A/N: Sorry.
Also, Lucky ended up reminding me of Jan Valentine in this chapter.
Thus, I am even sorrier.
Chapter 2-13: Burning Bridges
A Back Alley behind a Seattle High School, 12th October 2010, 10:19 PM
"So what's actually supposed to happen? I mean, do you really believe that…"
The place was less a back alley than a tunnel. The factory across the alley from the school had seemingly intruded upon the space left in the already cramped passage, leaving a narrow passageway about six feet high and two feet across. The walls were covered in cut-off wire scraps, smashed meters and broken gauges, the outdated leftovers of a bygone age. The flooring consisted of a few sheets of oil-smeared plywood bridging the pits in the filthy mud.
The person speaking was a girl in her late teens, dressed a tad too properly for a high-school party. She wore her brown hair in a thick braid, and her face was spattered with a few freckles.
"I mean, we came here as a joke, right? What are we gonna do if that guy actually shows up?"
A few more youths squeezed into the alley through the torn wire fence behind the janitor's storage closet. The tallest among them, a boy with short brown hair and a few unruly spots of scraggly beard, tried to reply calmly, but couldn't hide the excitement in his voice.
"What we're gonna do? We're gonna hope he's telling the truth. If not, I don't think he expected us to come packing. You've brought yours, right?"
The girl nodded slowly, her breath quickening. She patted her handbag, producing the dull rattle of metal against metal.
The boy's mouth twitched slightly, seemingly balancing on the edge between excitement and fear. After a few seconds, though, he decided to settle on the former.
"You've even brought ammo? Awesome! What're you packing?"
The girl sneered, an expression that slipped dangerously close to a pout at the end.
"My brother's a cop. They had a change of equipment not too long ago, and this one just kinda got lost in the commotion, I guess. They never really asked for it back. I think it's a Sig-Sauer."
A red-haired young man in a scuffed beige sports jacket and black slacks wormed his way through the gap in the fence, obviously trying to affect authority by standing up, clapping his hands and shouting for attention.
"Okay! Shut up and get in here. Most of us don't know each other, okay? Let's get the introductions over with before we start. I'm Ryan. Let's get Romeo and Juliet over there, yeah?"
The girl blushed a bit, while the boy beside her just looked self-satisfied, trying not to smile.
"I'm Irene. And well, this is Philip. We're not, you know, together."
Ryan snorted and whipped around to the others, his long hair swinging with him.
"Looks like these two really have the whole promise-ring thing going on. So what are… wait. I just gotta get one thing straight. How many of you people came here because they believed what that bloke wrote on the BBS?"
Two people raised their hands in the back.
"Well, fuck me with a lawnmower. That makes two out of …eight, nine, and ten. Damn, you showed up after all. That's better than we usually get with offline meetings. Normally, we'd have fifty people on the list and only three who showed up. Thirteen out of twenty-eight ain't bad."
Ryan fished around in his spacious jacket, coming out with a can of lager. He opened it, inhaled half of it and put it aside on an electric meter with its gibs hanging out, all in one continuous movement.
A black-haired girl in a noncommittal blend of denim and leather raised a hand halfway, but decided to simply speak instead.
"Well, er, are you gonna die drunk? I wouldn't like that. It seems… dirty."
Ryan thumped his fist against his forehead and groaned.
"Okay, as I was gonna say, how many of you thought this was a fucking group suicide? Be honest, you emo fucks."
Most everyone raised their hands. After a few seconds of hesitation, Irene raised hers too.
"Okay, Juliet. Speak for the group. Try not to whine too hard, m'kay?"
Irene cleared her throat about five times more than necessary and fiddled with the straps on her handbag.
"Well, I thought this was something like a metaphor. Dying and coming back again, I mean, it sounds like something religious. And if I'm gonna die, I can as well do it in faith that I'll end up someplace nice."
Philip tried to get words out, but ended up simply staring at Irene for ten seconds before talking.
"What? I mean, why? This was a dare, right? We were going out here to see if that vampire bloke showed up. It was all fun, right?"
Irene managed to form the first half of a "You have to understand" before Ryan broke in with his typical decorum.
"Shut the fuck up, emo girl. We're here to do what Romeo said. We wait 'till that vampire bloke comes by, and then we'll see if he can walk the walk. That counts for all of you. If he actually is a vampire, then you can kill yourself a second time. Capisce?"
Despite the insulted muttering from the rest of the youths, Ryan won out through simple initiative, being the only one who had the tactlessness to issue commands.
"So now we wai-"
Ryan was ironically interrupted by the thump of leather on wood as someone dropped down from the factory roof, landing with a disturbing ease.
The person stood up and pulled back her hood, showing a gaunt, drawn face with a broken nose and a missing earlobe. She held a crumpled cigarette between her teeth, and her hair was short and tufty, seemingly cut with a rather unorthodox instrument. Her teeth were bared in a wide rictus grin, and her sulfur-yellow eyes flashed with playful malice.
"So you were planning on killing yourselves, darlings? That won't do. We need you, you know."
Her voice was somewhere between sugar and vitriol, a smug sneer exacerbated by exaggerated body language.
Ryan flinched and took a few steps back, but managed to regain his composure and speak.
"W-well, that's their fault. I came prepared."
The girl laughed to herself, something more akin to a wheezing growl than anything else.
"That's fine, boss. For the rest of you, I'm Avers, and I'll be intruding on your private lives starting tonight."
The black-haired girl who'd spoken before stepped forward, stuttering out a few half-formed sentence fragments before managing to speak coherently.
"You were, I mean, you said – "
She stumbled a bit over the confidence she tried to call up, but got into it after a few tries.
"You said you were a vampire, right? That was why we met you here. Prove you are, and we'll trust you."
Avers laughed again, openly now. She continued for fifteen seconds before breaking down in giggles and wiping imaginary tears from her eyes.
"That's what I like to hear. You'll make a good member. So what do you want me to show?"
The girl thought for a moment, and then said, "Crosses. Let's try."
Avers' smile vanished in the blink of an eye, replaced by a wild-eyed grimace and bared teeth. She stepped forward, past an admittedly quite paralyzed Ryan, and grabbed the girl by the throat. She squeezed just hard enough to make an impression, and then lifted her two feet off the ground.
Avers' fingers tightened around the girl's throat, constricting until she was gasping for air.
"Don't try to fuck with me. You think you're so fucking clever, huh? Well, I'm under no obligation to baby you here. I'm treating you nice because I don't feel like killing mortals today. Get in line and act nice, or we'll have you turned and let out in the world without knowing fuck-all. You're in way over your head here. To use a cliché, you have no idea who you're dealing with."
Avers let go of the girl's throat, leaving her hacking and wheezing on the ground. Letting her gaze run over the scared teens in front of her, she cracked her fingers and smiled with her usual false sweetness.
"So, is anyone else gonna make a fuss, or can I get on with what I was doing?"
Not even a whisper came from the crowd, and Avers intensified her smirk.
"Fan-tas-tic. Now, since we seem to have an incapacitated member here, is anyone else up for asking questions? Just don't try something stupid like this broad, or I won't be as nice."
Irene half-raised a hand, and Avers pointed her out in the manner of a malicious teacher calling out the least prepared student.
"Well, er, yeah, vampires live forever, right? So if I become one, I can get a second chance, or is there some catch?"
Avers shrugged and smirked, her eyes narrowing into yellow slits.
"You'll get it all for free, Juliet. You'll be immortal, you'll be stronger and you'll have powers humans could never dream of. It's a win-win deal. We just went through a …merger, if you will, and we need recruits. We promise to treat you nicely."
Philip grabbed Irene's arm, but said nothing. She continued talking, eyes lit up by a fervor that overshadowed everything else.
"What'll I be able to do, then? What about making people do what I tell them to?"
Avers snorted and threw her arms out in a gesture of mock surrender.
"Well, that's Lucky's territory. He's my new boss, so if he decides to turn you, I have no say in it. I'm mostly good at the whole predator shtick. You know, moving fast as fuck, turning into mist, you name it."
Ryan's head whipped up at Avers' words, curiosity in his eyes.
"Could you turn me, then? That's what I'm aiming for."
Avers' expression flipped between disappointment and excitement multiple times, before finally settling on the latter.
"One death of unnecessary humanity, one birth of a predator. You and I are gonna get along just fine. For now, I have another thing to tend to, though."
Avers' smile went back to her usual rictus grin, a hint of growling laughter building in her throat.
"Lucky! You take Juliet. I'll take mouthy van Helsing here."
"As ya command, newbie."
Philip's face sank from its previous expression of concerned fear into one of smug amusement. His facial features blurred and warped, settling into those of a sallow, bearded man in his late twenties. His body convulsed and shivered, the clothes on his back tearing and rearranging. His arms and legs lengthened, his shoulders broadened and his ribcage reconfiguring itself into a thinner shape with a sickening creaking and groaning.
Where Philip had been before, Lucky now stood, cigarette in mouth and lazy grin on his face. He leaned in close to the terrified Irene, breathing smoke and cold breath in her face.
"Take no offense. We jus' make a principle out of givin' people an eye-opener before lettin' them into the Volturi. You wouldn't need your boyfriend anymore, anyway. He tasted – "
Lucky let the cigarette drop from between his lips.
" – rather goddamn terrible."
Lucky pressed Irene against the wall, making a big deal out of covering her ears from the crunching and ripping that had started from behind them.
"Oh my. She's a bit tetchy, ain't she? Well, no matter. Time for another new round of recruits. No worry, everyone's gonna survive… kinda sorta. Sure got a good recruiter in that Nessie bitch."
Lucky removed his hand from Irene's ear, holding it over her mouth.
"Now don't you think too hard about it. I'm just mutterin' to myself. Revenge is always easy to play on."
"Now goodnight, all of you. If Aro wants to meet the Sleeping One, you've gotta live and die for the Master's words."