Steve took a deep breath before starting.
"You know I'm a vampaneze, but when we met your first guess was vampire. Well there are vampires. The difference, like I've said before, is that typically vampaneze drain their victims while vampires only drink what they need. The draining process is what turns our blood purple, makes us stronger and can sometimes make us go a little…crazy.
"The vampaneze-vampire relationship is pretty shitty. In the beginning, we were all one. But the vampires strayed away from vampaneze ways, and we've hated them for separating our kind ever since. There've always been fights, or deaths to happen between vampires and vampaneze, but it's usually nothing to think twice about. Lately it's been growing more and more hostile, and those retarded vampires are creating a lot of drama. But soon we won't have to worry about it. There's a prophecy, so to speak, that the poofy pretty prince of the Vampires and the Vampaneze Lord must fight or duel or whatever, and only one will survive to become the Lord of the Shadows.
"So now we're going to go back to the absolute worst time of my life, when I was a normal human in high school. I had this mate; his name was Darren Shan-No, don't give me that look Nat 'mate' means friend. Anyways, my Mom was a complete waste of space that didn't care about anything, and really Darren was all I had. I always had a fixation for the..weird or mysterious. One night me and Darren go to this Cirque, and I spot a vampire. An extremely stupid one, Crepsley. Well Shan starts to hang with Crepsley without me knowing, brings home Crepsley's spider that bite's me and puts me in a coma! But then karma came knocking for Shan and doesn't that little bugger fall out his window and die. I'll admit I was pretty torn up, I didn't have much of anyone left. But then, the man you probably know as the chubby one, Mr. Tiny tells me that Darren didn't really die! The nasty ass became a vampire.
"So here I was with nothing to aspire to and nobody left in my life, and Mr. Tiny gives me a way out. Says I can become a vampaneze. So I'll be like Darren, but I'd be playing on the opposite team. I'd be stronger than him and I'd get my chance for revenge. I would get the chance to hurt him for hurting me." He finally paused to breathe and I interjected.
"Forgive me for interrupting, but when you use words like, 'opposite teams', 'hurting him for hurting me' and 'be like Darren', I as a wonderful, devoted and concerned girlfriend must inquire to whether you and this Darren were ever romantically involved."
Steve gave me a deathly glare.
Hudson burst out laughing.
"Nat… Are you shitting me right now?" He looked at me like I was crazy.
"I don't know, in these modern times you can never be too sure. Just checking love. Carry on"
(A/N shoutout to all DarrenxSteve fanfics woot!)
"Anyways," he said with a tone of annoyance, "It was found that I was the chosen Vampaneze Lord, of course, when I survived this fiery coffin. Now it's been set out that Shan and I will have to kill one or another. There's supposed to be three possible times to kill him, yada yada yada, anyways, I sure as hell won't let Shan win. I've already outsmarted him a million times over. Little poof."
His voice carried out, and he stopped. He was either deep in thought or that was all he was going to tell me. I understood the basic outline of what was happening, but so many things were left unexplained! Typical Steve. I cocked my head sideways.
"Is that really all you're going to tell me?"
"No… the next part just gets harder.."
He sighed. "You're not going to like this. From time to time I would visit our hometown. I didn't want people to think I was completely gone. One time in town, I hooked up with this girl. I came up with this brilliant idea to get my own heir as well as bring a kid into this. Shush, just listen. I got this girl pregnant, and then I left. Horrible, I know. I planned to visit many years later and train it by myself. That wasn't just the extent of the damage though. This girl…she was Shan's younger sister. I came back to town a few times to comfort her because she thought we were both grieving, and then I made her trust me, love me, then she got pregnant. She had Darius, even naming him after Darren to mourn the loss of her brother. It's pathetic really all the grief he put his family through. I still loved Darius though, regardless of what you say. I'll admit, for a while I considered him disposable, but now that I've lost him I regret it even more."
I had my eyes closed. I felt the wave, that cold wave of hatred, disgust and filth. It came over me so fast I didn't even realize I was feeling it until it had taken over. It was the grief of losing Darius that I had never really coped with. I had just pushed those bad memories away. My heart started to beat faster and faster. I started to shake, but I pressed back the tears. My heart was breaking all over again. Here was the man I loved, who's done such horrible things. I wanted very much once again to put it behind me and move on. But now that I had the full story, it made him seem even more despicable. I wanted to scream and tell him what a jerk he was, but he already knew. I couldn't keep playing this game of love/hate with Steve. If I said I loved him, I meant it to the end. I wasn't allowed to change my mind, even if he changed.
It seemed Steve had been waiting for me to speak. I didn't want to, I just wanted to sit and brood in my thoughts. But I still forced myself to. I knew later I'd look back and be glad I did.
"There is no excuse for what you did… because you knew you were doing it. But I'm going to stick by you this time…. I can't keep running away, 'cuz it just hurts too much. Not like much of this has been a happy experience, not any of it.. really. But the moments I spend with you do make me happy, so I'd be a fool to throw them away."
He looked at me, "Is that really the way you feel Nat?"
I thought about his question. Did I? Was I just lying to myself because I didn't want to accept what he'd done?... No. I knew my Steve had done some pretty horrible things. Let's not forget he kidnapped and tried to kill me-
"Natalie, Darius isn't dead. I realize now you may think he is, but I didn't let them kill him. Darius decided he wanted to be a vampire. He realized what I was doing and left me for Shan. I don't blame him. The only good ties he might have had here were you babe."
He had interrupted my thoughts, but the sentence that had formed in my mind before he interrupted, well; he had just proved I was right. Steve always had a way of turning bad circumstances into good. Between me, Hudson and now Darius- he was! Now I saw it!
"It's really the way I feel Steve. I know you've done horrible things, but you can change! I know you have! Between myself, Hudson and now Darius – I know there's good in you, there always has been. And maybe you don't and never will believe me, but I'm sticking by you this time. Not because I hope you'll change, but because I know that you can. I'm not staying here to watch you change if that's what you think, but I know the real you. You've been acting like some tough jerk, but you care! And you love- oh Steve you really do!"
I was so happy with myself, and with finally figuring out Steve, that I flung myself at him. He was looking at me like I was mentally ill, but he still accepted my happy words of praise and kisses nonetheless. After giving him a big squeeze of a hug, and planting a kiss on his cheek with a big 'muah!' he stopped laughing and sat us both up.
"You better watch yourself Nat; I can be pretty devious sometimes. Let me show you.." He wrapped me tightly in his arms, and leaned in for what I was sure to be another seductive kiss.
I stood up. "Not soo faaasssttttttt." I replied in a sweet, sing-songy voice that made me sound crazy.
Steve looked at me again, clearly confused. Hudson looked like he was just now starting to pay attention.
I giggled. "Hehehe, I'm so glad I figured out where we stand in our relationship, but there's one teensy little problem…."
My smile was instantly wiped off my face, and oh how I went in bitch-mode. "The problem is ASSHOLE, you think you can sleep with some girl, fuck her up and that I'll FORGET? Be happy we're together? HAAALLLEE NO! Are you mental! I've no idea how long you've been keeping me here, Darius is a YOUNG BOY. How do I know you weren't sleeping with her when you were sleeping with ME! ARRGGHHH!"
I descended upon Steve in a fiery rage of bitchiness from hell. I could hear Hudson killing himself laughing in the background. I hit and swiped at Steve's' face, and his expression was surprised, to say the least. Eventually, Steve caught up to my flailing and managed to pin me down on the couch.
His mouth was clenched, and he was breathing rapidly "O-okay, Nat, yes you have every right to be mad. But please baby I promise she was years before I met you."
I stopped moving. My body seemed to crumple up and I lost all my anger.
"Years?" I whispered.
He sighed, and relaxed his grip. Before he opened his mouth to speak I cut him off, but my voice was barely there.
"Years… and Darius is not a baby…How could it have been years? I don't look different, you don't look different. …"
Steve smiled, and looked at me. "Yes babe, years before I met you he was conceived. He was born before I knew you. Walking before I knew you. Silly girl."
My brain clicked with what he said. I laughed, "Ohhhh, hahaha. Well then, you're still good in my books. Though we will discuss this in detail sometime." I narrowed my eyes at him.
"I don't know how you can sit there and call a murderer 'good'." It was Hudson's morbid voice that said that. "You don't even know the full extent of his damage."
Steve turned around to give Hudson a scrutinizing look. "That's enough Hudson. Why don't you tell her exactly where you came from?" Steve's' tone implied that his background wasn't squeaky clean either.
Hudson let out a breath while rubbing his hands over his face, and then he said to me,
"I haven't always made the best decisions."
MUAHAHA! ANOTHER CLIFFHANGER! HOW DO YA LIKE THAT? ;)
OKAY SO AFTER THIS WEEK'S CHAPTER I'M POSTING A POLL REGARDING THE NEXT FANFICTION I'LL BE WRITING. I HAVE 3 IDEAS, ALL OF WHICH I'VE STARTED.I NEED YOUR FEEDBACK/OPINION ON WHAT YOU WANT TO READ! I REALIZE ALL OF YOU MAY NOT KNOW THE BOOKS, BUT PLEASE JUST PICK THE ONE YOU WANT TO SEE MOST! DETAILS ARE IN THE POLL! THANK YOU SO SO SO MUCH. REALLY,
-NICOLE