Title: Darkness of Companions
Based on: Companions of the Night by Vivian Vande Velde
Summary: A sequel to Companions of the Night. Kerry's life is threatened by an unidentifiable source Ethan/Michel seems to understand. He becomes her champion as she recedes farther into the darkness.
Rated: PG15
Author's Note: I do not own any characters. My serious chapter. Of course, serious to me doesn't mean humourless. I'd rather gouge my eyes out and feed them to my fish than write something witless.
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She walked out the door wearing a leather skirt so tiny her garter bands were showing. The store didn't handle anything with more material than the bra she found, she ended up freezing her butt of only wearing sexy underwear and a Barbie skirt along with Michel's wonderful jacket. Surprisingly the whole ensemble had come up to five hundred dollars. Lucky for her, a purchase of that size warrants a free gift. She didn't really want to know what a Magic Banana was. The perverted nice old lady must have picked up on sexual deprivation because for the heck of it she had thrown in The Eroscillator 2 Vibrator and a box of Rich Dark Chocolate Trojans. She just hoped she didn't get mugged.
Her watch said it was five minutes after sunset. He probably wouldn't look for her the minute after he awoke, he had to find a victim first- right? He certainly was tired of her trailing around with him. Yeah. sure. He was going to skin her alive and then dump her in a vat of un- diluted vinegar. She never should have left the disheartening little chamber she was abandoned in. What was wrong with her?
She picked up her pace, and surprisingly found the building easily. Just as she reached the bottom of the steps a couple decked out in more leather than even she was wearing, (not hard considering she had on a jacket and a facecloth) eyed her closely as they emerged from the building. For the first time she saw that not all vampires were as indiscrete and brilliant as Michel was. they even looked like the stereotypical bloodsucker, and they were thirsty. She suddenly wondered if not mandatorily killing a human while feeding was only something 'demons' like Michel practiced.
The man came over and placed his glove-clad hand heavily on her shoulder. Her knees felt like they were going to collapse as he pressed her callously towards the ground. His companion sneered and pressed her foot into the back of Kerry's knee. She felt herself lose control of her posture and fall brutally to the unyielding cement sidewalk. Her head hit against the marble stairs of the Vampire Residence and her sight exploded into a bright flash of twinkling light before everything faded black.
When her eyes blinked open she found herself in a romantically lit and airy room with billowing tulle curtains in numerous pastel colours. They all appeared whitish in the harsh glow of the summer sun. A warm breeze wafted the hem of her soft white toga-like dress across bare feet. She knew by instinct she had seen this place somewhere before. A carved mahogany jewelry-box lay open haphazardly on an antique looking dresser. She looked down at the myriad of tangled jewels someone obviously didn't appreciate. Without thinking she plunged her hand into the disarray and withdrew an untangled necklace with a dewdrop diamond pendant. She automatically knew the gem was meant for her, and it was the most natural thing for her to slip the heavy diamond over her head.
It nestled almost coolly between her breasts as she turned away from the dresser. She walked through the large open bay windows and found herself on a beautiful white marble terrace overlooking a bleached sandy beach of the Mediterranean. Her eyes fixed on a handsomely chiseled gold statuette of Adonis. His well defined *cough* package had been made into a water spouting fountain. She turned away faintly embarrassed towards the teal blue sea. The water was so clear and still she could see the outline of a large fish swimming in the direction of the house.
Only when he came up for air and the sun gleamed on his saturated ebony hair did she realize it was a man. He tossed his locks out of his face and shaded his eyes as he looked towards her and smiled charmingly. Her first thought was this must be what Armand from The Vampire Chronicles looked like, and this was just like the setting in Queen of the Damned. The man was beckoning her to him. She pulled up the hem of her dress and hurried down the disquietingly steep stairs. The figure was still far into the water as she stumbled in the direction of the water, kicking up sand. She stopped suddenly as the realization hit her that this was Michel in the water, and it was day. She stared at his smiling face in the light as he stopped smiling and looked at her with concern. With a gleeful chuckle she stepped into the warm water and let her dress fall down around her.
The toga started to float around her ankles as she walked to him. The water was seeping up and plastering the white linen to her legs. Completely submerging herself she dove into the water and swam. She stayed under until she felt as if her lungs were going to burst. Kicking to the surface she gulped down air as strong arms pulled her against a hard body. Her mind briefly registered that he was naked, which only made her more aware of how transparent her outfit had become in the water.
With his hand pressed against the hollow of her back he pressed his leg between hers and lowered his mouth to her waiting lips. She tangled her hands through his hair and clung as he ended the kiss.
"Oh Kerry." He pulled away, pausing for a moment to touch the pendant and smile forlornly at her. She reached for him.
"Kerry!" Her whole body physically shook as her Mediterranean world faded away and she found herself in Michel's arms in the desolately cold and dark streets of Toronto. "Kerry, wake up." His voice almost took on an apprehensive tenor as he shook her shoulders again.
She reached up and touched his hand. "Michel?" His breath expelled in relief. "How much blood did I lose?"
"You aren't bleeding honey."
"But the vampires."
His eyes narrowed. "There were no vampires." He hauled her roughly to her feet. She tentatively touched her neck.
"How can you be sure?"
"Because you would reek of them. Vampires can always tell when a human was once bitten." He started to drag her down the street. He stopped at the corner, grabbing her shoulders forcefully and faced her. "None of my kind would dare to touch you." She was about to ask why when his eyes widened.
"Where did that necklace come from?" He pulled down the zipper of her jacket and diffidently picked up the pendant. She gasped and her eyes met his just as a cop pushed them apart citing the Miranda law.
~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@
The bars opened to the cage she had been trapped in for half the night. She looked up expectantly as the cop beckoned her out. She cringed, terrified as Sally-the-manly-lesbian came over and squashed her into a tight hug. The cop escorted her out, and they met Michel and his escort at an intersection of lockups.
"What the hell are you wearing?" He glanced leeringly at her outfit.
"It's not my fault you look like a pimp."
"I look like a pimp? You look like a transvestite whore." They glared at each other as the police officers led them towards a laughing Lestat.
"Well Michel, this is quite a fix you got yourself into this time. What was it I heard about you soliciting prostitution?"
He glared at her. "Ask the prostitute." He pointed his thumb and began to walk towards the door. The officer behind the desk called for him to retrieve his personal belongings. Kerry almost keeled over and died right there. The cop placed all of her free sex toys on the counter, calling them by name. Lestat exploded with laughter, Michel looked at her with bemused sexual tension and Kerry put her hands over her eyes, groaning.
"It was free." She muttered red faced as she grabbed the bag. The Magical Banana fell out at Michel's feet and he swooped to pick it up.
"I don't want to know." She grabbed it and tried to throw it out. He snatched her arm and wrestled the thing out of her weak grasp, placing it back in the bag. The cops muttered it was that kind of temper that made him bring down Bob when the other man had tried to cop a feel.
"Bob?"
"Don't ask and I won't make judgments as to why you have sex toys."
"It's totally platonic and explainable."
Suddenly there was silence amount the officers. A huge man in a wheelchair was pushed into the reception area with both legs in casts and his face beat unrecognizably. He looked like a grizzly bear wearing clothes.
"Ahh, Bob." She grinned at Michel. The man looked over and growled dangerously. Michel quickly put himself between her and the injured man as hulk launched himself out of the wheelchair. The act was pointless and the man landed sprawled writhing on the cheaply tiles floor. He looked like a fish now.
Michel stepped undauntedly over him and walked out the door. Giving the still dangerous looking crying man wide berth she hurried after him. Jesse wove cheerfully from Michel's two-seater sports car. Lestat hurried over and got in beside her and wove while urging her to drive. Michel ran after them, arms flailing wildly, as he cursed them for stealing his car in front of the police station. The police looked on with mild disinterest.
He sauntered back mildly and offered her his arm. "I guess that means we are walking. So tell me, why are you dressed like a horny biker-chick?"
"I got splashed with slush by some asshole and the only store with clothes open was a sex shop. The old lady must have picked up on sexual deprivation because she gave me all this free stuff when I bought the stupid underwear and skirt."
"What skirt? Oh, I didn't see it."
She elbowed him sharply in the ribs knowing full well it wouldn't hurt him.
He keeled over and looked at her in surprise. "Oh My God! What happened?"
"I'm just joking." He straightened with little effort. His gaze fell upon her neck again. "Where did you get that necklace?"
"I had a dream about it. I don't know how I really got it. Why?"
"It was my mother's." A chill went down Kerry's spine. "She gave it to the girl I was betrothed to." Her hand reached up and grabbed the necklace. She started to slide it off when he stopped her. "I want you to have it. it looks good on you." He watched it fall back to between her cleavage- damn pushup bras.
He reached over and grasped her hand, continuing to walk. A car swung around the corner dangerously fast and she gasped as the headlights played over their features as the car unrelentingly sped for them. Michel snarled, grabbed her, and yanked them both back onto the sidewalk, protecting her with his body. The car slammed into his exposed back- not even his vampiric powers could help him move that fast- and they both flew into the air. He twisted mid-air and she landed on him as they skidded across the sidewalk.
Kerry pushed herself off him gingerly. Her pant leg was covered with his blood, and he didn't look to be conscious. His breath was coming out so fast it almost sounded normal. The car had disappeared out of view and she completely forgot to memorize the license plate with her growing concern for the injured Michel. His left leg was shredded to a bloody pulp and twisted at a painful angle where they both landed on it.
"Michel?" She wiped the side of his face with the sleeve of her jacket. The dirt smeared more and was prevalent against his pallor- almost transparent- skin. He moaned and his eyelashes started to flutter painfully open. His face grimaced in pain as he continued to bleed. She grabbed the clothes she had worn that morning out of the sex-shop bag and pressed the top against his leg. In moments it was saturated with blood. He didn't begin to heal.
"What's wrong?" He tried to push himself into a sitting position. "No don't!" She practically pressed him back onto the ground. He curled into a ball as much as he could and began to shake. Tears began to stream down Kerry's face as she tried unsuccessfully to help. "Why aren't you healing?"
He didn't answer for a while; he seemed to be fighting sleep. "I haven't fed for more than a week."
"But you went out to eat the night Lestat showed up."
"No time, you were in danger." He coughed up blood and Kerry realized a broken leg wasn't the greatest danger. He probably had internal injuries.
She leaned close to him. "Feed off me."
"No!" She moved her hair from her neck and offered again. He weakly pushed her away. "I have plans for you and it isn't on a rat-infested street."
She wanted to tell him to stop being foolish, but he had drifted into a comatose state. She couldn't tell if his heart was still beating and she commenced panicking- until he convulsed. The tears were coming freely now as she yelled for someone to help her. No one came.
Kerry jerkily got to her feet and placed her jacket over him, donning her blood-soaked top. She could hear the traffic on a nearby street. She hurried to the end of the street, not letting him out of her sight. For the first time in the history of Toronto, there wasn't a soul around. He started to cough up blood again as she rushed to his side.
On inspiration she gently opened his mouth and roughly drew her finger against his incisor. A drop of blood fell from her finger and trailed its way down his tongue, then disappeared into the throat. This was followed by another, and another, until she was freely bleeding. The wound began to clot and she withdrew her arm. He sharply grabbed her wrist and ripped her flesh open in one sharp bite. Kerry watched wide- eyed as he feverishly drank her life.
Her heart began to pound, straining against the loss of cells. She gently tried to pull her arm away as the cold air settled smotheringly upon her bare skin. Her head was spinning, breath panting, and wetness pooled between her legs. He held her more firmly in place, until she was too weak to resist. He pulled away just as she drifted out of awareness. In some recess of her mind still anchored in reality she heard his horrified, infuriated voice calling to her.
She dreamt of him in that deep abyss she was weakly thrust into. The horror of his life started when the dark haired beauty who looked to be his mother promised her first-born to a handsome stranger who saved her life from an over-turned rowboat. His mother had forgotten about the foolish and romantically worded pledge she made when she was thirteen. At her debutant ball she had met a debonair smuggler and they had a whirlwind courtship, followed by a wedding. A few months after their first son, Gaston Michel Paresse, was born they traveled to America to help the loyalists flee to Canada.
Little 'Gassy' *Kerry snickers mid-dream* grew up fearing the dark shadows always rampant on their shady farm. Sometimes he would wake to find a monster standing at the foot of the bed he shared with his two younger brothers. As all first-born boys, he was treated as the heir to the family fortune and picked his second cousin as the girl he would wed. On his nineteenth birthday the family had gathered to celebrate their upcoming marriage. That was the night the promise was fulfilled.
Kerry watched in her helpless dream-state as Michel was grabbed from the porch of his whitewashed plantation house and forced to watch his family go up in flames before they turned him. One of his younger brothers had jumped out a second-story window, only to break his neck on the landing. The next night he had come back, his spectacular vision able to make out his fiancé's charred body in the position she died in- trying to crawl towards the door. The necklace Kerry was currently wearing the only thing recognizable. He spent years tracking down the vampires involved and killing them off one by one, but it couldn't compensate for what he had lost.
Kerry awoke crying, feeling his anguish. She shivered and reached a hand up to touch the surreal necklace around her neck. She couldn't feel the cool metal through a bandage wrapped around her hand. The connection to her apparition faded and she realized she was curled once again against Michel. or Gaston. There was no way in heck she was going to change what she called him again, besides, in the dream they had called him Michel when he hit teenage-hood. She slowly unwrapped the bandage to find her wrist completely healed. The dressing was caked with blood, but either with vampiric help, or her own strange abilities, it had healed as she slept.
It fell to the ground as she turned her body to look at Michel. His arm was firmly around her, hampering most movements. She was pleased that she didn't need to use the bathroom at the moment. He was remarkably clean, with all his wounds healed. She sighed in relief at the fact her blood had helped him recover. She snuggled as best she could against his stone countenance and began to think of all the traumatic things that happened to her since they had united again.
The solution hit her in the gut. Could the 'they' Michel kept referring to be one person? It seemed so obvious now, only one person wanted her dead, and she had an inkling as to who it was.
The only problem was her theory had huge gaping holes an elephant could rumba through. The urge hit to use the bathroom so she fought her way through Michel's clutches, accidentally kneeing him in the crotch, and scurried over to the toilet.
After she was done, she curled back up beside Michel and fell asleep, only to be haunted by him in her dreams. A few hours later, he was pleasantly surprised to find her still calmly sleeping where he had left her. He grinned, relaxed with the knowledge he wouldn't have to track her down this time, and pulled her against him with mortal-like affection. For a moment he relished the feel of a soft human body, knowing his secrets yet still willing to be by his side.
Then he remembered he had almost drained her the night before. He pushed her away in disgust- revulsion for her innocence, lack of understanding, and unselfishness, but most of all for his own weakness. Sitting up, a soft blue sheet covering him from the midriff down, he ran his hands through his hair in the nervous gesture he had fruitlessly attempted to sever from his childhood.
Didn't she understand she was now tarnished forever? A vampire's used goods. While it was true that his kind would be able to smell it off her, they also wouldn't hesitate to use her for a quick bite. Once tainted, always tainted. It was like losing one's virginity, on a much more dangerous level. Most vampires would relish the thought of killing someone he had newly bitten. That's why he always tried to feed off the 'vampire whores.' She was now a hindrance to him.
As Kerry's potent blood pulsed vigorously through his ancient veins, giving him more power than he experienced in a long time, he plotted how to slay her. He only hoped he could make it as painless as possible.
~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~
Based on: Companions of the Night by Vivian Vande Velde
Summary: A sequel to Companions of the Night. Kerry's life is threatened by an unidentifiable source Ethan/Michel seems to understand. He becomes her champion as she recedes farther into the darkness.
Rated: PG15
Author's Note: I do not own any characters. My serious chapter. Of course, serious to me doesn't mean humourless. I'd rather gouge my eyes out and feed them to my fish than write something witless.
(%)(%)(%)(%)(%)(%)(%)(%)(%)(%)(%)(%)(%)(%)(%)
She walked out the door wearing a leather skirt so tiny her garter bands were showing. The store didn't handle anything with more material than the bra she found, she ended up freezing her butt of only wearing sexy underwear and a Barbie skirt along with Michel's wonderful jacket. Surprisingly the whole ensemble had come up to five hundred dollars. Lucky for her, a purchase of that size warrants a free gift. She didn't really want to know what a Magic Banana was. The perverted nice old lady must have picked up on sexual deprivation because for the heck of it she had thrown in The Eroscillator 2 Vibrator and a box of Rich Dark Chocolate Trojans. She just hoped she didn't get mugged.
Her watch said it was five minutes after sunset. He probably wouldn't look for her the minute after he awoke, he had to find a victim first- right? He certainly was tired of her trailing around with him. Yeah. sure. He was going to skin her alive and then dump her in a vat of un- diluted vinegar. She never should have left the disheartening little chamber she was abandoned in. What was wrong with her?
She picked up her pace, and surprisingly found the building easily. Just as she reached the bottom of the steps a couple decked out in more leather than even she was wearing, (not hard considering she had on a jacket and a facecloth) eyed her closely as they emerged from the building. For the first time she saw that not all vampires were as indiscrete and brilliant as Michel was. they even looked like the stereotypical bloodsucker, and they were thirsty. She suddenly wondered if not mandatorily killing a human while feeding was only something 'demons' like Michel practiced.
The man came over and placed his glove-clad hand heavily on her shoulder. Her knees felt like they were going to collapse as he pressed her callously towards the ground. His companion sneered and pressed her foot into the back of Kerry's knee. She felt herself lose control of her posture and fall brutally to the unyielding cement sidewalk. Her head hit against the marble stairs of the Vampire Residence and her sight exploded into a bright flash of twinkling light before everything faded black.
When her eyes blinked open she found herself in a romantically lit and airy room with billowing tulle curtains in numerous pastel colours. They all appeared whitish in the harsh glow of the summer sun. A warm breeze wafted the hem of her soft white toga-like dress across bare feet. She knew by instinct she had seen this place somewhere before. A carved mahogany jewelry-box lay open haphazardly on an antique looking dresser. She looked down at the myriad of tangled jewels someone obviously didn't appreciate. Without thinking she plunged her hand into the disarray and withdrew an untangled necklace with a dewdrop diamond pendant. She automatically knew the gem was meant for her, and it was the most natural thing for her to slip the heavy diamond over her head.
It nestled almost coolly between her breasts as she turned away from the dresser. She walked through the large open bay windows and found herself on a beautiful white marble terrace overlooking a bleached sandy beach of the Mediterranean. Her eyes fixed on a handsomely chiseled gold statuette of Adonis. His well defined *cough* package had been made into a water spouting fountain. She turned away faintly embarrassed towards the teal blue sea. The water was so clear and still she could see the outline of a large fish swimming in the direction of the house.
Only when he came up for air and the sun gleamed on his saturated ebony hair did she realize it was a man. He tossed his locks out of his face and shaded his eyes as he looked towards her and smiled charmingly. Her first thought was this must be what Armand from The Vampire Chronicles looked like, and this was just like the setting in Queen of the Damned. The man was beckoning her to him. She pulled up the hem of her dress and hurried down the disquietingly steep stairs. The figure was still far into the water as she stumbled in the direction of the water, kicking up sand. She stopped suddenly as the realization hit her that this was Michel in the water, and it was day. She stared at his smiling face in the light as he stopped smiling and looked at her with concern. With a gleeful chuckle she stepped into the warm water and let her dress fall down around her.
The toga started to float around her ankles as she walked to him. The water was seeping up and plastering the white linen to her legs. Completely submerging herself she dove into the water and swam. She stayed under until she felt as if her lungs were going to burst. Kicking to the surface she gulped down air as strong arms pulled her against a hard body. Her mind briefly registered that he was naked, which only made her more aware of how transparent her outfit had become in the water.
With his hand pressed against the hollow of her back he pressed his leg between hers and lowered his mouth to her waiting lips. She tangled her hands through his hair and clung as he ended the kiss.
"Oh Kerry." He pulled away, pausing for a moment to touch the pendant and smile forlornly at her. She reached for him.
"Kerry!" Her whole body physically shook as her Mediterranean world faded away and she found herself in Michel's arms in the desolately cold and dark streets of Toronto. "Kerry, wake up." His voice almost took on an apprehensive tenor as he shook her shoulders again.
She reached up and touched his hand. "Michel?" His breath expelled in relief. "How much blood did I lose?"
"You aren't bleeding honey."
"But the vampires."
His eyes narrowed. "There were no vampires." He hauled her roughly to her feet. She tentatively touched her neck.
"How can you be sure?"
"Because you would reek of them. Vampires can always tell when a human was once bitten." He started to drag her down the street. He stopped at the corner, grabbing her shoulders forcefully and faced her. "None of my kind would dare to touch you." She was about to ask why when his eyes widened.
"Where did that necklace come from?" He pulled down the zipper of her jacket and diffidently picked up the pendant. She gasped and her eyes met his just as a cop pushed them apart citing the Miranda law.
~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@
The bars opened to the cage she had been trapped in for half the night. She looked up expectantly as the cop beckoned her out. She cringed, terrified as Sally-the-manly-lesbian came over and squashed her into a tight hug. The cop escorted her out, and they met Michel and his escort at an intersection of lockups.
"What the hell are you wearing?" He glanced leeringly at her outfit.
"It's not my fault you look like a pimp."
"I look like a pimp? You look like a transvestite whore." They glared at each other as the police officers led them towards a laughing Lestat.
"Well Michel, this is quite a fix you got yourself into this time. What was it I heard about you soliciting prostitution?"
He glared at her. "Ask the prostitute." He pointed his thumb and began to walk towards the door. The officer behind the desk called for him to retrieve his personal belongings. Kerry almost keeled over and died right there. The cop placed all of her free sex toys on the counter, calling them by name. Lestat exploded with laughter, Michel looked at her with bemused sexual tension and Kerry put her hands over her eyes, groaning.
"It was free." She muttered red faced as she grabbed the bag. The Magical Banana fell out at Michel's feet and he swooped to pick it up.
"I don't want to know." She grabbed it and tried to throw it out. He snatched her arm and wrestled the thing out of her weak grasp, placing it back in the bag. The cops muttered it was that kind of temper that made him bring down Bob when the other man had tried to cop a feel.
"Bob?"
"Don't ask and I won't make judgments as to why you have sex toys."
"It's totally platonic and explainable."
Suddenly there was silence amount the officers. A huge man in a wheelchair was pushed into the reception area with both legs in casts and his face beat unrecognizably. He looked like a grizzly bear wearing clothes.
"Ahh, Bob." She grinned at Michel. The man looked over and growled dangerously. Michel quickly put himself between her and the injured man as hulk launched himself out of the wheelchair. The act was pointless and the man landed sprawled writhing on the cheaply tiles floor. He looked like a fish now.
Michel stepped undauntedly over him and walked out the door. Giving the still dangerous looking crying man wide berth she hurried after him. Jesse wove cheerfully from Michel's two-seater sports car. Lestat hurried over and got in beside her and wove while urging her to drive. Michel ran after them, arms flailing wildly, as he cursed them for stealing his car in front of the police station. The police looked on with mild disinterest.
He sauntered back mildly and offered her his arm. "I guess that means we are walking. So tell me, why are you dressed like a horny biker-chick?"
"I got splashed with slush by some asshole and the only store with clothes open was a sex shop. The old lady must have picked up on sexual deprivation because she gave me all this free stuff when I bought the stupid underwear and skirt."
"What skirt? Oh, I didn't see it."
She elbowed him sharply in the ribs knowing full well it wouldn't hurt him.
He keeled over and looked at her in surprise. "Oh My God! What happened?"
"I'm just joking." He straightened with little effort. His gaze fell upon her neck again. "Where did you get that necklace?"
"I had a dream about it. I don't know how I really got it. Why?"
"It was my mother's." A chill went down Kerry's spine. "She gave it to the girl I was betrothed to." Her hand reached up and grabbed the necklace. She started to slide it off when he stopped her. "I want you to have it. it looks good on you." He watched it fall back to between her cleavage- damn pushup bras.
He reached over and grasped her hand, continuing to walk. A car swung around the corner dangerously fast and she gasped as the headlights played over their features as the car unrelentingly sped for them. Michel snarled, grabbed her, and yanked them both back onto the sidewalk, protecting her with his body. The car slammed into his exposed back- not even his vampiric powers could help him move that fast- and they both flew into the air. He twisted mid-air and she landed on him as they skidded across the sidewalk.
Kerry pushed herself off him gingerly. Her pant leg was covered with his blood, and he didn't look to be conscious. His breath was coming out so fast it almost sounded normal. The car had disappeared out of view and she completely forgot to memorize the license plate with her growing concern for the injured Michel. His left leg was shredded to a bloody pulp and twisted at a painful angle where they both landed on it.
"Michel?" She wiped the side of his face with the sleeve of her jacket. The dirt smeared more and was prevalent against his pallor- almost transparent- skin. He moaned and his eyelashes started to flutter painfully open. His face grimaced in pain as he continued to bleed. She grabbed the clothes she had worn that morning out of the sex-shop bag and pressed the top against his leg. In moments it was saturated with blood. He didn't begin to heal.
"What's wrong?" He tried to push himself into a sitting position. "No don't!" She practically pressed him back onto the ground. He curled into a ball as much as he could and began to shake. Tears began to stream down Kerry's face as she tried unsuccessfully to help. "Why aren't you healing?"
He didn't answer for a while; he seemed to be fighting sleep. "I haven't fed for more than a week."
"But you went out to eat the night Lestat showed up."
"No time, you were in danger." He coughed up blood and Kerry realized a broken leg wasn't the greatest danger. He probably had internal injuries.
She leaned close to him. "Feed off me."
"No!" She moved her hair from her neck and offered again. He weakly pushed her away. "I have plans for you and it isn't on a rat-infested street."
She wanted to tell him to stop being foolish, but he had drifted into a comatose state. She couldn't tell if his heart was still beating and she commenced panicking- until he convulsed. The tears were coming freely now as she yelled for someone to help her. No one came.
Kerry jerkily got to her feet and placed her jacket over him, donning her blood-soaked top. She could hear the traffic on a nearby street. She hurried to the end of the street, not letting him out of her sight. For the first time in the history of Toronto, there wasn't a soul around. He started to cough up blood again as she rushed to his side.
On inspiration she gently opened his mouth and roughly drew her finger against his incisor. A drop of blood fell from her finger and trailed its way down his tongue, then disappeared into the throat. This was followed by another, and another, until she was freely bleeding. The wound began to clot and she withdrew her arm. He sharply grabbed her wrist and ripped her flesh open in one sharp bite. Kerry watched wide- eyed as he feverishly drank her life.
Her heart began to pound, straining against the loss of cells. She gently tried to pull her arm away as the cold air settled smotheringly upon her bare skin. Her head was spinning, breath panting, and wetness pooled between her legs. He held her more firmly in place, until she was too weak to resist. He pulled away just as she drifted out of awareness. In some recess of her mind still anchored in reality she heard his horrified, infuriated voice calling to her.
She dreamt of him in that deep abyss she was weakly thrust into. The horror of his life started when the dark haired beauty who looked to be his mother promised her first-born to a handsome stranger who saved her life from an over-turned rowboat. His mother had forgotten about the foolish and romantically worded pledge she made when she was thirteen. At her debutant ball she had met a debonair smuggler and they had a whirlwind courtship, followed by a wedding. A few months after their first son, Gaston Michel Paresse, was born they traveled to America to help the loyalists flee to Canada.
Little 'Gassy' *Kerry snickers mid-dream* grew up fearing the dark shadows always rampant on their shady farm. Sometimes he would wake to find a monster standing at the foot of the bed he shared with his two younger brothers. As all first-born boys, he was treated as the heir to the family fortune and picked his second cousin as the girl he would wed. On his nineteenth birthday the family had gathered to celebrate their upcoming marriage. That was the night the promise was fulfilled.
Kerry watched in her helpless dream-state as Michel was grabbed from the porch of his whitewashed plantation house and forced to watch his family go up in flames before they turned him. One of his younger brothers had jumped out a second-story window, only to break his neck on the landing. The next night he had come back, his spectacular vision able to make out his fiancé's charred body in the position she died in- trying to crawl towards the door. The necklace Kerry was currently wearing the only thing recognizable. He spent years tracking down the vampires involved and killing them off one by one, but it couldn't compensate for what he had lost.
Kerry awoke crying, feeling his anguish. She shivered and reached a hand up to touch the surreal necklace around her neck. She couldn't feel the cool metal through a bandage wrapped around her hand. The connection to her apparition faded and she realized she was curled once again against Michel. or Gaston. There was no way in heck she was going to change what she called him again, besides, in the dream they had called him Michel when he hit teenage-hood. She slowly unwrapped the bandage to find her wrist completely healed. The dressing was caked with blood, but either with vampiric help, or her own strange abilities, it had healed as she slept.
It fell to the ground as she turned her body to look at Michel. His arm was firmly around her, hampering most movements. She was pleased that she didn't need to use the bathroom at the moment. He was remarkably clean, with all his wounds healed. She sighed in relief at the fact her blood had helped him recover. She snuggled as best she could against his stone countenance and began to think of all the traumatic things that happened to her since they had united again.
The solution hit her in the gut. Could the 'they' Michel kept referring to be one person? It seemed so obvious now, only one person wanted her dead, and she had an inkling as to who it was.
The only problem was her theory had huge gaping holes an elephant could rumba through. The urge hit to use the bathroom so she fought her way through Michel's clutches, accidentally kneeing him in the crotch, and scurried over to the toilet.
After she was done, she curled back up beside Michel and fell asleep, only to be haunted by him in her dreams. A few hours later, he was pleasantly surprised to find her still calmly sleeping where he had left her. He grinned, relaxed with the knowledge he wouldn't have to track her down this time, and pulled her against him with mortal-like affection. For a moment he relished the feel of a soft human body, knowing his secrets yet still willing to be by his side.
Then he remembered he had almost drained her the night before. He pushed her away in disgust- revulsion for her innocence, lack of understanding, and unselfishness, but most of all for his own weakness. Sitting up, a soft blue sheet covering him from the midriff down, he ran his hands through his hair in the nervous gesture he had fruitlessly attempted to sever from his childhood.
Didn't she understand she was now tarnished forever? A vampire's used goods. While it was true that his kind would be able to smell it off her, they also wouldn't hesitate to use her for a quick bite. Once tainted, always tainted. It was like losing one's virginity, on a much more dangerous level. Most vampires would relish the thought of killing someone he had newly bitten. That's why he always tried to feed off the 'vampire whores.' She was now a hindrance to him.
As Kerry's potent blood pulsed vigorously through his ancient veins, giving him more power than he experienced in a long time, he plotted how to slay her. He only hoped he could make it as painless as possible.
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