Title: The first kill.
Characters: Focuses on David, Laddie and Max but mentions others.
Prompt: Innocence
Word count: 915
Rating: PG
Author's notes: A little ficlet about David's thoughts on Laddie as well as flash back to David's first kill. This is not cannon and comes solely from my mind. I kinda went off on a tangent I think so it's not my best work.

The first kill was the hardest. David would never admit that to the others but it was a truth he understood and had seen in himself, the boys, Star. It was Laddie's first kill that he was most apprehensive about, for who knew how the child would react? Would he share the same horror that Marko had? Would laugh and lap up the blood as Paul did? David never admitted it but he often wondered if it had a mistake to give Laddie the blood at all. As he sat from his chair in cave watching the others around him eat and laugh, he knew he could have handled it all differently. Dwayne and Star wouldn't have argued if he had just let the kid go. Marko would have followed his word and not argued and as for Paul... David's eyes slid over to the young blond man who was making rude gestures at Marko. Paul wouldn't give two shits what I did with the kid.

Laddie had come to the boys, not the other way around. A little runaway who watched the gang on the boardwalk just like so many other kids but Laddie was braver then those children. He got it into his head to follow the boys one night back to the cave. They had laughed at his innocence as the tiny child stumbled into the cave. Star started mothering him immediately and that's when David got the idea to give Laddie the blood. She had already been hinting about taking off and David' couldn't allow that. Laddie then became the chain which David used to keep Star inline. Stay with us Star, Laddie needs you. David's eyes fell on the girl as he remembered those words. I don't think she'll ever forgive me for that.

Not that David worried about Star's forgiveness. If he had anything to worry about, it was Laddie.

The boy had taken to staring at David lately, unnerving the vampire leader. Soft, sad eyes staring out at David from the child's face. Eyes that made David feel guilty, eyes that reminded David of his own first kill.

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Bloodlust had gripped David hard those first two nights when the teenager had tried to fight it off. Max had tried to make him feed, even to the point of bringing him a lovely victim but David refused, running away. That was when she found him. Alice and her mother had been bringing groceries into their house on the outskirts of Santa Carla when Alice heard David in the woods. The silly little girl got it into her head to follow the noises. Five seconds later David was on her without a second thought, tearing at her throat like a wild animal. She had been so tiny and didn't even scream when David tore into her.

Her mother did scream. She had come looking for the kid in the trees David and Alice were hidden in, calling out her daughter's name. David could still remember the note of panic in her voice just as he could remember the feel of her neck in his hands as he killed her.

David took two innocents in one night. Max found him later, weeping bitterly over the bodies.

"David, get up". David didn't move.

Max stalked over to the blond boy and grabbed him roughly by the neck. "Get up David! Stop crying like a child, you're a grown man now!"

David's head snapped toward Max, his red-rimmed eyes nearly glowing and his face still distorted. He grabbed the taller man roughly by the arms. "I'm not a man, I'm a goddamn monster".

A lazy chuckle and Max pushed David's arms down. "No, you're a man and you're a survivor. I knew that the moment we first met". Max glanced down at the mother and daughter lying on the ground with their throats torn out. "You do what you have to so you can survive. There's no shame in that so don't wallow in grief". Max's voice was calm and self-assured, soothing David in a way he couldn't describe. The horror he had felt moments ago now seemed irrational as his sire spoke. When Max ordered him to pick up the bodies, David couldn't help but obey. The older vampire was going on about discipline and how David would learn to accept the change. It all seemed so reasonable in his mind that David didn't argue as the pair disposed of the bodies, nor did he argue when Max brought him another child to feed on the next night.

"You can't let yourself feel pity for them", Max instructed him. "They're cattle David. Mortal. Eventually they'll all grow old and die anyway. Death is natural for them, just as killing is natural for us".

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David took those words and let them become his creed, guarding his heart and become the monster Max wanted. He stopped questioning right and wrong until Laddie came along. Laddie, who reminded David of himself as a child. Quiet, kind of strange with an asshole for a father it turned out as the kid revealed more about his homelife. Being a vampire had saved David. He hoped it would save Laddie. Save him from dying, save him from growing old.

Maybe you're just trying to save your conscious. David scowled at those words. He had made his choice, it was too late now. This was his life and like it or not, this was Laddie's life too.