Santa Carla Boardwalk blazed in tiny lights, illuminating the archway that stretched above the hoards. The pier was busier than usual, even for the summer season, because word had spread quickly that Tim Capello was playing. Michael was suddenly grateful that Sammy had nagged at him to head down to the boardwalk early, because they had a prime spot right at the front. Barrels of fire blazed along the front of the stage, flickering an eerie soft glow over the swaying crowd and making Capello's hard sculpted body appear as though it had been moulded from wax. It would have been impossible for either brother to exchange any words, the blast from Capello's sax was deafening and the roar from the crowd as they clapped and sang along drowned out everything.
At eighteen Michael was super conscious of being 'cool' but even he couldn't supress the appreciative grin from his face as he locked eyes with Sam. This guy was great! Sam was jamming away beside him, his teased blonde hair – totally opposite from the loose dark curls Michael had inherited from their father – bobbed gently as he rocked away. Michael thought it was great to see him so happy, he knew his little brother had been apprehensive about moving here. Being the new kid in school totally sucked. Little did Michael know, being the new kid at school was soon to be the least of their worries. The brothers were so engrossed with the show, swept up by the teeming, pulsing life of the crowd around them, the beat that throbbed deep in their veins, neither one felt the sharp, icy gaze on their backs.
The salty tang of the ocean air mingled with the warmer, headier scent of so many hot and sweaty bodies crammed in one place, along with the sweet undertones of cotton candy from the stall further down the pier. David loved the bass that boomed through the boards and up into his body, taking up so much space in his brain that there was little room for any other thought or feeling. Even on the fringe of the crowd the beat was all-encompassing. He sat back astride his still motorcycle, the smallest of smirks on his cold lips as he tracked Star with his eyes. The girl had begged him to let her come to the boardwalk tonight, wanting to see this Capello guy, she had raved about him ever since she'd come back from Tozier's the other night. David had agreed, on one condition. That tonight she made her first kill.
Star would then truly be one of them, would belong completely to him and would therefore be out of Max's reach. David's maker would no longer be able to control any decision relating to the girl, leaving David free to explain about Laddie, to take her warm, soft flesh in his arms again and caress her silk-soft skin with his lips. He could whisper his love tenderly into her ear and David's eyes closed momentarily at the thought. He took one long, last drag from his cigarette and flung the butt to the floor.
Star had reluctantly agreed to this deal. She felt helpless – stuck in limbo, unable to move forwards with him in any way and barred from going back to her old life. Life before David, if ever there had been one. Still, at least Dwayne would be around, and like Tozier said, even if David didn't want her, someone else might. She knew she was pretty, beautiful even, now eternal blood pumped in her veins. Star had never been particularly vain, but she would had to have been blind or stupid to not see the adoring, lustful glances she drew as her hips swayed to the rhythm with a slow seductiveness. Her tumbled cocoa-brown curls fell over her almost bare shoulders, framing her delicate upturned face and beautifully wide eyes that were currently closed as she lost herself in the music. Bathed in the glow of the barrel fires and the clear moonlight, she was enchanting to the point of ethereality.
Twirling on the spot, fanning her long skirt out around her slender legs, Star opened her eyes and found she was staring directly into two gentle dark blue eyes from across the sea of people between them. Michael was mesmerized by the girl who had climbed up onto a platform at the side of the stage, no doubt to get a better view, pulling a little brown haired boy up after her. The small smile on Star's lips froze as her gaze flickered from the stranger's eyes to the piercing stare of David, sat squat on his bike a little way off from the dancing crowd.
Star grabbed Laddie's hand and pushed her way through the dozens of people that hemmed her in, hopping lightly down off the raised dais at the other side. She thought she caught a chuckle from David, his bike revving loudly above the music. And sure enough, breaking through the barrier of bodies at the edge of the bopping crowd, David was waiting for her with a grin. Marko, Paul and Dwayne pulled up beside him, people automatically falling out of their way, cramming themselves closer into the crowd and towards the stage as Star ushered Laddie over to ride pillion with Dwayne. He was the only one Star trusted to carry the boy, the others were a little too reckless for her liking, even if he was now immortal. Maybe she did have the motherly instinct David had mentioned. Star glanced over her shoulder to see the brown haired boy had followed her, pushing through the throng and weaving his way past the Wave Jammer, the creepy clown faces with their mouths open to catch the water jets and the Crazy Fun House. He'd had to take a longer route around the stage front, but she could see he'd dragged a younger boy along behind him – his brother perhaps.
David smirked as Star swung herself up behind him, her many cheap bracelets jangling at her wrists as she hitched her skirt up to keep it free from the bikes wheels. She wrapped her arms around David's waist and caught the younger boy's words just before David opened the throttle and catapulted them away.
'Come on, she's stiffed ya!'
'What was that about?!' Star demanded, her eyes blazing as she climbed off the bike. David kicked the stand out and stalked across the sparse grass to lounge beneath a weathered, scrappy tree that had been buffeted by ocean winds so often it was pretty much bare of anything but knobbly bark. He had bought them up to the top of Hudson's Bluff – a rocky outcrop that stretched out over the twinkling lights of Santa Carla known as The Point. Its beauty was matched only by that of the steely flecks of stars cast out upon the velvet-dark sky, like a rich boy's marbles. The others parked up too, Dwayne lifted Laddie down who instantly started play-fighting with Paul, and Marko perched himself on a smooth rock.
'You were supposed to be making your first kill, not trying to get laid.' David said, stretching his legs out and crossing his ankles, unflinching as Star bore down on him.
'How dare you?' she growled. 'I wasn't trying to do anything but enjoy the concert.'
'I saw the way you looked at him.' Star raised an eyebrow coolly, suddenly realising that the trace of jealousy she heard in David's voice meant she had the upper hand. She straightened herself up, arms crossed over her chest and a tiny smile on her lips as she looked him straight in the eyes and steeled herself to wound him.
'I liked the way he looked at me,' she said.
Suddenly David was on his feet, his hand wrapped tight around her throat, the leather cool on her skin. Paul grabbed hold of Dwayne, who had growled and moved towards the two.
'Wait, man. He won't hurt her,' Paul muttered softly, though his usually bright eyes seemed a little wary. He kept a grip on Dwayne nonetheless, as Marko slipped off the rock and called Laddie over to him, thinking on his feet as he offered to point out the pattern of lights below just to get the child out of earshot.
'He'll be the one you kill.' David said, his frosty eyes never once leaving hers.
'No,' Star said, her dark eyes narrowed with determination as she tried to keep the fear out of them. 'I won't kill him.' She felt David tighten his grip slightly.
'You can't tell me no. You belong to me, you will obey me. Kill him.'
'I don't belong to you yet, not completely. I won't do it and you can't make me.' Star knew she sounded like a petulant child, but it wasn't as though he'd just told her to tidy her room. David was talking about taking a guy's life. She thought back to the warmth that had flashed in the strangers deep blue eyes, so different from David's. She had seen the adoration flicker there, if only for a moment as he had gazed at her and she liked it, unlike the cold indifference she often caught in David's eyes whenever she found him looking at her. She wouldn't do it.
David looked furious. He knew she was right. Until Star fully turned she would be beyond his control. His word was not yet binding for her in the same way that Max's was for him. But if she never made the kill, he would be forever unable to explain how he felt about her, she would be lost to him. His features twisted at the thought as his fingers applied yet more pressure, before he flung her backwards and made her stumble into Dwayne, who smoothed her hair and tried to hold her. But Star wrenched herself away from her brother and flew at David again, beating her fists on his back.
'Don't walk away from me!' she yelled. David stopped, halfway to his bike.
'Fine,' David relented, though needles of regret pierced deep into his heart with each word. 'If you won't kill him, let him be one of us.' At least she wouldn't be lonely then, at least he wouldn't have condemned her to a half-life of dejection. But Star looked just as unhappy with that as she did with the order to kill him.
'But, he would be like me…' she said, the fight suddenly leaving her.
David nodded and Paul laughed, chiming in cheerfully, buoyant as ever at the thought of expanding their numbers. 'Make him say hello to the night!'
'Lost in the shadows,' Dwayne offered a little sullenly.
David laughed, the sound as cold and as distant as his eyes.
'Lost in the loneliness,' he agreed.
