A/N: Hello. It's been awhile since I last updated this story. I've been unmotivated and distracted with all the things. But I'm trying to get back on schedule. Slowly but surely I will. Enjoy.
OOOOOOOOOO
Jessi applied mascara in the mirror and danced around to the beat of her music playing on her Walkman. She was dressed in a black skirt and a white top with matching black boots. Studded bracelets graced her wrists and a studded choker hung at her neck. All she wanted was a good day and Jessi could see it happening if several things happened.
One, Paul stopped giving her false hope.
Two, she could suddenly become as perfect as Faith.
Three, she and Jack moved far away and became famous.
Four, Lester and all his minions decided to drop dead on the spot and vanish for all eternity.
Speaking of…
Jessi's hand flew down to the cross on the counter and she spun around to find Lester watching her. "Lester! You're supposed to be asleep for two more hours."
Lester grinned and shrugged a shoulder. "So, I couldn't sleep. Sue me." His dark eyes glinted. "I wouldn't have wanted to miss the opportunity to see you get pretty for me and the dance show." He clapped his hands. "Bravo on the dance moves by the way."
Jessi growled and thrust out the cross. "Go the fuck away."
The blond idiot moved out of the way of the cross and gripped her arm in an ironlike grasp. When Jessi tried to hit him with her other fist, he caught that wrist and held it back.
"Someone's feisty," he said, smirking. "Tell me, are you this feisty in bed?"
"You'll never find out!"
"So you say now, but eventually you'll cave. Eventually you'll see reason and come to my side. Bring your brother if you wish, but all I want is you."
Jessi stomped on his foot and narrowed her eyes at the sight of yellow present in his dark eyes. He grinned and tapped her wrist, right above her pulse.
He's going to force our hand soon, Jessi realized, trying to jerk out of his grasp. Make us choose between him and death…either way, we die.
"Yo Jess, are you hogging the bathroom again?" Jack's voice floated to her before he appeared in her sights. "Lester! What the fuck are you doing?" He pushed at Lester. "Get off my sister and leave her the hell alone!"
Lester looked over at Jack and slowly released Jessi. "Not likely, but I've got places to be right now, so I'll give her a break." He licked his lips. "I'll be sure to be around when the makeup comes off and you show some skin later, Jessi."
Jessi shivered in disgust and threw her cross after him. She let out an exasperated sound and spun around on her heel to look back at the mirror again. Jack's reflection was welcomed, but she could see he was visibly upset about what had transpired without him being there.
"Hey, imagine how I feel," she said, picking up her lipstick – a dark blueish black in color. "You don't have to worry about him groping you or stripping you naked with his eyes. Hell, he doesn't even bring you into the dirty jokes that he does with the others." She puckered her lips and applied the makeup. "Compared to me, you're untouchable."
"It should be the other way," Jack told her, leaning against the wall next to her. "You should be untouchable. That's what I made them promise when we moved in with them."
Jessi lifted an eyebrow. "Did they actually say 'I promise'?"
"Yeah."
"And you expected them to keep their promise?" She threw down her lipstick. "Jack, they've been through so many roommates…and don't forget the girls. Lots of girls. They brag about it all the time to -"
"Keep us in line," Jack finished for her. "I'm not a complete moron, Jess. I made a mistake and now we're both paying for it." He put his hand on her shoulder. "I'm really sorry, Sis."
Jessi sighed and glanced at her brother. "It's okay. We just have to keep making money until we can get a car – no, a van – and pack up our shit and leave in the middle of the day. Leave before they can find or stop us. And we're kinda close."
Jack offered a weak smile. "Kinda."
Jessi looked back at the mirror and played with her hair. "We'll get there soon." She looked at him as she piled her makeup back in its bag. "Can you take this to my room? I don't want them sniffing around it again."
Her older brother took the bag from her. "Why are you going out so dressed up, Jess? Got a hot date or something?"
"This? This is not dressing up," Jessi argued. "Check out what some of your gaggle of fans wear and you'll see, this is the pinnacle of fashion."
Jack rolled his eyes. "You do realize that they're only trying to impress me, right?"
Jessi shrugged a shoulder. "So, be impressed."
OOOOOOOOOOOO
Paul bounced through the cave when he woke up and patted his pockets for any left over joints. He found one and knew it was time to do some searching for another dealer. Good thing he knew a few in Santa Carla.
Iona stole the joint from him after he lit it and put it between her lips.
"Hey Sis," Paul laughed, putting his hands on his hips. "Since when do you smoke?"
Iona took a double hit off the joint and looked at him, her dark eyes dim. "Since I keep having dreams that have nothing to do with my families. Only death." She took another hit. "I see death coming close again. I see Max running the show…" The gypsy vampire sighed. "I see us torn apart in the very end."
The blond stole his joint back. "Sis, you need to lay off whatever you've been drinking. Get a happy meal. None of this sad ass bull shit that everyone seems to be feeding off of these days."
Iona rolled her eyes and swept her dark hair over her shoulder. "None of us have been feeding off anything besides what we're allowed." She frowned. "Paul, you've seen all the shit Max has been pulling lately, trying to get Faith and me out into the open. Especially Faith. None of us know why though and I don't think we're going to find out until it's too late to stop a nightmare from happening and…"
Paul tucked his joint between his lips and then placed his hands on Iona's shoulders. "Iona, breathe. Red and you are going to be fine. We're all going to be fine. Max can go fuck himself for all any of us care."
"Max is fucking himself off a cliff, you say?" Marko asked, appearing next to them.
"I hope it's not ours," Faith said, appearing in the area, but not close enough to touch. "And for the record, none of the ones near ours."
"Amen, hallelujah Sister Faith," Paul and Marko sang, shaking a hand in the air.
"You okay, Iona?" Dwayne asked softly, pulling her away from Paul.
"Are any of us?" Iona shot back.
"Of course we are," David said, suddenly standing next to Faith and scanning the room with icy eyes. "We're the perfect fucking family. Now, we're all going to go out and have some fun, do a little hunting, and stop talking like this is the end of the world. We're vampires. We can't die. All we have is time. So fucking act like it."
Paul was excited to get out of the cave. He sped next to Marko, their nightly race against each other. (Somehow Marko won this time.) And made it to the boardwalk in no time. Faith managed to catch his eye and mouthed something that looked like "find her" before following David. Paul couldn't say no to his favorite Sister and ran off in the direction of the record shop.
"Jessi!" he shouted, running into the store. "Jessi! You're not Jessi!"
The guy behind the counter looked like a douchebag that Paul would eat for breakfast on any
given day. "Duh, man. The name's Brian."
"Where's Jessi?" Paul asked, bouncing on his toes.
"I don't know. It's her night off." He shrugged. "I could really care less. She's only Toni's favorite…"
Paul made a mental note to find this guy later and eat him. The fucker was talking bad about Jessi. No one did that in front of Paul.
He flipped the guy off and wandered out of the store. Running a hand through his hair, he started walking the boardwalk, sniffing.
She's here, he told himself. Teenagers don't leave the boardwalk once it's in their blood. Same for each generation.
The wild blond caught Jessi's scent and followed it. She was at another concert portion of the boardwalk, dancing to some musician's solo performance. His eyes followed her movements and wandered down her body. He bit his bottom lip and smiled.
Oh yeah. This I can work with.
OOOOOOOOOOO
Jessi was dancing among the crowd to some music that was almost as good as her brother's. She loved when this guy played and was happy to see him succeed. There was always a war in her heart when he played and so did her brother on the same night.
She felt eyes on her and ignored them. Let them look. There's nothing that they can do without me giving them grief. I'm a big girl. I can handle myself.
Hands slid down her sides and ran to her hips, squeezing lightly. Jessi tensed as she danced and tried to turn around, but the guy's chest was resting against her back as he moved with her. He smelled familiar, welcome.
"Relax," Paul's voice said lowly in her ear.
Jessi calmed down, but her heart was going a million miles a minute as she danced with Paul. He ran a hand over her stomach and dragged her shirt up slightly. His hand was cool to the touch when it landed on her flesh, earning a gasp.
"You all right?" Paul asked, a slight laugh in his voice.
"Y-yeah," Jessi said, trying so hard not to focus on the little circular motions his fingers were making on her. "Are you?"
"I'm having a blast."
Of course he is. Why wouldn't he be? Why am I not stopping him? Where's my damn voice? C'mon girl. Shout at him. Make a scene. Don't melt under his touch. Don't.
She turned in his arms and looked at him, moving her hips with his. Paul's blue eyes looked at her with mischief and she slid a hand over his chest to his shoulder, just under his jacket. She could feel muscle and there was heat rising up in her body. He put a leg between hers and did a dance move that left her breathless as she stared into his eyes. All the while, he was smiling like he was having the best time of his life.
Paul's face was getting closer to hers and Jessi panicked as the music stopped. She smacked him across the face and backed away from him, running a hand up to her neck. She found it burning.
"Er, sorry, not sorry," Jessi said, fixing her shirt.
Paul laughed. "Sorry, not sorry?"
"You can't go around and do that to people, Paul," she pointed out. "Come out of nowhere, dance with them, and then try to – I don't even know what you were trying to do."
"Oh c'mon, Jessi. You were totally into it." Paul moved in front of her again. "You were grinding and rubbing…all the fun stuff." He howled. "Woo! You're crazy girl."
Jessi rolled her eyes and walked away from the laughing Boy. She mumbled under her breath and crossed her arms over her chest. The sound of Paul's boots on the boards of the boardwalk followed her and then he was next to her, draping his arm around her shoulders.
"So," Paul said lazily, waving his other hand carelessly. "I met Brian."
"He's a jerk," Jessi mumbled.
"More like douchebag, but I could go with prick too."
"Your point?"
"You have a lousy coworker."
"I have a lousy life," Jessi corrected, frowning. "And I'd really appreciate it if the male sex would keep their lousy hands off me."
"Someone touch you, Jessi?" Paul demanded, looking at her.
OOOOOOOOOOOOO
Jessi remained silent to his question. His nostrils flared and he smelled another male on her. Something rather like Faith's kind, soothing touch, touched him and he felt certain that Jessi hadn't been under the same duress as Faith or Iona. She carried herself different than they did. Still haunted, but not quite.
"Jessi…" Paul sang, shaking her lightly.
The platinum blonde shook her hair and tried to get out from under his arm. Paul pulled her closer to him and he started singing a loud Billy Idol song.
"Shut up! Stop!" Jessi exclaimed, moving in front of him and putting her hand over his mouth. "Stop."
Paul stared at her with glittering eyes and licked her hand. Jessi made a disgusted face that somehow still looked cute on her and pulled her hand back.
"Why are boys so disgustingly similar?" she demanded.
"Because we come from the same nut," Paul laughed, jumping around.
Jessi looked at him and then kept walking. Paul draped his arm around her shoulders again and steered her where he wanted to go. He reached out to a kid on the side and slapped some money in his hand before slipping his hand back into his pocket. Jessi stared at him.
"Did you just make a drug deal?" she asked, sounding shocked.
"No, well, yeah. Just some weed, the good stuff." Paul glanced down at her. "You smoke?"
Jessi's eyes told him no, but something about her seemed to say that she wished that she could. Paul smirked and whispered something in her ear.
A promise he'd never made before.
OOOOOOOOOOO
A/N: How was that? Did you enjoy it? I'm just happy that I've managed to get this update done. Thanks for the chance. -Scarlet
