I've been forgetting my handy disclaimer. Are you all ready for this, because I'm only going to say it once (as it is harder to keep up the denial ifI have to repeat)? I don't own any of Vivian Vande Velde's (hereon forth dubbed VVV) books, characters, initials, or sex-store scenes. I do, however, own Nathaniel. He likes it too.

Club Vampyr

Chapter 3

Kerry never did wake up quickly, but today it seemed to take her hours to open her eyelids a slit. Her head was pounding as though someone had beamed her with a heavy boulder, and her limbs all felt as if they weighed tons. In fact, she would not be surprised if something heavy was directly on top of her. She didn't think she was in her bed. She remembered going to that club with Nelle and Nathaniel, and then…

Nelle was dead.

Oh, she had been better off not remembering that. Her heart wanted to weep at the loss of her best friend, but her mind was trying to convince her to find out what her current situation was. One thing she had learned over the years was that survival often required you to take a self-serving point of view. Ethan taught her that.

The room she was in was incredibly dark. It could be windowless, but for all she knew it was a dungeon. "Hello?" She whispered, not able to form her normal voice yet.

"Hello?" Another voice parroted back to her. She was almost sure it was another voice, but her head could be ringing enough to echo.

"Hello?" She tried again.

"Kerry?" The other voice called back. "It's Nathaniel."

"Are you ok?" The last time she had seen him, he had been valiantly trying not to sob like a baby over Nelle's body. She wasn't sure he had completely succeeded there.

"No, man, what was that thing they used on us?" He paused for a second. "I think I soiled myself."

That weight on top of her better not be Nathaniel, Kerry mused with a grimace, as she tried to roll over. "Tasers tend to do that." She wasn't sure if they had had that particular effect on her, as she still couldn't sense half her limbs and the other half were tingling painful from lack of blood circulation. Finally, she was able to shift her torso around so that she was facing the ceiling. Immediately the pressure on her chest eased. Right. She had been lying on her stomach. It was good, she supposed, that she had mistaken the front of her body being pressed into the hard floor as something on top of her. She really didn't want Nathaniel anywhere near her if he reverted back to a five year old poopy pants. "Where are we?"

"A bedroom?"

"A bedroom? Why would you think that?" She had no reason to think this was anything but a light-less room with no furniture.

"I'm pretty sure I'm on a bed."

"Hey!" Kerry called out indignantly, poking the floor beneath her to make sure it was, indeed, a floor. "Why do you get a bed?"

Nathaniel remained silent.

"I guess the vampires like you." She pushed, somewhat teasing but also feeling a bit spiteful. The cold floor couldn't be helping her stiff muscles. She supposed they were lucky to only be tasered and not drained of blood like a strawberry milkshake on a hot day. In fact, it was incredibly strange to think of vampires using tasers at all. It was kind of like 'let me incapacitate you with volts of electricity. Please ignore the fangs.'

Nathaniel laughed nervously. "We need to talk about that."

"About vampires? I guess they're real, huh?" She really hoped Nathaniel hadn't noticed all the small things she had said and done a few minutes ago (or hours, depending on how long they were out) that added up to a very large conclusion that she had known vampires existed for ages. He would probably blame what had happened to Nelle on her and it wouldn't be unjustified. She was blaming herself.

"Yeah, they're real." He sighed and obviously had more to say. He remained uncharacteristically silent.

Kerry was starting to make out shapes in the dark. It could be because she had only just opened her eyes, but she really wasn't sure. She could make out the large looming bed above her. Nathaniel's head poked over the side of it. At least, she assumed it was his head. It did look head shaped for once, whereas he had a habit of gelling his hair in outrageous shapes. She tried to remember what he had done with his hair last night, figuring a mundane detail like that would take the focus away from everything else she didn't want to be thinking about. Like, had they really turned Nelle? For the life of her, she couldn't remember his hair.

"Wow, you really are on the floor." Nathaniel snorted. He, too, was trying to misdirect from what they were talking about. She gave him a scathing look despite the fact she knew he wouldn't be able to see it. "I knew," he blurted out.

"What?"

"About vampires being real! I didn't say anything because I didn't want to encourage her and now it is all my fault that she's dead. I thought I could protect her and you were so sure that vampires didn't exist but you were also so careful so I thought that between the two of us we could make sure nothing happened. And now Nelle…" He broke of his babbling with a sob.

Wow. Talk about the last thing she had expected to hear. She had been pretty sure Nathaniel honestly didn't believe in vampires. For a second she was irrationally angry that he had mislead her, but her brain quickly pointed out that she had done the same to him. Who knew she'd have that in common with the weird guy next door? If anything, at least she knew she hadn't failed Ethan in keeping his secret, even if she felt obligated to tell some of it to Nathaniel now. He should know that the blame wasn't solely on his shoulders.

"Nathaniel?" She tried to break through his crying and not think uncharitable thoughts about him being a crybaby. She knew that at some point in the next day or so she would be doing the same. Right now, not knowing where they were or if Nelle was dead or dead, she felt as if the situation hadn't ended and so she had to remain strong. It was a trait she learned over the years; she had to stay strong so baby Ian wouldn't realize that mommy wasn't coming back to feed him today when all she wanted to do was cry and cry and cry and have her mommy hold her and tell her it was all right; she couldn't show her father or brother just how damaged she was for killing a man, or they might send her off to a shrink who would then convince her that her memories of Ethan had, in fact, been her brain's way of coping with the kidnapping; Nelle was sobbing in the bathroom, having just thrown up her meal as a side-effect of the drugs she was taking, and it was up to Kerry to hold back her hair and tell her not to give up hope when all she could think was that her best friend was dying and she was too ineffectual to make a difference. It seemed, around every corner, her life was throwing her more tests which tried to break her, and Kerry was determined to pass each and every one of them. Right now, what she needed to do was tell Nathaniel that she had known all along that vampires were real, and so she shared this blame with him as well. They were both too good of actors in the play which was ignorant human life in a world of hidden monsters. "Shhhhhhhhhhhh," she ended up calling in comfort, as if she were his older sister as well.

Nathaniel hiccupped, not even trying to calm his mourning. Kerry gave him points for that.

The door to their cell, which turned out to be an ordinary bedroom door, opened and a man walked in. Immediately, he took stock of the situation of Nathaniel on the bed and Kerry on the floor and winced. "Whatcha doing down there?" He asked Kerry, picking the easier of two topics.

"Whatever you meant for me to be doing, since I don't think I fell off the bed." Of course Kerry wasn't sure about that. She just made that reply for the sake of saying something.

"We definitely don't want you uncomfortable," he frowned, rubbing his hand over his jaw in a habitual movement. "The boss wants to talk with you."

Kerry felt a thrill blast through her nerves, tingling the surface of her skin as she struggled with the urge to smile inanely. Could it be? Could his boss be the very vampire she spent half her time looking over her should in the hopes of catching a glimpse of?

"Not until after we find out what happened to our friend Nelle." Nathaniel requested calmly from the bed. His voice was normal and almost authoritative, as if he hadn't been sobbing his eyeballs out moments before.

The vampire (or vampire lackey, Kerry wasn't as attuned to whatever skill it had been which allowed her to pick out the subtle differences before) looked disinclined to agree with him.

"Is she dead?" Kerry asked, knowing that Nathaniel was right. If the boss wasn't Michel, surely Kerry could find a way out of that situation so long as she knew Nelle would be taken care of.

The vampire laughed. "Yes, of course. You were there when she died."

Right. That hadn't been a particularly well-thought out question. "Will she stay dead?"

The vampire remained quiet. Kerry took that as a positive sign.

"Now, the girl has to come with me for a few minutes."

"No," Nathaniel protested. "We're going home."

The two men had a testosterone-laden staring contest. Kerry would have assumed the vampire to come out victorious, but he was the one who looked away first. "The boss won't be too pleased with me…" he trailed off.

"Please dad," Nathaniel wheedled.

Kerry looked between the two of them, slightly shocked. So that's how Nathaniel knew about vampires! Now that she had the insider-information, she could see the family resemblance. Nathaniel was still a bit younger than his father, but the two of them had the same strong jaw and almost sinfully feminine lips. The eyes looked to be the same shape, though different colors, which could have just been an effect of Nathaniel dabbling with his appearance.

"Kerry insists on going home right now," Nathaniel argued, easily putting words into her mouth. "She's a real prima donna sometimes."

Kerry glared at him, affronted that he would say something so untrue about her. Then her brain clicked in and she realized the only way Nathaniel's father would be able to take them home was if she did kick up a fuss and demand for it. She was the one 'the boss' wanted to see, and so she was the only one in position to make demands. The only problem was, she was interested in seeing the boss as quickly as possible. She had to know for sure whether he was Michel or not. On the other hand, she was feeling emotionally exhausted. Now that Nathaniel's father had given them a hint as to Nelle's future, she could feel the adrenaline beginning to crash. Who knew how long she could keep up the façade of strength? She looked at the tear-tracks running down Nathaniel's face and felt a piece of her own emotions break.

She was so busy trying not to cry for the first time that night, she almost missed Nathaniel's father raise his hand to a small wire communicator coiled around his ear. It wasn't until he turned around and began talking to the wall that she noticed his attention was elsewhere.

"No, I don't think either of them are up for it." He said into the communicator. "Yes sir!" His voice rose in surprise, "That is very generous of you, sir."

Kerry exchanged a quick glance with her friend, risking the fact he might send her over the edge and into sob-land. He looked just as curious as she did to what was going on with the boss on the side of the conversation they couldn't hear. "I'm not used to my dad taking orders," Nathaniel whispered to her. His dad flung his arm to the side towards Nathaniel's voice, as if he could chop through the sound so it wouldn't bother him. Kerry had seen her own father do that many times; it must be a universal parent shutting up talkative child while having an important conversation motion.

Nathaniel's dad (she really needed to figure out his name) clicked the side of his ear once again, ending the conversation and hanging up the phone. "The boss changed his mind," he explained blandly, as if the boss was always altering orders and it was expected. "He doesn't want to see Kerry tonight."

"Yippee?" Nathaniel asked.

"Not exactly. Kerry is required to come back for an audience tomorrow evening." He offered his hand to Kerry, who was still sitting on the floor. She grasped it thankfully, not sure if her legs were steady enough to get up on her own yet. Apparently, they were holding her weight for now, so that was a plus. Nathaniel's dad pulled her up easily, but it was still a human-like movement, with no excess power behind it. She frowned. Because of the obvious lack of difference between their ages and the whole position they were in at the moment, she had assumed Nathaniel's father was a vampire, but she supposed if she stretched it a bit, he could be older than he looked and had Nathaniel at a very young age. He never did announce in a melodramatic voice 'I am a vampyyyyyr!' when he arrived or anything. She was making assumptions again.

"Kerry and I will be right outside the door," he continued, handing Nathaniel a pair of pants neither of them had noticed resting on a chair. Of course, neither of them had been able to see the chair when the room was total darkness. Now that a light was on, and Kerry wasn't as occupied, she could tell that Nathaniel had hit it on the nose by guessing it was a bedroom. "I think she has questions to ask me." Mr. Nathaniel's Dad put his arm between Kerry's shoulderblades, navigating her out the door. At the last second he looked back at his son and asked, "Unless of course you want me to change your diaper." Then he laughed at Nathaniel and closed the door.

Kerry leaned against the wall opposite to the door, watching Nathaniel's father carefully. His gaze flickered from a security camera scanning the hallway and then back to her. Kerry imagined him to be silently conveying the message 'the walls have ears and eyes and teeth' but she had to remind herself not to make assumptions. He said she had questions for him, and boy did she ever, but she had firsthand experience with the ways vampires could dodge giving real answers, and even if he wasn't one, humans could be just as skillful. Are you a vampire? How did you have Nathaniel? How old are you? What does your boss want with me? There were so many valid questions she ask him, but she kept her mouth shut.

"What should I call you?" She finally asked. "Nathaniel's dad sounds very fifth-grade to me, but if you prefer…" she trailed off, leaving the ball in his court, the puck on his rink, and a bunch of other sports metaphors she didn't really care for and were likely to get all mixed up in her brain before long.

"Tim," he answered, obviously not joking.

"Tim?" Kerry asked incredulously. She had expected something like Ezekiel, Rafael, or something equally as antiquated. Heck, she would have accepted Lawrence. What she never would have guessed was someone who had given life to a nut-job (or, if she was feeling nicer, she could use 'enigma' for an adjective) like Nathaniel was named Tim.

"His mother is one of those free-agers." Tim explained smoothly, a smile present on his lips as he spoke of the woman he had copulated with at least once, as if used to people disbelieving he could have a son like Nathaniel.

Kerry nodded as if this made perfect sense. She was starting to see why Nathaniel was as messed up as he was. Any person would be confused with a hippie as a mother and an unaging vampire as a father. There she was, making the same assumption about Tim again, but this time there was something more behind it. The longer she was awake and regaining all her sensors after that electric shock to the brain, the more she was sure Tim was a vampire. It was as if that unnamable sense that helped her before was coming back. Or maybe, it was just that now that they were standing in the clear light of the hallway, she could see the pallor of Tim's skin, and the slight sharpness of his incisors.

"Hey!" Nathaniel's knock echoed on the door behind Tim. "You locked me in here again!" Nathaniel's father didn't move immediately to let out his son, letting Kerry see more of the slightly teasing relationship they seemed to have. It was like they were friends and peers instead of father and son. "If you don't let me out of here right now dad, I'm going to throw my dirty pants at you!" They all knew that Nathaniel couldn't possibly succeed against a vampire, but Tim moved to let him out anyway, exaggerating a sigh of annoyance.

"Gee, thanks," Nathaniel said sarcastically as he stepped out of the door, rolling one of his shoulders under his hand. He should have looked ridiculous with his dangerous black boots, siren red top, and a pair of white surfing shorts. Of course, he just managed to look typically Nathaniel instead of stupid. That said a lot about his regular wardrobe.

"Ok guys," Tim exclaimed, leading them through the hallway. "Let's blow this joint…" He didn't get much farther than the word 'blow' before Nathaniel started snickering. "Real mature. Maybe after this you'd like to go to the tree fort and ogle pictures of Victoria's Secret magazines while planning to toilet paper the mailman in the morning."

"Sounds like fun to me," Nathaniel agreed. "Kerry can't come though, because she's a giiiiiirl."

Kerry rolled her eyes, but didn't bother trying to hide the grin on her face. Nathaniel was one of the least offensive people she knew. He could practically get away with misogyny, give a little laugh, and all the girls would swoon over him.

"Besides," Nathaniel continued with a leer in her general direction. "She doesn't need to look at VS magazines. She could be in one."

See. That was exactly what she meant. How could someone be angry with him when he said stuff like that. "Yeah, but you'll never see my…" she trailed off, looking down at her chest being practically pushed out of the corset-ish shirt he loaned her. Right. Never mind that point either. "Perv," she laughed.

The two young adults were following Tim down the corridors, barely paying attention to where they were going. Kerry, however, tried to keep part of her mind recording the directions they made. She wasn't exactly sure where they were, but she had a feeling that tonight was only the beginning of something bigger. She had learned a lot since Michel, and while those were skills she wasn't aware of most of the time, she wasn't naïve enough not to notice that she had changed, or to think to assume that someone else would help her get out of whatever scrape she was in. She might not be a vampire, she was learning to rely on herself more and more as the years went by. Despite her attention to the hallways surrounding them, the corridors were dark and all were painted in a muted beige, which stretched monotonously across every surface. She was so turned around by the lefts and rights Tim made, that she was sure they passed the bedroom she and Nathaniel had been locked in twice.

She couldn't shake the feeling they were being watched.

"Kerry!" Nathaniel put his hand over his chest, pretending to be shocked by her insult. "I'm wounded by the names you call me." He slumped an arm over his eyes in mock despair.

"I wasn't calling you any names," she replied. "It was the truth."

"Dad," Nathaniel wined. "Kerry's being mean."

"Children!" Tim berated the two of them in a way only parents know how to do effectively. Kerry ducked her head in shame, trying to squelch the urge to mutter 'he started it' because that would be too child-like, and effectively prove Tim's point.

Nathaniel didn't even bother trying. "She started it," he sulked.

Kerry rolled her eyes. For a second she thought 'so this is what it's like to have an older brother' and then realized with Nathaniel's maturity level at the moment, he was more like a younger brother. She already had one of those, and while he was a nuisance sometimes, he never got up to this level of annoyance. Squabbling with Nelle's boyfriend was a nice distraction from grief though, and she wondered if he was doing it on purpose. Nathaniel did have layers that even she wasn't privy to, so she didn't really want to sell him short intelligence wise. Going with the flow, and getting caught up in this feeling of kiddie camaraderie, she stuck her tongue out at him.

"Yum." Nathaniel growled at her. "Do it again."

Kerry couldn't help but giggle.

"Shut up guys!" Tim had turned around and was glaring at his son. "I need you to be as quiet as possible as we walk through this door and into the garage."

Kerry immediately sobered. They were being held hostage in vampire territory, her mind screamed at her, why was she being so irresponsible? Sure, everyone needs a little joviality and play in their life, but she knew better than to do this now. She stared at Tim's back as he stood still, listening. She knew he was checking for heartbeats, or footsteps, or any signs that whoever they were trying to avoid was on the other side of the door. Michel had always done the pause and listen thing too. The way was apparently clear, for Tim pushed open the large metal door. The hinges groaned open and Kerry held her breath, waiting to see if anything happened. She wasn't sure if vampires could sense bombs, but she watched enough action movies to know that this point was the big climatic moment.

©RelenaFanel.June9.2006

A/N: Hey! Couldn't resist leaving it at the word 'climax'. We all wish, eh? This chapter has just a bit of humour to tide you through the next couple of chapters, which aren't very funny if I do say so myself. This update was due last week, but I posted Evening Sojourn then. For those of you who haven't read it a Michel/Kerry oneshot, why don't you check it out? I will get the next chapter of To Lure a Dragon posted soon. I'm just having a bit of trouble with what my muses want as opposed to what slips through my not-very-rapidly typing fingers. As always:

Review.

Your assignment this week – how cool is Nathaniel on a scale of 1-10? And why do you think that? (You can rate the other characters too, but its basically given that Michel gets ∞ -- the infinity symbol)