True Vamp chapter 21: Dance
So! 8 days since my last update. I think I'm going to start keeping track of how long it takes me to write chaps… word count: 4,834, on Microsoft Word. (Don't Own)
Chapter songs (In Order):
f"Kiss Me Goodbye" By Angela Aki,"Kite" By U2,"City Of Blinding Lights" (also) by CHAPTER IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT! PAY ATTENTION TO THE SONG LYRICS! IF YOU'VE GOT YOUTUBE, LISTEN TO THESE SONGS WHILE READING THIS CHAP!
Disclaimer: own nothing but my OC's, (including inanimate objects, such as the Night Legacy;) However, I do not lay claim to any Torchwood or Doctor Who related names; I am a fan of both shows, so, consequently, so are my characters; they just decided to name themselves after characters…namely Jack. (Because seriously, he's THAT awesome!)
*(Courtesy of Rjalker [liar, she only gave me the word 'legacy'!])
(And don't forget to vote on my poll!)
(Bear with me on the format of this chap; when i go to align center, everything does it, or it doesnt work at all, when i go to bold, it bolds everything or deletes stuff, etc, and it's gotten so irritating that i just re-uploaded the entire chap in it's original, post-flashdrive form, so that i don't throw my mom's laptop acoss the room or pull my hair out by the roots... Fanfiction's Document manager hates me tonight...i've edited as much as i could, but don't blame me if the final product had some indentation issues.)
. .
(Bella PoV) (Two weeks after her turning, Sept 28th [there'll be some bigger time gaps in the next few chaps, and the rest of the story])
Immediately when we boarded the Night Legacy* the scent of hundreds—if not thousands—of humans assaulted my sense of smell, and my throat burned faintly with thirst.
All around us were finely dressed humans: man, woman, and child, all dressed in their best; many men wore tuxedos, or a buttoned shirt with black dress pants. Women wore long, flowing dresses like mine, or short, revealing ones, or a skirt and top.
A small group of beautiful women with midnight black or dark brown hair were huddled in one corner, their rainbow-black eyes wide with interest as they watched the flow of men passing them; sometimes one would whisper to the others and they all would giggle or widen their eyes in appreciation.
Look at that one! One of them thought; His hair looks like a bird's nest!
Yeah, another girl added, that or Mason decided he was gonna sleep there!
All of them burst out laughing, and I wondered who Mason was as I stared at them in fascination. Everyone here was the first of my kind that I had ever met, besides Ash, and these were the first other female vampires I had ever seen.
Suddenly Ash tugged on my arm, breaking my reverie, and he smiled before leading me through a long corridor. All around us humans and a few other vampires streamed in the same direction, their faces eager.
As we walked, I let my mind wander, listening to the humming roar of all the minds around me, but not concentrating enough that I would hear the words; just the voices. Suddenly, on the slight breeze the air conditioners and the rush of moving bodies created, I caught a whiff of a tantalizingly tempting aroma that was almost irresistible.
I inhaled deeply, filling my lungs with the scent, and exhaled in a gust with a smile of appreciation. "That smell's amazing!" I said to Ash, laughing. "What is it?"
The corner of his mouth twitched up in a smile, "Steak, roast beef, chicken, baked potatoes, et cetera."
My eyes widened slightly as I glanced at him; I didn't know why I was surprised: the Cullen's had said that human food smelled revolting to them; but then again, I was learning that not everything they didn't or—couldn't—do, or did and didn't like would be the same with me; with us.
"Don't worry, we'll eat later, below deck." He told me and I looked at him quizzically. Did they have animals onboard that we would feed on? Or…humans?
"I'll explain later, after." He said, and I nodded, though still slightly confused and worried.
I looked ahead, straining to see over the heads of the people in front of me: we had been walking down a long, lavishly styled corridor, but now the décor was changing. Suddenly the flow of bodies ahead of us spread out, and just as I was wondering where they we going we came out from under an arch and into a massive ball room alight with the hum of voices.
Though I knew we were on a ship, this room looked like it had come straight from an old-fashioned manor; crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling, double secured by steel plates, and large but almost invisible—even to my eyes— metal nets hung underneath, to catch anything, should it happen to fall from it's fixture.
Around the edges of the dance floor, there were circular, four-chaired tables, decorated by a simple yet elegant white table cloth with a small vase of different colored roses at the center.
Hundreds of people crowded the dance floor as instrumental music played serenely from systematically placed speakers, and as I watched the softly swaying crowd of humans, Ash pointed to a large balcony at the opposite side of the entrance. As I watched, a door slid open and a tall, dark haired man stepped out in a captain's uniform; his pale skin almost as white as his clothes.
The man tapped something on his chest, and when he cleared his throat it was magnified; I realized he had a microphone. "That's Jack" Ash whispered as the music stopped and the voices quieted.
"Good evening, Ladies and Gentleman, and welcome aboard the Night Legacy. My name is Jack Harper, and I will be your captain for this evening and for the remainder of your stay." Jack said in a winning voice, and I saw some teenage girls whispering about how hot his voice was. I rolled my eyes.
"And now, I would like to ask you to please clear the dance floor, I believe our VIP's have a condition to fulfill." He said, and my eyes widened as I realized that I would have to dance. In front of everyone.
"Oh no. No, no, no, no, no…" I said as Ash tugged on my arm, pulling me into the large clearing that was made when all the humans backed up, their eyes on us. I could feel myself trembling from nerves, and feeble heat once again rushed to my face.
All around us, dozens of other vampires were walking onto the floor in twos; men and women of subtle grace and beauty; not as startling or as breathtaking as that of the Cullens, or rather, the Hybrids, who had been made that way, but the natural beauty of the human, enhanced by the wisdom and knowledge of the immortal.
"Let's take it slow, shall we?" Jack's voice suggested over the speakers, and I felt a clutch of anxiety in my stomach.
As Ash swung me around to face him, another blaze of heat rushed to my face as I realized I was going to be dancing with him; panic filled me; I didn't know what kind of dance we were going to do but—
Ash, I can't dance! I practically shouted with my thoughts, but he just shook his head and said Follow my lead, an instant before soft piano music flowed from the speakers.
After ten seconds, a woman's soft voice sang:
You say my love is all you need, to see you through:
But I know these words are not quite true
Ash gently grabbed my hand, and in sync with the other vampires, we began to twirl across the dance floor; waltzing, I thought.
Here is the path you're looking for, an open door
Leading to worlds you long to explore
Go, if you must move on alone
I'm gonna make it on my own
As Ash spun me around, tipping me backwards over his arm, I felt myself beginning to enjoy the dance; I hadn't tripped yet, at least.
Kiss me good-bye, love's memory
Follow your heart and find your destiny
Won't shed a tear, for love's mortality
For you put the dream in my reality
Instrumental music played for a couple of seconds before:
As time goes by I know you'll see, this of me:
I loved you enough to let you go free.
Go, I will give you wings to fly;
Cast all your fears into the sky!
As we waltzed across the room, with the other vampires twirling around us, I smiled up at Ash, but he looked preoccupied, and I could hear him listening closely to the lyrics, seeming to find significance in them.
Kiss me good-bye, love's mystery;
All of my life I'll hold you close to me
Won't she'd a tear for love's mortality
For you put the dream in my reality
Listening to the words, I realized what Ash must have been thinking of, because these words reminded me of myself.
Kiss me good-bye, love's memory
You put the dream in my reality…
As the music stopped, we all slowly halted our dances; but suddenly a roar of applause from the crowd made me look up, startled. Women were looking at us in envy, the men, in awe, one person in the back even wolf-whistled as Ash released my hands and we both made a low bow to the crowd.
I smiled; apparently, I hadn't been that bad, and I found myself, (surprisingly), wanting to dance again. I looked up at Ash, "Care to join me for another dance?" I asked formally, playfully, laughing quietly. He smiled, and grasped my hands again as humans, unbeknownst to them, filled the space between the vampires already on the dance floor.
Music started playing again, a hard to describe tune, which vaguely reminded me of the music from Planet Of The Apes at first.
Something
is about to give
I can feel it coming
I think I know what it is.
I put my hands on Ash's shoulders as we slowly turned in a circle, feet shuffling in an unconscious square as we stared into each other's eyes, while the scent of the slowly rotating humans around us wafted into my face with the breeze of movement.
I'm not afraid to die
I'm not afraid to live
And when I'm flat on my back
I hope to feel like I did;
And hardness,
It sets in;
You need some protection
The thinner the skin.
I want you to know,
that you don't need me anymore;
I want you to know,
you don't need anyone
Or anything at all!
Again, as we spun slowly, I noticed a preoccupation in Ash's eyes, and I quietly asked, "What's wrong?"
Who's to say where the wind will take you?
Who's to say what it is will break you?
I don't know,
Which way the wind will blow.
Who's to know when the time has come around?
Don't want to see you cry
I know that this is not goodbye.
He blinked, and shook his head as if to clear it. "Nothing, I was just thinking… remembering."
It's somewhere I can taste the salty sea,
There's a kite blowing out of control on the breeze;
I wonder what's gonna happen to you;
you wonder what has happened to me…
I watched him silently as the oddly fitting lyrics swirled through my mind. I always wondered about Ash's past, but in the past two weeks I had never asked him.
I'm a man
I'm not a child
A man who sees:
The shadow behind, your eyes…
who's to know when the time has come around?
I don't want to see you cry
I know that this is not goodbye.
Who's to say where the wind will take you?
Who's to say what it is will break you?
I don't know,
Where the wind will blow!
As the song slowed down, I felt a particularly painful flare of thirst as a man dancing with his daughter bumped into me. "I'm sorry miss— not so quick on my feet these days" The father said, apologizing quickly, while his daughter blushed.
I nodded, face tight as I tried not to cough over the dryness of my throat; seeing my plight, Ash quickly took my hand, and weaving our way through the crowd, we arrived at a large hatch-door-thingy, which a vampire guard in front of it.
Did I waste it
Not so much I couldn't taste it
Life should be fragrant
Rooftop to the basement
The last of the rocks stars
When hip-hop drove the big cars
In the time when new media
Was the big idea
That was the big idea
As the random yet-oddly fitting lyrics played softly in the background, Ash told the guard, "My fledgling is still young, not even a month old, would you mind if I took her below deck to get her a drink befo—"
His words were interrupted by a shout of fear; All three of us whirled around, and instantly I was seeing the vampire that had cried out through the eyes of those closest to him; he had leapt backwards, away from a shocked looking man holding an unlit cigarette in one hand, and a lighter in the other.
The man who had not even turned the notch to light the flame, before being interrupted [by the vampire (named Jaek) who had smelled the gas used to light it, now unconsciously turned the notch, and a small burst of flame flared up.
All the vampires backed up quick, and through the vampire who's mind I was looking through, I saw as, impossibly fast, the flame seemed to leap up high, seemingly sending out tendrils of flame in Jaek's direction, and towards all the vampires around it; the fire acting as if it had a mind of it's own in the seconds after it had been lit.
In the instant the flame reared up, it's orange glow illuminated all the terrified, pale faces around it, their black irises flashing violet for an instant.
Suddenly, out of nowhere a dark-haired woman rushed up to the man: she was almost as pale as a vampire, but I could smell her blood, and it smelled almost human.
"I'm sorry sir, but there is to be no unauthorized lighters or fire onboard this ship!" she said briskly, and before the man could protest, she had snatched the lighter from his hand, and with of flick of her wrist, she sent the unlit cigarette flying, to land directly in a trash can. As she walked away through the aisle the nervous crowd made for her, she called over her shoulder "And no smoking! I doubt anyone here would want to die of second-hand smoke because of you!"
I blinked, and once again, with a wave of disorientation, I was in my own body, next to Ash and the guard. I blinked again, and as my head cleared, I turned to Ash.
"What the heck was that?" I gasped, twisting around to see, about of hundred people away, the man who had been smoking, staring after the pale woman, while Jaek sighed in obvious relief.
Ash and the guard looked at each other, and a second later, the guard opened the hatch and as we ducked through, we descended some steep stairs, waiting for the deep Clack! Click! Thud! Of the door closing behind us before Ash began explaining.
"You remember how I mentioned pheromones when I was telling you how I can hunt less because I have blood stored in my veins?"
I nodded as we descended another flight of metal stairs.
"Well, when we drink blood, we are re-filling our veins, which gradually lose blood as it is converted into a scentless—well, I shouldn't call it scentless, because it really just blends all the scents around us together—pheromone, which is extremely flammable, as you saw back there."
He paused to take a breath before continuing.
"Because our hearts still beat, and we need them and oxygen to live, not all of out blood is converted—only enough blood is left over to keep our heart, lungs, brain, and other major organs from failing, with the heart, lungs and brain being the priority, so our bodies deny blood to the things that can get along without it, namely the surface of the skin, which becomes pale and cold, like a corpse.
"Except for after we've fed, because then our body has enough blood to do everything for a short while—couple of hours at most—until the blood is converted, and the cycle repeats again. Everytime the blood we drink is changed, some of it is left behind, again and again, and that reserve of blood slowly builds up, until we don't have to hunt every night.
"It's a very gradual change—I'm over five hundred years old, and I can only go a couple weeks without drinking, but some of the Ancients, like Lucifer and Ramses can go for years without drinking blood."
I blinked as my mind absorbed all this new information, before asking,
"Earlier, you said we would 'eat', by that, did you mean drinking?"
"No actually, that's another thing I have to tell you about." he said as we rounded a corner, coming into view of a beautiful, red carpeted corridor, with hundreds plain wooden doors leading to closed doors.
Above us, some speakers on the walls played another song, one that sounded like it was by the same artist as before:
The more you see the less you know,
The less you find out as you go,
I knew much more then, than I do now.
Neon heart day glow eyes
A city lit by fireflies
They're advertising in the skies
For people like us.
"You see, because we are still 'alive', and our bodies still change, but we only drink blood, our stomachs eventually cave-in, because it is only receiving a liquid—a liquid that very rapidly disappears.
"To prevent the fill cave-in of our stomach—and to make it look like we haven't been starving—centuries ago, a vampire named Philip Lecatro decided to experiment. He theorized, that because we drank the blood of living beings, then why could we not partake of the flesh, as we once had when we were mortal?
And I miss you when you're not around
I'm getting ready to leave the ground
Oh You Look So Beautiful tonight!
In the city of blinding lights…
"So he gathered others, who would watch over him in case something went wrong, and he bought meat—wanting to know that it was fit for human consumption—and fully cooked half of it.
"When the meat was done and had cooled, he took a small portion of it, and tasted it. Immediately he gagged and spat it out, but he was not daunted by his task; he was, after all, a scientist, and he knew that just because one way hadn't worked, didn't necessarily mean that all other attempts would fail too.
Don't look before you laugh
Look ugly in a photograph
Flash bulbs, purple irises
The camera can't see
I've seen you walk unafraid
I've seen you in the clothes you made
Can you see the beauty inside of me?
What happened to the beauty I had inside of me?
"So he gave the rest of the already cooked meat to some beggars, and coming back to his house, he took a small amount the raw meat and tried to eat it. He found that he could, because it was raw and still had blood in it that it was compatible with his system. He even enjoyed it. He urged the other vampires to try it, and they too found that they liked it.
"But he was not through with it yet; for what if a human saw them eating raw meat? So again taking some of the meat, he cooked it just so that the outside appeared cooked, while the inside remained pink.
And I miss you when you're not around;
I'm getting ready to leave the ground!Oh! You! Look! So! Beautiful tonight!
In the city of blinding lights…
"Again he tried to eat it, and to his delight found that it tasted good, and that his body didn't reject it. He ate as much of it as he could, and every month he would repeat the process, until a year had passed. Meeting with other vampires, all of who were the same total age as him, he showed his results by both him and a man of about his height and build removing their shirts.
The other vampire's appearance was like that of a starving man; he was painfully, impossibly thin, and all of his ribs showed, and you could even see the beat of his heart, he was so emaciated. If he wrapped his hands around his almost-non-existent stomach, both of his fingertips would touch, just barely.
Time, time, time, time, time, time!
Won't leave me as I am;
but time won't take the boy out of this man!Oh! You! Look! So! Beautiful tonight!
Oh! You! Look! So! Beautiful tonight!
Oh! You! Look! So! Beautiful tonight!
In the city of blinding lights
"Philip Lecatro, on the other hand, looked as normal as could be. His chest flowed smoothly to his hips, without the huge concave depressions like in the other man, and only the upper most number of his ribs showed. He looked as human as he possibly could."
The more you know the less you feel
Some pray for others steal
Blessings are not just for the ones who kneel, luckily…
"From that moment on, Philip Lecatro vowed that he would learn all about us that he could, to better our interactions and protection in the world of the mortals. He is actually the one that discovered that we had pheromones, after analyzing and studying how a Dhampir was created: a half human, half vampire."
. . .
(Mike PoV)
I groaned as I looked out of the school's doors at the dark, rainy parking lot. I shook my head as I pulled my jacket on, zipping it up as I stared at the rain pelting the windows; from my vantage point I could see that the lot was nearly deserted, except for a few cars, including mine.
I hesitated a few seconds, unwilling to leave the warmth and general dryness of the school, but then I shrugged and pushed the doors open, thinking sour thoughts about the teacher I had been given detention by for talking in class as the cold rain immediately and diligently began soaking my clothes.
As I walked to my car, I saw that Angela's car was still in the parking lot, next to mine. Her dad must have driven her home, I thought, she seemed really sick at lunch, I wonder if she's ok?
I thought about calling her as I fiddled with my dying Sansa Clip MP3 player {don't own, well, I own one of them, but it's dying (literally), like Mike's.} in my pocket, wondering when my new one would come in the mail. Just as I rounded the side of my car, I saw a dark, human-ish shape, crawling on the ground.
Involuntarily, I let out a shout of fear, all the possibilities of what the thing could be playing through my mind as I took a step back, imagining it was a rapid dog, or one of those bears people had been talking about—A sudden scream of pain from the thing made me flinch back, but then I realized that I recognized the voice; I had known her since we were little kids, but why was she out here—Oh my god, is she ok?
"Angela!" I shouted in panic, running towards her as she continued to scream, I stopped and stared for an instant as she came into view; her skin was deathly pale and bluish from the cold, and there was dried blood on the back of her head, crusting thickly in her hair. Her eyes were clouded and rolling, as if she couldn't see.
Suddenly, a voice from some TV show my dad and I had watched ran through my mind:
"Temporary blindness is a symptom of a mild concussion…"
It was then that I realized she must have fallen on the ice, and hit her head when she ran out of the cafeteria; but that would mean that she had been unconscious for hours!
I shouted again, not sure exactly what I said, but I immediately whipped out my new cellphone, my fingers quickly dialing 911.
It rang twice, and then a woman's voice on the other line said: "911, what is your emergency?" or something along those lines, I wasn't really paying attention. "Hello, yes it's my friend, I think she fell and hit her head on the ice!" I practically shouted into the phone as I ran forward to kneel next to Angela, laying my hands on her arm, as I was about to roll her over, about to say something helpful—though what, I had no idea—when suddenly her arm lashed out, with incredible strength, sending my flying through the air.
What the hell? I thought in the few seconds that I was airborne.
I landed painfully on the pavement yards away, slamming into the ground, gasping as all the air whooshed out of my lungs.
Coughing, I leaned forward, shaking, my face red as I gasped for air, trying desperately to refill my deflated lungs. It took me a couple of seconds to notice anything other than my burning lack of air, but the first sound I heard was a piercing scream, that was quickly becoming so high as to be inhuman.
Suddenly the screaming stopped to be replaced with a hissing snarl, like a cat, and I looked up in shock, to see standing on the (now utterly destroyed) roof of my car, an absolutely huge black and white tiger.
It's fur was pitch-black, and shone dimly in the light streaming feebly from my cell phone's screen; it's stripes were the purest of whites, so bright in contrast to the black, that it appeared as if there were white lines floating in midair.
Mind numbing terror gripped me as I stared at this massive, impossible wild cat. It was only then that I saw the only other blaze of color besides black and white, and as I turned my head a fraction of an inch, I stared directly into the bright blue eyes of the tiger, so mystifying in the face of black night.
And the entire world fell away, leaving me stranded, but not alone. Because I could feel it; this immediate, all consuming connection to this beautiful, majestic feline, this creature of the night; Angela, I knew instinctively.
That was when, still unable to see from her concussion, she leapt for me, her claws extending as she snarled at the unknown threat.
. ...
AN: OMG! I think I know what I'm going to do now!
See, I've been worrying over how I would keep writing True Vamp, when the crossover part (which is the majority of it) is based off of my book-to-be, Tale Of A Vampire, and I kept panicking, because I kept thinking,
"What if I somehow get it published, and then the people who read True Vamp know what's going to happen?"
And stuff like that, and while re-reading all my TrV chaps, so I could figure out how long it's been since she was changed (i should really pay more attention to that) and then I suddenly realized that I could change my original beginning, so that it doesn't start immediately after she's changed. Except then I run into some problems:
The fact that the guy who dumped her while moving away has to be a Hybrid (just not this Twi-vamp Hybrid (no sparkling, among other things), which she may or may not have known about.
I've got no family-info or town setting that she grew up in, so I have to make an entirely new family background.
The Archangel Detective Agency plays a major part in both True Vamp and Tale Of A Vampire, and with no hometown, I've got no idea where their 'local branch' would be located.
Spoilers not-being-told, I've got no idea exactly where I'm going to end TrV, without ruining a huge thing in ToaV!
AGH! The frustrations of being a FanFiction writer…
Come to think of it, I could always just delete True Vamp off of FanFiction…but it'd break my heart to do it, and probably a bunch of you guys reading this would find me and kidnap my dog (or twin sister) and demand that I repost True Vamp as ransom…
Luckily, I very much doubt that I'll ever do that, unless of course I do get ToaV published, and then I could probably publish True Vamp as a kind of behind-the-scenes first trials of what my book originally was, just plus (some extremely helpful) Twilight Characters… with the permission of Stephenie Meyer and company of course, and that's assuming that I do get it published anytime soon…
HELP!
~Make sure you vote and review!
~Or a shoe I'll throw at you!
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~I'll probably get stabbed with a spoon
~So review,
~Or I cant update
~And If I can't update
~Someone will kill me with a spoon,
~Or a rabid raccoon,
~So review,
~And I wont die
~And you can read more about my favorite vampire guy!~~