Elizabeth smiled, looking into the deep and starry sky. It was so clear, not a cloud in sight. If the boardwalk was further away, if the beach wasn't littered with little fires, she thought that maybe, just maybe, she could make out all the constellations.
She smiled. Did she even know all of them?
She didn't know. Maybe?
The sound of the waves, rolling gently, rhythmically and calmly greeted her ears. The boardwalk was too far away for the music, chatter, even the metallic rumble of the roller coaster to be heard. It was an oddly pleasing contrast to be able to see the glittering lights but to be surrounded only by the lulling sound of the waves.
Their bonfire sparked weakly, the flames slowly dying in the last of the night's soft breeze. The final pops of wood and the slow floating embers brought her slowly back to reality.
Why was she thinking about stars and lights, anyway?
She blinked.
Moving her head, quite enjoying the feeling of the coarse sand against her hair, she saw Dwayne and David talking easily and lowly. They had such a wonderfully personal friendship. It looked like a serious conversation and she could see their closeness. She thought she could almost touch it, but then she stifled a laugh. She couldn't touch closeness. What a silly thought. She smiled at herself, smiled at her silliness before slowly moving her head in the opposite direction.
She saw Marko sitting near by, grinning lazily, slumped against the driftwood they had been sat on at one point.
"Just thinking about life.." he told her with a smile, catching her eyes and she smiled back, nodding.
Life was a good thing to think about.
She liked to think about life, too.
She blinked slowly.
She wanted to think about life.
After smoking, drinking and laughing the hours away, they had all fallen into a comfortable and companionable silence. Paul had left for the boardwalk fairly early on, informing the group that smoking made him horny, and somehow, she couldn't remember how, Elizabeth had found herself lying comfortably on the soft, warm sand.
Had she been dancing?
Yes, she thought.
Paul had the boombox and the group, minus David, had danced in the sand. It had been funny and goofy and she had danced with Marko, Dwayne laughingly trying to instruct them how to move their feet in a waltz before Marko and Paul had taken up the challenge instead.
She wanted to laugh again, a happy laugh at the memory, cloudy though it was.
She smiled a little as she closed her eyes, still feeling heavy limbed.
She'd had such a fun night. She didn't even know what time it was, nor did she care.
She could do this forever.
To hang out with the guys was so effortless and she found that she fit in with their group, their humor and dynamic so well.
Everything was slotting beautifully into place. She'd never known anything as perfect as her new life in Santa Carla.
She curled her fingers in the sand and smiled at the sensation.
Elizabeth sighed contentedly, thoughts moving to Dwayne.
He had been so caring, so...present. He was always watching her, stealing touches, smiles.
How could she have been lucky enough to meet him? How fast had her life changed?
It was so beautifully unreal.
"What are you thinking about?" Marko's question interrupted her thoughts and without thinking, she replied "Dwayne"
She giggled a little, the sound escaping her mouth this time. She bit her lips to stop the sound. The night was quiet, perfect. She didn't want to break it, to disturb it.
She met Marko's eyes once more.
"He really likes you" he confided in a low whisper and Elizabeth sluggishly moved her body so she could face him fully. Turing on her side and tucking her arm under her head, the sand proving no resistance, she smiled at him.
She liked it, those words sounded like music to her ears. She wanted him to say it again, over and over.
He really likes you.
"Funny, isn't it?" Marko asked, his hand closing around an almost empty beer can, "how you can just meet someone and know?"
"Know?"
"Know they're the one for you" his words were so simple and honest.
She blinked a little.
He was right.
She knew Dwayne was the one for her.
She nodded, her own smile matching his.
Her mind felt too clouded, too busy but also empty, and she couldn't really think of a suitable reply, a comment. Besides, did she want to? Words weren't enough, she knew there were no words to articulate her feelings.
All she knew was the she felt like she was on cloud nine and the feeling hard started before the drugs and alcohol.
It had started when she kissed Dwayne.
Blinking sluggishly again, she noticed that Marko was staring at her.
She could feel herself becoming drowsy.
Her eyelids felt heavy.
Heavy.
As he whispered, "welcome to the family", she felt herself drifting into the welcoming blackness of sleep.
Marko stood easily, taking a final swig from and then discarding the can carelessly against the piece of wood.
"Christ, I need a fuck and I need a neck" he said, adjusting his jacket and stepping carefully around the sleeping girl.
He watched as Dwayne peered at her prone figure, his eyes mixed with concern and incredibly strained restraint, "you're good. Come on, she's euphoric, man. Sleeping soundly. High as a kite and fucking high on you. Trust me-" Marko winced a little, "-I feel like I'm going to bust a nut or something"
David nodded, he felt it too.
The connection between Dwayne and Elizabeth was so strong, almost palpable. She had been politely restrained, affectionate but controlled before the effects of the weed had released all her inhibitions. All the feelings she had been burying away, hiding and enjoying secretly had bubbled to the surface.
Paul had left, it was too much for him.
"I don't know how much longer I can wait" Dwayne said, his fists clenched tightly as he looked at Elizabeth.
How perfect she was.
How perfectly vulnerable she was.
"You're telling me?" Marko asked, "I'm the most empathetic of you fuckers, I'm going to loose it here, you two are so fucking-" he made a pained groan, "Paul's already feeding.."
David nodded again.
He understood how Marko was feeling, it was almost unimaginable that Dwayne was exercising the control that he was.
"You'll have her soon, Dwayne" he assured, "She wants you. It's there, inside her. We can all feel it..."
"You found her, man. You got your mate..she's definitely yours. She wants you. No question about that" Marko nodded, uncomfortably tugging the tight leather fabric at his crotch. Sometimes it really didn't pay to read other people's emotions as effortlessly as he did.
As Dwayne stared at Elizabeth's pale neck, seeing the pulse beat and hearing the blood pumping, his face began to morph.
His mate was right there.
He needed her.
"Go" David told him immediately with a small shove, "feed. I'll wait with her. You, too, Marko"
They didn't need to be told twice, taking flight with a predatory grace.
David watched them leave before sitting softly before the fire, watching his charge with an unblinking stare.
As the two men landed a discreet distance away from the boardwalk itself, down a dark, cluttered and filthy alley, Dwayne couldn't control himself.
He needed to feed. He felt his control slipping.
It had been hard, impossible, painful, even. All he wanted to do was take her, to make her his...but when she had taken that first drag, then the second..the third, the fourth...God, all the feelings she had been working to hide, to bury like the good girl he knew she'd been brought up to be had just been released...
He slammed his fist into the side of the old, brick building making up the side of the alley.
It had been torture.
Pure, indescribable torture.
Just knowing, feeling that she wanted him the same way he needed her...
The pulsating music from inside - a cheap club filled with the young and the horny - seemed to explode around him.
Everything was so fucking loud.
His clawed fingers dug into his palm but he couldn't feel it.
All her could feel was her.
Sensing his brother and worrying for Dwayne, Marko moved instinctively towards the sole door occupying the long alley. The entrance to an old storage room, probably filled with crates upon crates of bottles and alcohol. Once red but now a sun-bleached, splintered, old wooden thing, he reared his body back and kicked it in effortlessly.
Through the clatter of the shattering wood and hinges being torn, he heard Paul dully comment, "Couldn't have knocked?" and the hopeful screams of some terrified women.
Dwayne could feel everything, the dust lingering in the air, the frantic and weak heartbeats of those in the room.
He could smell, no he could taste the blood.
He could feel Paul, feel Marko.
He could still feel Elizabeth.
He thought he was going to explode with the intensity of it all.
Marko allowed him to enter first and he did, walking almost as if he was in a trance.
As a busty brunette ran towards him, towards her apparent freedom, he caught her in a crushingly tight hold.
He felt the bones in her weak hand shatter.
She smelled like perfume and bubble-gum, she was wearing a tight red dress and one foot was clad in a strappy, black heel.
She was exactly Paul's taste.
Nothing like his Elizabeth.
His mate.
Mate.
With a growl, he jerked her head back so sharply, he felt her tendons, her bones snap and break. The girl gurgled a scream, struggling to breathe.
She was nothing like his Elizabeth.
In disgust, he bit into the woman's neck, spraying them both with thick, metallic liquid.
When she was drained, he dropped the body carelessly.
It landed with a dull thud on the hard concrete of the room.
He wiped his mouth, breathing heavily.
He needed more.
"Good thing I brought a lot, huh?" Paul commented with a wicked grin, blood covering his mouth and chin, from his place between a twitching woman's thighs. His victim tried to scream but gargled on the blood collecting in her mouth, covering her face and hair.
As she choked, her breasts shook. They were dripping with thick, fresh blood.
Paul laughed.
As the remaining women screamed, huddling together, the smell of fresh urine flooded Marko's nose.
He laughed, too.
He picked up the door with ease, nestling it back in its previous spot.
The room was plunged into spotted darkness and the remaining women, cowering and shaking, screamed in terror.
"Bottoms up"