*Burning Roses. *
*A Beauty and The Beast story. *
Rating: Pg-13Pairings: None yet.
Genre: Romance, Humor, and Drama. And action (I think).
Disclaimer: Please for the love of God, keep the first chapter's disclaimer in your mind as you read.
Summary: Save an Author; Put me on your favorites list! Or not… For some strange reason, I hate fruit cakes. But, I like Xellos. Kinda like the pink thing.
Asl the eight ball that question. Wonder what it answers. And why on earth did someone invent a magic eight ball that's pink? Better yet, where they under the influence…?
Ok, we have a vampire. He makes himself known to Serena and this starts a chain reaction as well as uncovering a little bit of the mystery around her mothers murder.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter Eleven.
Sleeping was really a wonderful thing. It was the portal to a world of fancy and dreams. Pigs can fly, animals can sing, and all else the sleeping mind can create. And the great thing is, you're convinced it's all real until you wake up, then you struggle to remember what it was you were dreaming of in the first place.
Anything could happen to you in your sleep. And then anything can happen to you while you sleep. Like, say, a vampire paying you a visit. And not because he wants to meet and greet you like a gentlemen that has no intention of getting under your skin. Pun intended.
Like now.
The art of sneaking around at ungodly hours of the night was a handy little thing really. He had gotten very good at it. But, the mouse had tarnished his record. Either that or the Force behind the mouse. Damn that force. Because it was very annoying.
Hey! I resent that, you ingrate. And I am not an It. Peon.
…At least his prey hadn't awoken. By all accounts the girl slept like a rock. She never even moved. Wow. Then again, it was just a mouse.
Anyways.
He could smell the life flowing through her, feel her pulse, hear her heart beat. The sweet taste of her blood was haunting him, he could almost taste it. In response he felt his fangs grow and poke at his bottom lip in eager prepartation for human's blood. Oh, it had been so long since he had had the sweetness of a maiden's blood. She was going to taste good. O positive, if he was correct.
If Serena had been awake she would have smacked him for thinking such a perverted thought about her. Then she would have taken her peashooter to him. But, she was not, so he was safe for now.
When she woke up was another matter entirely.
He continued snaking his way to the bed, eyes glowing with anticipation of the kill. Each step was placed with careful precision. Quiet as a mouse. Then he stepped on the mouse. Damn precision to hell.
The poor creature let out a scream much akin to Duo's and Wufei's own screams. Then died.
After that, the silence was deafening.
As luck would have it, Serena sat bolt up right, her hand going to her heart. Her big eyes, not entirely used to the complete darkness, stared into nothing and everything. Well, not really, it just sounded better that way. She took a deep breath then lay back down muttering something about dreams.
Her light snores once again filled the room.
The vampire sweat dropped, and nearly fell over. What the..? How the…? O-okay. Well, no skin of his back if she went strait to sleep.
Actually, Serena was not sleeping. She wasn't stupid. She had seen the dark figure; and seeing as Serena loved to play mind games had feigned going back to sleep. Her hand was reaching under her pillow for her pea shooter. All ways have one positioned in your reach.
Let it not be said that she was unprepared. She had had too many weird things happen to her in the past not to be unprepared. Thus peashooters were positioned in the strangest places. And all within her reach.
Mr. Shadow advanced on her and she almost snorted. You'd think he'd notice her irregular breathing, or her rolling her eyes like this. She rolled her eyes.
Oh well, just for that, she was going to pound Mr. Shadow into a bloody, twitching pulp with her trusty pea shooter # 34 for waking her up and stepping on the poor little mouse. It was cruelty to animals. What did the little mouse ever do to him anyways?
You know I could say that the mouse tarnished Mr. Shadow's record, but I won't. Of course, I just defeated the purpose so I'll be quiet for now. Before I divulge something else.
She waited for her window of opportunity. Waited for the perfect time to spring and attack. It was coming; she could feel it. The feeling sang a symphony in her veins, pumping her with adrenaline. Almost there. Her muscles coiled, getting ready to carry her from her prone position.
THERE!
With a giddy feeling in her gut, she sat up and in one fluid motion had the peashooter to the shadow figure's neck. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY ROOM YOU PERVERT!" She smacked him upside the head hard enough to do some serious damage. And enough for her to feel that the figure had no fur. Uh-Oh.
He very nearly jumped from his undead hide when his prey jumped up and screamed at him. But when she hit him….well that was the straw that broke the camel's back. With a snarl he pounced on her and pinned her arms over her head, straddling her waist.
Serena suddenly realized she was in trouble. She had thought the figure was Beast trying to play a trick on her. Oh, was she wrong. She opened her mouth, took a deep breath and….
" I would not advise that my dear." Her captor's smooth, deceptively silky voice cut in.
"Gota hell. GET OFF OF ME YOU SEX FIEND!!!!!! I WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS!! GET OFF ME NOW! AAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!"
His ears ringing, he clamped a hand over her mouth, very much annoyed that his meal had the gall to back talk him. Oh well, at least there was a challenge in this one.
"Ahhh, but you aren't standing are you?" He could see her blue eyes get wider and she began to buck and squirm violently to get him off of her. She was afraid now. Good. He loved fear.
Serena frowned into his hand when she remembered something. She was very flexible. Har har har. Joke was on him. Pausing to take a deep breath from her nose, Serena let her self relax. Then she waited for him to do the same. When she felt the rigid strength let up, she twisted kicked and bucked in quick succession, thus throwing him off balance. Taking advantage of that, she used her flexibility and brought her knee up into his back and he flew over her head.
She was up and running to the door before he had the chance to recover. Now the fear had set in. Or maybe it had always been there, she just hadn't felt it over the anger and adrenaline.
Of course, Beast chose that moment to come storming in, the door banging into the wall behind it. She nearly jumped for joy, but instead wailed and pointed a finger at the man that had assaulted her and darted behind him with a sob. Her nerves were still jumping. And her mind was running around bawling it's eyes out and wailing in hysterics. She remembered…
Beast stared at the vampire with annoyance, listening to Serena's scared breathing. He could smell it too. It bit at his sensitive nose and yet, at the same time made his feel stronger.
The vampire could smell it as well, and licked his lips as thought tasting it. Beast felt disgusted by the display. Serena's small hand found his own and gave it a squeeze, seeking something strong to hang onto. Startled, he looked back at her to find that she was staring at the Vampire. He squeezed her hand back then turned back to the vampire.
" …" The vampire said. He began backing toward the window, the open window. Powerful vampire he was. But stupid, he was not. There was no way on earth that he was going to stand around and see what possible tortures the Beast could come up with.
Wisely, the vampire turned and vanished out the glass doors.
All was quiet again. That is till Serena gave a sniffle and blew her nose into a hankie she had procured from somewhere thus providing the comic relief.
" You okay?" Beast asked, stupid question, but he felt it was the right thing to say at a time such as this. His answer was a scathing look from Serena as she let go of his hand and padded back to the bed.
He stared after her mutely as she pulled the covers over her head and sniffled again.
" I hate men." She told him through the blankets. " I hate men in general."
Beast didn't feel like pointing out that he was a man. Instead he silently volunteered to stay with her for the night to protect her from the pain in the neck.
"Actually, technically, he wasn't a man."
The blankets seemed to glare at him, " Oh? And what, prey tell, was he? He looked like a man to me."
"A vampire."
" Yeah. But, need I remind you that he was still very much a man. I know because he was sitting on me. Think of the implications for a moment." The blankets moved a little and a long gold braid fell out of them onto the floor. A second afterwards, a pale hand snaked out and pulled the braid back in.
Beast thought and turned red in the face when he realized what she meant. " * Ahem*… Are you..er… going to sit up and talk to me..?"
"…. No. If you want to talk, then do what your doing now or come join me under the blankets."
Beast sputtered.
She humphed, "That's what I thought." Once again the blankets shifted, and she peeked out from under them to stare at him somberly. Under her blank gaze, Beast shifted clearly uncomfortable.
He was beginning to notice a pattern with Serena whenever she got traumatized in anyway. She also had her fist to her mouth. Just like she had been out in the rose garden.
" You're not okay; you're planets from okay, " he muttered under his breath while reaching back and closing the heavy oak door. "Star systems."
She said not a word, but pulled the blankets back over her head, and he heard another sniffle. By his theory, after seeing her mother's death, she had been forced to become an adult at a young age. Witnessing a murder has a way of aging the mental process. Unfortunately, Serena hadn't handled that too well and going catatonic as her only way to cope.
Post traumatic stress syndrome.
Sort of.
Not really.
Maybe not.
Eh…whatever.
"Fine. I'll just stay here until the dawn to make sure he doesn't come back." That said, he padded over to a large fluffy chair and made himself cozy. He curled his legs under him and leaned back closing his eyes.
"Mphhmmph." The blankets said. He ignored her, recalling the first rule of childhood. As long as no skin shows, the bad monsters can't get you.
Probably went for vampires too.
A loud scream jolted him into the waking world rather abruptly, and he nearly fell from the cozy chair as a result. Wild eyed, he cast about the darkened room for the disturbance, thinking the damn blood sucking pest was back.
What he got was a screaming Serena running around the room, still asleep. She screamed again darting past him, though something was chasing her and she had no where to escape. He got to his feet and tried to grab her as she ran past him with a wailing sob. He reached for her again and missed.
"No, don't hurt me!!! MUMMY! MUMMY SAVE ME!!" God, she sounded like a child.
Finally, he caught her by her frail shoulders and, ignoring her small fists raining pathetically weak blows on his chest, shook her awake.
"Let me go! I promise not to tell!! Mummy. Why'd you heard Mummy?" She cried, brokenly. He shook her once more.
Clouded blue orbs snapped open and she nearly went limp, looking around for her attackers, held up only by the Beast's hands on her biceps. She whimpered and tried to struggle from his grasp, but he shook her again, "Serena, It's me! Beast?!"
The clouds in her eyes cleared and a ray of light shown through the storm, and she looked at him. " Beast?" He gave a crooked grin, and released her slowly, making sure she wouldn't fall over.
"I woke up?"
"That's what it looks like." He answered, confused by this new development.
She blinked at him a moment, then turned and moved to sit in the chair he had been in previously. It was warm and smelled of him. He smelled like the forest. Like her Mummy…
"Oh"
Watching her curl into a ball on the chair he was struck by how fragile she seemed now. Like a glass figurine. Poor thing.
"What happened?"
She looked up at him, brow furrowed, " I had a nightmare. It was nothing. Don't worry." Then she went back to pulling at a frayed thread on the arm of the chair, absentmindedly. Completely ignoring the concern in his eyes, the look that said ' You don't appear fine, and that little run around the room was certainly not nothing.'
A moment latter she began rocking herself.
'What happened to you Serena?'
End Chapter.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
O-okay. Interesting chapter. ::Reads over it, with a sweat drop.:: Er… this is a new style for me. It's twisted. If that made sense… maybe you can explain it to me…. A child of five could understand this! Fetch me a child of Five.
Beware the Vampire Jesus, he gave his blood for you and he wants it all back now!
I figured that coincided with the story well enough to put it up. And isn't Disney world a people trap operated by a mouse?
Advice for the Day: Follow your Dream. Unless it's the one where you are nakkie at work during a fire drill. Then keep dreaming till you find a better dream. One with clothes.
Joke for Chapter: If you want it email me. It's about Johnny and Mary and a Nun…. And a few other things.