'Peace, my boy,' Franco chuckled in his native tongue, watching his son pace the room frantically. 'Why are you letting this upset you so?'
'Because his pet bitch stuck me, Papa! With silver!' Niko ripped his top up to expose his toned abs, a long silver scar running from hip to hip beneath the dried blood and a new two inch scar marred his perfect ribs.
'Why didn't you snap her neck?' Franco asked, his small, wicked eyes glittering with fury.
'What about the agreement you had with Max? You said we weren't to cause trouble so we could stay here until the others come.' Niko folded his long limbs into the old plush armchair with a heavy huff of frustration, drumming his long fingers on the arm of the couch that his father sat on. 'Believe me, I'd like nothing better than to rip that girl's throat out while he watches, but I thought we had to wait until the rest arrive so we can crush this other colony?'
'A boy after my own heart,' Franco murmured almost lovingly, as he caressed the blonde head that lay on his lap. The thin, emaciated frame of the girl sprawled across the length of the sofa didn't even twitch as the conversation bandied above her. 'Santa Carla is the place we have been looking for, since we were run out of Greece… Yes, I had thought the best course of action was to get Max onside. Perhaps even pursued some of his boys to join us. I have heard many great things of this David of his.' Niko turned his head and spat at the mention of his name, earning a glare from his father in the darkness. 'But it seems we are raising heckles already. Maybe we cannot afford to wait any longer.'
'He smashed the store-front window to cause a distraction, so his pet bitch could escape!' Niko flared. Franco reached out to lay a cool hand on his son's arm, the other hand raised to his lips to gesture quiet.
'I did wonder about that sound. And Dino?' Franco asked, enquiring about the third member of their colony, the man in chef whites cooking up great vats of soup to feed the hungry of Santa Carla.
'He boarded everything up, he's still touting out the front so people know we're open. We need to feed you, Papa.' Niko patted his father's hand gently, causing the older, plumper man to laugh.
'I feed on their fear and their dread. Their tears of terror nourish me and I relish their flailing. That moment when they realise all hope is lost tastes the sweetest. I have no need for the amount of blood you bring me. You must make sure you take care of yourself, also, child. If it comes to war with Max and his boys, you must be in peak condition.' He ran a hand along the head of the silent girl in his lap as though she were a cat curled up for affection and then reached out for her arm, offering the wrist to Niko. 'When they reach this point, I have little interest in them. Her pulse is weak and her mind is fled – where is the fun in that? I want to know when you will let me hunt for myself.'
Niko took the offered wrist roughly and bit without hesitation. His soft suckling was the only sound for a while – the girl was beyond making any noise now, though her eyelids fluttered briefly. If the room had any windows, or even some electric source of illumination, it would have thrown all of the bite marks on her body into stark relief. She was naked, covered from neck to ankle in deep, wide bite marks and thin, shallow cuts. At first she had screamed, which delighted the older man, then her screams had faltered into sobs and pleas each time he fed. At one point, she had acted as though she enjoyed the sharp rip of his fangs as they tore into her flesh, his razor-like nails scoring her skin, in the hope that he might turn her, or even keep her long enough for her to work a way out of the forever locked room - but all that soon turned to begging for an end to her life. They never did last longer than three days, Franco's hunger was insatiable.
'Papa, please. Once we know which side Max will fall, you can hunt for yourself.' Niko sat back with his eyes closed, letting the wrist drop from his hand and giving a gentle nudge so that the lifeless body rolled from his father's lap, the long dirty blonde hair revealing young, almost pretty features that Star would have recognised from the 'missing' posters brought into Tozier's. 'Until then, you're our most treasured possession – a relic of the ancient way of life!' Niko grinned, drunk with blood. 'We must keep you safe. When we have control of Santa Carla, you will be there to lead us.'
'You have two nights to sort this mess out.' Niko nodded.
'I just want the girl. Then I'll be satisfied. If I can just sink my teeth into her perfect flesh, I'd gladly live alongside that shit that busted my nose.' He rubbed a long finger alongside his now perfectly healed nose. 'No one runs away from Niko and lives.'
Franco laughed again and stretched himself out on the now almost empty sofa.
'That's my boy.'
'So, you want to be one of us, huh?' Marco grinned, holding out an open beer for Star to take as he sat beside her in the surf, dry sand beneath them and bare toes in the water. Star took the beer, but didn't drink it, glancing up at the young, smiling boy beside her.
'Dwayne looks like he's having a blast,' she couldn't help but smile back.
'Sleep all day, party all night,' Marco agreed. 'It's fun to be a vampire! What's not to like?'
'Really?'
'You really aren't sure about turning are you?' Marco asked, leaning in close. Star threw a glance over her shoulder at David, who was deep in conversation with Dwayne beside him, but staring at the two by the water's edge.
'I just want to feel I belong somewhere. But the whole idea of drinking blood just makes me feel sick.'
'It's sweet when you turn. The blood I mean. Like, nothing you've ever tasted – creamier than chocolate, more delicious than beer!' He laughed, his light eyes dancing. 'Never thought I'd say that and hell, I'm not even old enough to drink beer. Not technically anyway.' He held the can up to Star and took a long, deep slug.
'And the whole killing people thing?' Marco nodded, looking out across the water.
'That gets easier. Especially when you know what those people have done. It's like truth, justice – the American way.' Star couldn't help but laugh a little at that. 'You ever eat a burger or a hotdog?'
'Yes,' Star said slowly with a little frown.
'Ever wonder if it was wrong to kill the cow or the pig that made that meat? It's a bit like that, I guess. Except those cows and pigs never murdered or raped no body.' Star took a swig from the can in her hand and looked over her shoulder again to find David still staring.
'You like him, huh?' The girl blushed, grateful for the cool, dark night.
'He doesn't like me,' she said and instantly regretted her words, knowing that she sounded like some wounded fifth-grader. Marco laughed good-naturedly.
'He doesn't take easily to most people. He turned a long time ago, his sire changed him without his consent so he's got some whole beef about that. Also, he doesn't trust very easily. We're designed to be attractive, to draw people in to make it easier for us to feed on them. We're alluring.' He gave her a look that was so obviously meant to be flirty and just wasn't, that Star ended up laughing. 'David worries a lot that women aren't really drawn to who he is, only what he is. Trouble is, he never gives anyone enough of a chance to find out what he's really like. He wanted us to kill you, you know. Me and Paul. The first night Dwayne brought you back to ours.'
'What? Why?' Star, having been lounging back in the sand, lulled by Marco's soothing voice and the lap of the waves over her feet, sat up suddenly.
'No one comes back to our place. David doesn't think it's right to soil our beds with food.' Marco laughed again at his own joke. 'Also, it's risky. If anyone ever escapes us,' he puffed out his scrawny chest beneath the tasselled and colourfully patched leather jacket, 'and they never have… but if they did – they would be able to lead people straight to us. That would be the end.' He drew his hand across his throat dramatically.
'What changed his mind?' Star asked, sipping at the beer again. Marco drained his can and crushed it on his head, tossing it over his shoulder.
'He saw you. I saw him looking. He was waiting, listening as Dwayne got you back to sleep. He wanted to make sure Dwayne didn't tell you what we were, but then he saw how beautiful you were and he wanted you. It's as simple as that. He still wants you.' Star couldn't help but feel the blood rushing up to colour her cheeks.
'He wants me dead.'
'If he wanted you dead, you'd be dead already.'
'Boys,' David drawled without really raising his voice. 'And Star.' She turned instantly at her name and Marco stood up beside her, offering a hand to pull her up from the sand which she took, dusting off her skirt as she drew closer to the fire. David lowered his legs, patting his knee for her to it on with a smirk that almost dared her to take. And she did without hesitation this time, admiring how hard and smooth the lines of his body were beneath his long thick coat. David's gloved hands snaked around her possessively, one clasping her waist and the other reaching up under her newly trimmed but still long hair to stroke at her neck. Dwayne looked away, watching Paul leave the bike he'd been tinkering with in the glow of the firelight and come to join them. Marco perched on a stone not too far away.
'Dwayne and I have been talking. Niko needs to think that we're submitting to him, that we're going to give him a sacrifice as a token of our friendship…' He pulled back, angling Star so that he could lock eyes with her. She held his gaze steadily. 'So we can take control of him. I don't like losing control. You boys know that. And Star will know that soon enough.'
'Surely a sacrifice has to agree, to make it all the more potent?' she suddenly challenged him, her dark eyes wide and unblinking. A slow, very slight smirk touched David's lips.
'Sometimes,' he allowed.
'Well. If I'm to be this sacrifice, I want something in return.' Her arms slid slowly around David's neck, her beautiful face moving closer to his striking features. His leather-gloved fingers twined in her thick, brown hair.
'What would that be?' he breathed into her ear, making her heart skip a beat.
'I want to know how you turned,' she said.
