Paul whistled low under his breath at the request, his constant smirk of amusement frozen on his face as Marco raised his brows and looked from David to Star and back again. Dwayne sat up a little straighter and leaned forward with his arms resting on his drawn up knees and raised an eyebrow in anticipation.
The boys had heard bits about David's changing – snippets he had thought relevant as and when, but none had heard the full story and so all were still, wondering if he would grant Star's request.
'Well?' the girl asked, shifting the hair from her face as she leant back a little to take in David's stony expression. The light wisps of cloud that had snagged around the moon were shifted gently away by a light breeze, allowing the clear white light to filter down on the gathering around the fire. Star had washed her bloody face with handfuls of cool ocean water earlier and her skin now gleamed like a pearl, surrounded by the dark ink of her loose hair. Her large, almond shaped eyes were expectant, glittering like the bangles at her wrists.
'Deal,' David agreed, rubbing a finger along his top lip as he transferred the barely there weight of Star from one knee to the other, cradling her against his chest.
'Alright,' Paul practically whispered enthusiastically, punching the air and earning himself a dark glare from David. Marco snickered and launched a beer to Paul, who caught it deftly and snapped it open. Dwayne passed one to David and Star before opening a can for himself.
'Don't you guys ever get drunk?' Star asked, feeling light headed from the beer she'd had earlier, but taking a drink anyway.
'Alcohol has no effect on us. We don't need to drink or eat food to survive like you do, but we enjoy it,' David informed her.
'So don't try and out drink us,' Paul laughed, holding his beer up to 'cheers' Star and then drinking deeply.
'So come on, David, spill it man. We're all listening.' Marco sprawled himself out on the sand, the orange flames of the fire flickering blue and green every now and then as the salt from the driftwood burnt away.
'The year was 1898, I was sixteen. My father was a good for nothing, gambling drunk who spent what little he could earn as soon as he'd been paid it. He was always angry about something – usually because he'd spent out his last dime and had nothing more to drink. He always laying in to my mother and us – my brothers and me - knocking us about.' Star's eyes were soft as she lay a hand gently on his chest, feeling something stir inside at this sudden insight into David's past. She knew what it was like to suffer at the hands of someone you loved.
'We got by as best we could by any means. Beg, borrow, steal, we weren't proud. There was very little work around and Santa Carla wasn't what you'd call a real holiday destination back then. But my father taught me well. I could fight my way out of any situation, never got my pretty face bloody and to be honest, I loved the thrill of feeling my knuckles crack against a jaw. The pain that blossomed in my own hand made me feel real, alive.' David's eyes were black and hollow at the memory, the smallest smirk tugging at his lips.
'I had a short fuse, inherited from my father, and a wickedly accurate and fast right hook. Pretty soon I had a reputation around the pier, fighting for money to begin with. Unbeaten by the challengers I had, I got cocky. Fighting for money wasn't enough and I'd learned to think that the world owed me something, for giving me such a shit beginning in life. So I began to take what I wanted when I wanted it. Money, girls. If I liked the look of it then it was mine.
A few other no-hopers began to tag along with me and we would mess around most days, practicing our moves and training by beating each other black and blue.' David flexed his gloved fingers and cracked his knuckles before wrapping both arms around Star again.
'I had two younger brothers back then. Both idolised me as my reputation swelled. Luke, the youngest, joined us the summer he turned fifteen. My other brother, John, had joined the army by that point and so my mother was devastated when Luke left too, to live with me in an apartment I rented in the Upper East Side of town. I was nineteen and had the world at my feet. My own place, a fierce reputation and an unbeaten gang of boys around me who would do anything for my approval.'
'What about cops? Didn't anyone try to stop you?' Star asked quietly.
David grinned without humour, looking into the flames. His arm tightened a little on Star's waist. 'They turned a blind eye most of the time. It's amazing what money can do to the law. Corruption is cheap enough if you pay the right person. The rest of the time, I was like a wild animal. Cold, calculating, uncaring.'
'Not changed much then,' Paul snorted, regretting his words immediately as David fixed him with an icy glare.
'I was worshipped in the underground circles. We would terrorize the streets at night, leaving a beaten, broken trail behind us.'
'I stand by my previous point,' Paul muttered under his breath, unable to help himself. Marco's eyes flickered between David and Paul with a grin and Dwayne shook his head silently, though Star saw his lips twitch in the glowing firelight.
'So… how did you turn?' Star asked gently, lightly touching his cheek with her fingertips, captivated by the ebb and flow of his storytelling.
'I picked on the wrong guy. One night Luke and I had fallen in a drunken stupor out of a bar, long after closing, along the far end of the pier. We saw a man on his own, smartly dressed and wearing an expensive-looking hat. He had his nose in the air as he looked out across the ocean then down at a gold pocket-watch he hand in his hand. I'd always wanted a watch like that so I told the guy to hand it over. I couldn't believe it when he laughed. He didn't even turn around. I should have known then that there was something odd about him, but I was young, bloated with my own ego and a skin-full of liquor. That unwavering laugh infuriated me, he didn't know who I was. But I was going to show this guy that I was a force to be reckoned with and that when I wanted something, I got it.
I threw a punch to the back of his head, one that was hard enough to have knocked him to his knees. The guy didn't flinch, didn't even turn around. So I leaned in closer and socked him again. Luke closed in on him and pulled out his switchblade.
'Woah, tag team!' Paul mused, swinging his long blonde hair as he gave a small air-punch. 'Rock on, man!' David stilled him with a look.
'It was my fault, my goddamned stupid bravado. Fury ate me up from the inside as this guy didn't even show a flicker of fear. I wanted to make him suffer, to pay for his ignorance. Not Luke. I hadn't spent the last three years risking my life on the streets and in the ring to be ignored. I roared and flung myself at him. Luke took his cue from me and barrelled in with all the enthusiasm a fifteen year old boy tanked up on spirits could muster when his older brother is looking on.
One swing. That's all it took. One punch from that guy and Luke was out cold. It took me a little while to realise he was dead, that the liquid seeping from his nose and his ears meant he was gone before he even hit the floor.' Marco stretched out on his back and tilted his face towards the flames, watching the low burning fire dance as he listened, looking a little uncomfortable. Dwayne leant back to rest on one elbow, a knee bent as he tilted his head to one side. Star slipped an arm around David's neck, a frown of sorrow etched on her face.
'I went berserk on him when I realised what had happened. I remember picking up Luke's knife and going crazy, slashing, stabbing and screaming with rage.' David's fists clenched, his jaw tight as he remembered that moment. 'I was blinded by my tears and my rage and all I can recall now is the burning of his fangs tearing into my skin, ripping at my flesh and draining my body of life. The night was so black as I lay on my back beside my brother. The guy's empty eyes were as black as the sky as he crouched over me, his face suddenly aged and cruel. I thought the agony his fangs inflicted upon me was just an extension of the sorrow that exploded inside as the idea that Luke was dead rebounded in my mind.'
'He turned you then?' Star asked, her voice thick with emotion. David bared his perfect white teeth in a grimace.
'No. He would have been my saviour had he not been interrupted. Then I wouldn't have to live with the guilt that I carry forever. If I hadn't been convinced I was so invincible, that the world deserved to lay at my feet, Luke would never have died then. But there was someone else who'd been watching. I thought it was the end of me when a warm spurt of thick blood drenched me. But it was the one who would turn me, who cursed me with this never-ending life, destroying the vampire who killed my brother and denying me vengeance – and at the very least, release – from my guilt and sorrow.
'You and me could be great, you know,' he whispered to me. 'I've seen you fight, you've reached the top of your game for a human. Imagine how strong you could be as an immortal.' I was half dead already, burning up and desperate for the coolness his hands offered as he lifted my head.
'I will make you great,' he insisted, lifting me up as though I weighed no more than a child. He took me back to his place and brought me back from the edge of eternal rest to give me this – ever-cursed half-life. He taught me to hunt and to feed, to harness my power and direct my anger upon the masses of Santa Carla. I was a force to behold back then.' David's deep, rumbling laugh rolled around the small group, but no one else joined in. 'Young and hungry.'
'I slid easily into the shadows, but I was not forgotten. My gang pasted the pier with missing posters for me and Luke, desperately seeking the glue that had held them all together. It took at least a year or so before they gave up looking for us. I watched as they fought among themselves, disbanded and eventually aged and died, just like my mother, father and other brother. Eventually there was no one left who would remember me, no one who cared that I'd just disappeared.'
David suddenly stood up, dumping Star from his lap who scurried to find her feet. By the time she'd regained her balance David had gone. She caught up with him high up on a sand dune, wiry beach grass whipping at her ankles.
'What's wrong?' she asked, reaching out to touch his hand as he had his back to her.
'What's wrong?' David echoed, turning and snarling at her as he snatched his hand away. Star could see his beautiful features were twisted with hate and anger. 'I don't like to be reminded of that time, who I was then and why I'm this monster.' The sheer resentment that radiated from David then made Star take a step back, the loose sand crumbling away under her foot.
'You're not a monster,' Star insisted quietly.
'I am a killer!' David roared, his usually icy blue eyes were suddenly fathomless and his sharp teeth were bared. Smooth features shifted into the hard, elongated edges of a hunter. 'I will forever be a killer, nothing I can do will change that.'
Despite the fact that her heart was pounding like crazy with fear at his temper, her mind was screaming at her feet to run away, Star closed the gap between them with an assertive step.
'I know what it's like to be broken, to have no one to put those pieces back together again.' Pressing a hand against David's chest, she looked up at him with hesitant eyes, half expecting him to shove her away. 'That why I want you to turn me. To fix me.'
'It's not a fix, it's a curse,' he said coldly, cupping her chin in his hand. 'You've had your request granted. You know how I came to be this. Now you need to fulfil your end of the deal.'
