Author's Side Note
Right. Greetings all and thank you to all those who have reviewed thus far. And, do not worry, this thread is alive and well and will be updated whenever I get a chance to sit down and write. Now i have a few things to cover before we begin chapter three.
Firstly, I am trying out a new writing style/set up, which you may or may not have noticed. The events that occur with the Boys are spoken in a fourth person element, as if you were watching a play or such like. Hence, there isn't very much indepth writing about what is going on inside the minds of the characters. That I leave for the narraration. I've been mulling over this problem, but Icannot seem to find a way around it. At times, I must admit, the writing is...well...pretty crappy. But ah well,this is only the beginning of thestory.
Which brings me to my second point. I am not very happy with how this chapter turned out and I wouldgreatly appreciate your opinions and criticisms. I do not feel that I have done David or Dwayne justice at all, and any advice on that would be great. Other than that, I hope you enjoy this next installment.
Well, that was what had happened the first time the boys met. Ah, poor Paul. The guy couldn't keep his eyes in one place. At first I thought he was a complete idiot, but there was something about him that struck me as interesting. I speculated as to what was behind that devil-may-care attitude, but it would take a couple more run ins before I was lucky enough to see the real Paul. As for Marko, that one had the face of an angel. Sweet, soft-spoken, down-to-earth, he was the complete opposite of his head-banging friend. But, as they say, opposites attract. And Dwayne? Well, Dwayne's Dwayne. He wasn't normally that standoffish, but Paul had managed to distract him from obtaining his midnight snack, and…well, boys will be boys. As for myself (grins), yeah, that was me in the leather getup. Was I a bombshell or what? I used to dig leather. That was up until I had the capability of wearing clothing like that. Try sticking me in a cat suit now and see what'll happen.
But anyways, you're probably wondering why I was hanging around a blood-sucking vampire right? Now before you jump to any conclusions, let me set the record straight. No, I am not a vampire and yes I knew that Dwayne was one. No I am not insane, and yes I do have balls of steel, figuratively speaking. You see, I had ran into Dwayne a few weeks earlier when he was new to the town. The original vampire ever to grace Santa Carla was David, and when Dwayne arrived, there had been a slight scuffled outside my doorstep and Dwayne ended up being pitched right through my living room window. Well, you could imagine what happened then. Three in the morning I wake up hearing this unearthly howl and glass shattering. I ran downstairs, nearly tripping over half a dozen of my cats to find a dazed vampire laying spread eagle on my carpet. Now I am a very open minded kind of person and nothing usually surprises me. And this was no exception…wait, why am I telling you this? Why don't you just see for yourself?
"What in the blue fuck was that?" Fay swore as she bolted upright, rudely dislodging the ginger kitten that was curled up on her chest. The tiny fur ball mewled in surprised and picked himself up, holding his tail high in the air.
"Figaro, downstairs, now!" She said as she swung her legs over and leapt out of bed, grabbing a fuzzy pink bathrobe as she did so. The gray tomcat, Figaro, meowed and ran out into the hallway. Fay ran for the door, but stopped, remembering something. With a curse, Fay ran back to the bed and slid her hand under her pillow, pulling out a gleaming kitchen knife.
"So help me if it's those dog-eared, no-good, senior punks, I'm going to castrate the whole lot of them." Fay growled as she hurried out of the bedroom and down the hall, stepping over the cats that milled about her, creating a terrible din as they tried to figure out what was wrong.
"Out of my way you!" Fay hissed at a particularly fluffy white cat that shot out of her way with a sharp hiss. When Fay had reacted the bottom of the staircase, she hurried after Figaro, who had been waiting for her. What she saw in her living room stopped her in her tracks.
"What in the world?" Fay muttered when she saw the dazed figure of a man lying flat on his back. Her eyes widened when she looked at the ruined window, out of surprise rather than shock. At her side, Figaro let out a dangerous hiss, his thin tail fluffing out twice its side. Standing right outside the window, and in her rose bushes at that, was a dark clad figure with a shocking platinum blonde mullet. Fay allowed for a split second to pass before she jumped into the fray.
"Move another muscle, both of you and so help me I'll skin you alive." Fay said, brandishing the kitchen knife in her right hand as if it were a sword.
The blonde figure tore his eyes from the other man and looked at her with an amused expression on his face.
"Oh don't give me that, you ungrateful blood-sucking fiend. There is more than one way to skin a cat…vampire." Fay snorted, standing her ground as the stranger blinked in mild surprise and laughed.
"Oh, you think this is funny do you?" Fay miffed, not at all appreciating being laughed at. Why couldn't anyone ever take her seriously? Ok, so she was wearing something like looked like pink road kill and she was brandishing a knife like a mad woman, but that didn't mean she wasn't dead serious.
"Actually I do." The stranger said as he clasped his gloved hands before him.
"Care to share? Or are you going to stand there all night gloating? Cause if so, you can take it elsewhere. I have a dance class to teach at 6 am and sleep is probably the number on thing on my list." Fay said levelly, still not relinquishing her grip on the knife.
"What the?" Another voice said, catching both of their attention for a brief moment. Dwayne, who had finally came to his senses, was still lying on the floor, but wasn't alone.
"Dear lord. Fat Cat, will you get away from him?" Fay groaned as Dwayne blinked in surprise. Sitting on his chest was an extremely over-fed black and white cat, which was clearly enjoying batting away at Dwayne's long locks.
"Get the fuck off of me." Dwayne growled, baring his fangs at the obese animal. Fat cat didn't need to be told twice.
"It's ok baby, he won't hurt you." Fay reassured the freaked out cat as it waddled to her, deciding he'd rather hide behind her legs then take another step further.
"You got that wrong babe." Dwayne said as he rose to his feet.
"Wrong?" Fay said as she tensed, the knife now pointed at him.
"Way wrong." Dwayne snarled with an evil, toothy grin as he took a step forward. Outside, the stranger didn't say a word, but watched the little drama play out, a knowing smirk on his lips.
"I wouldn't do that." The stranger commented calmly.
"Yeah? Fuck off." Dwayne snarled at the stranger before turning back to Fay, who hadn't budged an inch. Pity he didn't listen. Just as he took another step towards her, Dwayne stopped in his tracks, an uneasy feeling hitting him like a ton of bricks. Something wasn't right.
"You got to be kiddin' me." He muttered as he looked around. A pair of unblinking shining eyes covered nearly every inch of the room.
"The Wicked Witch of the West had flying monkeys. I, on the other hand, have cats." Fay said matter-of-factly, flicking the knife up into the air and catching it by the blade. It was a stalemate, one that could have gone on if it weren't for the stranger outside the window.
"Mind if I come in?" He asked her, looking over Dwayne's shoulder, giving Fay a bemused smirk.
"Of course I mind. Do you honestly think that I'm going to invite every vampire in this state to come waltzing across my doorstep? Cause if you do, you have another thing…Hey! What the hell are you doing?" Fay said as the stranger stepped over the windowsill and entered the house.
"What does it look like? "I'm going to invite every vampire in this state to come waltzing across my doorstep." Ring a bell?" The stranger said as he walked towards them, careful not to get close to the walls and the furniture.
"Wha? But…I said that in question form! Ah shit." Fay swore under her breath, heaving a sigh.
"Uh, lady? Can you call off your cats?" Dwayne said uneasily. Now Dwayne is not a vampire to loose his cool, but when you've got twenty pairs of hungry eyes on you, it's going to be enough to make anyone squeamish. Even a vampire.
Fay stared hard at Dwayne and then at the unknown figure before she growled something in a foreign tongue and gave a sharp wave of her hand. Slowly, the tension in the room eased as the cats began to drift away, no longer interested in the two strangers.
"Don't even think about it." Fay said as she adjusted her robe, making sure to cover as much of her neck as possible. She still held her knife.
"The thought never crossed my mind." The stranger said. But the statement was more geared towards Dwayne, who had been eyeing her neck with interest. The three stood in silence for a while.
"Sorry about the window." The stranger said, finally breaking the silence.
"Yeah, well you're paying for it, so I really couldn't care less." Fay sassed. Despite the bravado she was using as a convincing act, she wasn't about to let the two vampires know just how freaked out by their presence she really was. Any self-respecting witch would never sink to such a level, no matter what the situation.
Hearing this, the stranger smiled.
"Name's David." He said as he held out a gloved hand.
"Fay Prima, pleasure." Fay said as she shook it with her free hand. She eyed him carefully for a moment, but didn't say anything else.
"Wait. You're not going to kill her?" Dwayne spoke up, looking from David to Fay and then back to David.
"No I am not going to kill her." David said, a hint of annoyance in his voice. He and Fay exchanged a glance, at which point Fay tucked away the kitchen knife into a large pocket and sighed.
"Might as well sit down." She muttered as she picked up Figaro and sat cautiously on the arm of the couch, nervously petting the cat. David casually sat on the loveseat, resting a foot on his knee. Only Dwayne remained standing.
"Boy, you make a great vampire but a lousy statue. Sit." She said, motioning to the chair nearest him. For some reason, he obeyed and sat. He still had a slightly confused frown on his face however. A vampire doesn't simply barge into someone's house and then have a conversation with a potential meal.
"So, can I ask why my front window is broken? You two owe me at least that much." Fay said as she wrapped her arms protectively around Figaro, who peered at David with his bright green eyes.
"Territorial dispute. I was in the midst of giving junior here a lesson in domination." David mused as he watched the other vampire bristle under his words.
"One that you were loosing." He growled softly.
"Oh on the contrary, I think it was the other way around." David shot back.
"You need to get your memory checked. I clearly had the upper hand." Dwayne said, leaning forward slightly, resting his arms on his knees. And so the arguing began.
It went on like this for a couple of minutes. It didn't matter who was older, or who was stronger, in the end, it came down to who was the sharpest. Now, despite Dwayne's rather…metal head appearance, he was a lot smarter than both David and I first gave him credit for. At first, David had regarded Dwayne as just another up-start vampire looking for carve out a territory for himself and too thick-headed to ever submit to his authority. On the contrary, Dwayne had been the leader of his old vampire gang, but came to Santa Carla when vampire hunters took them out. He was the only on left of the New Orleans Fang Gang. But this posed a problem, and judging from the standoffish behavior from both vampires, a rather tricky one. David had been around Santa Carla for years, having claimed this town as his own. With the arrival of another dominate vampire, David felt threatened, hence the reason why the two of them were scrapping it out on my front lawn.
Now things could have gotten ugly if it weren't for my tactful refereeing skills….
"Whoa! Boys, calm down!" Fay shouted as she leapt to her feet, planting herself between David and Dwayne just as they were about to butt heads once more. "I said COOL IT!" She barked as she threw her hands out, slamming her palms into their chests. In a flash, both vampires leapt back hissing, their demonic faces once again in plain view.
"No fighting in the house. If you got beef with each other, take it outside." Fay snapped, going from cat-lady to commando in a split second.
"How did you do that?" Dwayne growled, massaging his chest as if she had just hit him with a sledgehammer.
"She's a witch you idiot. She has powers." David said as he straightened out his coat, regaining his composer once more.
"Witches don't exist." Dwayne snorted, crossing his arms over his chest, not believe a word of it.
"Yeah, just like vampires are the stuff of Hollywood. Welcome to reality pal. You guys aren't the only ones that can do things that aren't "natural." Fay said as she took a step back, flicking a strand of hair behind her shoulder.
"And you knew." Dwayne said, looking at David.
"Yes I did. We've just never had the chance of being formally introduced." He said nodded to Fay.
"Got that right." Fay said as her eyes drifted to the moving Felix the Cat clock on her wall. It was four am.
"Anyways, boys. As much as I'd love to stay and chat, it's getting kind of late. Don't you two have some innocent people to feed on? I on the other hand have to work during the day." She said, biting back a yawn that tickled her throat.
"I got a question." Dwayne said catching both of their attention. He had been mulling over this for the entire time he was in the house, and wanted to find out the answer. He knew David wouldn't tell him, so he took his chances with Cat Woman.
"Why aren't you afraid of us?" He asked Fay. This had to be the first time that he had been around a human who knew what he was and didn't run off screaming blue murder.
But, her response puzzled him even further.
"Well, let's just say I'm used to this kind of thing. Be it vampires, werewolves, ghouls or zombies, I've just about seen it all. I have an aunt down in Louisiana who can raise the dead, so a pair of fangs isn't going to scare me." She said with a small smile. "You guys are pretty cool though in the grand scheme of things."
"Anyways. It's late, I'm dead tired and you two need to leave." She said motioning to the window. "So vamoose and I'll see you around. Oh, and try not to kill each other. It won't do you two any good. Trust me, I know." She said as she watched the two slip out of the window. David turned to her to say something but she shook her head.
"No, you won't have to worry about waking up with a stake between your ribs. Out of all the people in the town you guys can trust me, honestly." She said with a tired smile, as if reading his mind. "Night boys and be nice."
"That is one weird chick." Dwayne said with a shake of his head as Fay turned and vanished back into her house.
"You have no idea." David said, his eyes lingering on the empty window for a moment longer. There was something about that woman that he couldn't put his finger on. What had previously been a bloody battle now ended up a strange meeting, and he had a sneaking suspicion that it wasn't just by coincidence.
Now I know what you're probably thinking, "yeah right, the day this ever happened." And you have every right to think that. Typically, something like this would never happen, but since when is anything typical in Santa Carla? Now, the way you're seeing the boys is the way I first saw them. It took me a while to burrow deep and witness the real them, and it's going to take a few more memories before you can see them the way I do. I knew David was different the moment I laid eyes on him, but I couldn't put my finger on what it was.
And Dwayne? The guy grew on me. I was skeptical at first, but after a while, he finally came to believe that magic was real and that I wasn't a fraud or a crackpot. In turn, I realized that he had a sharp mind and a quick wit to him, something that I found very amusing. And for the record, yes, Dwayne does speak in full sentences. The reason why he was so quiet when he met Michael was because…that's another story that I'll be getting to pretty soon.
Oh, and you know the window? Well, two nights later I woke up to discover that the glass had been replaced. When I mentioned this to David, he assured me that he had no idea how it had happened. When I went to question Dwayne, he was nowhere to be found. Odd isn't it?
Oh, I almost forgot. You know the whole dance class thing I mentioned earlier? Yeah, I used to be a professional dancer, and a pretty darn good one too, if I do say so myself. Hell, I was even in Cats! That all changed when Max arrived however. Everything changed when that bastard showed up and caused the power shift.