The Crow and the Falcon. (Four)
Debbie's Diner was surprisingly empty for the time of day. Bruce and Lydia had the kind of aura that caused people to leave. The emptier the place was, the less secretive they had to be.
"We're here, what do we do now?" Lydia asked.
/Power. You must gain Power./ The voice hissed in their minds.
"Power? How?" said Bruce.
/Life. The Power of Life./
"You mean...kill someone?" A frown puckered Lydia's brow.
The voice laughed. /Kill many. The more Lifeforce, the more Power you gain. The more Power, the more effective your revenge./
"Live with it, Lydia." Bruce snapped at his sister. He addressed the voice. "How does this help you?"
/The more Power you gain makes it easier for me to regain life. You must get Power to make me all the more powerful./
"Who must we kill?" Lydia whispered.
/That does not matter. So long as they are healthy, their Lifeforce strong./
"Why killing?" Lydia asked. "Isn't there a better way?"
/There are better ways, yes, but much harder to master, and dangerous if done wrong. Killing is the easiest way to get Lifeforce. It releases itself at the point of Death. You must take it into yourselves./
"How do we do that?" Bruce asked.
/Concern yourselves with the harvesting of the Lifeforce. I will gather it./ The voice laughed at Bruce's unconvinced expression. /Together we can accomplish much. But you must learn to /trust/ me. We can do nothing if we do not trust one another./
Bruce and Lydia frowned at each other as the voice retreated. It didn't always stay in their consciousness. It retreated at times as if to sleep.
"I'm not sure about this." Lydia chewed her lip nervously. "Maybe we should find a better way."
"We agreed this /was/ the best way."
"But /killing/? What if we got caught?"
"We won't." Bruce smirked at her.
"You promise?"
"I promise."
Lydia smiled a little, reassured. "Where do we start?"
"As far from our /dear/ cousins as possible. We don't want them to suspect anything. We'd better choose people they don't know very well. Only problem is, we don't /know/ who they hang around with, other than their little clique. Any ideas?"
"The really popular and the really unpopular." Lydia smiled. "And I think we should at least make an attempt on one of their group at some point. We want to make this look random."
"Good idea. When shall we start?"
"Monday. I suggest we also stay a little longer than we said. Perhaps we could even enrol at Redditch High."
"I'm /sure/ Aunt Abby won't mind." Bruce laughed. "Especially considering the problems mother and father are going through."
"And the threat of divorce. You couldn't really /blame/ us for not wanting to be at home." Lydia joined in Bruce's laughter, and the pair rose from their table and left the building.
~*~
"And /this/," Jess stated, gesturing with open arms, "Is Debbie's. The only decent burger bar in town, and where most of the kids hang around. Shall we enter?" She ushered the group through the doors, where the seven of them squeezed into a corner booth.
They'd started out at Adam and Cookie's place in an attempt to find their cousins, only to be told they'd gone out for the afternoon. So Stefan and Damon had received a tour of the town while they searched for Bruce and Lydia.
"You kids ready to order?" A smiling blonde in her late twenties came up to them, her order pad in her hand.
"Hey there, Deb." Cookie grinned. "Meet Stefan and Damon. You guys, meet Deb. The owner of this fine establishment, and one of the best damn cooks in the world."
"Cookie, flattery is not gonna get you a free meal." Debbie laughed. "You want your usual?"
"Uh huh." Cookie nodded. Everyone else agreed.
"We'll have whatever they're having." said Damon.
"Just don't have what Cookie has. She had her taste buds removed in an emergency operation." Mike teased.
"Hey!" Cookie looked offended. "I'm just not a picky eater, that's all."
"'Picky' is not a word /I'd/ use after watching you wolf down a burger." That comment earned Mike a kick beneath the table.
"Where to next?" Jess asked. The group looked at each other.
"Dunno." Zia shrugged. "We could try doubling back on ourselves, maybe. See if they've turned up in places we've looked."
"Or we could just give up and go catch a movie." Mike suggested. "I can't believe we're actually /looking/ for Bruce and Lydia. I'd rather run /away/ from them."
"To another country, maybe." Adam piped up, siding with Mike.
"Hey, Deb." Cookie said as the woman came up with their order. "You seen my demon spawn cousins at all today?"
"Which? The frosty twins?"
"Who else?" Adam muttered.
"You missed 'em by about fifteen minutes. I for one am pleased they left when they did. If they'd stayed much longer I wouldn't have had /any/ customers. Why do you want to /find/ them, anyway?"
"That's what /I/ said." Mike groused.
"Thanks for the info, Deb." Jess said, elbowing her brother, then taking a bite of her burger. "This is good, by the way." She grinned round her mouthful.
"Thanks." Debbie grinned, moving away.
"Deb!" Adam called after her. "Got any jobs going? I'm kinda low on cash at the moment."
"Adam, you know damn well that I'm not allowed to employ you until you start going to school on a regular basis." Deb laughed.
"I /do/!" Adam replied, indignant.
"The idea is you stay there the /whole/ day. Not just the first period." She disappeared into the kitchen.
"Huh." Adam sulked, then brightened up a little, turning to Stefan. "So, why don't you tell us about you?" He asked.
"Uh, sure." Stefan looked a little taken aback. "What do you want to know?"
Adam rested his chin in his palm and grinned like the cat that got the cream. "Hmm. Care to enlighten us why your files say Admin are waiting for files from your old school, yet Robert E. Lee has no mention of Damon and little of you?"
"They must have lost my file." Damon grinned.
"How do you know that, anyway?" Stefan asked.
"He hacked into the system, probably." Cookie said dryly, raising an admonishing brow at her brother, who grinned sheepishly back.
"Does it bother you?" Stefan asked.
"Nope." Adam replied. "Just makes you more interesting." He'd ply them about it at a later date. They weren't being forthcoming at the minute, it seemed.
Stefan frowned. "Anyone ever told you you're weird?"
"Yes." The rest of the group chorused, laughing.
"Anyway, how come you switched schools?" Jess asked, taking a sip of her juice.
"Bad memories." Stefan shifted uncomfortably. "Love gone sour, all that stuff."
"Sorry."
"That's okay. We came here for a clean break." Stefan smiled reassuringly at her.
"What about your parents? What do they do?"
"Ah, they died."
"I'm really putting my foot in my mouth here, aren't I?" Jess grimaced.
"It was a long time ago. Don't worry about it."
"So who do you live with?" Adam asked.
"We've rented an apartment."
"On your own? How the hell did you manage that? Aren't you a little young?" Adam was astounded.
Damon tapped the end of his nose with his forefinger. "Wouldn't you like to know." He grinned, then relented. "People overlook anything if you pay the right amount of money. We have money." He shrugged.
"Lucky bastards." Jess grinned, popping a fry into her mouth. "Ya know, I'm beginning to think Adam and Mike are right. We have plenty of time to find the terrible twosome, and we have only one Saturday a week. I think we should go see a movie."
Zia laughed. "Yeah. A horror. Something with witches in so we can have a gas over Cookie yelling at the screen."
"She yells at the screen?" Stefan asked.
"Oh yeah. She's been known to throw her soda cup at it before." The blonde grinned.
"Why? Does insanity run in your family or something?" Stefan asked, eyeing Cookie warily.
"Yeah. Wanna make something of it?" She laughed, crossing her eyes at him.
"Cookie's a witch." Zia supplied. "She gets pissed off when the media paints a bad picture of them."
"Now, /that/ explains a lot." Damon said, staring at Cookie. ((Psychic, a witch, anything else you want to tell us?))
((Yeah. Butt out of my head.)) She replied, sending him a mental raspberry.
"Got any preferences on movies that you want to see?" Jess asked the brothers.
"Yes. Anything without vampires in it." Damon muttered, finishing off his burger. Cookie stared at him suspiciously, and he grinned back innocently. Everyone else let the comment pass without a second thought.
~*~
Stefan sat by the window in the apartment he shared with Damon, looking out over the town and up at the crescent moon hanging high overhead. "You don't think we're making a mistake?" He asked as Damon came out of his room.
"In what way?"
"Jess. Cookie. Those guys. I felt like I fitted in this evening, and I keep thinking that maybe I'm letting myself get too close."
"You worry too much." Damon sighed.
"Maybe. But I'm serious here. What would happen if they found out? I can see them being real friends, and I don't wanna lose them. I don't want to use them, either."
Damon stared at his brother for a few moments, the shook his head. "Soft hearted idiot." He sighed again. "If it bothers you that much, tell them if they /do/ become friends. But do me a favour. Wait until you're /sure/ they're friends. And that we're not going to be making this a quick stop."
Stefan frowned a little. "You think they can be trusted?"
"For what it's worth, yes. Besides which, Cookie already suspects something is...different about us. They trust her opinion. If she thinks we're okay, they'll accept that."
"Okay." Stefan nodded.
"I'm off out hunting. You coming?" Damon asked.
"Do you even have to ask?" Stefan flashed a whimsical grin.
"Ah, I can only keep trying. Perhaps one day you might learn to have fun and give in to your darker side."
"Dream on, Damon." Stefan laughed.
"If you don't have dreams, you don't have anything to come true." Damon said, heading out of the door.
"Very philosophical." Stefan muttered, and turned back to the view.