It hurt when she was dropped onto the ground and her legs were so weak from fear, she couldn't find the strength to get up. David was furious and all she got from the other three were dead pan expressions, except Marko, who was just as angry, if not more so, than David. She had really fucked up. Paul and Marko held either arm of the policeman, she noticed he had split skin on his cheekbone so obviously one of the boys had hit him but she was glad he was still alive.
'You are going to learn what happens when you disobey me,' David said in a calm yet acid laced voice and he slammed the back of his hand into the face of the man and she heard a sickening crack as the cop's jaw broke. She looked at the cop and his mouth now hung unnaturally open and she felt sick. 'And when you tell anyone about us.' David told her and in one movement, he tore the man's arm from Marko and snapped it, the bone poking through the flesh and the poor man cried out in extreme pain. Star couldn't believe what was happening.
'NO! Please David, stop!' She screamed and David turned and walked towards her.
'What Star? You don't like this? You did this.' He spat his words at her, walking back towards the cop. 'Did you think you were going to get away with this without me finding out? Without any consequence? You think I would allow him to live knowing our secret? You are the only living person to know our secret that is not yet one of us and there's no fucking way a pig will ever know anything about us.' She watched him grab the cop by the head and crush his knee with his boot heel and the sound made her flinch so hard, she had to close her eyes and she'd stopped breathing. She couldn't stand hearing the man's painful screaming and she tried to shut it out by covering her ears and she couldn't help by begin to cry. This was her fault, if she hadn't have said anything, this wouldn't be happening and it wouldn't happen to her. She was shaking in fear, certain that she would be next. Suddenly her hands were yanked away and she heard laughter above the pitiful whimpering of the cop. Laughter? Paul and Marko found this funny? David pulled her roughly over next to the cop. 'You wanna put him out of his misery? The misery you put him in?' He pushed her face close to the cop's as he spoke into her ear. 'Hmm? You want to stop this? Do it Star. Kill him.' He was pushing her to kill the man, and being so close to him with the sight and smell of his blood, she was struggling with her urge to want to taste him as it was, but she refused and pushed against David's hand, shaking her head. She wouldn't, she couldn't kill him. She felt ultimately sorry for what she had caused him to go through, she wasn't going to then take his life. David pushed her head as he let her go and she could feel his seething anger. 'You ever tell anyone about us again, you ever speak to anyone without my permission ever again and I will do this to you.' The man was dragged away from her and she saw a fully turned David create a large gash in the man's neck and gouge out a large vein which he spat out just in front of her, before dropping the convulsing cop's body onto the ground. She looked up at him, so shocked at his depravity that she was nearly convulsing herself and beginning to hyperventilate. 'Don't you ever defy me again.' He said and he stalked off up the beach. What she'd just witnessed was fresh out of a Wes Craven movie and she couldn't believe he'd left her alive but she didn't know whether being alive had left her in a far more precarious position and that, in all honesty, she would be better off dead. Dwayne walked towards her and picked her up off the sand.
'No, no, no…' She panicked and he placed one of her arms over his shoulder and took off with her back to the cave. She didn't fight him, he was just as strong as the other two and she knew there was no way she was going to escape his grasp. He placed her on her bed and she sat there shaking uncontrollably going into shock and unable to catch her breath and Dwayne stood there silently staring at her, not really knowing what to do. He sat next to her and placed his arms around her and she freaked out and began pulling away from him, thinking he was going to kill her.
'Hey, hey, it's alright. Shhh.' He said and he held her tighter until she stopped struggling and she broke and cried. They sat like this for the next few minutes until she had calmed herself down and pulled herself together a bit.
'Are you OK?' He asked her and she looked at him, surprised at his question. It was the first time he'd gone out of his way to be kind to her and she didn't want to seem ungrateful, she'd pissed off enough vampires for one night.
'No, but I will be.' She told him.
'Yeah, you will be.' He agreed. 'You can't blame him, what you did was reckless and dangerous. And incredibly stupid.'
'I know.' She said looking down. 'I'm sorry.'
'No, you're lucky, that's what you are.' Dwayne said truthfully. 'I thought he was going to kill you. He must really love you because I have seen him kill over far less than what you have done tonight.' He paused. 'Believe him and don't fuck up again. Now sit and stay and calm down. There's something I'd like you to do for me.' She sat there and wrapped herself in the shawl she had and did some deep breathing to try and centre herself. He came back with a polished wolfs tooth that he'd fashioned into an earring and handed it to her. 'Will you pierce my ear?' She was surprised, first that he wanted her to do it but second that he was actually being nice to her after what she'd done.
'Ahh… sure.' She said, willing to do anything he asked to keep the vampire in front of her happy, and she went to get her supplies. She sterilized the needle and told him to sit on her bed. She kneeled down beside him and pulled his hair away from his ear and it was then she noticed how handsome he was. No, he was more than that, he was gorgeous and she couldn't work out why she hadn't noticed it before. With her shaking hands, he pierced his ear and slid the ring into his lobe and sat back looking at it. It suited him perfectly.
'Thanks.' He said gently touching it.
'Why are you being nice to me?' She asked him as he got up.
'I believe in fate and you are meant to be here with us Star. You and David are meant to be together. Who am I to stand in the way of destiny?' He said simply. 'Now, I am going to meet up with the boys and you are going to stay here. If you leave, I will kill you myself. There is no fate between you and I but sometimes you make your own fate. Got it?' He was serious and she nodded. He walked over and picked up a book and walked back to her. 'You leave, you're dead.' He said throwing one of his sketching pads over onto her bed and he left. She crawled up and lay on her bed in the foetal position. Fate. Dwayne had said it was fate she was here, that David and she were meant to be together and she didn't understand. Was she meant to be a vampire? A killer? That made no sense to her. Where was her happy ending? Where was her American dream? 2.2 kids, a dog and a loving husband? Her life had already been shit, this couldn't be her destiny. She lay there tormented by what she'd seen and exhaustion began to take hold of her. She was too scared to go anywhere knowing what they would do to someone who betrayed them but she was also terrified to stay. She was frozen, not knowing what to do, and she was so tired. She wondered what time it was and when they would be back then sleep quickly took her.
She awoke feeling as flat as a pancake and just lay there for a few minutes wondering if the boys were back. She hadn't heard them come back in last night. She then noticed Dwayne's book and she reached over and picked it up. It was another sketching pad and she sat up and began to look at the images it held. They were good, they were really good, detailed drawings. Dwayne was really talented. There were drawings of all the boys separately and he'd managed to capture their essence on paper, she could feel Paul's wild side, Marko's cheekiness and David's charisma. She was mesmerized by them. He had drawn the Boardwalk, the railway tracks out in the mountains, an owl in a tree and a whole range of Native American images. Then she turned the page and saw one of herself and she stopped. He had drawn her and it was beautiful and she loved it. She was blown away with the way he saw her, naïve beauty with a touch of sadness. There was one more after hers which was half done and it was going to be one of all of them. He'd drawn David looking over at Star and the possessiveness in his eyes was unmistakable. Paul was laughing with a half-finished Marko and he'd done the outlines of himself and a couple of bikes with the pier in the background, she would like to watch him draw the rest of it but she didn't think that was going to happen. Suddenly she heard the boys clamber down the entrance to the cave and her rib cage froze and she closed her eyes, dreading what was coming. She felt David sit on her bed and she opened her eyes again when she felt his hand stroke the base of her spine and she closed Dwayne's sketching pad.
'Star.' She heard him say her name and she turned to look at him. 'Come here.' She didn't want to, she didn't want to be anywhere near him but she also knew that Dwayne was right and she couldn't go anywhere now, she was stuck here with them and she was going to have to make peace. She leaned back and sat next to him and he grabbed her hand and held it in his lap and she looked at him. The monster had gone and he looked tired.
'I'm sorry.' She said and he sighed making her look down.
'Yeah, well now you know what I will do to protect myself and my pack and you.' She heard him include her and she looked up into his cobalt blue eyes and he put his hand on her cheek softly. 'You're my girl. You're one of us Star.' He leaned to her and kissed her and she reluctantly returned the kiss, not wanting to antagonise the beast again. He stopped and looked at her before he spoke again. 'Would you like to go get something to eat?' She nodded, hoping the food would take away the pain in her stomach and she got up and David told the boys they were going to get some food and meet Marko, and it was then she realised Marko wasn't there with them.
0o0
She'd never been a fan of Thai food but she picked at the dishes David had gotten her and unfortunately it failed to make her feel any better. Marko arrived and sat there giving her dirty looks and she turned away feeling guilty and moved her attention to the other people in the room. There was a little girl sitting two tables away from her and she was staring at Star and Star gave her a small smile and the little girl smiled back at her. She wondered if she'd ever have a little girl, if that was in her destiny but she couldn't imagine David ever being a father.
'Come on Star, we're going shopping.' She heard David say and she tuned back into the conversation at the table not knowing why she was going shopping. 'We're getting you a dress, you have a party to attend.' A party? What party? Her gut instincts told her that this was wrong.
'I don't want to go to a party.' She shook her head.
'Sure you do.' David dismissed her comment and pulled her up to her feet. They walked out of the restaurant and down the street towards clothing stores, which stocked items she couldn't afford and wouldn't wear anyways. Suddenly he stopped outside a high-end woman's store looking at a fitted red dress.
'That's it.' She looked sideways at him. 'That's the one. Go in and try it on.'
'I'm not wearing that.' She said to him. Aside from the colour, it was nowhere near her style of dress. Where was he was sending her and what for, wearing something like that? She felt the heat of his stare on her and she looked at him and knew he was serious. She'd already just about died defying him, she wasn't about to do it again. She walked in the store, found the dress and took it to the dressing room. She looked the dress over and then at the price tag. $1800. This was one serious dress. She pulled it on and it fit her small frame with a little room to spare, she'd lost weight being with these boys. She walked out and she instantly held all the boys attention.
'Yes.' She heard Paul say and she looked at David and he was captivated, his mouth slightly open in awe. Her cheeks reddened with all the eyes scanning her body.
'We'll take it.' David told the shop assistants, one of which approached her.
'You look gorgeous.' She told Star. 'Do you have shoes?' Star shook her head and the lady told her to stay there and she went off to get some for her. She came back with a pair of shiny black stilettos and Star tried them on. They were perfect and Star said yes to them and then she went to take the dress off. She began thinking of how she was going to pay for all this, knowing none of the boys had $1800 let alone what the shoes were going to cost. Then she thought of David's compulsion and wondered if she could do it too. She came out of the dressing room and walked to the centre of the store. The assistant came and took the dress and led Star to the counter and took the security tag off and placed the shoes and dress in a bag for her. 'Can I ask you a question?' The lady said to her and Star looked at her. 'Are you OK? With these guys, I mean, are you OK?' Star was thrown, she didn't know what to say. She knew what she wanted to say but she knew what would happen if she did so she softly smiled and nodded saying she was fine. Then she looked at the ladies and said that she was going to take the bag and leave and, to her surprise, the ladies just stood there and gave her blank stares. They didn't try and stop her or say anything to her, they just let her walk out. She walked over to David and he looked at her a bit shocked.
'How did you get that?' He asked.
'I asked for it.' She gave him a small smile and his face changed to one of impressed surprise and she knew she'd done well. David told the boys he was going back to the cave and that he'd see them later and she knew she would be expected to go with him. She enjoyed the ride back, the air was cool and she could have been on his bike all night long. Upon getting back to the cave, she walked over in the direction of her bed but his voice stopped her.
'Oh, no you don't. Come and sit with me.' She placed her bag on her bed, trying not to cringe at his request. She turned around and went and sat on the couch feeling uncomfortable and unsure of what he was going to do, she just wanted to lie on her bed and be left alone. David sat watching her and she felt like he was studying her and picking up on every minute move she made. The silence was killing her and she had to say something to break it.
'What is this party I have to go to?' She asked him, looking up at him.
'There's a man I want you to talk to. I want you to convince him to come outside with you and I will take it from there.' This was just sounding dodgier and dodgier and she knew everything about this was wrong. 'No questions, just do as I ask Star.' He said curtly and she sensed he was getting annoyed and she shrunk back into the couch. 'Let's have a smoke, it'll help you with your stomach pains. At least until you feed.' How did he know she was having stomach pains? He lit the smoke and she was hesitant in taking it but she did, hoping he was right and that it might help her. They passed the smoke between them and she was unprepared for how strong it was. He gave it back to her and then he got up and walked out the back, leaving her in the main cave on her own when the boys arrived back in his absence and Paul took the smoke off her.
'Just what I need.' He said. She had had too much anyways and was glad he'd taken it from her. Dwayne plonked down next to her on the couch.
'What did you think?' She looked at him.
'About what?' She asked, too stoned to click what he was talking about.
'My drawings in the book I left you.' He said.
'Oh… Oh, they're amazing! You are really talented!' She said more animated than she'd been all night and Dwayne's face lit up.
'You been showing her your talents? Ooo David won't like that.' Paul laughed as he gave Dwayne shit and David came out.
'I won't like what?' He asked Paul and Paul laughed again. They began to talk about stuff she wasn't interested in and she began thinking of Dwayne's drawings and wondered what else he'd drawn in his other booklets. Suddenly she woke up and she was lying on a cold bed in a different cavern with David leaning above her and she began to panic.
'No.' She tried to get up but he wouldn't let her.
'Ssshhh. You're going to stay here with me tonight.' In where? She didn't know where she was.
'What?' She asked, watching him warily and her heart thumped painfully in her chest.
'I've set up this room for us so I can stay with you.' He moved closer to her and kissed her and she thought her heart was going to break her rib cage. 'You're mine and I want to be with you.' He kissed her again and she went rigid, terrified and not wanting to do this with him after what she'd seen him do. She looked into his eyes, into his soul and all of a sudden she felt pins and needles all through her body and he kissed her harder and she felt powerless to deny him. She felt his tongue in her mouth and his hand under her skirt sliding up her inner thigh and despite her intense unwillingness, she succumb to him and she slept with the Devil again.