I also don't own the song Dragon, that features in the chapter – that honour belongs to the Goddess – Tori Amos.
The Vampire, The Widow and the Succubus
“I thought Max was your sire?” Paul asked, confused.
“He wishes.” Ellie scoffed.
“No, Max sort of…adopted me.” David frowned as he searched for the right words.
“I was one of Max’s protegees, until we
had a disagreement about the way I do things. In fact, if memory serves,
David was the cause of that particular falling out. Max just couldn’t
stand that I had got there first.” Eleanor smiled as she lovingly
caressed David’s cheek. David closed his eyes and shivered at her touch,
making Star stiffen with jealousy.
“He banished me and took David for his
own to punish me. However, Max couldn’t very well erase my presence from
within him. My blood flows permanently through his veins and I watched
with great pride every time David thwarted Max’s attempts to keep him
under his rule.” David shot Ellie a look, however she’d turned to Star
with a look of pure delight on her face. “You, my dear, were the most
remarkable triumph.”
Star’s eyes flickered between Eleanor and
David, curiously, looking for some indication that her current state
was not the result of some kind of plot conjured between the pair to get
rid of Max. David was staring at the floor, with a peculiar expression,
one she had never seen before. He looked as though he’d just been
clipped round the ear and forced to apologise to the neighbours for
breaking their windows. It was odd to see such a look on his face,
although she wondered if it had more to do with being in Eleanor’s
presence than anything else.
“Eleanor Johnson. Johnson…” Star
repeated, trying to figure something out in her head. Suddenly it came
to her. “The Widow Johnson? You’re the one who turned Frank Emerson?”
“Guilty.”
“But…sorry, I just…always kind of pictured you as some old biddy. Oh, no offence.” Ellie snorted.
“None taken, I think…”
“Did Max kill your husband or something?” Marko asked.
“No. Widow is more of an…appellation than
a description of my marital status. Let’s just say I have…particular
tastes when it comes to selecting my victims and the way in which I feed
on them.”
“Dude, she’s a fucking black widow!” Paul nudged Dwayne, his eyes going wide and Ellie smiled, then winked at them.
“It can’t really be helped. You see, my mother was a succubus who made the mistake of trying to lure a vampire.”
“Max?” Star queried and Ellie nodded.
“He killed her and rather than be condemned to that life I asked him to turn me.”
“You wanted to be a vampire instead of a
succubus, are you fucking kidding me? You’d rather live off blood than
sex? Not that there’s anything wrong with that! I just know if I had the
choice, which way I’d go.” Paul grinned and Ellie smiled sadly at him.
“We age much faster than other
supernaturals, even faster than humans I’m afraid. Also as true as it is
elsewhere in nature, the males don’t last as long as the females. So
yes, I would much rather be a vampire than a succubus. Although dormant,
my mother’s genes still reside in me, so technically I get to live off
both.”
“What a way to go…”
“I’m sure David would be happy to tell
you.” Ellie smiled at David, who was staring ever more intently at the
floor. Star felt her jealousy rising once more, and Marko laid a hand on
her shoulder to calm her down.
“So if you knew who I was, why did you have your pack attack me?” Star asked angrily.
“I apologise for that. There was a lot of confusion that night.”
“Confusion? Well what about all the nights after that? The ones when your little bloodhounds were chasing me all over town?”
“They weren’t chasing you, my dear, they were trying to protect you.”
“Protect me? From what?”
“From the hunters who kidnapped you, in
case they tried to do so again. My pack are trained to attack blood they
do not recognise, especially anything with Max’s blood. After the
melee, Frank explained to me who you were and what had happened. I
realised that as you belonged to David and not to Max, you were family. I
sent some of my boys to bring you back to me, only they came back empty
handed and I must say, looking a little worse-for-wear.” Star sighed,
guiltily.
“I’m sorry, I…I’ve been on the run from pretty much everything in this town, I just figured you were after me too.”
“We were, although, not to kill you. Once
I sensed that you weren’t going to be easily persuaded, which is
understandable considering what you’ve been through, I asked them to
keep an eye on you. I obviously have more to teach them about stealth
and subtlety.”
“I think paranoia has just made me more observant.”
“I always warned Max that his
indiscretions would be his downfall, however I never thought they would
bring this on us! Hunters - and worse experimenters!” She spat.
“Bluebell found one of their little…needle things. From what Frank told
me, am I to understand that you were their test subject for this
abomination?”
Star briefly looked at Marko and sighed
before removing her jacket, to show off the damage to her arms, neck and
chest. Ellie gasped, covering her mouth with her hand. For the first
time, David properly took in her injuries. She was no longer the
treacherous bitch that was responsible for their deaths, she was his Star and she was hurt.
“Star…” He murmured, moving towards her
and she quickly covered up. He’d memorised each of the marks and began
to trace them over the rough fabric of her jacket. He cupped her face
and looked into her eyes.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I wasn’t there
to protect you.” Her face creased and she wrapped her arms around him,
sobbing into his neck. The boys all shifted around uncomfortably apart
from Marko who was relieved that David had finally come to his senses.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t save you...” She whispered in his ear.
“I’m here now…” Ellie watched the exchange with interest for a few moments, before she finally spoke up.
“You’re all of you, welcome to stay. It
might be safer here. Strength in numbers and all that.” David released
himself from Star’s embrace and shook his head.
“I appreciate the offer Ellie, but I’d rather stay in my own territory.”
“I understand. I do ask that you take Bluebell with you, though.”
“Why?” Star shivered at the thought of the werewolf.
“She could be your protection during the
day. As far as these hunters know, the boys are still dead, you however
my dear, are not and they are searching for you. They know your habitat
and it won’t be long before they think to look for you there. Odds are
better for them that they come for you in the daytime.”
“Only if they want to kill her.” Dwayne said.
“Who says that they don’t?”
“No, Dwayne, she’s right. It was afternoon when they came for me last time. Michael had to cover me up and I still burned.”
“So, you’ll take her with you?”
“Sure.” David reluctantly agreed.
“Excellent. She should be waiting for you outside.”
“Just one question. Does she…walk around like that
often?” Paul asked and Star hit him over the head. Ellie smiled before
coming round from behind her desk and giving Star an awkward hug, as if
she was afraid she’d break her.
“You’re welcome here any time, my dear.
In fact, I’d like you all to come back tomorrow night so we can discuss
where we go from here and what is to be done about these hunters.”
“We’ll be here. Let’s go, boys.” David
signalled to them and they filed one by one out of the room. He was
about to leave himself when Ellie placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Just a quick word, David.” He looked at her and then at Star.
“It’s okay, Star. I’ll be right down.”
Star faltered slightly, reluctant to leave them alone now that she knew
their history, however she did as she was asked and followed the boys
downstairs.
“She’s very beautiful, David. You always did have a thing for the pretty ones.”
“I don’t have a thing…I love her.”
“Evidently.”
“Something you wouldn’t know anything about.”
“Touché.”
“What do you want, Ellie?”
“You didn’t answer my question, David. If
you didn’t like what Max was doing and were so eager to get rid of him,
why didn’t you come to me? The situation in which we find ourselves
could have been avoided if you had.”
“Just because I didn’t want to be part of
Max’s idea of family, doesn’t mean I want to be a part of yours either.
You just keep that in mind every time you think you can take Star under
your wing and get to me through her. I have my own family and none of
us are interested in joining yours.” Ellie just smiled.
“I have missed your insolence. Now go, take care of your family. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Bluebell? Seriously?”
“It’s kind of a portmanteau of my real
name, which is kind of a mouthful; Annabell Azura Atkins - thanks a lot,
Mom and Dad! Bluebell’s just easier, I guess. I don’t even really like
blue that much.”
“Really?” Marko asked, eyeing her hair and Bluebell nudged him playfully.
“Yeah, really.”
David came out of the steel door behind
them looking extremely tired - and he was. He didn’t know what it was
about Ellie, maybe the remnants of her succubus genes? Whatever it was,
he was always exhausted after being in her company for too long. The
fact that he still hadn’t fed tonight was making it worse. His bike was
still parked nearby, so he told the boys that he’d meet them on the
beach near the stadium. Maybe they’d be lucky and catch some late-night
party-goers.
The three boys argued for about ten
minutes about who was going to carry Bluebell. Before the argument could
turn into a fight, Bluebell rolled her eyes and jumped on Marko’s back,
who immediately launched into the air with a big grin on his face. Star
sniggered as Paul muttered that she should have chosen him, as he was
the tallest. She squeezed his hand in sympathy, before joining David to
look for where he had parked his bike.
“You didn’t have to come with me. You could have gone on ahead with the others.”
“I didn’t want to leave you. I’m never
letting you out of my sight again.” She smiled at him and he chuckled.
“Did you really think me and Marko had…”
“I don’t know what I thought, Star. It just made me angry.”
“You never minded before.”
“That was then.”
“Nothing’s changed, apart from we don’t have Max breathing down our necks.”
“No, now we have the Frogs and Ellie.”
“Did you love her?” David stopped walking and exhaled sharply.
“Just leave it, Star.” He muttered, before continuing at his deliberate pace. Star gulped a little and hesitantly followed.
They found David’s bike and Star got on
behind him, where she belonged, however she didn’t feel the elation that
she used to. Despite her arms wrapped around him and her head resting
gently on his shoulder, there was a planetary distance between them that
was growing minute by minute. She was sure it had something to do with
Ellie, although she was at a loss as to how she would bring it up
without losing the small amount of ground she had gained with David.
Don't tell me
A woman did this to you
Candy lies
Candy lies
Candy lies
You touched my hand
I felt a force
You called it dark
But now I'm not so sure
Just stay awhile
Stay awhile
Stay awhile
A woman did this to you
Candy lies
Candy lies
Candy lies
You touched my hand
I felt a force
You called it dark
But now I'm not so sure
Just stay awhile
Stay awhile
Stay awhile
Dragon - Tori Amos
Star: I’m still yours…if you want me.
She sent out to him, devastated by the reply.
David: It’s not that simple.
oOo
The beach was still pretty active and
figuring they had some time to kill before Star and David caught up to
them, the boys decided to head to a nearby beach bar. Marko patted his
pockets, took out a few crumpled bills and ordered three beers before
turning to Bluebell.
“What can I get you?” He asked her.
“A Coke please.”
“Just Coke?” Paul asked, incredulously.
“Yeah. I don’t really handle alcohol that well and believe me you don’t want to deal with me when I’m drunk.”
Ten minutes later and Bluebell was staggering and swaying all over the place, laughing hysterically at anything and everything.
“What the fuck did you put in that drink, Marko?” Dwayne asked him while he tried to keep Bluebell upright.
“Nothing. Just Coke like she asked for.” Bluebell dissolved into giggles.
“I probably should have
mentioned…hic…that I get drunk just as easily from sh-sh-shoda.” She
slurred. “I think it’s the sugar.” She whispered harshly into Dwayne’s
ear, before collapsing on the sand and bringing Dwayne down with her.
“Oh, uh, hello…I don’t think we’ve been
properly introduced…” Bluebell began to giggle again, while Dwayne
pulled himself up and brushed the sand from his leather jacket.
“Has anyone ever told you, you have the
silkiest hair?” The boys looked on with bewilderment as they watched
Bluebell stroke the leaves of one of the decorative potted plants, which
were placed around the bar. Marko turned to them.
“So, are we all in agreement that we don’t let her drink anything ever again?”
“I dunno, if she starts getting naked it
might be worth it…” Said Paul. The other two rolled their eyes at him
and stepped forward to help Bluebell off the ground.
Not long after, David caught up to them,
with Star trailing wistfully behind him. Upon seeing the state of the
werewolf, he frowned at each of the boys in disbelief.
“Some guard dog she’s going to be in this condition.”
“Hey!” Bluebell shouted, indignantly,
pointing in the general direction of the three Davids in front of her.
“I am perfectly cap-apable.” David looked at the boys, furiously waiting
for an answer.
“Man, don’t look at us. She did this to herself.” Dwayne said in surrender.
“Yeah, on Coke!” Paul laughed, cracking up in spite of the fact that David didn’t find it funny in the slightest.
“She snorted coke?” Star asked.
“No, she drank it.” Said Marko, holding up the empty glass bottle.
“Just fucking great! We’ve got hunters
after us packing a lethal serum and we’ve got a werewolf who can’t even
handle Coca-Cola!” David growled.
“I stand by everything I said.” Bluebell
announced triumphantly. She then faltered slightly and turned to Marko
whispering. “What did I say?”
David pinched the bridge of his nose and growled again.
“One of you stay with her. If I don’t eat something right fucking now, I’m going to fucking lose it.”
oOo
Star found herself heading towards her
old favourite feeding ground, which was under the Pier. She had wanted
to stay with David, however after what he’d said to her and the mood
he’d been in when he saw Bluebell, she decided to leave him be for now.
The mouthwatering scent of fresh blood was getting stronger as she
neared her destination and Star inwardly sighed as she realised she’d
been beaten to it. Climbing a sandbank to get a better view, she watched
as the killers beneath her, cleaved flesh from bone. Star froze in
terror as she realised the victim was a vampire and recognised his
attackers as the young Frog brothers.
“Where is it, bloodsucker?” Edgar growled, before hacking off another chunk of flesh from the vampire’s shoulder.
“I ain’t telling you nothing! Do your worst, kid.”
“Alan, tie him up.”
Alan tied the struggling vampire’s hands
around one of the wooden pillars holding up the Pier. He then secured a
length of rope around the vampire’s neck, so he wouldn’t be able to move
his head. Star watched with morbid fascination as Alan took out a
familiar looking blade, which glinted wickedly in the moonlight. In one
swift motion, he sliced across the vampire’s face, extending the width
of his mouth. Star gasped and quickly clamped both hands over her own
mouth. The vampire was screaming, every movement making it worse.
Edgar approached the screaming vampire
with a pair of pliers and yanked out his upper fangs. While the vampire
continued howling, Edgar injected the serum into the roof of his mouth,
so it would take longer to heal and for the vampire’s fangs to grow
back. The Pier was trembling with the vampire’s violent convulsions and
Star was trying to convince herself to run. She had come to the
conclusion long ago, that nobody was coming to save her, so if she
wanted to get out, she would have to do it herself. Eventually her legs
did as they were told and started running as fast as they could back to
where she had come from.
“That was quick.” Marko commented, as he saw Star jogging towards them. Bluebell had sobered up enough to sense her distress.
“What’s wrong?” She asked.
“Frogs…” Star panted.
“They found you?”
“No…someone else…”
“Where?” Marko snarled.
“Under the Pier.”
“Right, stay with Bluebell.”
“Where are you going?”
“Where do you think? I’ve got a score to settle with those little runts!”
“You can’t! Marko, please, you didn’t see what they were doing to the vampire that they caught.” Star pleaded.
“I know what they did to you.”
“Marko, she’s right. They're too
dangerous for any one super to take down by themselves, especially one
who is still healing from his last encounter with them.”
“I appreciate the concern, Bluebell, but this is none of your business. You don’t know what they did to us.”
“No, but I know what they did to my
pack. Don’t you think it’s a little odd that I belong a vampire pack? I
had a family too before those hunters slaughtered them all. I came back
from patrolling to find them hanging their pelts from the wall of our
den.”
“I’m so sorry, Bluebell.” Star said, reaching out for her and Bluebell shrugged.
“The only reason I didn’t become one of ‘em is cause I ran.” She hung her head in shame and Star knelt in front of her.
“It’s nothing to be ashamed of Bluebell. I
ran too and until we figure out how to deal with them, it’s all we can
do.” She admitted, looking pointedly at Marko, who sighed in defeat.
“We should get back to the cave, it’s safer there.”
“As long as they’re out there, Marko, nowhere is safe.”
When David, Dwayne and Paul rejoined them
at the cave, David seemed to be in a slightly better mood, which
withered and died once Star explained what she had seen under the Pier.
As the last remnants of night clung to the sky, the boys solemnly
retreated to their collective sleeping chamber and Bluebell set up in
Laddie’s old bed. Star, who was still a little nervous around the
werewolf, decided she would sleep in David’s room. Before he could
disappear with the others, however, she ambushed him.
“David, I need to talk to you—”
“—Star, I’m ti—”
“—and I’m not going to take no for an
answer, so please just stay and listen. I don’t know what went on
between you and Ellie and I’m not sure I want to. I do know what went on
between us, though, and I know that we messed it up somehow - maybe
beyond repair. I just want you to know that I’ll understand if you think
that we can’t go back to the way things were…but don’t you dare think
that I’m just going to give up on you, either. I’m always going to love
you and nothing you say or do is going to change that.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure.”
“Everything’s been against us from the start. Something has always been there, making sure that we can’t just be
together - my family, Max, Michael and now the Frogs and Ellie, but
they’re nothing compared to you. Why are you so determined to make me
hate you? What have you done that you think is worth making yourself
this…unhappy for?”
David dropped his head and Star stepped towards him, making him look at her.
“What did she do to you to make you think that you don’t deserve to be loved?” David smiled sadly.
“She had a…power over me, mesmerised me.
She was just so…perfect. The perfect woman. I wanted her more than I’d
ever wanted anything, I was obsessed. I would have done anything
for her and she knew it. So I did. I took out prominent members of
Max’s pack for her, so she could ascend to wherever she wanted to be and
when Ellie got where she wanted, she still wanted more. It wasn’t
enough to be Max’s right hand, she had to challenge his leadership. She
wanted her own pack, her own followers, so she could make the
rules instead of following them. I had no problem with that, I’d go
wherever she went, I belonged to her, but Ellie didn’t see it that way.
She knew that if she broke off from Max, she’d be killed for treason
against her pack. I was her way out.”
Star frowned at him in confusion.
“She left me to take the fall. Figured
Max would kill me and save her the bother. Luckily, he saw right through
her, something I could never do. I swore that I would never be under
anyone’s power like that ever again. I had Max and the boys and they
made me happy enough…and then I saw you. You were right, you know. I was
going to kill you that night. You reminded me too much of her.
Not physically or anything, just the need to possess you. I thought to
myself, ‘if I can kill you, then I can kill my obsession with her.’ Yet
here you stand, so that went well.”
“When I asked you why you had turned me,
you said that you thought I’d be better suited to this life, but that
wasn’t the reason was it?”
“No. I continued watching you, after that
night. At first I was trying to think of a way to get you alone so I
could finish what I started, but then I found myself as mesmerised by
you as I had been with her. You intrigued me and I needed to know why.
Were you just like her or could you be…”
“Be what?”
“Someone I could learn to trust.”
“And?”
“I haven’t made up my mind just yet.”
“Well, if it helps, I wasn’t the most trusting of people either, but I learnt to trust you. It took me a while, but…”
Star wrapped hers arms around him and breathed him into her dead lungs.
“God, I’ve missed your scent.”
David hesitantly returned the embrace and sighed regretfully into her ear.
“I can’t say what you want me to say, Star. I just can’t…”
“That’s okay, I heard you tell Ellie.”
David’s mind raced through his last conversation with Ellie and realised
Star was right. He had said it, it had just slipped out.
“I love you, too.” She whispered, kissing
him. As he kissed her back, he felt a panic rising within him. Did he
truly feel that way about Star, or had it just been a way for him to
forget Ellie?
Now it has come to light
The Gods they have slipped up
They forgot about the power
Of a woman's love
Just stay a while
Stay awhile
Stay awhile
Why don't you
Stay awhile
Stay awhile
Cause your wild card Boy needs playing
Don't believe the lie
Your Dragon needs slaying
Won't you lay here with me
And I will bring
Kisses for the beast
Lay here with me
Here with me
Don't tell me
A woman did this to you
Candy lies
Candy lies
Candy lies
Candy lies
Forgive my
Candy lies
Dragon - Tori Amos
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