished catching and killing the last one. But she was nowhere to be seen. Then the sudden sound of a distant scream interrupted his thoughts, and he noticed Dwayne gazing up at the sky. The screaming was growing ever louder with the passing second, until finally...Jerry plummeted right into the center of the bonfire with a sickening crash, sending sparks flying all about them, and causing great mounds of the charred beech-wood to splinter out.
Marko just narrowly missed an ember to the eye, and glared upwards at Star, "hey! Watch where you're aiming!"
"Sorry," she called down, though none of them actually thought she was. But they were certainly impressed. Who knew she could be that creative?
Michael reclined on the couch in the lobby, staring up at the ceiling. "Shouldn't they be back by now?" He glanced over at David, who sat in his chair squinting at a picture in a water-logged magazine. It was Playboy. And he was almost infuriated he couldn't make out the articles.
"I dunno. Probably. They're old enough to look after themselves," David shrugged.
"Implying what?"
"What?" David looked over at Michael.
"Implying I'm not?"
The older vampire shrugged, "not really. You get so pissy, I'm pretty sure it would just take one bitch fit, and-" David snapped his fingers.
"...What do you mean-" Michael snapped his fingers.
"I mean-" David snapped his fingers.
"You mean I'd be dead?"
"Yep. Skewered. Shish-kebabed. Finished. Gone. Dust. Roadkill."
Michael rolled his eyes, "you don't even know me, David."
"I followed you around for two years. I watched your every move. I fucked you twice. I know you, Michael."
The brunette glared back at David, "are you just going to keep bringing that up?"
David shrugged, "it's true. I don't lie. I fucked you."
The younger vampire decided to just remain silent, before he lost it. Because he didn't want David to get the satisfaction that maybe...just maybe he had a point about Michael's temper. But then he realized something, "what do you mean you watched my every move?!"
David just grinned back at him. "Every. Single. One."
At that moment, probably for the better, Dwayne, Marko, Paul, and Star arrived, quite happy, judging by the sounds of their whoops and hollers heralding their appearance in the lobby. Even Star looked happy. Michael's face softened when he noticed that, and he might have jumped up to pull her into his arms if it weren't for the warning glance from David. So instead, he sighed and remained on the couch. One month. He could do one month...easily.
"Hey, Davey, how you feel about catching a midnight surfing contest, huh?" Paul called out, dive-bombing the couch. Michael just barely managed to jerk his feet away in time before the other vampire nearly managed to crush them.
"...surfing contest?" David quirked an eyebrow, face stoic as he tossed his magazine aside. Alas and alack, he was not meant to read the runny love advice of a successful shoe salesman, "at midnight?"
Paul nodded, grinning as he pulled his legs up on the couch and butterflied his knees out. Michael scooted away to make space for Star to sit between them, though he forced himself not to drape his arm over her shoulder. She glanced at him curiously, obviously expecting him to do just that. But he avoided eye contact. They could talk about it later, when they had a bit more privacy. If they ever did.
"Yeah. I think a good portion of that nest will be there." Dwayne added quietly, leaning up against a wall and crossing his arms. Marko crawled up the wall beside him, grinning, when he heard the soft footfalls of Thorne padding into the lobby. He'd stay hidden just long enough for the hellhound to think he was safe, and then-...a firm glare from David canceled his devious plans. Marko pouted, crawling up to the ceiling.
"Asshole. I want my pigeons back!" He mentally yelled at David, who decided to ignore him.
"Nest?" Michael looked over at David, who smirked back at him.
"Yeah. I think the guy in charge of it might be the one who monkey bitched your little bro."
"I'll fill you in later," David held up a hand to stop the others from asking any questions about it.
Michael snarled, "I'll kill him."
"Calm down there, Mikey. We don't even know when or where the contest is," Marko called down, to which David looked about incredulously.
"You dumbasses didn't even think to find out?!" He demanded. And even Dwayne looked shocked, realizing that one little detail they'd forgotten. Sometimes even he didn't think of everything...
They didn't roost in their old spot. Marko's incident had forced the boys to pick a new place before they'd even started tailing Michael and Star. Further into the hotel, they nestled together from several pipes embedded in a chasm just above the larger portions of shattered rock that had once stood as the hotel's foundation. If you couldn't fly, getting there would be impossible. And once Dwayne and the boys informed David that flying was definitely not one of the apparent skills of the fishy fucks, he was more than happy to comfortably rest there. Not that they'd likely be able to even get past Thorne in the first place.
David forced Star to nestle beside him, though she'd much rather have slept alone in her own little corner, or even better...with Michael. But the pack leader was very firm. He insisted she needed to get better acquainted with his scent. When Michael moved to join them, the sneaky grin on the leader's face was more than enough to make him decide to sleep just a bit further down at the end of their pipe, beyond his reach.
"Michael?" Star asked sleepily, confused when David wrapped an arm about her torso and watched Michael settle in. He looked at her guiltily and shrugged.
"Don't wanna be by David," he mumbled, since it was very clear their pack leader would be between them to keep Michael from touching her. And David couldn't help but grin at that. The more stubborn Michael was, the more uncomfortable his little trial was going to be. He didn't even bother insisting they scent bond that night. Because it would be much funner to watch Michael squirm.